Oldfield Buildings, Salford

 

Oldfield Buildings were built in 1893 by the Yorkshire and Lancashire Railway Company. These working class tenements once housed sixty separate units. The structure was also known as Oldfield Road Buildings, Oldfield Road Dwellings, or, as they were simply called in my youth, "The Dwellings".  They were located at the top end of Oldfield Road, toward Chapel Street,  next to what was once the Borough Market (see 1850 map below), which sold vegetables and earthenware pottery and later became a recreational ground, though reduced in size. The site of Oldfield Buildings is marked on the maps below, and was built on a narrow strip of land between Graythorn Street and Oldfield Road. 

'Oldfield Road Dwelling', drawing by L.S. Lowry 1929

This is the back of the dwellings on Gaythorn Street

 

L.S. Lowry, Tate Gallery 1927 oil on wood 

L.S. Lowry on Gaythorn Street. We are looking at the back of Oldfield Road Dwellings.

The frontage on Oldfield Road. Photo credit: Russ (Flickr)

looking up Oldfield Road toward Chapel Street

The apsidal part of the structure, resembling the tower of castle, is at the southern end

< The Crescent  *  Chapel Street  *  Sacred Trinity Church >

OS 1850 sheet 27

OS 25" 1922

Oldfield Buildings coloured

The old Salford Royal Hospital is at the top of the map

The parish records cited below are from the Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks website, and show the same family living in "the dwellings". Note the name variation in the 'abode' field

Baptism: 6 Jul 1894 St Stephen, Salford, Lancashire, England
Thomas Henry Glennie - [Child] of Thomas Glennie & Ruth
Born: 27 Jun 1894
Abode: 45 Oldfield Road Dwellings
Occupation: Labourer
Baptised by: J.T. Thompson-Jones
Source: LDS Film 1408728

Baptism: 18 Sep 1895 St Philip, Salford, Lancashire, England
John Glennie - [Child] of Thomas Glennie & Ruth
Abode: 45 Oldfield Buildings
Occupation: Carter
Baptised by: E. L. Hicks
Register: Baptisms 1883 - 1914, Page 180, Entry 1431
Source: LDS Film 1408660

Baptism: 29th Oct 1897 St Stephen, Salford
Peter Glennie - Child of Thomas Glennie & Ruth
Born: 18th Oct 1897
Abode: 45 Oldfield Road Buildings
Occupation: Carter
Baptised by: A. W. Davies

In the middle of Oldfield Road, at the junction with Chapel Street (see 1922 map), there was a Boer War Memorial to the Lancashire Fusiliers by the sculptor, George Frampton. In 1990, it was moved from the centre of the road, out of harm's way.

bronze 1905

The Oldfield Road Dwellings were demolished around 1970.

Salford: Arms, Brands and Logos

 

Salford received its town charter from Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, then Lord of the Manor, in 1230.  However, it did not receive borough status until 1844, the result of local government reforms embodied in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. This was followed by its elevation to county borough by the Local Government Act of 1888. It was granted city status in 1926. On the 1st of April, 1974, the City and Borough of Salford joined the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. 

House of Blondeville                             Ranulph de Blondeville

Source: Victoria County History, County of Lancaster 

volume 4, page 208

Arms of the County Borough of Salford, granted on November 5, 1844. The three garbs on a blue field echo the arms of the House of Blondeville. The County Borough arms were featured on a W. D. & H. O. Wills cigarette card issued in 1905. 

Postcard of 1905

Arms of Salford City Council granted on 10 June 1974.

An explanation of the various heraldic devices can be found here. Salford City Council describe their coat of arms as:

The arms, designed by H. Ellis Tomlinson, combine elements of the five local authorities that formed the new city of Salford in 1974.
The shield retains were approved by letters patent of the Garter King of Arms and based upon the former Borough of Salford arms; the blue background with a gold 'chief', giving the heraldic colours of the Earls of Chester, from whom Salford received its first charter in 1230.
Also from Salford are the gold shuttle and five bees, representing the growth of five industrial communities round a centre of the textile industry, and the two black millrinds (the iron centres of millstones) as symbols of engineering.
The ship motif comes from Eccles and signifies the importance of waterways in the area. The crest, a red-half griffin holding a flag staff with a pennon, with three boars heads, is one of the former Eccles supporters. The boars heads were also seen in the Irlam arms, and the circle of steel around the griffin's neck was part of the Irlam crest, symbolising the town's great industry.
The supporters'-lions brandishing miners' picks are similar to those of Swinton and Pendlebury. Each lion is collared with a steel chain (a further symbol of engineering) holding a white pentagonal medallion. On one medallion is the black pheon, or broad arrow, which, with the red lion, appeared in the arms of Worsley, whilst on the other is the boar's head from the crest of Swinton and Pendlebury, shown in that former borough's livery colours of red and gold.
The motto, already described, is that formerly used by the Borough of Swinton and Pendlebury, Salus populi suprema lex ("The welfare of the people is the highest law").

