A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



MANCHESTER 



SALFORD 

 BROUGHTON 

 MANCHESTER 

 CHORLTON-UPON- 



MEDLOCK 

 BLACKLEY 

 CHEETHAM 

 CRUMPSALL 



MOSTON 



HARPURHEY 



NEWTON 



FAILSWORTH 



BRADFORD 



GORTON 



ARDWICK 



BESWICK (EXTRA-PAR.) 



DROYLSDEN 



OPENSHAW 



WITHINGTON 



DIDSBURY 



CHORLTON-WITH- 



HARDY 

 MOSS SIDE 

 RUSHOLME 



LEVENSHULME 



BURNAGE 



DENTON 



HAUGHTON 



HEATON NORRIS 



REDDISH 



STRETFORD 



HULME 



The ancient parish of Manchester, with an area of 

 35,152 acres and a population in 1901 of 878,532, 

 has from time immemorial been the most important 

 in the county. The situation of the town from which 

 it derives its name being at the junction of two im- 

 portant roads from the south to the north-west of 

 the country and from the port of Chester to York 

 must have attracted . an urban population from very 

 early times, 1 and the convenience of its position beside 

 the Irwell and between two of its tributaries, if not 

 the original reason for a settlement, was a concomitant 

 attraction. The Romans established a fortified station, 

 of which various fragments are known, 2 and from 

 which great roads branched off in five directions. 3 

 Their English successors also occupied the place, which 

 in the loth century was included in Northumbria. 

 In 923 King Edward sent a force to the town to 

 repair and man it. 4 History is again silent for a 

 century and a half, and then reveals the existence of 

 an endowed church at Manchester and of a royal manor 

 at Salford, to which not only the parish but the hun- 

 dred owed service. 5 



By the Norman kings the town of Manchester with 

 the greater part of the parish was granted to the 

 Grelley family, who constituted it the head of their 

 barony ; 6 but Salford, with the adjacent townships of 

 Broughton, Cheetham, Hulme, and Stretford, and the 

 more distant one of Reddish was retained by the 

 king as demesne or bestowed on the great nobleman 

 to whom he entrusted ' the land between Mersey and 

 Ribble ' or in later times the honour of Lancaster, 

 the holders of which received the title of earl 



and duke successively. 7 The duchy having long 

 been annexed to the Crown, Salford may still be re- 

 garded as a royal manor. 



A borough grew up at Manchester in the I3th cen- 

 tury, and a market and fair were granted in 1227, 

 while four years later Salford also became a borough. 9 

 The inhabitants of the former town were already 

 probably to a great extent artificers and traders ; a 

 fulling-mill, a tanner, and a dyer are named about 

 1300.' Its earliest known charter was granted in 

 1301. The town appears to have grown and pros- 

 pered ; non-resident lords, represented by their 

 stewards, at least did nothing to hinder its progress^ 

 and the foundation of a well-staffed collegiate church 

 in 1421, when the lord of the manor, at that time 

 also rector, gave to the new body of clergy his manor- 

 house as their residence, made the parish church the 

 most important institution of the place, a position 

 which it retained until the i8th century. 10 It drew 

 round it numerous benefactions, such as the chantries 

 and grammar school. 



Adam Banastre and his associates displayed the 

 king's banner at Manchester on I November 1315, 

 at the outbreak of their insurrection. 11 John of Gaunt, 

 Duke of Lancaster, was at Manchester on 7 Septem- 

 ber i393- lla 



The district was visited by some form of plague about 

 1350 perhaps the Black Death itself 1 * and many 

 later visitations are on record, two of the most notable 

 being in 1605 and i645- 13 



A bridge over the Irwell, connecting Manchester 

 and Salford, existed from early times." In 136$ 



1 For pre-Roman relics see Lanes, and 

 Ches. Anrii). Soc. iii, 254 ; v, 327 ; x, 250. 



a See Thompson Wztkla.' 6 Roman Lanes. 

 92-124. ; Lanes, and Ches. Antiq.Soc. xvii, 

 87 ; xxiii, 66, 73, 112 ; and the Roman 

 section of the present work. The legend 

 of Sir Tarquin, enemy of King Arthur, 

 who was attacked and slain by Sir Lance- 

 lot du Lake, was in the 1 7th century 

 attached to the old Roman castle. 'Near 

 to the ford in Medlock about Mab house 

 (he) hung a bason on a tree,' on which 

 bason a challenger must strike ; Hollin- 

 worth, Mancuniensis, 21. 



8 To Chester, Stockport, York, Rib- 

 chester, and Wigan. 



4 Angl.-Sax. Chron. /also V.C.H. Lanes. 

 ii, 178. Hoards of coins have been found 

 near Alport ; Lanes, and Ches. Antij. Sac. 

 ii, 269 ; Pal. Note Bk. iv, 152, 203. 



* V.C.H. Lanes. \, 287. 



Ibid. 326. 



7 Ibid. 



8 See the accounts of the townships. 



9 The fulling-mill existed in 1282 ; 

 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 245. 



An undated deed in the possession of 

 Manchester Corporation relates to land in 

 [Long] Millgate between the croft of 

 Hugh the Barker and Henry the Dyer. 

 Another deed (of 1324) calls the former 

 Hugh the Tanner. 



Robert Olgreyff (Oldgreave) of Man- 

 chester, goldsmith, in 1524 leased the 

 Four Acres to Ralph Sorocold ; Lanes, and 

 Ches. Hist, and Gen. Notes, i, 140. A family 

 surnamed Goldsmith appears in Manches- 

 ter and Salford; in 1417 William the Gold- 

 smith granted a burgage in Millgate to 

 Henry de Buckley; Hopwood D.(Harland). 



A number of ' blade smiths' were sum- 

 moned in 1467 ; Pal. of Lane. Writs, 

 Proton. 



174 



10 See the account of the church. 



11 Coram Rege R. 254. 



1U Duchy of Lane. Chan. Warrants, ii. 

 This reference is due to Mr. S. Armitage 

 Smith. 



12 This is gathered from the account of 

 Didsbury burial ground, opened in a timfr 

 of great mortality and sanctioned in 1351 

 and 1362. 



13 A contemporary note states that 

 2,000 died in the 1605 visitation ; Birch 

 Chapel (Chet. Soc.), 35. See also Manch. 

 Ct. Leet Rec. ii, Introd. and pp. 197, 

 210, 280 ; Manch. Constables' Accts. ii, 

 155. For the plague of 1645 see ibid, iv, 

 115 ; Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.) 232, 

 233; Manch. Constables 1 Accts. ii, 119^ 

 and generally Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. 

 xii, 56. 



14 It is mentioned in 1226 ; Lanes. Inj. 

 and Extents, i, 138. 



