The Bottomley's of Ancoats

This is an incomplete story as I don't yet have all the details. I just wanted to jot down what I have at this point, so I don't lose track of where I'm at - as my daughter is now overdue, life is going to get very busy very quickly sooner rather than later!

We meet the family in 1901 on Marth 31st, the night of the census. William Bottomley is the head of this household and works as a flagger, someone who lays paving stones. He resides at 22 Marcer Street with his wife, Mary Ellen,daughter, Katie, and sons Herbert and William. William the son is my great grandfather and moved to Lincolnshire, at some point between 1901 and 1917 to marry my great grandmother, Lilian Smith - but that's another story.

17 Marcer Street in 1896, the house where my great grandfather was born.
Posted by Manchester Libraries.

The story gets complicated because I have found a William and Mary Ellen Bottomley at a nearby address in 1890, but Herbert, who would be around 5 years of age at this time is not present on the record. Perhaps he's spending the night with his biological father? Maybe that's why the couple's youngest son is called William - after his father William, and Herbert is named after his father? I have found a Herbert Kennedy born in nearby Salford - Kennedy being Mary Ellen's birth surname. My next step here is to buy the marriage certificate of William and Mary Ellen, which is around 5 years after the birth of Herbert, to find out if Mary Ellen is recorded as being a widow or previously married.

Back to Marcer Street, today this house and this street no longer exist. The area was bombed around 1940-1941 with at least 1 house being demolished. Eventually the area was purchased by compulsory order and being redeveloped. These days there's a Marcer Road, but not quite on the footprint of the old Street.

The blue circle is for high explosives, the red shading for demolished buildings. This map was created by
Manchester City Council City Architect's Department (Building Surveyor's Division) in 1940-1941.

As yet, I have been unable to find the family in 1911 (apart from my great grandfather). But as I continue to research, perhaps I will rediscover them, hopefully after the war having survived and prospering.


References:
Maps Collection. 2018. - Maps Collection. [ONLINE] Available at: https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/maps002~1~1~351132~123655?qvq=w4s%3A%2Fwho%2FManchester%2BCity%2BCouncil%2BCity%2BArchitect%252527s%2BDepartment%2B%252528Building%2BSurveyor%252527s%2BDivision%252529&mi=48&trs=49https%3A%2F%2Fluna.manchester.ac.uk%2F...%2Fmaps002~1~1~351132. [Accessed 05 September 2018].
Marcer Street Photograph: Flickr. 2018. Flickr. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/6431339079/in/photostream/. [Accessed 05 September 2018].

Tim Havenith - Birth Plate

This beautiful birth plate was made for me by my opa's (Jan Havenith) best friend, Toon van Hoof, who he had originally met in the early days of his career at DSM. Sadly I never got to meet him as he died when I was around 2 years old, but I'm very honoured to have this wonderfully crafted plate as a reminder.

Known Addresses of: Lilian Elizabeth Mary Smith (1897-1934)

These 'Known Addresses of:'posts will detail places documented (or known by living memory). They will be updated, but kept in chronological order, as additional documents/interviews reveal additional addresses.

This posts details the addresses of Lilian Elizabeth Mary Smith (1897-1934). Born in Grimsby/Caistor in 1897, she seems to have lived in Grimsby/New Clee all her life before dying in 1934.

Current known addresses are:

02/04/1911     15 Spencer Street, New Clee
26/03/1917     67 Taylor Street, New Cleethorpes (New Clee)

Spencer Street:

1911 Census

15 Spencer Street. Sadly no longer a residential street.

Taylor Street:

Lilian's marriage record, 1917.

67 Taylor Street, 'New Cleethorpes' (New Clee).

Roy Brown: Fox Street and the church incident

In the early 1990s, my dad (Roy Brown) lived in a house on Fox Street, Scunthorpe. At that time we would stay overnight sometimes at the weekend.

While a lot of the time seemed to be occupying ourselves while dad watched telly, we did often walk to the newsagent, which must have been on Froddingham Road. He would buy my the 'Discovering Nature - on the trail with Billy Bumble' magazine, which seems to have been issued in 1991/1992 - which possibly provides dates for this period of time.

On one occasion we were walking back from the newsagent's and were walking past Centenary Methodist Church and an old lady fell down the steps while leaving the church and cut a large gash in her shin. I remember dad rushing inside to get a chair for her and making sure she was ok. I was proud of my dad that day and wish I had more memories like this.

He lived at Fox Street for a while, and had a dog there for a time, he moved around a lot and this is one of the only streets I remember him living. I remember me and my sister (Naomi Brown) playing in an alleyway there, I'm not sure if this was at the back of the houses or down the side of the house.

Here's the first tape of that magazine series: