Tales from that other place …. The Guild Hall Library

 This is a story I shall be returning to over the next few months.

The Guild Hall Library recently announced its programme of events from January through to April.

And given that they all occur in London I would clock the meetings, and move on.  

After all a day trip to London from Manchester, with the cost of an overnight stay while attractive was really a non starter.

But in the age of covid and zoom, all of that has changed.

I will now be able to enjoy talks about the city I was born and grew up in, without ever living south Manchester.

True … it’s not the spirit of adventure that took Cabot across the Atlantic, or Captain Cook to Australia, but this way I will still be home for tea.

There is a varied set of topics from the Romans, to the Tudors and on to  the 18th and 19th centuries, all of which are contained in the brochure, and so I make no apologies on highlighting the ones that most interest me, which are those to do with Roman London.

But as the talks start with Dan Dare Pilot of the Future I couldn’t resist leading with him, who will be for many of my generation the super hero of all time.

All events require booking and take place online, except for the walks.

Location; London 

Pictures, courtesy of Guildhall Library 

Book through EVENTBRITE:

WWW.GHLEVENTBRITE.CO.UK

*Guildhall Library Events and Exhibitions The Library of London

Aldermanbury, London, EC2V 7HH

guildhall.library@citypflondon.gov.uk

cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/libraries/guildhall-library

Happy birthday to the Together Trust ..... serving the needs of young people from Manchester and Salford since 1870

 So, the new year has brought our first birthday, which for us is the 151st of the Together Trust which began as the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls's Refuge.

The celebrations for its 150th were a little muted given the restrictions around the virus, but the year closed with the AGM and a Christmas service acknowledging the charities history and continued work with young people and families.

For those wanting help in tracking family members who may have passed through the care of the charity the Trust will respond to requests for help.

In the meantime there is the book, published last year which celebrates the history of the Together Trust from its beginnings in 1870, through to today.

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

R.J. Unstead

Of all my favourite children’s history books those written by Robert John Unstead are the ones I most frequently return to.

He was a prolific author and his career as a teacher shines through in what he published.

These were books to be read, enjoyed and understood by children, often reading on their own.

They were also full of both colourful paintings and more to the point simple accurate line drawings which could be copied.

I wonder how many young children like me spent hours carefully reproducing the picture of a Norman castle and comparing it to later castles, noting the changes in design.

I do not think you can underestimate the degree to which this brought history alive.

His other great strength for me was that much of what he wrote was designed to describe the lives of ordinary people, including their homes, forms of entertainment and work.

This was history from the bottom up and was a powerful counter blast to stories of Kings and Queens. Not that Unstead ignored royal stories there would always be a market for such history. But these are balanced by those given over to descriptions of the lives of all in society.

Picture; Cover of Looking At History A & C Black 1955

The promise of things to come ……… cranes over the water

Now I know that these pictures were taken in the closing days of December 2020, just a day in advance of Tier 4, but they seem appropriate for today, the first day of 2021.

The building boom which has been going on a pace across the twin cities shows no sign of slowing down, despite Covid and the restrictions which make city centre living so much fun.

Of course, many of these developments will have been in the pipeline a long time before Victor Virus showed up, and in a way are no different from the property boom of the late 18th and early 19th century which transformed Manchester and Salford from elegant Georgian towns into the shock cities of the Industrial Revolution.

But I wonder how long the market can be sustained, and how many people are still out there ready to buy into city centre living.

The forest of cranes would suggest that the smart money is confident it will continue for a while yet, and I have to say that on and off for a full decade I have predicted the bubble would burst.

So there you are that is it …. We shall see.

Location; Pomona, 

Pictures, at Pomona, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Newport Road ............. sometime between 1907 and 1910

It is the total absence of cars that marks the picture out and the fact that it is another of those scenes you do not often see in books. 

It is Newport Road sometime between 1907 and 1910, and if I wanted to stick my neck out maybe just maybe the year 1909.

It is just a very ordinary picture of one of the three long roads that were being cut and developed from Oswald Road down to Ryebank. In 1907 Nicolas was the most complete but even so it was really only the east side that been developed.

