Summer 2016
Manchester Region History Review Music in Manchester in World War One
Your FREE Manchester History Magazine
150 Years of Solidarity Anniversary of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council
The Lost Mills of Poynton and Norbury 1
Manchester History Events click blue itles for more details
Unfamiliar Ancoats A walking tour led by Mark Watson
Saturday 17 September 2016 Radical Women, 1880-1914 Conference @Working Class Movement Library, Salford
Until 18 September 2016 Grafters: Industrial society in image and word @People’s History Museum
Wednesday 19 October 2016 Angel Meadow: Victorian Britain’s' Most Savage Slum by Dean Kirby @ Man Met Uni
Tuesday 25 October 2016
Wednesday 16 November 2016The Twelfth-Century Constables of Chester: Reassessing The Evidence by Andrew Abram @ Man Met Uni
Saturday 17 September 2016
The Manchester Waterhouse Lecture: Edgar Wood’s Manchester: Northern Arts and Crafts Powerhouse
Wednesday 14 December 2016Deviant Spaces in Bradford and Leeds During the Yorkshire Ripper Murders by Charlotte Mallinson @ Man Met Uni 2
Welcome to the Submit Your Articles, News and Views
Manchester Region History Review
We welcome contributions to the Manchester Region History Review. We would be delighted to receive your articles, edited dissertation excerpts, reviews, press releases, news, listings of events, exhibitions, projects and more. If you would like to contribute to the Manchester Region History Review, or you would like to discuss an idea or proposal, please contact the Editor, Dr Fiona Cosson.
Welcome to Volume Two of the all-new Manchester Region History Review with a selection of research, news, events and reviews about the rich history and heritage of our region.
Notes for Contributors:
It’s been a busy few months, and another successful Manchester Histories Festival has been and gone. But do not despair, there’s still plenty going on in the region to keep you busy all summer long.
We suggest that features and articles should not exceed 2,000 words. Reviews and news items should not exceed 500 words. We welcome images and photographs to accompany your work (please ensure that you have copyright permission to reproduce any illustrations). We welcome the use of hyperlinked signposting (to websites, audio or video content, etc) to enrich your writing and content. We encourage a variety of contributions and we are happy to discuss ideas and draft articles at an early stage. The next copy deadline is 30 September 2016.
Fiona Cosson Editor of Manchester Region History Review, produced by the Manchester Centre for Regional History at Manchester Metropolitan University 3
The Working Class Movement Library’s new exhibition To Make That Future Now! celebrates 150 years of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council.
150 Years of
Solidarity In the mid-19th century the development of steam engines to replace streams as a source of industrial power had led to Manchester and Salford’s flat landscape becoming densely packed with factories, warehouses and offices. In the factories the employers were handicapped by few safety or hygiene regulations while the “hands”, some of whom were children, were subjected to rules such as a ban on singing which could result in fines being deducted from their meagre wages. The working day went from six in the morning to eight at night with half hour breaks at eight and four and an hour’s break at twelve. Unsurprisingly mortality rates were high and Manchester Hospital dealt with the highest rate of accidents in Europe. The employers had all the power since factory work was relatively unskilled and workers, as individuals, were easily replaced. The story of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council however is the story of how pooled power, which some workers in skilled trades such as lithographers, mule spinners and bookbinders had gained through “combining”, developed over time into a network of solidarity, pushing for better pay and working conditions.
For 150 years the Trades Council has fought, not only for socialism and trade union rights, but also against injustices such as poverty, discrimination and unemployment - and, as two separate institutions since 1975, it still carries on the struggle. The exhibition runs until Friday 26 August 2016 and is open Wednesdays to Fridays 1pm-5pm, and the first Saturday in June and July 10am4pm. The Working Class Movement Library was founded by the late Ruth and Edmund Frow in the 1950s and is now acknowledged as one of the most important collections of historical material on radical working class organisations in the country. The Library is open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. At other times visitors are welcome to make appointments to view or use the collection. Admission to the library is free. Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford M5 4WX Tel 0161 736 3601 Web www.wcml.org.uk 5
Making Music in Manchester in World War One The Royal Northern College of Music launches a new project exploring Music in Manchester during the First World War.
