Life and times in Edwardian Halliwell

As Researched by Andrew Reid

LIFE AND TIMES IN EDWARDIAN HALLIWELL

INTRODUCTION

At the start of the twentieth century industrialization in Britain was at its peak. In Bolton factories engaged in the manufacture and processing of all manner of products were at full capacity. In the Halliwell Sub-District the main industries were bleaching, dying and cotton spinning.

Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Bolton as a whole had increased steadily as families moved from the countryside to find better paid work in the factories and businesses, or in service in the large households of the more wealthy. This process continued into the Edwardian period. Large families were common but life expectancy remained relatively short and child mortality was high.

Northern industrial towns characteristically consist of closely spaced terraced houses located within walking distance of the mills that provided the main source of employment. This was certainly the case during the early years of the Industrial Revolution but many towns like Bolton grew rapidly into larger conurbations with the expansion of industry and growing populations.

In the southern half of the Halliwell Sub-District infrastructure and housing construction proceeded apace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries following the new tram routes along Halliwell Road, Church Road and Chorley Old Road. The rows of workers terraces built close to the mills gave way to semi-detached and detached houses for the more well to do on the outskirts of the town. The majority of these properties were built using the hard, smooth bricks fired locally from the clay deposits associated with coal mining giving the area its characteristic red brick appearance. Main roads were cobbled and generally had pavements. Only the better side streets were cobbled and would otherwise be surfaced with cinders.

Beyond the close knit industrial areas and the suburbs the outer districts of the Parish remained an essentially rural community. The Reverend Percy Stott vicar of St. Peters Church from 1900 to 1930 visited twenty-six farms in the northern part of the parish on a regular basis. These tenant farms were mostly located on Smithills Moor and managed by the estate office at Smithills Hall. All of these farms have a long history the majority dating from the early seventeenth century but some are certainly prior to the sixteenth century.

By the early years of the twentieth century coal mining had largely ceased as an industrial activity on the moor and the majority of workers would have been employed on the farms or in various capacities on the Smithills Estate owned by the Ainsworth family. Dean Mills in Barrow Bridge closed in 1877 and was demolished in 1913 and Walker Fold Colliery had closed by 1900.

Smithills Dean School on Colliers Row dates from 1841 with extensions in 1885 and would have been attended by the majority of the children from the families in the surrounding farming community. The Jubilee School dating from 1811 served families in the Church Road locality and was a day school for pupils as well as a Sunday school. The day school was closed in 1909 when this function transferred to newly built Church Road School.

Social change was gathering pace with the introduction of various Acts of Parliament intended to improve conditions for the working class. In 1907 the Notification of Births Act was introduced mainly to provide information into the causes of high infant mortality. The Children and Young Persons Act was introduced to improve the general welfare of children. Medical inspections in schools were started in 1908 but medical treatment was not provided until 1912. Children were expected to stay in education until they reached the age of 14 but in practice most finished school and started work at the age of 13 or even as young as 12.

In 1908 a pension was provided for the elderly over 70 years old, an age that few could expect to attain. The payment was set intentionally low to encourage work-ers to make provision for their later years and was by no means easy to claim with workers having to prove that they were in genuine need and of ‘good character’.

Social conditions began to improve with the gradual implementation of the ‘Cradle to the Grave’ reforms introduced in 1909 by the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George establishing Britain’s Social Welfare System. Various Acts of Parliament were passed most notably The National Insurance Act of 1911 which introduced compulsory health insurance for workers earning less than £160 per year. The worker contributed four pence, the employer three pence and the government two pence per week respectively. This provided for a sickness benefit of £36 per year, free medical treatment and maternity benefit. Labour Exchanges were established and grew rapidly in number providing a very effective means of helping people to find employment and employers to find suitable workers. Wages were low and many families would have nothing to spare at the end of the week. At times when extra money was needed a treasured item that had some value might be taken to the local Pawnbroker to raise cash. Perhaps if the family was lucky they could raise the money to redeem their possession later on. This could be repeated several times and the pawnbroker no doubt became quite familiar with many items used in this way.

