When the story of a murder reveals an earlier tragedy and a family that made good

Now the murder of PC Cock in 1876, and the subsequent arrest and conviction of one of the Habron brothers is well known and was recently the subject of a new book.*

Brookfield House, Chorlton,  circa 1900, home to the Deakin family in 1881

And more so because of the timely confession of the real murderer who was a criminal with a long track record of burglaries and violence.

PC Cock was interred in the churchyard by Chorlton Green where there is still a memorial to him, the real murderer  was hung and Mr Habron after his release fell out of history.

What intrigued me and set me off on one, was a request from Brian Robertson who runs an excellent facebook site. **

Brian was interested in Francis Deakin who employed Frank and William Habron.

Brookfield House, 2015

The Deakin family were well known to me.

They had been market gardeners way back into the 19th century and in the middle decades they lived in Martledge which was one of the three hamlets of Chorlton –cum-Hardy.

In the 1840s they farmed 3½ acres when Mr Deakin’s father was murdered in a beer shop in Chorlton in 1847. ***

The family received much sympathy and financial help not least because Mrs Habron was left with a large family of young children.

The family appear to have survived the tragedy and prospered. By 1881 Francis Deakin was farming 36 acres and employing 16 men and 3 boys and lived at Brookfield which still survives and is the house in Chorlton Park opposite Hough End Hall. ****

In that same year Mr Deakin farmed land near Hough End hall and so I suspect it might well be that the land was around Brookfield House in what is now the park.

The land around Brookfield House, 1854

But in 1876 at the time of PC Cook’s murder the rate books have him down as farming near the old Church which must be somewhere near Chorlton Green close to the Bowling Green pub on what was Lloyd land and also on High Lane just past Stockton Road and maybe all that was left of Row Acre which was a sizable plot of land which was farmed by various Egerton tenants and originally stretched from roughly Cross Road down to Acres Road between Beech Road and High Lane.

The OS for 1894 shows that it had shrunk to a stretch from what is now Chequers Road to Cross Road.

Interestingly there is a reference to Francis speculating in building plots in the 1880s and the rate books show that he owned at least one property in Chorlton.

Brookfield House, 2014

For me what makes the story just that bit more interesting is that it revealed more about the Deakin family, provided me with another resident for Brookfield House and offered a possible place for where the Habron brother’s worked.

That said Brian added that   “there seems to be some confusion over where the land that the Deakin’s worked was though. One newspaper report clearly suggests that access to it was from a triangular piece of land opposite the spot where PC Cook was murdered.”

This might put it over the border and alas at present I don’t have access to the rate books covering that area.

But it is entirely consistent with land holdings in Chorlton during the 19th century, with many farmers and market gardeners renting plots over the whole township and beyond into Withington and Stretford.

So there you have it.

Pictures; Brookfield House circa 1900 from the Lloyd Collection, and in 2015 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area around the house in 1854 from 1854 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk

* The Murder of Chorlton’s ‘Little Bobby’ ………… Who killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley* https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-murder-of-chorltons-little-bobby.html

** Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places

***The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012

****Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/looking-for-story-of-brookfield-house.html

Lost and forgotten breweries of Manchester ......... nu 1 what a lot

It began as a discussion with Paul over the identity of this brewery on the corner of Ledger Street which was behind Miller Street. 

Ledger Street and that brewery. 1849

It shows up on both the 1849 OS map of Manchester and Salford and Mr Adshead’s  Twenty four Illustrated Maps of the Township of Manchester published two years later.

And as you do I went looking for it, staring with the 1850 street directory which along with listing most of the streets of Manchester & Salford, also includes the principal trades and householders.

Sadly the brewery on Ledger Street was not there but then nor was Ledger Street.

Some of our breweies, 1850

Instead I had to content myself with looking through the breweries which were in the directory, of which there were eight six.  Twenty two were in Salford and the rest were in Manchester.

To these could be added the very small enterprises which were no more than a family and a front room, who made their own beer and served it directly from their their home.

In time I am minded to go looking for all sixty four, finding out something about who they were and how long they survived.

I suspect some will have gone within a decade while others lasted into the following century and a few  will have survived until quite recently.

All of which brings me to  James Deakin’s brewery on Kenyon Street which was off Rochdale Road.

Now why I got Kenyon Street and Ledger Street mixed up I have no idea, but I did and for an hour roamed over the documents connected with Mr Deakin and there were a fair few.

He is there in the Rate Books in 1850 owning the “brewhouse” which had a rateable value of £33 which put his premises way above the neighbouring “workshops” but a minnow compared to the ironworks of John Rowcroft who paid £100.

Kenyon Street and Deakin's Brewey, 1850

That said Mr Deakin was doing well enough to live with his wife and son in Rusholme employing three servants.

A decade later they had moved to one of the posh bits of Ardwick living in a house which was big enough to accommodate their five children and three servants.

In time I will find out more about his business, but for now I uncovered a reference to the firm which “by the late 1880's the business was being run by James Henry Deakin, son of the brewer Henry Deakin. 

The title of the Manchester Brewery Company Limited was given to a newly-registered firm in 1888 when it was created to acquire the business of James Henry Deakin. The firm were based at the Britannia Brewery in Brodie Street, Ardwick, Manchester.”*

So that offers up a wealth of research opportunities and also opens up another line of enquiry because there was a George Deakin operating a brewery from 62 Butler Street just round the corner on Oldham Road.

None of which perhaps helps with finding our brewery on Ledger Street.

For that I suspect it will have to be a trawl of the Rates Books on a cold set day down at Central Ref.

Still someone has to do it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; detail of Ledger Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49 and detail of Kenyon Street, 1851 from  Adshead’s map of 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands,  http://www.midlandspubs.co.uk/breweries/lancashire/manchester-brewery.htm

Another story from Tony Goulding ............. links between two Chorlton murders

Now it is always nice to see a fresh telling of story you have done.

I wrote about the murder of Francis Deakin in The Story of Chorlton-cum Hardy and now Tony Goulding has revisited it with an interesting link and I am pleased to say has uncovered more about the story with a link to a second better known murder.

The tranquil, small, (still) rural community of mid-nineteenth century Chorlton-cum-Hardy was rocked to its very foundations by two sensational crimes. The murder of Francis Deakin on  5th May 1847 and the "assassination" of P.C.Cock on 1st August 1876.

The case concerning the murder of P.C. Nicholas Cock by the most notorious master criminal of the mid-Victorian era, Charles Peace, together with the subsequent mis-carriage of justice, which saw
       
 The trial and wrongful conviction of a young Irishman William Habron, is a celebrated one. It even featured in a 1949 film "The Case of Charles Peace"
   
The earlier murder is perhaps less well known. An all-day drinking session involving three neighbours ending in tragedy. Frank Dakin (or Deakin ) and John Cookson, both market gardeners with small holdings (Deakin's being of 3 acres) near Chorlton Green, spent the day of 5th May 1847 drinking in the beer house kept by Mrs. Leach the wife of a local mechanic ,George Leach

According to the evidence , given at the inquest held in the “Horse and Jockey" and the trial at Liverpool , at about 4-00 pm , by which time the three men had been drinking ale (some laced with "six pennyworth" of rum ; provided by Cookson) for around 7 hours, Frank Deakin was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife by George Leach; who was aggrieved that they had tried to intervene in an argument between him and his wife. The murdered man was just 35 and left a wife and six children, the youngest just three weeks old.

As a skilled .literate mechanic, when in work, George Leach could earn good wages but it appears that he had a volatile personality, fuelled by periodic problematic heavy alcohol use and had led a somewhat adventurous life.

At the time of his arrest he was 39 years old and in the employ of The Manchester and Leeds Railway at Newton, which necessitated him living away from home for weeks or fortnights at a time. He had previously worked in France for 18 months and just a month before the murder he had appeared in court as a co-defendant in “The Warrington Conspiracy" trial.

A 2 month long industrial dispute at  "Jones and Potts" steam engine works at Newton-in-Makerfield resulted in a huge trial of 26 officials and members of  " The  Journeymen Steam-engine Machine-maker and Millwrights Friendly Society " facing conspiracy charges. George was only found to be involved in "picketing"
   
Having been tried at the South Lancashire Assizes held at Liverpool Crown Court, on 11th August, George Leach was found guilty of "aggravated" manslaughter and sentenced to be transported for life. However, on 16th October 1851 following representations having been made, including by Salford's first M.P. Joseph Brother ton (who was part of the Grand Jury at his trial) and a Mrs. Catherine Crews of Holborn, George's sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation.

Due in part to a marked decline in the number of transportees being accepted by the various Australian states, George would never be sent and was  in fact discharged early on 6th July 1852 (His remorse and good behaviour whilst in prison are both well documented.) and returned to obscurity.
     
One of Francis Deakin's sons, Francis (Deakin) was involved in the later murder; the one of P.C.Cock. The Habron brothers who were accused of the crime -the youngest, William, being convicted were employed by him as agricultural labourers in his market gardening business.                      
       
There is also another link between the cases the "name above the door" of the beer shop run by the  Mrs. Leach where the stabbing of Frank Dakin took place was Charlotte Hayson (of Hobson Hall Farm ) whose grandson , Henry  was to give evidence at the trial of the Habrons. Apparently Charlotte was a relative of Mrs. Leach who procured the license in order to provide a stable income for her during her husband’s frequent absences.

Fortunately the death sentence passed on young William was commuted to life imprisonment. It remains a moot point, whether this was due to his youth (he was barely 18 at the time of the crime) or because the verdict was regarded as somewhat unsound; there being a suggestion that the evidence was very circumstantial (if not suspect) and there was some prejudice against the Habrons.

As Irishmen they may have also encountered distrust and hostility as a consequence of the prevailing violence associated with land disputes in Ireland.
   
On his release from custody William returned , with his £500 compensation to his childhood home in Ballyhaunis , Co. Mayo, Ireland  and appears to disappear from the available records, although there does exist a record of a William "Hebron" born 1890 in Ballyhaunis travelling to New York in 1911. It is possible this man is a son of one of the three Hebron brothers connected with the P.C.Cock murder or at least a near relative.
   