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The Royal Northern College of Music has launched a new project exploring Music in Manchester during the First World War. The project is a collaborative effort between the archives at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Henry Watson Music Library and the Halle Concerts Society.
programming, gender and personal stories of performers.
The project volunteers and partners have already been uncovering fascinating narratives on the ideas of patriotism in music
For information on ways you can get involved email call 0161 907 5211 or email heather.roberts@rncm.ac.uk
All research will be shared on the project’s dedicated blog as well as through performances, talks and exhibitions. Everyone is invited to contribute their own personal items to the exhibitions relating to The project will run until December 2016 and regional music in wartime, and we would love will investigate the music of the city and wider to give you the opportunity to participate in region from World War One through the project blog. interactive performances, workshops, Professor Kelly, Head of Research at the exhibitions, and online resources. Staff and RNCM, said: ‘We are delighted to have the volunteers from the three institutions will chance to work with community partners and research their archives and share their volunteers to explore the under-studied traces findings to collaboratively explore and of music making in Manchester during and uncover this hidden history. immediately after WWI. These fascinating The project will involve an important under-explored collections include everything performance element to recreate some of the from concert programmes and private letters, music heard at the RMCM and in Manchester to official records and newspaper cuttings.' during and just after the war years. Also, did Follow some of our research and updates on you know that returning servicemen were offered government grants to train as fulltime Twitter using #mmmww1.Please keep an eye musicians post-war and over 80 attended the out on the blog or get in touch via the emails Royal Manchester College of Music, including below to find out more. one woman? What an strange environment The project is funded by the Arts and that must have been for the young female Humanities Research Council (AHRC) students as well as the returning soldiers. Engagement Centre: Everyday Lives in War, This project hopes to uncover some of their First World War. stories.
The Lost Mills of Poynton and Norbury By Phil Alexander Poynton, and ancient Norbury (now a part of Hazel Grove) are neighbours on the southern fringes of Greater Manchester, and their eighteenthcentury history, including that of their Manorial Corn Mills, contains many inaccuracies. In this article, I reveal both unrecorded sites of the two Mills, and a previously untold story, of the lost mills and canal of Poynton and Norbury.
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Poynton Hall
Norbury Mill operating around 1870 (Sketch by author)
The mills of Poynton and Norbury have a hitherto untold history intimately connected to a forgotten canal, a history I have discovered from documents and from studying the landscape of the area. According to Shercliff et al (1985), and other local histories, the mill sites of Norbury and Poynton were always at their last known sites, Mill Hill for Poynton and Old Mill Lane for Norbury. However, the real story is far more interesting. We know Poynton mill had ceased operating and had become a dwelling by 1830 whereas Norbury nearly made the twentieth century because it was adapted to the steam age. The first reference to a Norbury mill is 1285 when complaints were made that the miller gave short measures of grain at the mill. But where was this mill? An accurate deed of the manse and mill was drawn in 1696 when the Lyme estate borrowed money from a female midlands ‘banker’ to buy Norbury mill/ manse/ farm. From this, we can discount Old Mill Lane because this document states that the property is ‘situated on the west side of the lane between Bullock Smithy and Lane Ends’, now roughly the A523 – Old Mill Lane is half a mile or more east! Poynton mill is well documented at Mill Hill having become a dwelling by 1830 but I take issue with the several established explanations of where the mill historically was and how it operated. According to Shercliff et al., Poynton mill lade was serviced from a dam on Poynton Brook, but this would have been a very large construction creating a large pool and raising the water by nearly fifteen feet behind the dam, and there is no evidence of this.
Sir George Warren (1735-1801)
let us find how an earlier Poynton mill was linked to Norbury by a deed in 1571 and cannot be the Mill Hill Mill.