By comparison Longford had only been built on its western side just past Chepstow and Newport ran out after just 15 houses.

For the residents of these three roads it must have been a little like being pioneers. You were one of the first families to settle here and to the south and east it was still open land while to the west there was the Brick Company.

 During the course of the next three decades there were enough families who had cause to dread the brickworks with its deep pits which quickly filled with water and proved deadly to children who fell in.

I am not sure but I don’t suppose people in the rest of Chorlton or for that matter any visitors were over bothered with Newport.

It was what it looked, a new development of modest housing for the middle people who made their living as commercial salesman, clerks, shopkeepers and engineers.

But they were proud enough of their new homes to have bought postcards showing the road and sent them to friends and families.

Commercial photographers banked on this local interest and would often hawk the finished picture from door to door before selling the negative on to a postcard firm.

Our photographer had taken advantage of the morning sunlight and the fact that the road is virtually empty. Away in the distance a horse drawn delivery van calls at one of the houses while closer to the camera two women make their towards Oswald Road and halfway along a dog and some children make up the scene.

It is of course a lost moment and one that is all the more unfamiliar with stone setts which have yet to covered with tar.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; the Lloyd collection, circa 1900s

Little bits of history through the post ….. a bit of international history and a French centenary

The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.

Now, given it is New Year’s Day and in these quieter Covid times many will have lots more time to pursue fresh interests rather than launch into a detailed description of the history between these two first issue envelopes, I will leave that to you.

Which of course may be a clever way of avoiding the biz of doing the research……. I couldn’t possibly say.

Location; France

Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1969 and 1971, from the collection of Stella Simpson

The William Torkington Mystery ..... another story from Tony Goulding

I believe I have discovered the facts behind William Torkington’s somewhat contradictory records of Chorlton-cum-Hardy during the final year of the Queen Victoria’s reign. 

Incidentally, this information also highlights the shortcomings of rate books vis a vis census records. 

The former shows only the owner and the occupier of a property who are registered to pay its rates, while the latter details all the individuals physically present at each address on a specific date.

William Torkington was born in Tintwistle, Nr. Glossop, Derbyshire (1) in the March quarter of 1859. 

He was the son of James Torkington and his wife Maria Lyne (née Blakely). 

His father was the manager of a cotton mill who later retired to open a grocer’s shop in Leigh, Lancashire. William married Ada Pettit in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire in the September quarter of 1882. The 1891 census shows him running a grocer’s shop on Norfolk Street, Glossop, Derbyshire. 

As the 1890’s decade progressed William’s business expanded including the opening of another shop on Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Around 1895 he formed a company, “Torkington’s Household Grocery Stores (Limited)” with John Herrick. 

This company consisted of a total of five shops at Glossop, Hadfield, Bolton, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and Farnworth. The venture did not prosper, however, and in 1898 it was forced into receivership and wound-up. 

Charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud were brought against William Torkington and his fellow director John Herrick. In quite a convoluted case it was basically an attempt to “hide” cash and goods from the liquidator and therefore cheat the company’s creditors. 

At their trial, in April, 1899, at the Manchester assizes John Herrick was acquitted of all charges, with the conspiracy charge against William, therefore, falling by default. He was, however found guilty of committing the fraud and sentenced to six calendar months hard labour on the 26th April, 1899.

William served his time in Strangeways Prison, Manchester and, on his release, he continued in trade as a grocer and draper. The 1901 census records him at 141, Mount Street, Bolton, Lancashire.

 William and Ada had six children; the eldest,

Ada, was born in Bolton in the March quarter of 1883.

William Willis, born in the December quarter of 1885, Edward James, born in December quarter of 1887, and Hilda, born in the March quarter of 1890 were all born in Glossop, Derbyshire.

 

The couples youngest two children, daughters, Mildred and Mabel were both born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the December quarter of 1891 and the September quarter of 1894, respectively. This would have been whilst the family home was at 4, Edge Lane according to the rate books of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in that period.

Pictures: Tintwistle by Clem Rutter, Rochester Kent - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3752234 Strangeways prison m57033 and m56981 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Councill, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes:

1) Although its nearest town is Glossop in Derbyshire, Tintwistle was historically in Cheshire.