Finally the full report of the inquest on Francis Deakin in "The Manchester Courier and General Lancashire Advertiser”, of 8th May 1847, is a very detailed one which uses very flamboyant language. It includes a list of the jurors sworn in which is a veritable "Who's Who” of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy township of the time.

The flavour of the article is evident from the opening paragraph, which includes the following description of:-
    “The rural village of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, a sweet quiet spot such as it is scarcely possible to conceive of as lying so contiguous to this overgrown, smoke-blackened conglomeration of bricks called Manchester ------"

On 18th.August the same paper reported the trial in great detail   from this it appears that George only avoided a murder conviction and a consequential death sentence by the work of his defence team led by one of the leading barristers of the day, Sergeant Wilkins.

The soundness of Cookson's testimony was questioned as evidence was given that he may have been too intoxicated to recall with accuracy what took place on the fatal day. Further suspicion of the reliability his evidence was also cast by a light being shone into his past activities as a "fiddler at country wakes", a "rat catcher”, and a "bullward"in bullfighting rings.

The defence also called Francis Rook Wragg described as a local surgeon and temperance advocate but more accurately a Chemist and Druggist of Sackville Street, Manchester.

He testified that he had visited the beer house at about 2-30 p.m.on the day in question staying for an hour in the hope of influencing George Leach to rejoin him in " The Total Abstinence Society" . He suffered some abuse from the murdered man, which his friend (George) took offence at, and also witnessed some other provocative behaviour both by Mr Cookson and by Francis Deakin himself.

©Tony Goulding

Pictures; the Horse and Jockey circa 1970 from the collection of Tony Goulding

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

The one about a murder ….. a property developer ….. and a map … Stanley Grove

Now there is always a story, and I am never surprised at how twisty turny they can be.

So, yesterday I posted a story about the 1881 map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and how it had settled a few mysteries as well as offering up a few new ones.*

But I wasn’t  quite prepared for the speed with which that map handed me yet another story

This one centred on Stanley Grove which is off Crosland Road, behind the green.

And it started when Jeremy replied to the story with a question about the date of the map and the houses on Stanley Grove, which he thought had been built in around 1887, but appear on the 1881 map.

It is the sort of participation I welcome, not least because I have been known to get things wrong.

But in this case, the map and Stanley Grove fit together, because I found the houses on the 1881 census, and with a bit of digging pushed the date of the properties back to 1878.

They appear in the Rate Books which list both the tenants and owners of all the buildings in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the value of each property and whether it was for commercial or domestic use.

The first entry for Stanley Grove is 1878, so I think we can be confident that is the date they were built.

And here the story goes off in a different direction, because they were owned by a Frances Deaken, who turns up in other sources as a property developer, and whose father had been murdered in 1847 .**

The family had been market gardeners way back into the 19th century and in the middle decades they lived in Martledge which was one of the three hamlets of Chorlton –cum-Hardy.

In the 1840s they farmed 3½ acres when Mr Deakin’s father was murdered in a beer shop in Chorlton in 1847.

The family received much sympathy and financial help not least because Mrs Habron was left with a large family of young children.

The family appear to have survived the tragedy and prospered. By 1881 Francis Deakin was farming 36 acres and employing 16 men and 3 boys and lived at Brookfield which still survives and is the house in Chorlton Park opposite Hough End Hall. 

In that same year Mr Deakin farmed land near Hough End hall and so I suspect it might well be that the land was around Brookfield House in what is now the park.****

So, that is it, the story that started in Stanley Grove and ran out across Chorlton, taking in a murder, a property developer and a map.

Pictures;  Stanley Grove in 1881, from the map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1881, Withington Board of Health, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre, Stanley Grove, H Milligan, m18209, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, and Brookfield, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Settling a few old mysteries and uncovering a few new ones ……. Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1881, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/settling-few-old-mysteries-and.html

**When the story of a murder reveals an earlier tragedy and a family that made good, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=deakin

****Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/looking-for-story-of-brookfield-house.html

Peter Cawley ...... John “Lion” Coombes, 1879 ....... another 19th Century Chorlton-cum-Hardy Murder.... and another from Tony Goulding

Two famous 19th century murder cases in Chorlton-cum-Hardy have been much written about on this Blog and elsewhere. 

These being that of P.C. Nicholas Cock on the 1st August, 1876 and the slightly less famous one of Francis Deakin on the 5th May, 1847. 

However, there was a third “murder” in the township just three years after that of P. C. Cock which is a good deal less well-known.

On the 17th July, 1879, two men, Peter Cawley and John “Lion” Coombes were out in the fields, haymaking when they were involved in a fight or scuffle of some kind. 

As a result, Peter Cawley, suffering from abdominal pain, was taken to the Manchester Workhouse Infirmary, Crumpsall where he subsequently died on the 21st July, 1879. 

It was alleged that the incident was an unprovoked assault by Coombes on Cawley in which he had forced him to the ground and sat on him, and so caused the fatal injury.  As such, four days after Peter Cawley’s demise on the 25th July, John Coombes was indicted at Manchester County Police Court on a charge of “willful murder”. (1)

The case came before the Grand Jury at the Liverpool Assizes on Wednesday, the 30th July when the murder charge was dismissed. 

