1894 - To Manchester

When nine year-old Maggie Simpson left Yorkshire for Lancashire, her first home was in Bradford, Manchester. An industrial suburb two miles east of the city centre, Bradford was called Manchester's "engine room" on account of its power plants, chemical factories, ironworks and textile mills, but also for its Colliery (pictured) which was the largest coal mine in the Manchester Coalfield.

In 1894, the Simpsons were among 20,000 people living in the half a square mile that lay within Bradford's parish boundary, in a two-storey terrace house in the shadow of heavy industry. Defined as "tenements" in the census because they didn't meet the definition of a house, each dwelling in a terrace had four rooms (two up and two down), was separated from its neighbours by a thin party wall and sheltered an average of five people.

Maggie's father, William Simpson rented a tenement at 19 Chatham Street, Bradford in 1894, according to the Greater Manchester Rate Books. A short street lying a few blocks south of the Colliery, Chatham Street ran from Wellington Street at its western end and across Grey Mare Lane to Mill Street in the east, on the boundary of neighbouring Clayton.

The Simpsons' home at 19 Chatham Street, was at the end of a row of five, numbering numbers 11 to 19, in a section backing onto a lane shared with a short row of tenements facing Lime street. As they were all built at the same time, it's likely that the Simpsons' house was very similar to those in Lime Street (pictured).

The five tenements from 11 to 19 Chatham Street and the five behind them on Lime Street comprised a single block owned by the Christ Church Building Society). According to the Rate Books, each dwelling was leased for the same "gross estimated annual rent", which in 1894 was six pounds 10 shillings. Over the next six years, the annual estimated rent increased every year by 7-8 per cent so that by 1899 William Simpson was paying an estimated annual rent of eight pounds 15 shillings for the tenement at 19 Chatham Street, Bradford.

In 1900, the Simpsons moved up the road to 30 Chatham Street, Bradford, where the "gross estimated annual rent" was 15 per cent lower than at 19 Chatham Street. The Simpsons remained there for three years and on 30 March 1901, a few details about the occupants of 30 Chatham Street were recorded in the census (pictured).

The Simpson household had four occupants in 1901. William Simpson is described as a Chemical Labourer, 17-year-old Maggie Simpson a Waterproof Garment Maker, and a 24 year-old boarder called Kate Clarke was a Dressmaker. Maggie's mother Sarah is not recorded as having an occupation.

In 1903, Maggie's family moved again, this time around the corner, to a tenement at 102 Howarth Street, Bradford, a long street running south from Ashton New Road and across Chatham Street before it ended a few blocks north of Ashton Old Road.

There are several images of Howarth Street Bradford, which reveal long rows of terrace housing interspersed with factories. The Simpsons' home at 102 Howarth Street probably resembled those in the section of Howarth Street pictured.

Chatham Street and Howarth Street in Bradford no longer exist. Much of Bradford was demolished in a 'slum clearance' offensive during the 1970s which bulldozed swathes of industrial suburbs (including their streets!) . Then the Manchester City Stadium was built on the site of Bradford's demolished Colliery. On modern maps, only a few of Bradford's old streets survive. Grey Mare Lane, that once swept south from Ashton New Road to Ashton Old Road, crossing Chatham Street and running parallel to Howarth Street is still there. My guess is that today, the area around St Brigid's Primary School on Grey Mare Lane marks roughly where the Simpsons over a century ago.

After spending more than a decade in Bradford, in 1907, the Simpson family moved to Clayton. On Bradford's eastern boundary, Clayton was also home to heavy industry and chemical plants interspersed with pockets of farmland, that were fast disappearing under residential streets when the Simpsons moved there.

In 1908, William Simpson was renting a four-roomed tenement at 6 Dargai Street, Clayton. Unlike their previous homes, the Simpsons' house at 6 Dargai Street - and the street itself - was brand new. Both house and street are still there, largely unchanged on the outside (picture). When the Simpsons moved in, there was a large brickworks at the end of Dargai street, (now a playing field) and a dairy farm nearby.

Fortunately, an old map of Manchester reveals the layout of Bradford and Clayton in the early 1900s when the Simpsons lived there (For a clearer view, go to the old map online).

On this section of the old map I've highlighted places in Bradford and Clayton that Maggie Simpson would have known.