Of particular significance was the Miners Accidents ( Rescue and Aid ) Act of 1910. In the same year a Central Road Board was established to deal with the pressing need to improve roads due to ever increasing traffic in particular the tarring of the wearing course on main routes. Although most transport still involved the horse and cart steam vehicles such as wagons, traction engines and the like would be a common sight although cars and other motor vehicles were starting to make their appearance.

These social reforms did not have an immediate effect on workers welfare. Deaths due to common illnesses and accidents at work remained high particularly among children. Life expectancy remained comparatively low at an average of 55 years for men and women. Twenty-five percent of the population continued to live in poverty.

The gathering clouds The years following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 saw political events in Europe begin to deteriorate with disputes developing between the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, Russia, France and Belgium. Great Britain was pledged to come to the aid of its ally Belgium in the event of invasion. It was inevitable that conflict was soon to involve the main countries of Europe, along with their colonies, dominium’s and allies throughout the world.

In Britain these far away events would very quickly impact dramatically and equally upon all the close knit industrial and rural communities throughout the country. Soon young men from villages, towns and cities all over Great Britain and the Empire were volunteering for armed service and leaving the security of their familiar communities to fight in France, the Middle East and wherever disputes flared between the involved nations. By the end of 1914 a relatively small standing army had been increased by mobilizing reservists and volunteers to over a million men. By the end of the war nearly five and three-quarter million of Britain’s most able bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-one were to be involved in the conflict.

Many volunteers left their homes full of patriotic optimism only to perish in the trenches after a few short months of basic military training. Such were the losses in men that Conscription was introduced in 1916. By the war’s end nearly a million British, Indian and Commonwealth troops had lost their lives and a further two and a quarter million were injured, such was the efficient brutality of mechanized warfare. Between 1914 and 1918 the population of Great Britain fell by over two million due to the loss of men in battle and the inevitable fall in the national birthrate.

Many of those who survived after enduring the horrors of the war returned home with injuries and mental scars that would affect them and their families for the rest of their lives. Somehow local communities such as Halliwell began to rebuild themselves but the old order of British society was changed forever in ways that could not have been foreseen before the war. The First World War was certainly not the ‘War to end all Wars’ but it did instigate a positive process of social change that continues to the present day.

Working Life. The typical working week for most factory workers including children consisted of six days Monday to Saturday of 12 hours each day. The more fortunate might be allowed a half day off on Saturday afternoon but for the majority Sundays provided the only respite from labour. Working days began early perhaps with a tap on the bedroom window from the pole of the local ‘knocker up’ whose job was to ensure that the family got to work on time. Clocks and watches being luxuries. After a breakfast of tea, bread and dripping or margarine perhaps a kipper or porridge for the better off, the working members of the family would set off to walk to work clogs clattering through the dawn streets. Those who worked further away from home would get on the local tram, very few would need to catch a train to go further. Lunch at mid-day would probably be bread and jam or other simple fair that the workers carried with them to eat where they worked. More progressive employers provided facilities for their workers but these would vary between establishments.

All types of manufacture were dangerous and accidents were common. Very little if any consideration was given to safety and workers spent their days in close proximity to all kinds of machinery and industrial processes. Workers became adept at lip-reading and sign language particularly in the cotton industry. Deafness, lung diseases and cancers became common hazards in the generally hot and dusty conditions inside the mills.

It would be wrong to think that employment for the working class in the early years of the twentieth century was restricted to factories and mills. Almost everything required for living was produced locally in Bolton. Clothes, shoes and clogs, foodstuffs, utensils, furniture, leather processing and leather goods, construction, transport etc. to list them all would not be practical. Many of these processes were undertaken by small businesses often to the rear of a shop. District Councils provided opportunities for work on the roads, trams, sewerage, in the gas works and so on. Many people particularly women and girls found employment ‘In Service’ with wealthy households and well to do professionals as a cook, live-in maid or housekeeper. In the rural parts of Halliwell farming and jobs on the Smithills Estate provided employment for men and women.

