The Holdens
Unlike the Mumfords who regularly travelled around the country looking for work, the Holden's were born and bred in Manchester, living around the Hulme area through at least 5 generations. John Holden, Nana's great-grandfather, was born in 1822 in Bury, Manchester and married Elizabeth Ridgway, who was 7 years his younger and also born in Manchester. They were neighbours when they met, living at numbers 6 and 9 Commercial Street. They married on 29th May 1849 in Manchester Cathedral; Elizabeth was a housekeeper and John was a striker, who was a person who helped a blacksmith. Later, he became an engine driver and a fireman at a local cotton mill, although according to the 1871 census, he was unemployed.
Fire fighting
Fire fighting for John was very different than it is today. There were no local fire Brigades until the 1820's and Manchester started its own Brigade in 1828. Prior to this, it was the insurance companies that had realised that their losses could be minimised by employing men to put out fires that started in properties covered by their insurance. The companies introduced new fire engines with improved pumps (all manually operated) and recruited men, usually from amongst local watermen who worked on boats and barges. These men would agree to be retained by the insurance company to be called out in the event of a fire.
The insurance companies were only interested in the properties that they insured so they introduced a scheme to mark properties. Each policy holder was issued with a metal badge or mark which was fixed to the outside of a building. When a fire broke out, it was not unusual for several companies’ firemen to arrive at the scene. If the building did not carry their mark, they would leave, often leaving the building to burn down.
Gradually, the insurance industry expanded and as it did it realised that it was in the interests of all companies for its 'brigades' to cooperate and thus local Brigades began to emerge.
Fire fighting
Fire fighting for John was very different than it is today. There were no local fire Brigades until the 1820's and Manchester started its own Brigade in 1828. Prior to this, it was the insurance companies that had realised that their losses could be minimised by employing men to put out fires that started in properties covered by their insurance. The companies introduced new fire engines with improved pumps (all manually operated) and recruited men, usually from amongst local watermen who worked on boats and barges. These men would agree to be retained by the insurance company to be called out in the event of a fire.
The insurance companies were only interested in the properties that they insured so they introduced a scheme to mark properties. Each policy holder was issued with a metal badge or mark which was fixed to the outside of a building. When a fire broke out, it was not unusual for several companies’ firemen to arrive at the scene. If the building did not carry their mark, they would leave, often leaving the building to burn down.
Gradually, the insurance industry expanded and as it did it realised that it was in the interests of all companies for its 'brigades' to cooperate and thus local Brigades began to emerge.
'A Fireman' - a Victorian 'job description'
'A fireman in order to be successful must enter buildings. He must get in below, above, on every side, from opposite houses, over brick walls, over side walls, through panels of doors, through windows, through loopholes cut by himself in the gates, the walls, the roof; he must know how to reach the attic from the basement by ladders placed on half burned stairs, and the basement from the attic by rope made fast on a chimney;
His whole success depends on his getting in and remaining there, and he must always carry his appliances with him, as without them he is of no use.' - Composed by Sir Eyre Massey Shaw
John and Elizabeth's Family
John's father was Josiah Holden and he was a painter and Elizabeth's parents were Thomas and Ann Ridgway, but I am unsure as to what Thomas' trade was. John and Elizabeth had at least 6 children and at least 3 of their sons, John, Charles and William were carters. A carter was generally a hauler, who was a person whose business it was to use a cart to transport and deliver goods. Their work would have included loading and unloading the cart and probably included looking after the horses that pulled the carts as well. Charles was also described as a lurry driver, which was just another way of describing a carter, as a lurry was a cart that was pulled by horses. It was also where the word lorry originated.
Charles Holden, Nanas grandfather, started work in a local corn mill as a corn miller before working as a carter and Alice, one of John's daughters worked as a tenter at the local braid works. A tenter was person who stretched the cloth on a tenter-frame, which was a machine that stretched cloth to its original width, straightened its weave to remove wrinkles and dried it after a finishing process such as dyeing, was performed. Braid was usually a decorative cord or interwoven thread that was used to trim and bind things like edging on soft furnishings or in decorating uniforms. There were many braid manufacturers around Manchester at this time and some also made bootlaces, elastic bandages and braces.