The Poynton estate ‘purchased’ parts of Norbury with ‘certain parcels of land’ and water rights to use ‘Blunts Brook’, now known as Norbury Brook, with the ‘right to erect a Miln whereat Norbury’. In this John Warren buys Barlow Fold from Hyde of Norbury. Unlike local historians, I say this document can be taken at face value; John Warren of Poynton was buying the land to build his mill on, with the right to share Bluntsbrook. If this is where he built his mill it was not half a mile down the valley at Mill Hill on what becomes the ‘Ladybrook’. Is there evidence of this deed and what it says, after 450 years? It is easy to locate the diversion for what I call the Poynton ‘high’ system. It is some fifty metres up stream of what is now the Brookside Garden Centre’s eastern boundary. The diversion here is on all eighteenth century, early OS, and the 1850/60 tythe maps. The diversion cut out the old river bed in ‘Lower Chapel Field’, embanking and straightening to a substantial dam and weir. In 1571, this ‘high system’ ran into what is now Towers Farm pond, a pivotal point right through to the present day. Well before Towers Road existed it crossed the ‘lane’, now the A523, to run through the field to Barlow Fold, and after 450 years you can see on the modern-day map (page 10) which explain both the Old Poynton and Norbury mill systems.
The reason the ‘High’ diversion is so clear on all eighteenth/nineteenth-century maps is because it had a So how did the water get to the lade we can still see second ‘life’. It was updated when George Warren running to Mill Hill? The water came from Poynton pool enriched himself by eloping with the heiress Jane Revel. starting at the old ‘overflow’ which is now a path out of Thereafter, George joined with a group of fellow the pool opposite the Barlow Fold lodge. The lade ran landowners’ ‘squires’ to provide the alternative ‘low’ under the ‘turnpike’ road, past the (now) lodge and over turnpike route to London (now the A523). In the process Poynton Brook close to Barlow Fold, through a converted they also mooted a canal scheme. barn yard, past a weir looker’s cottage, and into the lade 9 which ran to Mill Hill. This will be justified later, but first
Map data ©2016 Google
The ‘Canal’ and Three Mill Systems Today (1) The ‘high’ Barlow Fold diversion takes water to (2) Towers Farm pond into (3) the scruby area at the bottom of, later built, Towers road to (4) across the turnpike clearly seen running to (5) a pond which feeds the Mill at (6) Barlow Fold. The Ancient Norbury ‘Low’ system is less clear because of Brookside. Beginning at the weir at (7) which backs water to (8) across Brookside, to a pond area at (9) stretching between the now North Lodge and Where the high system crosses (8), this pond serves the Mill which was at (10), modern 288 London Road North, the race meanders away at (11) to the Poynton Brook. (12) to (13) is a section of the canal running between the Pool and the first Lock at Towers farm pond (2) after the Barlow fold mill lost its water rights. (14) to (16) is how the water for the later Mill Hill mill ran from the Pool above Poynton Brook via a Weirlookers cottage/ sluice (15) to the Lade (16). 10
Poynton pool was created by a dam which formed the wall for this turnpike, and became the ‘landscape feature’ we know today, as Kitching says. In this, though, he is missing a point of why Sir George Warren built the pool. It was not to do ‘gardening’. His motivation was always commercial, and particularly at this part of his life when his arrogance and drive to ‘sweat’ any asset or privilege was at its peak. The pool was built as an integral working part of, and headwater to, this canal. The project passed by the Commons but was shelved by the Lords five years or so later in 1765. Now let us explore why it was abandoned. From the point of both the Poynton and the Lyme estates, the proposed canal was vital to slash coal transport costs as Bridgewater had done in Manchester – to Stockport for Warren; and Macclesfield for Leigh’s Norbury colliery. The third duke of Bridgewater loathed Warren because he was the cousin of, and for some time betrothed to, Jane Revel, with whom Warren had eloped. Bridgewater was flushed with the success of his canal into Manchester and secretly assembled a rival scheme, including ‘spies’ like James Brindley and Josiah Wedgwood, to oppose the ‘squires’ canal.