In addition to its coat of arms, Salford City Council has its own "up-beat and highly visible" magenta-coloured logo.

 

Seal of the Hundred of Salford

In 1436, King Henry VI granted Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton the office of Steward of the Wapentake of Salfordshire, to descend by hereditary right. This office was passed on through the Earls of Sefton until 1972. 

Old University of Salford Coat of Arms

 

Arms seen at the head of a degree certificate and on its seal (1976)

New University of Salford Coat of Arms

Altiora Petamus "Let Us Seek Higher Things"

A grant of Arms, Crest and Supporters was made to the University of Salford by Letters Patent of Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms dated 6 January 2017. On 10 February 2017 at Maxwell Hall, Salford, the Letters Patent were presented by Timothy Duke, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, to the Chancellor of the University, Professor Jackie Kay, Makar or national poet for Scotland. An animated video on the new design can be seen here.

The Arms are blazoned:

Sable above a demi Sun issuant in base Argent charged with a demi Rose likewise issuant Gules barbed and seeded proper a Chain fesswise throughout enhanced and enarched and a Chief embattled and enarched Argent.

Crest: Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Sable A Lion passant guardant Gules armed langued and resting the dexter hind paw on a Shuttle fesswise Or and supporting with the dexter forepaw a Fire Beacon Sable enflamed proper tied to the pole thereof by a knot at the mid point of its length and flying to the sinister a Riband party lengthwise Argent and Sable Mantled Gules lined Argent.

Supporters: On either side a Heraldic Antelope Sable attired langued and tufted Gules teeth Argent unguled and charged on the shoulder with a Bee volant Or and resting the interior hind foot on a Mooring Bollard Gules wound round with a Rope Or all upon a Compartment comprising a Quayside of grey stone setts issuant from Waves of Water proper.

College reference: Grants 180/72.

 Source: College of Arms, April 2017 Newsletter (no. 50)

The University of Salford Brand

The University of Salford is a 'modern' university in that it has embraced the commodification of higher education. This is not a criticism. The writer, having administered a university department for over half a decade, is far from being a naive idealist, and is well aware of the financial realities of higher education.  Be that as it may, it is a trend that many academics find disquieting. The following quote, from the University of Aberdeen's Manifesto "Reclaiming Our University", highlights the dilemma.

We stand at a pivotal moment in the long history of our university, a fork in the path that offers two ways forward. One is to follow the business model of higher education to its logical conclusion, in a competition for students, research funding and ratings that values constant change as an end in itself. The other is to rediscover the civic purpose of the university as a necessary component of the constitution of a democratic society, with the responsibility for educating its citizens and furnishing them with the wisdom and understanding that will enable them to fashion a world fit for future generations to live in.

The University of Salford has seemingly chosen the first path, which is manifest in its recent programme of rebranding itself. In a university that offers no course in semiotics, it is heartening that it understands the importance of communication through the medium of signifiers. This significance is underscored in the publication of the university's brand guidelines.

Out with the Old

A New Logo and a New Location

The '1650' Map of Salford and Manchester

 

The maps shown below are copies of a survey of Manchester and Salford done in the second half of the seventeenth century. To those familiar with the geography of the area, looking at map 1 (and like versions) is disorienting. Initially, I thought this was due to the process of engraving and printing: the print being a mirror image of the engraved plate. However, this is not the case.

According to the conventions of modern European cartography, based on the use of the compass and magnetic north, maps are normally oriented to the North, that is, North is at the top of the map. Map 1 is shown with a south-up orientation. It was simply printed upside down, and copyists followed this slavishly. By contrast, maps 4, 5 and 7 are printed in the conventional manner. 

All of the maps shown below are copies of an original -- an editio princeps or archetype -- which is no longer extant. A careful study of their delineation shows that they differ in detail. For example, the 'F', representing Sergeant Street, seen on map 2, is absent from map 1. Map 1 has all the appearances of a 'rush-job'. Its Sacred Trinity Church, located at the apex of the 'Greengate Triangle' (see below) is reduced to a featureless box, while on map 2 it is iconic. Map 5 shows a similar Sacred Trinity icon, but it is the only map to have lost the symbol for Salford's market cross. There are also an obvious variety of legend styles. One way of looking at this is to create a stemma, which groups the maps into families. 