However, the defendant was then charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter. This case was heard the following Monday, the 4th August. (justice was swift in those days!)  The jury brought in a guilty verdict against John Coombes, who had offered no defence to the charge and he was sentenced to seven years penal servitude. (2)  The following day, 5th August, The Manchester Evening News carried a more detailed report of what had happened between the two parties in the field on the 17th July. Apparently, after words had been exchanged, Coombs threatened to throw Cawley in a ditch which ran along the edge of the large field and in an attempt to do so dragged him for some distance across the field.

 Peter Cawley was 28 years old and was living in Sale, Cheshire when he died.  Apart from these facts included in the press coverage of the case I could find no other details of his life.

It is hard to be certain regarding John Coombs’s origins but it is most likely that he was born in Baguley, Cheshire in the June quarter of 1855. Assuming this is indeed the correct individual his story can be told thus. His parents were, Joseph, a market gardener and one-time provision dealer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Walker). He was the eldest of nine children; six daughters and three sons (3). In 1871 the family had moved from Baguley to Hawthorne (Lane), Stretford, Lancashire.

There is also some evidence that, at the time of his conviction, he was a new husband having been married to Jane Passant in the Barton registration district of Lancashire in the June quarter of 1878. Hannah Passant (Coombs) born in Stretford in the same quarter as this marriage suggests that John was also the father of a young daughter.

 Of revealing significance, the couple disappear from the records (4) until the birth of a second child, a son, John William P., is recorded in Manchester in the September quarter of 1888. In the census return of 1891, John, Jane, and their two children are shown residing at 12, Diggle Street, New Cross, Manchester. John was employed as a carter.

 The interval between the two births would of course coincide with the seven-year prison term passed on John Coombs at his trial.

 In the census of 1901, the family are living apart. John is recorded as residing with his brother, Simeon, a farmer, at Floats Lane, Baguley, Cheshire. His wife, Jane, and daughter, Hannah, meanwhile are living with his wife’s twice widowed sister, Letitia Ravenscroft, at 68, Russell Street, New Cross, Manchester. (5)

Pictures; Grave of Francis Deakin, 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding, Hawthorn Farm from an oil painting by J. Montgomery m 80023 and Manchester Union Workhouse 1910 by B. Robinson m 52691 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes

1) As reported in the Edinburgh Evening News on 26th July, 1879.

2) Penal Servitude was a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour introduced in the mid nineteenth century as an alternative to transportation, when the number of convicts being accepted by the Australian authorities began to decline.

3)One of these sons was, Simeon who John was later residing with in the 1901 census.

4) There is an entry in the 1881 census for a Hannah Coombs, a child of the right age, in the record of the Union Workhouse, Winton, Eccles, Lancashire.

5) The son, John William, was recorded in the 1901 census as an inmate of the Prestwich Union Workhouse. He later joined the British Army with the 1911 census recording him as serving with the Royal Horse Artillery in South Africa.                                                                          Hannah, married Robert Watson Thompson in Manchester during the September quarter of 1902.          In the 1911 census Jane (Coombs) was recorded as working as a housekeeper for William Henry Craig, a chemist’s assistant at 413A, Oxford Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.

Due to difficulties arising from there being multiple households to investigate coupled with three different spellings of the family surname some of the above is a little more speculative than usual.

The Murder of Chorlton’s ‘Little Bobby’ ………… Who killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley*

Like many who live in Chorlton I knew something of the murder of PC Cock in 1876.

Cover of Who Killed Constable Cock? 2017

It was a crime that shook the township and was covered in some detail by the national newspapers.

But I always wanted to know more and in particular to dispel some of the myths about the event.

And so I was pleased when Angela  got in touch today to tell me that her new book on the crime was about to be published, and of course I couldn’t resist asking her to introduce the story for the blog.*

She kindly also allowed me to use two of the illustrations, and so that just leaves me to hand over to Angela.

“At midnight on Tuesday 1 August 1876, PC Nicholas Cock was on duty in Chorlton. It was a dry and cloudy evening, with little moonlight, and the police officer was approaching the junction of Manchester Road, Upper Chorlton Road and Seymour Grove, known as West Point.

As he walked along the wide footpath overhung with trees towards the ‘Jutting Stone’, which marked the limit of his beat, he was joined by two more men: PC James Beanland, and law student John Massey Simpson, who was on his way home after a night out.

The three men exchanged pleasantries before Simpson left. When he was 150 yards away, he heard two loud shots ring out in the night. The student turned around to see flashes of light behind him in the pitch dark. Hearing screams of, ‘Oh, murder, murder; I’m shot, I’m shot’, Simpson rushed back to the junction, to find PC Cock slumped on the pavement near the garden wall of the large house, also known as West Point (it later became The Seymour Hotel).

PC Cock, 1876

Even in the dim light, he could see the unmistakable stain of blood spreading across the police officer's chest: Nicholas Cock had been shot.

PC Beanland blew his whistle and soon more officers arrived on the scene. They quickly hailed two passing night soil men, who took Cock in their cart to a doctor’s surgery. By 1 am, Cock was settled on Dr Dill’s sofa, where the doctor tried to revive him with brandy and water.