The canal was to have run through Cheshire from Frodsham Quay on the Weaver, with a main junction to Macclesfield at Mottram St Andrew, via Poynton, and on to Stockport and the ‘Old Navigation’, the subject of Brindley’s espionage, in Manchester. Bridgwater’s canal became the Trent and Mersey giving him a transport monopoly on trade between the North Sea and the Irish Sea across the powerhouse (where have I heard that before?) of the midlands. Meanwhile Bridgwater’s lobbying sunk the rival scheme in the Lords. The ‘squires’ were blissfully ignorant of this plot until very close to the parliamentary submission and had already built some parts for which they were responsible. Warren and the other ‘squires’ grabbed land – all the ‘Mosses’ heaths, moors and commons they could – with their Enclosure Act powers, to use for the canal, for which they saw no barrier: after all most of the land was theirs or their Below: Looking across from the ‘Mill Pond’ across the A523 to the ‘Mill’ which I conclude stood at or about 288 London Rd.
friends’. Poynton pool was the largest part of what Sir George built, anticipating approval, the pool at the high point being key to the operation of the canal. Barlow Fold Mill was caught up in the ‘politics’ when Sir George Warren disinherited the Priestnall family of their 1571 Norbury Brook water rights, diverting it into his new ‘headwater’, Poynton pool, thus closing the mill at Barlow Fold which had operated for nearly 200 years. The Towers Farm pond and the ‘high system’ were incorporated into the Poynton pool system via the ‘canal’, now the paved roadway, parallel to the A523, lined by the gardens of the present-day houses built along its east ‘bank’, seen on this eighteenth- century Terrier estate map of 1793 (page 12). So what of Norbury’s more ancient mill? We do have clues, starting with the weir within the Brookside Garden Centre. Originally this weir will have had timbers across the brook, and a sluice which will have raised the level behind the weir by two or three feet more than present. This would back the water to a diversion at around the eastern boundary of the garden centre. The ‘old’ Brookside boundary follows a geological contour, a ‘level’ and I think this was a ‘ditch’ boundary. On the other side of the now Towers Road, in the scrubby area at the bottom, the ‘high system’ can be seen where it passed to Barlow Fold before it was channelled to Poynton pool. Below this is the ‘low’ system and I think here was a millpond spanning what became Towers Road and the lodge. This whole ‘low’ area was affected by the canal because it was to have been the site of the first lock. This whole area requires a lot more investigation. A further clue is that in the late fifties I remember the old stone built, dilapidated, bulging house, which stood on the exact foundation of 288 London Road. It was a stone structure, similar to Worth Hall and I think, of around the same antiquity.
Below: The Poynton Terrier, 1770
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Another clue from modern-day map (page 10) clearly shows a dried up ‘riverbed’ meandering through the field behind, to the west of 288 London Road North. On investigation this is a deep cut meander. The ‘riverbed’ was not a previous course of the Norbury Brook and appears to spring from the falling ground, the bank, to ‘meander’ to the brook. So what is the story? I think this was the race from ‘Old Norbury’ wheel, running underground until the race culvert bursts from the ‘bank’ and water is allowed to ‘meander’ to Poynton Brook, below Barlow Fold. We can draw a line between the pond/lade area and the ‘meandering race’/ ‘culvert’, and somewhere along it was the water wheel, at a level probably eight feet below the present ground level of 288 London Road. This would give a wheel size around 16ft undershot, at 288 London Road. The manse was ‘rebuilt of Wood and Plaster’ in 1559 but I think the stone building, demolished in the fifties and replaced by the present building of 288 London Road, is the location of the ancient Norbury mill, the half-timbered ‘hall’ being demolished later. There is a record because the 1793 Poynton terrier (right) clearly shows the mill/manse with outbuildings mentioned in the 1696 deed, a whole ‘farmyard’. The canal would have cut the thin ‘peninsula’ of Norbury land on which the mill stood. The two estates seem to have adjusted and tidied their borders at this time of the canal and thus the significant Norbury building becomes a non-descript Poynton one.