Stemma codicum

The archetype is the lost original. Copyists created a version (a) defined by having no street names attached to the Greengate Triangle, and all have a south-up orientation (maps 1,2,8,10). This family has two subdivisions, a1 and a2.  a1 (maps 1 and 2) refers to 'Sergeant Street' in the legend, and does not name the River Irwell. a2 (maps 8 and 10) do name the Irwell, but the legend, where present, does not mention 'Sergeant Street'. Version (b) names only Sergeant Street, and all examples spell the street name with a <g>. b1 (maps 6 and 9) are south-up oriented. b2 (maps 4 and 5) are north-up oriented. Within b2, b2a does not identify Acres Field (later to become St. Anne's Square).  In version (c) all the streets of the Greengate Triangle are named, and both maps (3 and 7), use the variant spelling 'Serjeant' with a <j>. Unfortunately, this spelling can not be used as an indicator of chronology, since <g>, <i> and <j> were all used in the spelling of the word well before the middle of the 17th century. Maps 3 and 7 are distinct in showing a symbol or an icon for Manchester Cathedral and Sacred Trinity, while at the same time actually naming them. Within version (c), c1 (map 3) is south-up oriented, while c2 (map 7) is north-up oriented. This is only a rudimentary stemma, and any interested scholar would surely find further refinements.

Roeder's assessment of map 1 (c.1746) and map 6 (1822), led him to the following conclusion: 

"There cannot be any doubt, however, that of the two plans. Berry's of 1746 and Yates's, the latter is the more reliable one, and, as I consider, the only genuine copy of the original, from which it was produced. I have placed before you, for inspection, a copy of Berry's and Yates's plan, and you will see at once that Berry's plan is very faulty — it seems to have been copied stealthily and in a hurry by somebody who had access to it. On examination you will find that part of Millgate, the whole block of Chetham College, the Session House, the block between Smithy Door and Deansgate, are put down wrong, and misleading; while Yates's plan shows them correctly drawn and strictly conforming in structure with Tinker's and Green's careful plans." [1]

You will notice on maps 4 and 6 that they were copied from a plan in the possession of William Yates, Esq. Any mention of William Yates in the context of maps, immediately brings to mind the cartographer responsible for creating the first modern map of Lancashire in 1786, but he is not the person referred to here. Our William Yates was an eccentric antiquarian collector, the son of David Yates, a Manchester upholstery trimmings manufacturer. William was responsible for purchasing two Medieval houses in 1822, which were about to be demolished in order the widen Market Street. He had the structures carefully dismantled, moved and rebuilt on Bury New Road, and the reconstructed building became known as 'Yates' Folly' or Knoll House. Also in 1822, John Palmer published his work, The History of the Siege of Manchester. It contained map 6, which was reproduced from a copy in  William Yate's collection of antiquarian curiosities. Palmer's work was published by Manchester's premier antiquarian bookseller, William Ford. [2] It is known that William Yates was an avid customer of Ford's.[3], and it is more than likely that Yates purchased his map from Ford.  Hence, Palmer knew of Yates' map through his publisher. Here the trail goes cold, because we have no idea where Ford might have acquired Yates' copy of the map. However, we have a time frame into which the archetype was created. It was produced after 1635, because that was the year Sacred Trinity was built, and it is included on the maps. Berry (maps 1 and 2) had seen a copy around 1750. Chetham's College, built in 1653, is named only on map 5, but its naming may have been a later addition and therefore of no chronological value.  Roeder suggests that the original map may have been created  as a response to the orders of the Court Leet of the Manor of Manchester on the 5th of October, 1669 to "survey the lands & tenements within the said town of Manchester that so every man may bear an equal portion in the said taxes." Whether or not the survey was completed is uncertain, but the problem persisted, and a similar order was issued on the 8th of October 1672. [4] The completed survey was presented to the court on the 8th of April 1673. A search for this document in the 1880s proved fruitless, but it is highly likely it is the lost archetype.

Maps: Right Click and Open in New Window to Enlarge

Map 1 

Map 2

Map 3. 

Map 4. 

Map 5 

Map 6

Map 7

Map 8

Map 9

Map 10 

     

Map 1. [Inset] of A plan of the towns of Manchester & Salford in the county palatine of Lancaster, published by John Berry and Russel Casson. Manchester, c.1746, flat sheet. Engravings by B. Cole. sculp. [printed by] Palmer & Howe, Manchester.

