GEE CROSS THROUGH THE TREES

Gee Cross through the trees - taken from Aspland Road.
Photo by Susan Jaleel 

Rev.H E Dowson B.A. Hyde Chapel, Gee Cross, Hyde, England. 1867-1925

Rev.H E Dowson B.A.

A video tribute by
David Barlow

David contacted me a while back with this fine tribute but at that time I was taking a health break from blogging. Thankfully David contacted me yesterday and we had a very enlightening conversation, and it was obvious I was talking to a man who was proud of the area in which he was born, schooled and lived. David has a respect for Hyde and it's history and our forefather that nurtured it's growth and dealt with people that lived, worshiped, worked, and farmed here. It is these far-sighted, good folk that made the town grow from a farming community with a knowledge of hand weaving at home into an industrial town of much respect.        

Henry Enfield Dowson was born in Geldeston, Norfolk, on November 23rd 1837, and on the maternal side desended from the Rev. Dr. Enfield, one of the tutors of the Warrington Acadany, and the author of many works. Part of Mr. Dowson's education was received at London University Collage, and he also attended classes at Heidelberg University. He took his B.A. in the first class with classical honours at University Collage, London in 1860 and then went through a three years' Theological course at Manchester New Collage. In 1863, he was appointed co-pastor at the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, and there became acquainted with the Rt; Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, who was an active member of the congregation. From Birmingham he came to Hyde.

Mr.Dowson's commanding personality, his strenuous labours in every branch of public life, his wonderful powers oratory, and his kindness and tact, won the respect and honour of all denominations in Hyde. He devoted much time to the cause of education, took an active part in the management of three British Schools in the town as well as in the Gee Cross schools, and when the non denominational schools were taken over by the Town Council, he generously paid off the entire debts over hanging some of these schools. His educational work included many years active membership of the Hyde Public Library committee. For over 40 years he was a leader of the Liberal party, figuring prominently in political battles, and it specks much of his character when it can be said that he never lost the friendship of a single political opponent. Local sport in all its branches found in him a staunch friend and supporter, and in recognition of this, he was asked to preform the ceremony of opening the Public Baths' extension on October 18th, 1913; he also had the honour of opening the Maternity and Child Welfare Centre on May 6th, 1924. His public services were rewarded on May 10th, 1917, when he was presented with the Honorary Freedom of the borough. Mr Dowson had a true helpmate in Mrs. Dowson, and they laboured together in the interests of child life and public health in Hyde. Mrs. Dowson died in 1921, Mr Dowson, passed away on August 20th, 1925, at the age of 87 years, having been pastor at Hyde Chapel over 58 years.

In his ministry at Hyde Chapel Mr. Dowson was assisted from 1872 to 1887 by the Rev. Frederick Ashton, M.A. After voluntary resigning a portion of his salary in order that the financial position of the chapel could be improved, Mr. Dowson, on the appointment of the Rev A. R. Andreae as his co-pastor, persuaded the congregation to allow him to carry on his ministry without any stipend, and for the last 21 years of his life he faithfully discharged the duties of the position on these unusual terms. After Mr. Andreae's departure in 1910, Mr. Dowson had as successive co-pastors the Revs. E.H. Pickering, and F. Heming Vaughan.

My thanks to David for this post and for the great work he is doing. 

Panto Pictures From 1949

The last post for 2013 comes all the was from Australia... sent in from Joe and showing his wife to be as a young girl in Pantomime in 1949. Lovely pictures, great costumes and sets.

OVER TO JOE: Some photos of my wife, Jean Wilde, for the Hydonian blog site.  Maybe someone knows others who were in these pantomimes.  Panto was held in the church hall in Gee Cross.

Jean Wilde (aged about 8) is kneeling in front row, fourth from the right.

Same panto - Jean Wilde is sitting in front row, second from right. 

Jean and I moved to Australia in 1964 with our two daughters and settled in Canberra.

Cheers and happy new year,

Joe Wilde

UPDATED 03/01/14

From Eric In New Zealand

On second photo reading from the Right on back row they are: Jean Goddard, Cora Wilson, Marjorie Bennison, ?, ?, ?, Dorothy Newton, ?, Margaret Morris,  Joan Stafford, Joan Wimpenny, Marjorie Baddeley, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?.

Happy New Year To One And All

Thank you for sticking by us, and putting up with the last few months, I cannot see the blog being done on a daily basis in the near future... I personally have not the time or inclination to carry on as before , but will post at least once a month. I do check the emails but cannot answer them all.. What I must do in the New Year is to show a few of the comments I had to block, these comments have gradually got worse.... some I could not publish as they are horrid, nasty and some even downright filthy. I do hope the people/person responsible can move on next year.. What a shame this year as to end on such a matter... but these comments have taken the toll on us and we ask ourselves at times 'Why Bother'...  Lets hope this time next year our final post as a much happier tone to it.