Ten minutes later the semi-conscious police officer died - the bullet had passed through his ribs into his spinal column, causing a massive haemorrhage.

Shortly before PC Cock's death, Superintendent James Bent, of the Manchester Division of Lancashire Constabulary, had arrived, after receiving the news of the shooting just after midnight. The experienced officer knew instantly who had committed this terrible crime: ‘I suspected these men from the first.’

Bent's prime suspects were the Habron brothers, three Irish labourers who lived close to the spot where PC Cock had been shot.  John, 24, Frank, 22 and William aged 18, were all employed in the nursery gardens of Francis Deakin, at Firs Farm, where they lived in an outhouse in the grounds. The brothers had crossed the path of PC Cock many times and threatened him, especially when he interfered with their drinking in the Royal Oak and the Lloyds Hotel.

The murder scene, 1876

As soon as he heard about the incident, Superintendent Bent instructed his men to surround the small brick building, where the brothers were alleged to be. After the officer's death, Bent joined his colleagues at Deakin’s nursery and arrested all three Habron brothers.

A painstaking investigation led by Superintendent Bent followed. There were plenty of clues: sets of footprints that matched the suspects' muddy boots, percussion caps found in their clothing and a bullet discovered at the scene. Superintendent Bent would stop at nothing to bring PC Cock's killer to justice, despite the contradictory evidence of key eye witnesses, shifting alibis and a mystery man spotted at the crime scene. This led to an extraordinary case featuring a controversial detective, a startling revelation and a grave miscarriage of justice.

PC Nicholas Cock was just 21 years old when he was killed.

He was born in Cornwall, in 1856 and, like his father, he worked in a copper mine. When he lost his job, due to the widespread closure of the mines, he moved first to Durham, and then to Manchester.

He joined the Lancashire Constabulary at the end of 1875, and was stationed in Chorlton. After his murder, the local press described him as ‘a very active officer, punctual in the discharge of his duties.’ Locally he was known affectionately as the ‘Little Bobby’ and was buried in the churchyard on Chorlton Green.”

And the rest is as they all to be read in Who Killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley is now available for pre-order on Amazon

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; courtesy of Angela Buckley

*Angela Buckley, http://www.angelabuckleywriter.com/

** Who Killed Constable Cock? by Angela Buckley is now available for pre-order on Amazon

Walk Chorlton's past ..... tomorrow ..... searching for the vanished Martedge

Martledge was that bit of Chorlton which was lost in just three decades, but will be brought out of the shadows on Sunday, when Andrew Simpson and a band of the curiuos explore our past in another history walk.

Redgates Farm, circa 1900, knocked down for Chorlton Library

We will encounter some dark deeds, and silly stories as well as a collection of Chorlton individuals and uncover an awful murder.

All of which will help explain how Chorlton-cum-Hardy changed from being a small rural community on the edge of Manchester into a suburb of the city in just three decades.

Meeting at the former Four Banks at the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads we will take a gentle walk past some farms, the old Royal Oak pub, and a very interesting block of houses dating from 1832. 

Then by degree out across the Isles to gaze at the sight of the old Chorlton Ice Rink, catch a glimpse of the Lloyds and the story of the Great Chorlton Burial Scandal, to finish at the Edge Theatre on Manchester Road

Renshaw's Buildings, 2011, built circa 1830 now under the Royal Oak

Along the way there will be  murder of young Francis Deakin in 1847, the Hulme potato thieves and the amazing Mr Booth who lived at Sedge Lynn and took some of the first photographs of Chorlton.

All of which will help explain how Chorlton-cum-Hardy changed from being a small rural community on the edge of Manchester into a suburb of the city in just three decades.

In those thirty years the fields, farms and market gardens gave way to rows of tall houses, banks, posh shops and a railway. 

So complete was that transformation that the old name of Martledge was lost and people referred to it as simply New Chorlton.

We will meet outside the MR Floors Tile shop on Sunday September 18th at 2 pm.

The cost is just £7.50 which includes heaps of history, some interesting people and refreshments at the Dressing Room Café on Manchester Road after the walk.

Tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/chorltonbookfestival

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Redgates, Farm, circa 1900, from the collection of Carolyn Willits,  Red Gates Farm circa 1830, reproduced as a drawing by Bari Sparshot, 2011 

On Sunday ......walking the past looking for Martledge ... the forgotten bit of Chorlton

Martledge was that bit of Chorlton which was lost in just three decades, but will be brought out of the shadows on Sunday, when Andrew Simpson and a band of the curious explore our past in another history walk.

Barlow Moor Road looking out towards Morrisons,  circa 1880

We will encounter some dark deeds, and silly stories as well as a collection of Chorlton individuals and uncover an awful murder.

All of which will help explain how Chorlton-cum-Hardy changed from being a small rural community on the edge of Manchester into a suburb of the city in just three decades.

Meeting at the former Four Banks at the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads we will take a gentle walk past some farms, the old Royal Oak pub, and a very interesting block of houses dating from 1832. 