Map 2. As above. Published by John Berry, grocer, at the New Tea Warehouse, Manchester, 1750. (coloured later). For full map see Manchester Archives

Map 3. [Inset] of A topographical plan of Manchester and Salford, with adjacent parts by Charles Laurent, published Dec. 9, 1793, Manchester. From A Description of the County from Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester by J. Aikin. (Engraved by John Cary).  Reproduced in Views of Old Manchester (series 1) Manchester: Mancunium Velveteen, 1885, page 4.

Map 4. [Inset] of Manchester and its environs, engraved from an actual survey made in 1824 by William Swire, Leeds, for the History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County Palatine of Lancaster by Edward Baines, published by W. Wales & Co, Liverpool, 1825, 2 vols. (Engraved by Franks and Johnson of Leeds)

Map 5. Richard Hollingworth Mancuniensis; or, an history of the towne of Manchester, and what is most memorable concerning it. Manchester: W. Willis, 1839, frontis. (Engraved by Stephenson & Royston of Manchester) 

Map 6. John Palmer The history of the Siege of Manchester by the king's forces under the command of Lord Strange, 1642. Manchester: Printed by John Leigh, 1822, frontis. Reproduced in J. Everett Panorama of Manchester and railway companion, Manchester, Everett, 1834, facing page 30. 
Reproduced in Craig Homer (ed.) The Diary of Edmund Harrold, wigmaker of Manchester, 1712-15 Abingdon: Routledge, 2008, frontis.

Map 7. John Harland A volume of court leet records of the Manor of Manchester in the sixteenth century Manchester: Chetham Society, 1864, frontis.

Map 8. George Saintsbury Manchester: a history of the town London: Longmans, 1887. A version of this was reproduced in Robina McNeil and Richard Newman  'Post-Medieval Period Resource Assessment' 2006, Archaeology North West. 8. 145-164, page 151.

Map 9. William Arthur Shaw Manchester: old and new, vol. 1 London: Cassell, 1894, page 8 (map redrawn by H.E. Tidmarsh).

Map 10. Ernest Broxap 'The siege of Manchester in 1642' in Historical Essays, edited by T.F. Tout and James Tait. Manchester University Press, 1907, page 383. See also Broxap 1910 The Great Civil War in Lancashire map (cf. map 8).

* * *

The 'Greengate Triangle'

Map 11

The "Greengate Triangle" represents the ancient core of Salford. It is bounded by Chapel Street (formerly Sergeant Street), Back Salford, later renamed Green Gate of Greengate, which gives its name to the area, and Gravel Lane. Trinity Chapel, built in 1635, can be seen at the southern corner of the triangle. The Salford Cross and The Exchange, the name for the Borough Court (Portmote or Court Leet), was sited in the market square at the northern corner of the triangle. Salford was the judicial centre of the Salford Hundred (Salfordshire). Manchester Cathedral and Chetham's College are situated on the other side of the River Irwell, which acted as the boundary between the two polities. 

Map 11 A plan of Manchester and Salford. Drawn from an actual survey by William Green. Begun in the year 1787 and compleated in 1794. Engraved by J. Thornton, W. Thomas sculpt. View the full map at Manchester University Library.

                                   * * *

The lost archetype seemingly owes a debt to the work of the famed British cartographer, John Speed (1551-1629) of Farndon, Cheshire. His county maps championed the use of  insets, which delineated the street layout of featured cities. On his map of Lancashire, the inset focuses on the rudimentary street plan of Lancaster (see map 12 below). Within Speed's inset, he uses an alphabetized legend, with letters used to identify places on the map. This idea was used in many of the maps surveyed above. 

Map 12 John Speed's Map of the County Palatine of Lancaster 1610

Inset of Map 12 showing the town plan of Lancaster

[1] C. Roeder 1904, 'Maps and plans of Manchester' in Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, vol. 21 for 1903, 153-171.

[2] Brenda J. Scragg 1999, 'William Ford, Manchester bookseller', in Peter Isaac and Barry McKay (eds) The human face of the book trade: print culture and its creators Winchester: St. Paul's Bibliographies, page 163.

[3] T. Swindells Manchester streets and Manchester men, Manchester: Cornish, 1908, page 185.

[4] C. Roeder 1904, op cit, 155. J. P. Earwaker (ed.) The Court Leet records of the manor of Manchester, Manchester, 1887, volume 5, pages 95, 191, 194.

See also:

City of Manchester Plan, 1945