Old Norbury mill had to be moved for the canal, because it was the ‘low’ system. When its water discharged, via the meandering race into Poynton Brook, it was lost to the canal headwater, the high system at the level of Poynton Pool. So, the Lyme estate built the new mill at Old Mill Lane where water was returned to the brook above the level of the ‘high system’ of Poynton Pool. Thus by 1793 (the time of Terrier Map), the Norbury Mill manse complex becomes a part of Poynton, and the ‘folk’ memory of where the mill and manse was is lost. The loss of the canal structure was a huge humiliation for all sponsoring it, particularly Sir George Warren. But others like the Leighs of Lyme and Aldington and Davenport of Bramhall were all involved. Charles Roe of Macclesfield, a self-made industrialist, acted as ‘salesman’ in the parliamentary presentation. His main interest was getting copper and zinc ore to his great smelter on Macclesfield Common. He was mortified particularly by Wedgewood’s duplicity. His operations gradually shifted to Toxteth in Liverpool, ultimately saving a fortune in transport, and as a direct consequence of the fate of this canal. The great baggage trains of ore ceased to flow through the heart of Cheshire to Macclesfield, while Macclesfield lost an embryonic giant and never became a Wolverhampton. Twenty-five years later when the gloss had gone from Bridgewater’s Manchester achievement, and his monopolistic
tendencies with the Trent and Mersey Canal were questioned, Roe’s son spoilt Bridgewater’s plans for a canal in Liverpool, building the Sankey canal instead. The consequences of the humiliation thus ran down the generations, but the squires quickly covered their humiliation. The financial and physical effort Warren expended on the canal scheme is still visible today. The physical evidence I have revealed here is only part of what can be seen and is the most significant part of Poynton’s eighteenthcentury history, still available to us, and previously to this article unknown. The two mills were peripheral but their water, the Norbury brook, was vital for Poynton Pool as headwater. The first lock (below) was very close to the site of the old Norbury mill/manse, to carry the canal under the turnpike, over the Norbury Brook to Norbury ‘Moor’, Bramhall ‘Moor’, Woods ‘Moor’/ Great ‘Moor’, ‘Heath’ Road Davenport, Cale ‘Green’ and into Shaw ‘Heath’ – Warrens land again – where at least two warehouses were built and plenty of land was grabbed in the process. Both mills were re-sited to the locations we know today because of the canal, when the greater prize was shelved permanently, thus saving villages like Mottram St Andrew, Alderley Edge or, shudder to think, Anglesey Drive, becoming a Rochdale or Ancoats. BELOW: Fragment of Canal Map 1793 This map was made when Nat Wright was taking over operational control of Gees Mine from Warren and Norbury collery from the Lyme estate but I am certain the route is the same as for the 1765 parliamentary submission. . Note the first Lock at Towers Farm Pond heading North West to Norbury Moor and the ‘canal section to Poynton Pool. The ‘old’ Norbury mill has been closed for 30 years, I think the front part, the half timbered hall, is already gone probably because of road widening for the canal Bridge over the Turnpike. From the estate terrier we know Norbury Mill/Manse is part of the Poynton estate. Note that Towers road and the North Lodge are not there. This map uniquely ignores Estate boundaries.
References: Shercliff, William H, D A. Kitching, and J M. Ryan. Poynton, a Coalmining Village: Social History, Transport and Industry, 1700-1939. Stockport (Cheshire: Shercliff, 1983) ; Smith, Dorothy B. A Georgian Gent & Co: The Life and Times of Charles Roe.
(Ashbourne: Landmark Publishing, 2005); Trowsdale, David H. The History of Hazel Grove and Bramhall: (Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire, 1976); Poynton: A Coalmining Village www.brocross.com/poynton/conten. htm 12
If Those Walls Could Talk:
Princess Street, Manchester By Tom McGrath Behind the charming, symmetrical Georgian façade is “The Waterhouse”, a public house and restaurant owned by the J.D. Wetherspoon company. It is named after 19th century architect Alfred Waterhouse, who designed many of Manchester’s public buildings including the town hall (1877) which is located opposite the row of Georgian terraces. But what is the history of these buildings?
