Panel 2: The Scourge of Slum Housing in Manchester

At the beginning of the twentieth century the Wythenshawe area could not have been a more different place to its industrial northern neighbour. A rural part of northern Cheshire, Wythenshawe comprised three main small settlements Northen Etchells, Northenden and Baguley. Northenden and Baguley were fi rst mentioned in the Doomsday book in 1086, with the name Wythenshawe (Willow-Wood) fi rst being used in 1316. Much of Wythenshawe was held for hundreds of years by the aristocratic Tatton family.

(Above) Excerpt from Ordnance Survey 6 inch map, published in 1911, covering part of Wythenshawe. Source: National Library of Scotland.

By the turn of the twentieth century there were signs of modernisation and growing links with Manchester. Better transportation saw more houses appearing in Northenden as people began to settle there to commute to Manchester either by omnibus or by bicycle. 1898 saw the fi rst car owner in Wythenshawe and 1910 the fi rst motorised bus service to and from Manchester. Many workers from Manchester travelled south to enjoy the countryside in Wythenshawe, visit its pubs and cafes and go boating on the meandering River Mersey. Despite these changes Wythenshawe area retained much of its rural and oldfashioned character, for instance one of the fi rst picture-houses to open was adjacent to a blacksmith in Northenden.

The Simons’ connection with Wythenshawe began at the same time in the early 1900s. Henry Simon, in one of his last acts of last acts of philanthropy, gifted funds for an iron footbridge to connect Didsbury to the Cheshire side of the Mersey. The bridge built in 1901 served to allow easy access for the people of Didsbury to allotments and saved a long journey via Northenden. Henry’s generosity thus resonates with Ernest and Shena’s later work in connecting Manchester with Wythenshawe.

(Above) Scenes of rural Wythenshawe at the turn of the century, a still predominantly a landscape of small farms, labourers’ cottages and halls of the Cheshire gentry. Source: Manchester Archives+, ref. m49074, m36238, m43596, DPA/1631/21.

(Below) Source: Manchester Local Image Collection, ref. m7755.

(Above) A snapshot into the past: the extended Tatton family at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The picture entitled Wythenshawe shows the Tattons at the front of Wythenshawe Hall in 1898. Courtesy of Libby Edwards. The 1910s saw the Simons cement their position as leading social reformers in Manchester. Ernest was elected as a Liberal councillor for Didsbury and made it his priority to tackle the air pollution plaguing the city. In 1911 Ernest had become honorary secretary of the Smoke Abatement League of Great Britain and in 1912 he helped to found its Manchester branch.

Meanwhile in 1914 Shena helped to found the Manchester and Salford Women Citizens Association. Shena outlined the aim of the association in the feminist journal Common Cause in July 1916:

(Right) The Smokeless City was co-written with Marion Fitzgerald who worked with Ernest in combatting smoke pollution in Manchester. Fitzgerald, who was also involved in the Manchester and Salford Women Citizens Association, was a leading member of the Manchester and Salford Better Housing Council and provided valuable research for Ernest’s books How to Abolish the Slums (1929) and The Rebuilding of Manchester (1935).

(Left) Logo of the journal of the Manchester and Salford Women Citizens Association, founded in 1917. Shena played an instrumental editorial role in the journal in its early years. Source: University of Manchester Library.

‘To create in each ward of the city a centre to which all women municipal voters can attach themselves, and which, by means of meetings, lectures, and the diffusion of information generally, will educate women to realise the power they possess as voters to press for the better consideration of all municipal affairs, and especially those that affect women and children’. In these positions of civic prominence they campaigned together on pressing municipal issues, foremost the high rate of infant mortality in Manchester. Between 1914 and 1915 Ernest, using his position on the council’s sanitary committee, and Shena, with the Women Citizens Association, successfully lobbied the council to create maternity centres to provide services for mothers and children to curb infant mortality. A decade later Ernest recorded in his book A City Council From Within (1926) how infant mortality had been reduced by nearly a half thanks in part to these centres.

Shena and Ernest with their fi rst son, Roger (1913). Source: Shena Simon papers, Manchester Archives+.

These years also saw the birth of the Simons’ three children, Roger in 1913, Brian in 1915, and Antonia in 1917. The 1910s, also witnessed terrible events for the Simons. All three of Ernest’s younger brothers were killed whilst serving during the First World War. Ernest’s diary records the fi rst tragic death of his brother Eric in 1915. He said he was not afraid of the risk of being killed, but he could not bear the thought of killing. He had defi nitely given up shooting, & would kill only vermin. I urged him to do Red Cross, & join the Friendly Ambulance unit, or something similar – but after half accepting… he took a commission in the 2/5 Lancashire Fusiliers; went out in May; wrote cheerfully to Mother last Sunday; & now all we know is that he is dead.

Ernest Simon’s diary, 20th August 1915

Source: Ernest Simon Papers, Manchester Archives+ With the war nearing a close the Simons felt that their work in social reform was more important than ever. Shena wrote to Ernest in October 1918: “The only way we can repay the world for our great good fortune, especially in view of the innumerable lives spoilt for ever by the tragedies of the war, is to do everything in our power to make the world a better place for the coming generation”.

(Below) The 1921 Census record for the Simon household at “Broomcroft” in Didsbury illustrates their affl uence or “great good fortune”. They had fi ve live-in servants, as well as a chauffeur. Source: Findmypast.co.uk.