Tom  

Post Cards 'Hyde & Gee Cross

Today's post is from Susan

Susan say's: I'm sharing a recently acquired postcard of Hyde Chapel.  In my collection, I have many others of the chapel but none quite like this.  Unfortunately, as it was not posted I can't date it, but on the back is the printer's identity - Woolley, Tower Street Printing Works, Hyde.  I've never heard of them and wonder if anyone else has.  The card obviously has age to it, as the requirement is for a 1/2d stamp.

I'm also attaching another new recently obtained card of Manchester Road, below Newton Street along with its approximate location today.  What a difference!  Again, I can't date this card as it hasn't been posted, but looking at what the men on the right are wearing, I'd say late 20s early-mid 30s.  As a child I remember a shop on the left of the picture called Busy Bee which sold children's wear.  You can just about pick out the corner of Newton Street where, I suppose Garbett's shoes were there even at that time.

A procession of May Queens

The following photos were sent to us via 

Graham and Joyce Sharpe.

Hyde Chapel May Queen circa 1935
Margaret Baddeley is 2nd from the left.


Miss Seddon's Dancing Class circa 1945
Joyce Baddeley Back row,third from right.


Hyde Chapel May Queen circa 1941-42
Hesba Craig
Joyce Baddeley First on left, centre row


Leigh Street School May Queen
Barbara Merrick circa 1942-43
Barbara was the daughter of Mr Merrick who had the bakers shop on Stockport Road in Gee Cross.
Margaret Baddeley, far left.

Many thanks Graham and Joyce. :)

Hyde Chapel History

The following account is taken from the "Annals of Hyde" by Thomas Middleton.

 The old and original Hyde Chapel building.

The new and present building

Postcard of the Rev. Henry Enfield Dowson, B.A., 1867-1925. 

He became the Minister of Hyde Chapel in 1867 and served them for 51 years !

Hyde Chapel Whit Walks

Yesterday we received the following email ...

Over to Trish ....  

"In the past week you posted a lovely video of Pole Bank. Our Hyde Chapel whitwalks procession went down to Pole Bank to sing to the old folks (that must have made them feel better!) 
Anyway, I found some old pictures that my dad took, must be from about 1956/57 . Nice to see the old trolley bus again. One of the pictures shows my dads Morris Oxford outside Pole Bank (look at the quiet road, bliss, those were the days!) 
The last photo is of me and my friends on the walk. I am the girl with the shoulder bag and dark pudding basin hat (Mum, what were you thinking of, it looks awful!)"  

What wonderfully evocative photos they are, Trish !  I love your haircut by the way !!
Thanks for sending them to us. 
Much appreciated ! :)

Shanes Field aka Buttercup Meadow

Below is a photo of Shanes Field aka Buttercup Meadow or the field above Gower Hey Wood. It was taken in the late 1970's and you can just see the spire of Hyde Chapel on the horizon. The row of houses to the left are on Oxford Road.


  The day looked absolutely Beautiful, the flowers in the meadow stunning. I hope that with Gower Hey Conservation Groups excellent work and with the field now no longer being mowed, the field will eventually return to the beautiful wild flower meadow it used to be. Signs are good that this will happen.

William Leigh - Hyde and District Spinners Association.

We recently featured an article sent to us by Peter Fallon about his Great-Great Grandfather William Ovens .

William Ovens was involved in setting up the Hyde and District Operative Spinners Association with five other men.
Here is the memorial of one of the other men, William Leigh, which stands in the cemetery of Hyde Chapel.

Sacred in the Memory of William Leigh of Hyde who departed this life April 6th 1878 in the 50th year of his age.

He was one of the founders of, and secretary to the Hyde Operative Spinners Association . For a period of 20 years, during which time he used his energies in promoting their welfare in every possible way, and in adjusting any difficulty arising between Employers and Employed.
His exertions on their behalf  were not confimed to his own district but any movement having for its object the application of his class always found in him a ready worker.
During a visit to London to promote their interests he caught a severe cold which brought on his death and in recognition of all his services the association (assisted by a few friends) have placed over his remains this tribute of their esteem.