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Architecture The buildings received a Grade II listed building status in October 1974. They have been greatly altered over the centuries, especially in their current status which has resulted in the opening up of internal walls between buildings to create a flowing environment for the pub. Despite this the there are still a number of architectural features within the properties which make them unique within Manchester. The exterior of the building is a typical example of late 18th century building. The bricks are red brick with sandstone dressings and the variation of 12 and 9 pane sash windows define this house of being of the Georgian period. It is interesting to note on the photo left the side windows facing Cooper Street have been bricked up. This could well have been done historically to avoid the window tax that plagued Britain from 1696 to 1851 (hence the phrase “daylight robbery�). The three doorways all have Tuscan pilaster door cases with open pediments, there are Doric columns and decorative fanlights, again distinctively Georgian in design. Internally a few period features survive. These include some fireplaces, cornices and other mouldings. There is a Gothic style window at the top of the staircase, however the staircase bannister is wrought iron and a nineteenth century installation. The layout of number 71 is larger than the other houses as it is an end terrace and also incorporates what was once a shop. From archival records we know there was a timber yard on this part of Princess Street, so perhaps this shop could have been involved with that. Also built at the back of the terrace is a nineteenth century pub, which opens onto Kennedy Street. Eighteenth Century The terrace was built as residential housing in the late 18th century, to home the rising middle classes in the city centre. The houses are complete by 1794 as that is when the first residents are recorded in the local rate books. The history of these particular houses has been quite difficult to trace given their age and their location in the ever-changing metropolis. Although the present day address of the buildings is 67-71 Princess street, these numbers have been adapted several times over the centuries as the landscape of the city has also changed. From the 1830s onwards the address was numbers 4145 Princess Street. Earlier than this in the late 18th century they were numbered 20, 21 and 22 Princess Street (also sometimes known as Princes Street). Above:: Number 71 Princess Street, Manchester. (photos author’s own)
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Amongst the first residents of these houses on Princess Street are the Mullion family, William Simmonds and Mrs Rayner, who are all recorded in the 1795 rate payers books. By 1811 the occupants of the houses have changed to John Matthews and T. Cardwell and there is no doubt that servants would have also resided here. The residents are each paying around £13 per year (about £1,200 in modern money). It must be remembered that at the time this was a very fashionable and wealthy part of the city to live in, as dictated by the name of the street and also with the Portico Library and the Art Gallery both being constructed on nearby Mosely Street at the same time.
In his book, Manchester: An Architectural History, John J. Parkinson-Bailey provides us with an insight into what sort of social lives our wealthy Princess Street residents would have had: “Polite society could be conveyed in sedans to the Assembly Rooms on Mosley Street… an 84 foot by 34 foot ballroom lit by three pendant and twelve wall chandeliers, with seats upholstered in orange satin. The rules were strict: gentlemen had to change partners every two dances, no couples were allowed to leave a dance before its conclusion, and no refreshments were allowed in the ballroom.” Nineteenth Century On 16th August 1819 the occupants would have been eye-witnesses to the St. Peter’s Field Massacre (Peterloo Massacre) which occurred just yards from their doorstep. A peaceful protest of around 60,000 spectators demanding Parliamentary reform was crushed by the Manchester Yeomanry Guards which left between 18 dead and over 700 injured. This perhaps marks the beginning of the end of the terrace as popular housing. The cotton industry was booming and the city was expanding further and further and therefore to escape the overcrowded, noisy and polluted city centre, the wealthy retreated further and further south. By 1834 the rate payers books reveal that houses along Princess Street have already been converted into shops and other businesses. At the same time developers were starting to plan middle class suburbs along Plymouth Grove and Victoria Park. By the 1841 census most of the street has been converted into offices and shops, thereby marking the second stage in the history of these buildings.
The 1851 Census actually records that number 67, at least at the time of the census is being used once more as a residential property. It is home to 37 year old William Lambert, his wife Frances and their maid Sarah Marshall and the cook Martha Lynch. William’s occupation is a “Berlin Wool Manufacturer” which must have provided him with a steady income as he can clearly afford two domestic servants. William is still recorded as living there in 1861, this time is occupation is recorded as “Importer of Foreign Fancy Goods”.