The Public House provided an escape from hard work and offered games such as dominos, darts and cards possibly with some musical entertainment also. Excessive drinking could be a drain on meagre family budgets and inevitably led some into drunkenness, violence and poverty. Smoking was common among men and cigarettes were becoming a popular alternative to the workman’s cheap thin stemmed clay pipes

At weekend there was rivalry at local football or cricket matches the players being men from the working community and many keen fans would make every effort to see a Bolton Wanders match. In Halliwell a popular venue was the boating lake in Barrow Bridge. Formally a reservoir for the bleach works it was opened as a boating lake in 1905 and besides rowing for the more adventurous it offered tea rooms and a small funfair. Some enterprising cottage owners also offered ‘afternoon teas’ to the visitors. Ice creams were available at the local shop. Further afield Queens Park provided further outlets for outdoor recreation and the opportunity to ‘promenade’ in Sunday best. Moss Bank was still the private residence of the Ainsworth family and did not become a public park until after the First World War.

The centre of Edwardian Bolton had many theatres that put on plays and varieties amongst them were the Theatre Royal, The Grande Theatre, The Empire and the Hippodrome which became a full-time cinema in 1916.

For the more serious minded Labour and Conservative clubs offered political discussion over a drink or a game of snooker. Alternatively books could be borrowed from Public Libraries and many workers who were keen on self-improvement attended evening classes at the Mechanics’ Institute in Mawdsley Street which was opened in 1824.

Annual holidays were taken in the summer during ‘wakes week’ when the mills and factories shut down for the purpose of overhauling the machinery. This gave workers the opportunity to take a day trip or short holiday, if they could afford it. The most popular destination was the seaside and crowds would pile onto trains at Bolton station for an outing to Blackpool or perhaps Southport or Morecambe.

Conditions in these other types of employment were not necessarily any better than in the cotton mills and factories. Working hours were still as long and sometimes longer. Many types of work required the use of equally dangerous machinery and processes. Many smaller businesses would employ apprentices who had the benefit of learning a trade, sometimes also providing living accommodation, but they could be isolated and badly treated. Farming was a dawn till dusk activity in all weathers with its own particular hazards.

Home Life A typical workers terraced house would be ‘two up and two down’ with a flagged walled yard at the back or for the more fortunate a small garden. The front room of the house or ‘parlour’ had a front door that opened directly onto the pavement although separate hallways were provided in the better properties. The parlour was kept for social use or on Sunday afternoons and would be the best furnished room in the home.

Most of the family activity would take place in the kitchen located at the rear side of the house. Here the day to day activities of cooking, family meals, washing and bathing took place. Part of the kitchen would serve the purpose of a scullery with a stone flagged floor or there might be a separate outhouse for this purpose. By the start of the twentieth century most properties in the urban parts of the Halliwell District had a supply of running potable water and town gas. All hot water for Monday clothes washing and (occasional) baths was heated in a gas or coal fired ‘copper’ or in cast iron pans on the stove. A stoneware sink with a single cold tap was used for all general washing possibly together with a large zinc tub on washday. A large zinc bath laboriously filled with hot water by hand formed the focal point for family life on bath nights.

Bolton was early in the provision of a comprehensive system for sewage disposal and the provision of drinking water, the majority of homes would have a flushable toilet generally located outside the kitchen in a separate enclosure or at the bottom of the yard. A visit to the toilet could be a cold and uncomfortable business on dark winter nights and chamber pots or commodes provided convenient facilities in bedrooms.

Women’s dress was equally standardized usually ankle length skirts with a long apron or ‘brat’ and long sleeved cotton blouses. A long warm woolen shawl was almost a universal requirement particularly when the weather was cold and worn over the head on wet days although some women, perhaps those not employed on the mill floor, would favor a simple wide brimmed hat.

Working footwear was usually a pair of clogs. Leather boots might be worn by those not employed directly in factories or for church and special occasions, even children wore clogs for school. The clogs worn in industrial Lancashire had soles made from alder wood with sturdy leather uppers. Boot clogs favored by men for heavy work were similar to leather boots having steel toe-caps and leather uppers that came well up the ankles to be secured by leather laces or a clasp. Women’s clogs were similar but lighter and sometimes had decoration around the wooden sole. Clog making was a skilled trade and clogs had to be made to measure by craftsmen in local ‘Clogger Shops’. Workers in cotton spinning mills removed their clogs and worked at the machines barefoot to avoid damage to the wooden floors.