Charles Holden was born in 1855 and he married Jane Drinkwater on 21st June 1875 in St Matthews Church, Manchester and she was a housekeeper and latterly a laundress. Charles and Jane Holden had at least 7 children, and Mary Elizabeth Holden, Nana's mother, was one of their middle children born on 6th May 1879 at 6, Omega Place, Jordan Street, Deansgate, Manchester. Charles died in 1890 at the age of 35, of pneumonia and asthenia, which was probably a euphemism for pulmonary tuberculosis. Mary was only 11 at the time and Jane, his wife, was expecting their 7th known child, whom she gave birth to 9 months after her husband's death. As Jane had only just given birth to John, her last baby, and had no husband to support her, life must have been pretty grim for the Holden family. Mary was forced to work in a local cotton mill by the age of 11, alongside her 13 year old sister, Emma, where they worked as spinners, whilst they tried to scrape together a living to support their 4 younger brothers and sisters.
The working and living conditions around this area contributed to Mary's life being tough and pitifully short. After a childhood of working in the mill, she was forced to get married to James Mumford at the age of 20, as she was pregnant with their fist child. Her baby eventually died of Bronchopneumonia and convulsions at the age of 13 months and Mary herself sadly died of peritonitis at the very young age of 29.
It was common for children between the ages of 9 and 12 to work in factories, and the cotton factories in Manchester were the key symbols of the world's first Industrial Revolution. In Manchester alone in 1857 there were 96 cotton mills, 10 silk mills, 6 calico printing works, 35 dye works, 1 worsted mill, 11 hat manufactories, 16 smallware manufactories, 61 machine making establishments, 55 foundries, 4 lead works, 4 paper-mills, 52 saw-mills, 12 corn-mills, and 1,214 miscellaneous establishments and they produced goods for storage in 1,743 warehouses.
His whole success depends on his getting in and remaining there, and he must always carry his appliances with him, as without them he is of no use.' - Composed by Sir Eyre Massey Shaw
John and Elizabeth's Family
John's father was Josiah Holden and he was a painter and Elizabeth's parents were Thomas and Ann Ridgway, but I am unsure as to what Thomas' trade was. John and Elizabeth had at least 6 children and at least 3 of their sons, John, Charles and William were carters. A carter was generally a hauler, who was a person whose business it was to use a cart to transport and deliver goods. Their work would have included loading and unloading the cart and probably included looking after the horses that pulled the carts as well. Charles was also described as a lurry driver, which was just another way of describing a carter, as a lurry was a cart that was pulled by horses. It was also where the word lorry originated.
Charles Holden, Nanas grandfather, started work in a local corn mill as a corn miller before working as a carter and Alice, one of John's daughters worked as a tenter at the local braid works. A tenter was person who stretched the cloth on a tenter-frame, which was a machine that stretched cloth to its original width, straightened its weave to remove wrinkles and dried it after a finishing process such as dyeing, was performed. Braid was usually a decorative cord or interwoven thread that was used to trim and bind things like edging on soft furnishings or in decorating uniforms. There were many braid manufacturers around Manchester at this time and some also made bootlaces, elastic bandages and braces.
Charles Holden was born in 1855 and he married Jane Drinkwater on 21st June 1875 in St Matthews Church, Manchester and she was a housekeeper and latterly a laundress. Charles and Jane Holden had at least 7 children, and Mary Elizabeth Holden, Nana's mother, was one of their middle children born on 6th May 1879 at 6, Omega Place, Jordan Street, Deansgate, Manchester. Charles died in 1890 at the age of 35, of pneumonia and asthenia, which was probably a euphemism for pulmonary tuberculosis. Mary was only 11 at the time and Jane, his wife, was expecting their 7th known child, whom she gave birth to 9 months after her husband's death. As Jane had only just given birth to John, her last baby, and had no husband to support her, life must have been pretty grim for the Holden family. Mary was forced to work in a local cotton mill by the age of 11, alongside her 13 year old sister, Emma, where they worked as spinners, whilst they tried to scrape together a living to support their 4 younger brothers and sisters.
The working and living conditions around this area contributed to Mary's life being tough and pitifully short. After a childhood of working in the mill, she was forced to get married to James Mumford at the age of 20, as she was pregnant with their fist child. Her baby eventually died of Bronchopneumonia and convulsions at the age of 13 months and Mary herself sadly died of peritonitis at the very young age of 29.
It was common for children between the ages of 9 and 12 to work in factories, and the cotton factories in Manchester were the key symbols of the world's first Industrial Revolution. In Manchester alone in 1857 there were 96 cotton mills, 10 silk mills, 6 calico printing works, 35 dye works, 1 worsted mill, 11 hat manufactories, 16 smallware manufactories, 61 machine making establishments, 55 foundries, 4 lead works, 4 paper-mills, 52 saw-mills, 12 corn-mills, and 1,214 miscellaneous establishments and they produced goods for storage in 1,743 warehouses.