The Simpsons' first three homes in Chatham Street and Howarth Street, Bradford (red circle) were only a few blocks away from the Bradford Colliery (orange square). Philip's Park (green rectangle, top left) on the River Medlock was a popular recreational area, although it was some distance from Maggie's homes in south-east Bradford.

The eastern end of Chatham street, where Maggie first lived, opened onto Tennants Chemical Plant (purple triangle) in Clayton, where her father William Simpson was working in 1921, according to the 1921 census - perhaps he was working there when the family lived in Bradford.

The Simpsons' fourth home at 6 Dargai Street, Clayton (yellow oval, far right) was near several brickworks, chemical plants and factories. Clayton also had a few farms (green circles) as well as a medieval manor house next to a large Church (blue circle).

Marriage

Within a year of moving to Clayton, Maggie Simpson married Tom Tunaley on 5th September 1908. The wedding took place at the Church of St Cross, Clayton,(blue circle on map) an imposing Victorian-era Church a 15 minute walk from Dargai Street, where they both lived. The marriage service was conducted by the Rector John White and the two witnesses were Tom's younger brother James and his younger sister Beatrice.

Their wedding certificate records Tom Tunaley's address as 13 Dargai Street, Clayton, across the road from the Simpsons'. Perhaps they met on Dargai Street?

This photograph of Maggie as a young woman in Manchester was among John Charles Tunaley's possessions when he died. It's undated, but perhaps it was taken on her wedding day in 1908.

While Tom Tunaley was reputed to be an atheist, Maggie had been confirmed in the Church of England, in November 1901 at the age of 16. When she was confirmed, she wrote her Name and Address: "30 Chatham Street Bradford. Mcr" inside the front cover of her new prayer book (pictured) on the left-hand side, above the record of her confirmation

In 1903,  when the family moved to 102 Howarth Street Maggie tried to erase the 30 Chatham Street address and write in the new one. But it didn't erase completely, so she wrote her name and address again on the right hand page opposite (picture).

Five years later, when the Simpsons moved to Clayton in in 1907 or 1908, Maggie didn't bother to write the new address in her Prayer Book.

 Growing up fast

The child Maggie Simpson was a year older - officially - from the time she arrived in Manchester. Born in February 1885, she was accurately recorded as six years old on census day in Ruston, Yorkshire on 5th April, 1891. A decade later in Manchester, however, when she was 16, she is described as 17 years old in the census of 31st March 1901. The same error is made on her marriage certificate in September 1908 when her age is listed as 24, when she was only 23. It wasn't until the 1911 census that her age was recorded accurately (26 years old in April 1911).

One possible explanation is that her parents wanted to avoid enrolling Maggie in school after they moved to Manchester. The British Education Act of 1870 made primary school compulsory for children between the ages of five and ten and in 1893, the school leaving age was raised to eleven.

In 1894 (the year that her father first rented a house at 19 Chatham Street), Maggie would have been nine years old and due to turn ten in February of the following year (1895). If she and her mother had planned to move to Manchester towards the end of 1894, she would have been exempt from any further schooling and  eligible to undertake paid work, under the 1870 Education Act. The 1894 Act that raised the school leaving age to eleven, may therefore have necessitated a white lie about Maggie's age (assuming her parents didn't want their Yorkshire lass to attend school in Manchester). As Churches were the main providers of public schooling under the Education Acts, her parents would also have been obliged to lie about Maggie's age to the parish. This could explain why she was recorded as a year older on her marriage certificate as well as on the 1901 census.

This battered photograph of Maggie in an extravagant Edwardian hat, from the collection of her son John Charles, is also undated. But the hat suggests it was taken in the early 1900s.

Leaving Manchester

Two and a half years after their marriage, the census of 2 April 1911, records Maggie and Tom Tunaley living with her parents at 6 Dargai Street Clayton, with their two small sons - a somewhat crowded household for a fout-rooned terrace, but perhaps they were saving money for their journey to Australia.

In June 1911, Tom emigrated to Australia and once he was settled in Melbourne, Maggie left Manchester to join him. She departed in November 1911 with her second son, nine-month old Billie, leaving her eldest child, two-year old John Charles behind with her parents in what she believed was a temporary arrangement. But John grew up at 6 Dargai Street Clayton, in the care of his grandparents William and Sarah Simpson, at 6 Dargai Street, Clayton and never saw his parents again.