Then by degree out across the Isles to gaze at the sight of the old Chorlton Ice Rink, catch a glimpse of the Lloyds and the story of the Great Chorlton Burial Scandal, to finish at the Edge Theatre on Manchester Road

 The old Royal Oak, circa 1900

Along the way there will be  murder of young Francis Deakin in 1847, the Hulme potato thieves and the amazing Mr Booth who lived at Sedge Lynn and took some of the first photographs of Chorlton.

All of which will help explain how Chorlton-cum-Hardy changed from being a small rural community on the edge of Manchester into a suburb of the city in just three decades.

In those thirty years the fields, farms and market gardens gave way to rows of tall houses, banks, posh shops and a railway. 

So complete was that transformation that the old name of Martledge was lost and people referred to it as simply New Chorlton.

The Chorlton Ice Rink, 1907

We will meet outside the MR Floors Tile shop on Sunday September 18th at 2 pm.

The cost is just £7.50 which includes heaps of history, some forgotten people and refreshments at the Dressing Room Café on Manchester Road after the walk.

And the word is that the places on the walk are filling up fast .... but you would expect me to say that ..... still that is what ticket master says and who am I to question them?

Tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/chorltonbookfestival

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Barlow Moor Road looking out towards the site of the railway station and now Morrison,  circa 1880 and the old Royal Oak, circa 1900,  from the Lloyd Collection, The Chorlton Ice Rink, 1907 from the collection of Chris Griffiths

The Great North Road ...... on the wireless now

 I have just bing listened to the North Road by Rob Cowen, and what a fascinating listen it is on Radio Four.*

 Sign beside the A1(M), South Mimms, Hertfordshire, 2002

My Wikipedia tells ma that "The Great North Road was the main highway between England and Scotland from medieval times until the 20th century. It became a coaching route used by mail coaches travelling between London, York and Edinburgh. 

The modern A1 mainly parallels the route of the Great North Road. Coaching inns, many of which survive, were staging posts providing accommodation, stabling for horses and replacement mounts. Nowadays virtually no surviving coaching inns can be seen while driving on the A1, because the modern route bypasses the towns in which the inns are found".**

All of which made me want to listen to "The award-winning writer, Rob Cowen, makes his way to London to begin his journey long the Great North Road, but there are questions about where to begin. Meanwhile, he unearths Smithfield's bloody history. Joseph Ayre reads.

In his new book Rob Cowen sets out to explore The Great North Road, the 400 mile highway which has run like a backbone through Britain in one form or another for 2000 years. 

As Rob walks the route he uncovers stories of those who went before him, from wealthy merchants terrified by murderous highwaymen, to boxers locked in a brutal and bloody fight. In Doncaster, where his great-grandfather Bill Cowen made a living down the mines, he learns about the high price paid by many who worked in the collieries. Lastly, he takes a journey with his mum to the road's end leading to profound reflections on time past and time passing.

Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His best-selling debut book of poetry, The Heeding, was published in 2021. Rob has contributed to the New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent.

Abridged by Katrin Williams

Produced by Elizabeth Allard 

Five episodes and available for 28 days

Location; Along the Great North Road"

Picture; Sign beside the A1(M) at South Mimms, Hertfordshire, by Michael Reeve, May 25th 2002, Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

w:en:Creative Commons, attribution share alike This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

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This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.

*The North Road by Rob Cowen, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002b6r6

**The Great North Road https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_North_Road_(Great_Britain)

A market, a bottle of gin and of course a story ..... Chorlton last week

Now to miss quote Samuel Johnson, when you are tired of the markets, you are tired of life, for there is at a market all that life can afford.*

Ashton Under Lyne, 1979

It’s a bit contrived, but the alternative was from Mr Wordsworth, originally written in 1802, “Dull would they be of soul who could pass by”** a Manchester market and not marvel at the full majesty of all the stuff.

Those of us who grew up or lived beside an open air market will remember with fondness, the fun, bustle and the variety of offers.

In my case it was Woolwich and later still Grey Mare Lane and Ashton markets.

Down at Beresford Square in Woolwich the buses gingerly manoeuvred a path through the stalls and you were always in awe of the skill of the London Transport drivers.

But enough of such nostalgic tosh, and instead here is a tale of Chorlton and our own market.

Selling Hunters Gin, Chorlton, 2018

Just a week or so ago Peter was out and about sampling the produce on the stall outside the library when he came across Hunter’s Gin, was offered a small glass, took the pictures and challenged me to come up with a story with a bit of history.

As far as I know we never had a market but the idea of selling gin from a small family concern is as old as they go.

So much so that it became a national scandal leading to drunkenness, terrible abuse and at least one riot in London, where of course they always do things to extremes.

The Gin, 2018

To combat such excesses, the Government passed the Beer Act in 1830 which allowed anyone who could afford price of the two guinea license to brew and sell beer from their own homes.

The result was an explosion of beer houses across the city which was replicated here in Chorlton.

Most had a short life, and were really just a means to get over a temporary bout of unemployment or other financial hiccup.

Most vanished as quickly as they were established and were soon forgotten, like the one run on Chorlton Green, while others became notorious, like that of Mrs Leach’s superior beer house where Francis Deakin was murdered, and a few like the Travellers Rest, and the Trevor transformed themselves in to pubs.