Victorian Manchester
The following accounts of working conditions and housing in Manchester were extracted from 'Victorian Manchester, life in the 19th Century' found at http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/history/victorian/Victorian1.html
Working Conditions in Manchester
Despite the growing wealth due to trade and commerce, prosperity lay in the hands of very few of Manchester's residents. The working people, who actually produced the wealth, lived, worked and died in conditions of the most desperate poverty and degradation. Innumerable reports and surveys were carried out during the 19th century, and they all told much the same story : poor wages, impossibly long working hours, dangerous and unsanitary working conditions, even more unsanitary dwellings, little or no health provisions, high infant mortality and a short life expectancy. A map of Manchester showing age of death figures in the mid-nineteenth century revealed that life expectancy was directly related to wealth. Put simply, the poor died younger and the rich lived longer.
Records show that by 1830 there were over 560 cotton mills in Lancashire, employing more than 110,000 workers, of which 35,000 were children - some as young as six years of age. Wages for children were about 2s.3d. (two shillings and three pence) per week (about 11½ new pence), but adults were paid about 10 times more. Hence, it made economic sense to employ as many children and as few adults as possible, and this is exactly what happened. Youngest children were employed to crawl beneath machinery (while still in operation) to gather up loose cotton - they were known as "scavengers" and many died by getting caught up in machinery. Those that survived to adulthood had permanent stoops or were crippled from the prolonged crouching that the job entailed. The typical working day was 14 hours long, but many were much longer, as, without regulation, unscrupulous mill owners could demand any terms they liked.
Worker's Housing in Manchester
By and large the workers lived near and around their workplace, and the wealthy lived a few miles outside the city in their garden suburbs. Houses were "jerry" built, without control or regulation of any kind. Builders, usually the employer, would build so as to cram as many houses as possible into the space available.
There was no water or services, and no attempt to provide privacy of any kind. People worked in shifts and shared beds. Ten or twelve people could share the one bedroom, and up to 100 houses shared the one "privvy" - usually a deep hole dug in the corner of a yard, or a "midden" - a heap against a wall.
Houses were damp - there were no damp-proof courses, and no double brick walls. Rain leeched through walls, and even in dry summers, damp rose up the walls. The only relief from damp was the building of cellars to contain it. However, these cellars inevitably became dwellings for subtenants. Manchester and Salford's cellar dwellings were the root of most health problems, and became a national disgrace.
Labour and Wages
Average wages in 19th century Manchester were well below subsistence level. A report by Fred Scott for the Manchester Statistical Society in 1889 found that over 40% of working men interviewed in Salford were "irregularly employed", and that 61% could be defined as "very poor" with a weekly income of less than 4 shillings (20p) per week.
The main problem was casual labour. Payments from the Manchester & Salford District Provident Society's Poverty Fund in the winter of 1878-79 revealed that the vast majority of qualifying applicants were casual and seasonal workers - among them were warehousemen, builder's labourers, general labourers, storemen and transport men - most of these were of Irish descent. In the days before any welfare provision, there was no sick pay - if you couldn't work, you weren't paid.
Many people worked up to 14 hours a day for 7 days a week; a few "benevolent" employers allowed a 6 day week with compulsory church attendance on the seventh.
Disease and Health Issues in Victorian Manchester
Manchester had become a very unhealthy place to live in. Coal burning domestic fires and innumerable factory chimneys meant that the city was overhung with a permanent pall of smoke, drenched with acid rain, and suffered plagues of respiratory diseases (bronchitis, influenza, pneumonia, asthma, as well as other industrial dust-related diseases).
Life expectancy of a working man in Salford in the 1870s could be as little as 17 years. While the opening of some hospitals after 1850 and the application of public health measures saw a fast decline in infectious diseases such as small pox, scarlet fever and other communicable diseases, there were still many endemic diseases which plagued working people.
In sewage disposal, the city had little or no policy until the late 19th century. Ashpits and communal cesspits were common, and they overflowed in rainy periods, and had to be emptied and carted away. This was, however, rarely done. There were frequent official accounts of "midden" overflowing into the cellars in which a large number of workers lived, with no attempt made to relieve the problem.
