In the mid-seventeenth century, the River Irwell not only separated Manchester and Salford, it was a political fault line in the English Civil War (1642-1651). On one side lay Royalist Salford, on the other, Parliamentarian Manchester, at least as far as their powerful local gentry were concerned. In 1642, political tensions erupted into open bloodshed. During the conflict described below, the first casualty of the civil war occurred with the death of Richard Percival, a local linen weaver, from Kirkmanshulme.
Major John Byrom of Salford. He supported the Royalists, and was fined heavily by the Cromwellian Sequestration Committee. He was present at the festivities in Manchester marking the coronation of Charles II.
Lord Strange (James Stanley, 7th Early of Derby) was the chief supporter of the Crown in Lancashire, and leader of the Royalist attempt to seize Manchester.
Lord Strange
Captain Thomas Standishof Duxbury, supporter of king, was killed on 29 September 1642, and buried at St. Laurence's Church, Chorley. He was shot by a marksman positioned in the tower of Manchester Cathedral. The rest of his family were Roundheads.
Act One ... The scene represents the interior of Hobson's Boot Shop in Chapel Street, Salford. ... The business is prosperous, but to prosper in Salford in 1880, you did not require the elaborate accessories of a later day. ... The windows exhibit little stock, and amongst what there is, clogs figure prominently.
The sound of clogs of the cotton-mill workers on the cobblestones were once a part of everyday life. The wearing of clogs by mill workers was in terminal decline before the end of the Second World War, and by 1950 there appears to have been only one clogmaker and repairer left, James Critchley, of Whit Lane, Salford
'The adult population (I would estimate 90%)', wrote Jack Lanigan of Salford at the turn of the twentieth century, 'wore clogs, and you could hear them half a mile away.'
But Lowry didn't care much anyway They said he just paints cats and dogs And matchstalk men in boots and clogs And Lowry said that's just the way they'll stay Brian and Michael
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Salford City Reporter ca. 1975-6
James Critchley the Clogmaker
Whit Lane Salford
Source: Riley Archive
Working-class men, women and children wore clogs. They were durable, repairable, and relatively cheap, still the poorest went barefoot. Jack Lanigan wrote in 1890:
"Shoes on your feet were the last things you could expect. It was so common to see boys and girls playing in the street without shoes and stockings. Many were the days during winter we went to school with sacking round our feet."
In the Language
'clever clogs' : someone who is ostentatiously knowledgeable.
'cloggy dick' : a derisive term applied to a person wearing clogs.
Also known as clogging. The dance below is based on the Old Lancashire heel and toe style of dance and some of the steps emulate the machinery and sounds of the cotton mills.
Clog dancing reached its peak between 1880 and 1910. Competitions, with cash prizes, were held at music halls and working men's clubs. The development of clog dancing in Lancashire was influenced by the large number of Irish immigrants that moved into the county. They introduced elements of Irish traditional dancing to form a hybrid called Lancashire-Irish clog dancing. Dancing clogs were made of ash, and therefore lighter than work clogs, which were made of alder. Work clogs usually had irons.
Weaponized Clogs
Gangs of Scuttlers once roamed the streets of Salford looking for trouble. Sporting fancy scarves and bell-bottomed trouses, which floated above their narrow brass-tipped clogs, they were the nineteenth century equivalent of 'bovver boys'. The clogs were used for purring, the practice of violently kicking a victim until he was senseless or dead. In one month, August of 1874, seventeen people appeared in court, charged with this offense. By the early 1890s, after stiff prison sentences, purring was replaced by stabbing. (seepurring duels)
It was reported that in one day, clogs had been used by three Salford men to kick their respective wives to death.
Source: Boot and Shoe Recorder (vol. LX, no. 4, 25 Oct 1911)
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Notes:
The newspaper article refers to Evelyn Vigeon, who published "Clogs or Wooden-soled shoes", an article in Costume (1977) 11: 1–27
Main Gate and Dock Offices, Trafford Road
Source: Canal Archive: taken 1983
Main Gate and Dock Offices, Trafford Road (June 2018)
Rembering Frank Taylor, who was employed for most of his working life on the docks. He was a member of the Blue Union (National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers), so named because its union card was blue. He was made redundant just before the docks closed in 1982.
Source: Port of Manchester Review 71
Last Days "Statutory invitations under the terms of schedule 32 to the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, were today issued to the city of Salfordand Trafford metropolitan district council, to prepare schemes with a view to designation as an enterprisezone of some 780 acres in Salforddocks and Trafford Park." (Hansard, volume 997, 20 January 1981).
Manchester Guardian 15 May 1982: 'closure is becoming inevitable', and severance pay offer to dockers expires 28 May.
Manchester Guardian 21 April 1982: 'Dock sell off to go ahead'.
1983 Salford City Council uses £1 million 'Derelict Land Grant' to purchase the docks from the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The area purchased was 37 hectares.
The Salford Children's Holiday Camp (The Jam Butty Camp) in Prestatyn, Wales was opened in 1926. It was threatened with closure in 2014, because the Salford City Council withdrew its financial support. In response, the public launched a campaign, in order to save the camp, and won a reprieve. It now appears that sufficient funds have been raised to savethe holiday camp.
The camp's purpose was to provide Salford's disadvantaged children with the opportunity to have a holiday at the seaside. During the period when the camp's oversight was in the hands of the Education Office, some thirty schools sent children to Prestatyn during the summer. In the 1940s and 1950s, over a 1000 children would spend the summer there.
Salford City Reporter September 1976
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Salford Royal Hospital began its life on 10 September 1827 as the Salford and Pendleton Dispensary. It closed in 1993. and was converted into apartments.
John Boutflower, Surgeon
John Boutflower (1797-1889) was born in Salford, and was the son of John JohnsonBoutflower[1], the brother of Henry Crewe Boutflower, and father of Andrew Boutflower. He qualified LSA (Licensed Surgical Assistant) and MRCS (Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons) in 1816, after studying under William Simmons. Boutflower was for many years surgeon at Salford Royal Hospital. He also taught anatomy at Joseph Jordan's Mount St. School in Manchester.
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