 

Association of Operative Cotton Spinners

By 1800 over thirty cotton towns in Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire had local spinners' friendly societies or trade clubs. The first documented society was at Stockport in 1785. Other important spinning organizations existed in Preston (1795), Manchester (1795) and Oldham (1797). These societies became illegal under the terms of the 1799 and 1800 Combination Acts. Sometimes societies were reformed during industrial disputes such as the spinners' strike in Manchester in 1810. After the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824 and 1825, spinners had more freedom to form associations of workers. In 1828 John Doherty became leader of the Manchester Spinners' Union. The following year textile factory owners began imposing wage reductions on their workers. In an attempt to persuade the employers to change their minds, members of the union went on strike. The strike lasted for six months but in October the spinners, facing starvation, were forced to accept the lower wages being offered by the factory owners. John Doherty realised that it was very difficult for local unions to win industrial disputes so he organised a meeting of spinners from all over Britain. The result of the meeting was the formation of the Grand General Union of Operative Spinners of the United Kingdom. Doherty's union only lasted two years and it was not until 1845 that a similar organisation was formed. This time it was a group of spinners in Bolton who created the Association of Operative Cotton Spinners. Despite its name, few people joined from outside that part of Lancashire. Other attempts at forming a national union took place in Preston in 1852 with the Friendly Association of Hand Mule Spinners. This time membership included workers from Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire. However, it was not until 1870 with the establishment of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners that the trade had a real national union.

Thanks to  spartacus.schoolnet. for the above information.

The Murder of Mr Thomas Ashton

On January 3^rd 1831 Thomas Ashton was shot dead as he made his way from his home at Pole Bank to Apethorn Mill. This was a story I vividly remember reading in 'The History of Hyde' when I was very young.

Pole Bank

Location of Apethorn Mill at the bottom of Apethorn Lane

The gate posts are just about all that's left now of the mill

'The History of Hyde' contains a chapter on the murder of Thomas Ashton and the subsequent efforts to bring the persons responsible to justice. The following report is from the Stockport Advertiser of January 7^th, 1831 headed 'HORRIBLE MURDER':

'On Monday last one of the most cruel and sanguinary murders which ever disgraced a civilized people, was perpetrated on the body of Mr. Thomas Ashton, eldest son of Samuel Ashton, Esq., of Pole Bank, Werneth, in this parish, so early as seven o'clock in the evening. The victim of this cold-blooded and diabolical act of assassination, who was in his 24^th year, and remarkable for his kind and conciliating disposition and manners, had the management of a new mill belonging to his father at Woodley, from whence he had just returned and was on his way to the other mill at Apethorn to superintend for his younger brother, James, who had just left home to spend the evening with a family near Stockport. The father and mother were in the house at the time waiting the return of the carriage to join the brother and the other part of the family who had gone with him, and the effect of so distressing a communication may more easily be imagined than described. It appeared on the examination of the witnesses before the coroner that the unfortunate gentleman had not proceeded on the public highway, after quitting the private road, which leads from Pole Bank to Apethorn Mills, more than 30 yards, before he was shot; and it would appear on examination of the premises about the fatal spot that the assassins had awaited his approach, sitting behind a hedge bank on the road side, which situation gave them the best opportunity of seeing or hearing the approach of their victim from his father's house down the private pathway. The breast was perforated at the edge of the bone by two bullets from a horse pistol or blunderbuss, which had passed out at the left shoulder blade , having taken an oblique direction upwards. His death must have been instantaneous, for when found his right hand was in his greatcoat pocket – a manner of placing it quite usual with him when walking. He was lying in a shallow ditch on the contrary side of the road to the one generally taken by the family when going to the mill, and this is accounted for by the supposition, that he must have retreated to the other side when approached by the assassin in order to avoid him. The muzzle of the weapon appears to have been placed close to his breast, as the wadding perforated his garments, and part of it – some coarse blue paper – had entered his body, and was concealed in the sternum. Other parts of it – some white adhesive plaister – which had covered the balls, having been folded four times, had not entered the body, but was removed with the clothes; and the use of this extraordinary material will, in all probability, lead to the detection of the villain.'

A reward of £500 was offered by his father, Samuel Ashton,  together with £500 by other relatives of the deceased, £500 by the Master Spinners of the district, and 'a promise of a pardon from the King, to any one of the three suspected persons who would give evidence; unless such person was the one who actually fired the shot'.

Picture from 'The History of Hyde'

The scene as it is today

Despite a confession from 'a mad Scotsman'  and a statement of complicity from another 'foolish individual' the mystery continued to defy solution, until in April 1834 a man in Derby gaol made statements likely to throw light upon the matter. The statements led to the arrest of two men in Marple and on May 5^th, 1834 three men – James Garside, Joseph Mosley and William Mosley were commited for trial. Before the day of the trial arrived it became known that William Mosley had turned King's evidence.