Above Left: Pigot’s Map of Manchester, 1821 The Georgian terrace is located at the cross section of Princess Street and Bond Street. (Source: http://manchester.publicprofiler.org/beta/). Above Right: 1851 census for 67 Princess Street, Manchester (Source: http://www.ancestry.co.uk)
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1939 Register Entry for Princess Street, Manchester. (Source: http://www.findmypast.co.uk)
Meanwhile in the 1850s Number 71 is recorded as a multi-functional building. Some of the upstairs rooms were the offices of a solicitors company Slater, Heelis & Co., which is still recorded at the address as late as 1947. Likewise in 1854 the local newspaper also lists Number 71 as the warehouse for “E. Sedgewick’s Funeral and Family Mourning”. Death was big business in Victorian Britain as society had strict protocols regarding the mourning period of deceased loved ones. Mr Sedgewick’s business which presumably either provided services for funerals or dealt in goods related to mourning (such as black cloth) was one of many in Manchester. From the 1860s onwards and well into the twentieth century the buildings were used as offices and shops for various different firms and businesses. Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries The recently released 1939 Register, which is a record of the population of Britain that was taken on the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 provides us with another glimpse into the history of Princess Street. From the record above we can see that Harry S. Sever, an unemployed insurance agent is residing at number 67 and next door is Elizabeth Ryder who was probably working as a housekeeper for the owners of the building. As mentioned earlier, the buildings were bought and converted by J.D. Wetherspoon and converted into the popular public house and restaurant it is today. There is something unique about these buildings and they retain their elegance even after 220 years and when you’re sat having a meal in one of the rooms of “The Waterhouse” or walking through the hall ways, it is quite special to imagine our Georgian ancestors doing the exact same thing two centuries ago. Further Reading and Resources John J. Parkinson-Bailey, ‘Manchester: An Architectural History'(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) http://www.ancestry.co.uk http://www.findmypast.co.uk http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk
This article was reprinted with kind permission from Tom McGrath’s blog,
www.ifthosewallscouldtalk.wordpress.com 16
The Women’s Peace Crusade 1917-1918 in the North West A new project has launched at Manchester Metropolitan University looking at the development of the generally unremembered Women’s Peace Crusade (WPC) in the industrial North during the last two years of the First World War, focusing on a number of key towns in East Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The Women's Peace Crusade ran like wildfire across the country during 1917 and 1918, after an enthusiastic but faltering beginning in Glasgow in 1916 after the Battle of the Somme. By the summer 1918, there were over 123 Crusades, unambiguous in their socialist, pacifist and feminist message, co-ordinated by a complex network of women suffrage, socialist and pacifist activists who were appealing to local working-class women. The Crusade lulled during the winter of 1916 and re-emerged throughout 1917, particularly after the First Russian revolution in March, and then again during 1918 when peace was on the horizon after the entry of the USA into the war. Although there are references to the WPC in works about opposition to the war, these references are generally simplified and present an overview. Work on the project is underway, with volunteers researching The project is a co-production project between volunteers and academics, working together on recovering unknown local histories of East Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The project will result in a small touring exhibition, documentary film and talks to local schools and community groups. Project volunteers will be trained and supported in archive research and offered study space in Manchester Archives and at the Manchester Centre for Regional History at Manchester Metropolitan University.
This project is kindly funded by the AHRC Voices of War and Peace Engagement Centre at the University of Birmingham, and supported by the Manchester Centre for Regional History and Manchester Metropolitan University and Archives+ at Manchester Central Library. For further details about the project, please contact Dr Alison Ronan alironan61@gmail.com
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RADICAL WOMEN 1880-1914 CONFERENCE Saturday 17 September 2016 This one-day conference will celebrate the battles and achievements of working-class women in the drive to achieve a fairer and more balanced society. The decades spanning the turn of the twentieth century saw an upsurge in female activism as women began to organise themselves into trade unions, take part in the socialist debates on social and economic change, and demand the vote. Radical women not only battled against the gender-conservative males within their family or community but also those who claimed to be fighting for equality. There will be keynote addresses by Professor Sheila Rowbotham, University of Manchester and Professor Karen Hunt, Keele University. Papers include the Cabin Restaurant waitresses strike of 1908; the life of Crewe tailoress, campaigner, activitist and author Ada Neild Chew; the forgotten history of domestic servants in women’s suffrage; radical women and the bicycle; suffragette Constance Lytton and the cause of prison reform; plus many more. Full programme details: http://www.wcml.org.uk/whats-on/events/radical-women18801914/. Tickets: £20 (£7.50 unwaged) including lunch and refreshments Book in advance from trustees@wcml.org.uk The Manchester Region History Review is published by the Manchester Centre for Regional History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Copyright © 2016 Manchester Centre for Regional History. All rights reserved. www.mmu.ac.uk/mcrh