Even by 1907 only about one-third of the city's privvies were water closets. Such water closets as there were before the 1870s simply ran directly into the Irwell, from which most people obtained their drinking water. Cholera was a common summer visitor to the city. The Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association was formed in 1852 to promote public health and sanitary reform. They had a vigorous programme which included distributing thousands of tracts (though few poor people could read), and delivering hundreds of public lectures. They also created isolation hospitals for the worst diseases. Despite all this the city's health failed to improve. But it was the airborne diseases which accounted for the greatest mortality figures. Pulmonary Tuberculosis killed most people in Manchester.
It was not until the 1850s that relatively clean drinking water came into the city from the completion of Longendale reservoir, (though ordinary people had to queue at street standpipes to obtain it), and that Thirlmere in the Lake District was added to the system in the 1890s. These measures had a significant impact in improving the health of the city's residents. Cholera and typhoid were virtually wiped out at a stroke.
Things were no better in the working mills of Lancashire. "Mill Fever", aching head, limbs and nausea was common. Workers usually developed tuberculosis, bronchitis and asthma due to cotton lint and dust which hung in the air - there were, of course, no health or safety precautions or safeguards in place.
Infant Mortality in Victorian Manchester
The main killer of children was diarrhoea. Despite greatly improved water supplies, the main threat still came from backyard middens, insect borne germs, inadequate washing facilities, poor food hygiene, and from a very poor diet. Manchester's slow rate of conversion to water closets and sewage disposal were at the root of its extraordinarily high infant death figures. Many middens and privvies were still in use well into the early 1900s.
Health Reforms
Not until later in the century did significant health reforms improve the lot and the longevity of working people. New sewers and sewage treatment plants and the appointment of Manchester's first Medical Officer of Health in 1868, who closed down virtually all of the city's cellar dwellings, made great improvements to the health and well-being of ordinary people. The creation of public bath houses and fine "water palaces" like Victoria Baths in Hathersage Road saw Manchester thrust into the forefront of a burgeoning public health drive.
Regulations governing the standards of new houses were introduced after 1875, which controlled such things as the size and number of required windows and permitted light levels, enforced the introduction of back yards (albeit very small ones) and back alleyways. Waterways and public taps, as well as public laundries and wash houses were also introduced.
The foundation of Manchester's Unhealthy Dwellings Committee meant that around 500 houses a year were refurbished up to the new standards between 1885 and 1905, and over 2000 houses a year after that. By the turn of the century, much of the worst insanitation of Manchester had been removed, and the city's health had improved so that it was no longer the black spot of England.
Working Conditions in Manchester
Despite the growing wealth due to trade and commerce, prosperity lay in the hands of very few of Manchester's residents. The working people, who actually produced the wealth, lived, worked and died in conditions of the most desperate poverty and degradation. Innumerable reports and surveys were carried out during the 19th century, and they all told much the same story : poor wages, impossibly long working hours, dangerous and unsanitary working conditions, even more unsanitary dwellings, little or no health provisions, high infant mortality and a short life expectancy. A map of Manchester showing age of death figures in the mid-nineteenth century revealed that life expectancy was directly related to wealth. Put simply, the poor died younger and the rich lived longer.
Records show that by 1830 there were over 560 cotton mills in Lancashire, employing more than 110,000 workers, of which 35,000 were children - some as young as six years of age. Wages for children were about 2s.3d. (two shillings and three pence) per week (about 11½ new pence), but adults were paid about 10 times more. Hence, it made economic sense to employ as many children and as few adults as possible, and this is exactly what happened. Youngest children were employed to crawl beneath machinery (while still in operation) to gather up loose cotton - they were known as "scavengers" and many died by getting caught up in machinery. Those that survived to adulthood had permanent stoops or were crippled from the prolonged crouching that the job entailed. The typical working day was 14 hours long, but many were much longer, as, without regulation, unscrupulous mill owners could demand any terms they liked.
Worker's Housing in Manchester
By and large the workers lived near and around their workplace, and the wealthy lived a few miles outside the city in their garden suburbs. Houses were "jerry" built, without control or regulation of any kind. Builders, usually the employer, would build so as to cram as many houses as possible into the space available.
There was no water or services, and no attempt to provide privacy of any kind. People worked in shifts and shared beds. Ten or twelve people could share the one bedroom, and up to 100 houses shared the one "privvy" - usually a deep hole dug in the corner of a yard, or a "midden" - a heap against a wall.
Houses were damp - there were no damp-proof courses, and no double brick walls. Rain leeched through walls, and even in dry summers, damp rose up the walls. The only relief from damp was the building of cellars to contain it. However, these cellars inevitably became dwellings for subtenants. Manchester and Salford's cellar dwellings were the root of most health problems, and became a national disgrace.
Labour and Wages
Average wages in 19th century Manchester were well below subsistence level. A report by Fred Scott for the Manchester Statistical Society in 1889 found that over 40% of working men interviewed in Salford were "irregularly employed", and that 61% could be defined as "very poor" with a weekly income of less than 4 shillings (20p) per week.
The main problem was casual labour. Payments from the Manchester & Salford District Provident Society's Poverty Fund in the winter of 1878-79 revealed that the vast majority of qualifying applicants were casual and seasonal workers - among them were warehousemen, builder's labourers, general labourers, storemen and transport men - most of these were of Irish descent. In the days before any welfare provision, there was no sick pay - if you couldn't work, you weren't paid.
Many people worked up to 14 hours a day for 7 days a week; a few "benevolent" employers allowed a 6 day week with compulsory church attendance on the seventh.
Disease and Health Issues in Victorian Manchester
Manchester had become a very unhealthy place to live in. Coal burning domestic fires and innumerable factory chimneys meant that the city was overhung with a permanent pall of smoke, drenched with acid rain, and suffered plagues of respiratory diseases (bronchitis, influenza, pneumonia, asthma, as well as other industrial dust-related diseases).
Life expectancy of a working man in Salford in the 1870s could be as little as 17 years. While the opening of some hospitals after 1850 and the application of public health measures saw a fast decline in infectious diseases such as small pox, scarlet fever and other communicable diseases, there were still many endemic diseases which plagued working people.
In sewage disposal, the city had little or no policy until the late 19th century. Ashpits and communal cesspits were common, and they overflowed in rainy periods, and had to be emptied and carted away. This was, however, rarely done. There were frequent official accounts of "midden" overflowing into the cellars in which a large number of workers lived, with no attempt made to relieve the problem.
Even by 1907 only about one-third of the city's privvies were water closets. Such water closets as there were before the 1870s simply ran directly into the Irwell, from which most people obtained their drinking water. Cholera was a common summer visitor to the city. The Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association was formed in 1852 to promote public health and sanitary reform. They had a vigorous programme which included distributing thousands of tracts (though few poor people could read), and delivering hundreds of public lectures. They also created isolation hospitals for the worst diseases. Despite all this the city's health failed to improve. But it was the airborne diseases which accounted for the greatest mortality figures. Pulmonary Tuberculosis killed most people in Manchester.
It was not until the 1850s that relatively clean drinking water came into the city from the completion of Longendale reservoir, (though ordinary people had to queue at street standpipes to obtain it), and that Thirlmere in the Lake District was added to the system in the 1890s. These measures had a significant impact in improving the health of the city's residents. Cholera and typhoid were virtually wiped out at a stroke.
Things were no better in the working mills of Lancashire. "Mill Fever", aching head, limbs and nausea was common. Workers usually developed tuberculosis, bronchitis and asthma due to cotton lint and dust which hung in the air - there were, of course, no health or safety precautions or safeguards in place.
Infant Mortality in Victorian Manchester
The main killer of children was diarrhoea. Despite greatly improved water supplies, the main threat still came from backyard middens, insect borne germs, inadequate washing facilities, poor food hygiene, and from a very poor diet. Manchester's slow rate of conversion to water closets and sewage disposal were at the root of its extraordinarily high infant death figures. Many middens and privvies were still in use well into the early 1900s.
Health Reforms
Not until later in the century did significant health reforms improve the lot and the longevity of working people. New sewers and sewage treatment plants and the appointment of Manchester's first Medical Officer of Health in 1868, who closed down virtually all of the city's cellar dwellings, made great improvements to the health and well-being of ordinary people. The creation of public bath houses and fine "water palaces" like Victoria Baths in Hathersage Road saw Manchester thrust into the forefront of a burgeoning public health drive.
Regulations governing the standards of new houses were introduced after 1875, which controlled such things as the size and number of required windows and permitted light levels, enforced the introduction of back yards (albeit very small ones) and back alleyways. Waterways and public taps, as well as public laundries and wash houses were also introduced.
The foundation of Manchester's Unhealthy Dwellings Committee meant that around 500 houses a year were refurbished up to the new standards between 1885 and 1905, and over 2000 houses a year after that. By the turn of the century, much of the worst insanitation of Manchester had been removed, and the city's health had improved so that it was no longer the black spot of England.