At the trial William Mosley had this to say about the murder:

'A short space afterwards there came a man down the footpath towards the clap gate. The man was in the footpath leading from Mr. Ashton's. Garside got up, and met him in the field before he got through the gate, and pointed the piece at him. He gave way. Garside fired. When Mr. Ashton gave way he only went a little out of the way. Garside met him, and he went back. He had got through the clap gate when he fired, and was going along the road to the mill. The man who was shot fell across the road, with his head towards the right hand side, opposite to where I was. We immediately ran away, and I made the best of my way across the fields to the second canal bridge.'

Despite Garside trying to throw the blame onto Joseph Mosley, and Joseph Mosley denying any knowledge of the crime they were both found guilty and sentenced to hang. Garside had been the man in Derby gaol who gave the information hoping to blame his accomplices, but the judge and jury chose to believe William Mosley's account. The execution took place on November 25^th, 1834 at Horsemonger Lane gaol in London.

The History of Hyde:

'The exact spot where Mr. Ashton fell was kept visible for years by the workpeople scraping their feet over it when passing, and thus preventing the grass growing there. Mr. Samuel Ashton subsequently had a number of stones embedded in the ditch to mark the place, and also planted over it an ash tree, to stand as a memorial of the tragedy.

A hundred years have rolled by since the murder, and the loneliness of the spot where the crime took place has now disappeared. Mr. Samuel Ashton erected two cottages close to the spot where the private path from Pole Bank joined Apethorn Lane. In the second decade of the 20^th century Miss Ethel Dowson erected two other cottages on the opposite side of the lane, and the garden gate of the one nearer Gee Cross is within a yard of the place where the murdered man fell. The exact spot in which Mr. Ashton's body was found is now marked by a grid. When the property higher up the lane was erected in 1927-8, the hedge and ditch with the memorial stones and the solitary ash tree, were removed, and the land added to the road.'

The cottages erected by Samuel Ashton

The cottages erected by Ethel Dowson. The grid on the corner in front of the green bins is, if its position has not been altered in the intervening years, where Thomas Ashton's body was found.

As to the reason for the shooting, 'The History of Hyde' says: 'The crime was rightly regarded as an attempt, on the part of the extremists in the trade union movement, to terrorise the employers', and in his evidence William Mosley says that when they met up again he asked Garside which of the Ashtons he had shot and was told that: 'it didn't matter which it was; it was one of them.'

Thomas Ashton is buried, together with both his parents, in Hyde Chapel graveyard.

The Ashton Family grave

Thomas Ashton, died 3 January 1831 aged 23

Mary Ashton, his mother, died 2 July 1835 aged 55

Samuel Ashton, his father, died 13 March 1849 aged 75

Hyde Chapel Postcard

The history of Hyde Chapel goes back to before 1708, when the congregation built the first Christian place of worship in Hyde. A new church replaced the former building in 1846. This second chapel is still in use today, its high steeple, a noted landmark, is also a Grade II, listed building.

Beatrix Potter's mother and aunt were both married at Hyde Chapel. The Rev. Charles Beard married her mother, Helen Leech, and Rupert Potter in August 1863, while her aunt, Elizabeth Leech, married Walter Potter in May 1862. The Potter family grave is in the churchyard.


Thanks to http://www.unitarian.org.uk/ecu/HydeChapel/

Knott Lane

View of the original Knott Lane, before the large re-development of the area. Knott Lane was presumably named because it led from the village of Gee Cross to a small group of houses called Knott Fold, some of which are still in existence today.

Hyde Chapel 

Enfield Street School

Hyde Chapel and Knott Lane view from the 1950s

Another set of pictures from Paul's post card collection... which I thank him for letting me show them.  I went to Enfield Street in the 1960s... and I walked up Knott Lane from Cheetham Fold... it seemed a long way on cold winter mornings. 

Hyde Chapel - Rose Queen 1959

The lovely photos below were sent to us by Ann Bacon nee Stafford.
They show her time as Rose Queen at Hyde Chapel in 1959.

How beautiful she looks !
I should imagine most girls wanted to be crowned Rose Queen.


Mrs Kitchen crowning Ann Stafford ,with Kathleen Baddely the retiring Queen.


Ann Stafford, Hyde Chapel's Rose Queen, with her Retinue.
Were you one of these girls?

Many Thanks, Ann, for sharing these photos with us!

Hyde Chapel Views

From Susan Jaleel

I never tire of views such as these... and I'm sure there are more like me out there that will enjoy looking Hyde Chapel. When I went to Enfield Street School I would stare at the steeple as I walked up Knott Lane. Then in the School play ground it was there in full view. At that time the stonework was almost black in parts, then one day scaffold was erected and it was cleaned... the stonework was bright and shone in the sun.  I wondered why it was so dirty... until later in life and I saw pictures of the factory chimneys. I wonder how long it will be before it is in need of cleaning again?