The Traveller’s Rest on Beech Road was up and running by the 1830s and only closed in the early 20th century, while the Trevor had opened on its present site as an unmanned beer shop in the 1870s.

Selling spirits required a separate license, and many pubs including some of ours found it hard to get permission, which nicely brings me back to Hunter’s Gin.***

They have a website, with a blog and this intriguing description from one of their labels, “Hunter’s Cheshire 
Gin is a high quality, export strength London Dry Gin full of character with its heart in Cheshire.  Subtle citrus overtones with a spicy fruit edge – using Cheshire apples from historic Norton Priory garden’s orchard, a single batch distillation from a 300 year old recipe, including Balkan juniper berries and coriander lemon and sweet orange peel, Florentine orris root, French angelica and Madagascon cinnamon bark, a unique and sublime fusion of the highest quality botanicals and alcohol. .....”***

Washing the prawns in Woolwich, 1979

And that is it.

Except to ponder on whether Peter came across a similar scene to this one from Woolwich market which I took back in 1979.

Location; Chorlton & Cheshire

Pictures; at the Chorlton Markets from the collection of Peter Topping and Ashton and Woolwich markets from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*Samuel Johnson in conversation, 1770, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford"

** William Wordsworth Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
***Hunters Gin, http://www.huntersgin.com/

The Horse Jockey, then and now

doubt that any of the twelve men who assembled in the Horse & Jockey in early May of 1847 had any doubt about who was guilty of the murder of Francis Deakin just two days earlier. It had been a silly quarrel fuelled by a day of drinking at the beer shop of Mrs Leach. At the end of which George Leach had stabbed Francis and immediately mumbled “ I hope he is not dead. I would give anything if I could restore him.” You can read the outcome in my forthcoming book, Chorlton-cum-Hardy A Society Transformed http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20the%20Book

Pubs were often used for inquests and the Horse and Jockey was no exception. I guess it was one of the only public places after the school and the church.

The pub has changed a lot since that grim day in May 1847. But most of those changes have occurred in the last half century when the pub slowly expanded to take over the whole row of cottages. But even as late as 1949 the space to the left of the entrance was still not part of the pub. Its picket fence can be clearly seen in the short film Bella's Birthday which was made up of out-takes from School for Randle and featured the pub as a location.

It was made by the Mancunian Film Company who had it studios on Dickenson Road and had been making films since the late 1920s. A comprehensive history of the company can be found at http://www.itsahotun.com/history.html

I was reminded of the clip from the film when Peter and I talked about his painting of the pub. Peter paints bits of Chorlton and I have started adding stories. I like this picture which perfectly captures the new Horse & Jockey on a warm summers evening. His paintings are currently on exhibition at a number of local venues and can be seen at www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures
Picture; © Peter Topping 2011 www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

“My money is on that horse” ……. losing a packet at the Chorlton races

To be fair you have got to go back along time to have seen and bet on a horse race here in Chorlton.

Chorlton Park, 1933

Leaving aside the obvious trip to the bookies or watching it on TV, “the sport of Kings” last took place in Chorlton in 1701.

Now, not a lot of people know that, and I had to turn to the historian Thomas Ellwood who in 1885 wrote, “Barlow Moor is celebrated in the Isthmian annals of Manchester as the scene in the seventeenth century, of annual races and other games, prior to the establishment of the Manchester Races on Kersal Moor.  

All that remains to recall the racecourse is the field bounded by Barlow Moor-lane and the left of the lane leading to Hough-end Hall, still known as the “scaffold field” where there was formerly a low or mound which served as a vantage point from which to view the contests”.*

Scaffold Field in Chorlton Park, 1939

That field was right in the middle of what is now Chorlton Park, roughly running down from the playground to Barlow Moor Road and taking in the football pitches.

Scaffold Field shows up on the tithe map of 1839 under its own name and only ceased to exist when Chorlton Park was laid out in the late 1920s.

I went looking in the Annals of Manchester but failed to turn up a reference to the races, but other sources suggest that “The earliest known race meetings in Manchester were on Barlow Moor, first recorded in 1647, and again from 1697-1701".**

But I may be confusing the Isthmian annals of Manchester, with the Annals of Manchester which was compiled by William Axton in 1885 and is a “Chronological Record [of Manchester] from the earliest times to the end of  1885”.

Or I might just have missed the entry.

Scaffold Field, 1854

Either way I think we can be confident that Scaffold Field was the site of some sort of horse racing in a time long ago.

And as such will be an item for discussion tomorrow on the history walk through Chorlton Park.

It will start at 2 pm and is at the invitation of the Friends of Chorlton Park starting at Brookfield House which is that white building at the Nell Lane. entrance.

There will be plenty who remember the paddling pool, and the pets’ corner, but few who now know that beside the paddling pool there was a large open air swimming bath, a band stand with a covered seating area, and that during the last world war the park had its own air raid shelters.

Added to that the historic records suggest there was a racecourse and an observatory, which fit nicely with stories of Brookfield House, which dates back into the 18th century, and was once home to the son of Francis Deakin who had been brutally murdered in a beer house on Manchester Road in 1847.

Looking towards Scaffold Field from Nell Lane, undated

And for those who want more, the Friends of Chorlton Park have made the invitation as part of Chorlton Open Gardens and will be fundraising for the charity Freedom from Torture.

Location; Chorlton Park****

Pictures; Aerial view of Chorlton Park, 1933, N.S. Roberts, m72054, and Chorlton Park, City Engineers, m09588, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, looking across to Scaffold Field, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, Chorlton Park, 1853, ,from the 1853 OS for Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk 

* Badger and Bear Baiting, Chapter 7 December 19th 1885, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette

**Heritage Gateway, https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1405558&resourceID=19191

***The Friends of Chorlton Park, https://www.facebook.com/groups/CholtonPark

****Chorlton Park, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Park

Welcome back Kemp’s Corner ….. you have been missed

To all those who remember meeting up at Kemp’s Corner and the many more who only know it as part of the Four Banks I was pleased to see the development on the former HSBC  has adopted the name Kemps Corner.

Kemp's Corner is back, Wilbraham Road, 2025

Pedant’s will no doubt remark on the missing apostrophe but it’s a recognition of a bit of our past, because here on the corner of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads was Harry Kemp’s chemist.*

Mr Kemp is listed in the Rate Books as present in the property from 1886, went on to open another pharmacy on Beech Road and had previously occupied a shop on Stretford Road.

And he was an enterprising individual.  

In 1900 he applied to be granted the Freedom of the City of London “by redemption of the Company of Spectaclemakers of London", was elected to the Manchester City Council in 1904, and published his own Chorlton Alamanak and Handbook in 1910.

Added to all this he was also an agent for Sutton & Co Parcels office and a regular correspondent to the newspapers.

So I am not surprised that he erected a large clock above the door of his chemists, which quickly became a popular meeting place.

In the age before mobiles, Kemp’s Corner was the place to arrange to meet, with that added bonus that if your companion was late you could admonish them by pointing to the clock face.

Just when the term Kemp’s Corner came into common use is unclear but throughout the 20th century it was in use.

A name still in use, 1978

As late as 1978, the local newspaper referred to Kemp’s Corner in an article on the redevelopment of what was once the Midland Bank into the former Chemist, leading with the headline, “Kemp’s Corner is having a facelift”.

All the more remarkable as the chemist had long ago past out of Harry Kemp’s ownership, was for a while a Co-op Pharmacy and was briefly a fast-food outlet.

And there are still plenty of people who remember the corner as Harry Kemp’s as there will be more who knew it only as only one of the corners of “The Four Banks”

I like the way that places get names reflecting their usage or location which often defy the official name.  

More than just a chemist, 1910

So, in the same way the junction of High Lane, Sandy Lane and Barlow Moor Road were known as Lane End during the 19th century which made perfect sense, more so as Barlow Moor Road had been Barlow Moor Lane.

Kemp's Corner, cieca 1900

Well done the developers for bringing back Kemp’s Corner, although like my friend Tony Goulding I am a little puzzled at addition of "Est 1878" which accompanies the pained sign.

Now Harry Kemp didn’t wash up there till 1886, and the building post dates 1881 when the Withington Board of Health’s map records the land as an orchard.

And while he was practicing as a chemist in 1881 it was from a business in Hulme.

But I guess the developer knows something I don’t, leaving me just to observe that in 1845 the land was known as Hollingworth Acres and was an orchard owned by the Egerton’s and farmed by a Francis Dakin [Deakin]

And that is that.

Other than to say the return of Kemp's Corner may prempt the call for officialy naming the junction The Four Banks which briefly was to the go to campaign on social media with the accompaying petition.

All that Mr. Kemp could sell, undated

I said at the time it was a name and campain to far, and then up pops Mr Kemp's legacy.

And incidentlty Harry Kemp was elected to the City Council in 1904 and again the following year despite what the Manchester Guardian reported  had been "some personal elements introduced into the contestby his [Tory] opponent", along with "certain insinuationsregarding his actions on the City Council".**

When Mr. Kemp sought your vote, 1904

He retired six years later through ill health and was judged to be a hard working councillor not affraid to be controversisla as with his accusations of a "land grab" by a Withington developer in 1905.***

And he died in North Wales in 1927 leaving £9,892.9s.2d to his wife and daughter.

Slater's Manchester & Salford Surban Directory, 1903

Which I thought was the end, but then I decided to follow up Sutton & Co Parcels Office and found this, which will need more investigation.

Pictures;  Kemp's Corner is back, Anne Hall, 2025, [permission being sought], Harry Kemps’ chemist shop, circa 1900, from the Lloyd Collection, the 1904 election address, courtesy of Lawrence Beedle, Chorlton-cum-Hardy District Almanack and Handbook for 1910, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Otto of Rose tub top, date unknown from the collection of Jay Hurst, and news story from the Stretford & Urmston Journal, April 12, 1978 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Harry Kemp, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Kemp%27s+Corner

**Todays Elections, Manchester Guardian, November 1st, 1905 Chorlton-cum-Hardy & Whalley Range 

***Mr. Kemp on Workman's Wages, Manchester Guardian, November 1st, 1905