Poor families would make do with much worn or second-hand clothes that became ragged and patched. Children often went barefoot and wore ‘hand me downs’ from older siblings, or considerate neighbours or even old adults clothes that had been cut down could be worn.

All washing of the family clothing made from heavy fabrics had to be done laboriously by hand in a tub of hot water with lots of ‘Sunlight’ carbolic soap using a scrubbing brush, washboard and mangle. In the polluted industrial atmosphere clothes got dirty very quickly and needed a lot of washing. Men’s shirts had detachable starched collars that could be removed and a clean one fitted without having to wash the whole shirt. The weekly wash involved a great deal of time for the housewife during the week.

Recreation With such long working hours the time available for relaxation was limited. Church and the Public House provided the main outlets for social activity. Both children and adults attended Sunday school which offered opportunities for educational improvement besides religious instruction.

The bedrooms had few furnishings other than beds, possibly there would be a wardrobe or curtained off alcove for clothes and a washstand in the adults room. Floor covering would consist of linoleum or simply left as bare boards. The children slept all together in one bedroom once they were old enough. In large families several children would have to occupy each bed. Although every room in the house had coal fires only those in the kitchen and the parlour would be used regularly. The bedroom fireplaces were unlikely to be used except when someone was sick. Badly fitting sash windows with lace curtains and lack of adequate floor covering meant that houses were generally drafty and cold in winter. All rooms in the house had gas mantles for lighting and these continued in use well after World War One when electricity became generally available.

Every household had a galvanized ‘dustbin’ which was emptied weekly by the council dustcart. As the name suggests the main contents of the bin consisted of the ashes from the coal fires. Very little food was wasted and packaging was minimal as most food was bought fresh and weighed out by the local shop keepers into paper bags and brought home in the housewife’s wicker basket. Newspapers were used as firelighters or cut up for toilet paper and broken household items were repaired wherever possible. Travelling knife grinders kept the household implements sharp, old clothes and meat-bones were collected by the ‘rag and bone man’ for recycling. Luxury items and throw away packaging were non-existent.

Food The extensive railway networks established in Victorian times ensured that the distribution of fresh food was efficient and steamships together with refrigeration ensured a plentiful supply of cheaper grain, meat, fruit and other foodstuffs from the British Empire and America. A significant amount of food was still produced by local farms particularly things like eggs and milk with fresh fish from the coast.

With an average weekly income of only £3 - 6s - 0d over half of which was spent on food, housewives had to budget carefully. The basis or the weakly diet consist-ed of bread, potatoes, seasonal vegetables, fish and the cheaper cuts of meat and offal. A roast of beef or leg of mutton would have been a regular meal at Sunday lunch. This was quite economical as the leftovers were not wasted and used to make meals during the week.

Stews and soups were made using leftover vegetables and bones or stock bones from the butchers. Traditional Lancashire dishes such as hotpot, tripe and onions, suet puddings were popular and economical. Tea and beer were the universal drinks, coffee was a drink for the well to do.

Meals such as breakfast (often taken to work) or tea would consist of bread and margarine ( made from a combination of beef fat and vegetable oils ) perhaps with jam, left-over meat or cheese and of course the obligatory mug of tea. Sometimes porridge eggs or kippers would be on the menu. Fresh fruit such as apples would be eaten when in season. Keeping fresh food from going off without household fridges was a problem. Perishable food was kept in the coolest place in the house or in a ‘meat safe’ which was a small kitchen cupboard with sides made of zinc mesh that allowed air to circulate and kept flies off the food.

The diet of the poorest section of the community was very basic. Tea, bread and margarine supplemented by an egg, cheese, or a piece of bacon or fish for the working man of the household. Malnutrition was common and resulted in many health problems such as rickets.

Clothing The clothes worn by workers in the years leading up to World War One were very different from the ‘Haute Couture’ outfits of the aristocracy and wealthy. Clothes needed to be practical, hard wearing and warm. Clothes were made from natural materials such as wool, linen or cotton. Denim ‘jeans’ and overalls were unknown in Britain. People wore ‘Sunday Best’ to church or for special occasions, a smart suit or dress, if they could afford it. Clothes for children were generally miniature versions of grown-ups clothes, boys wore knee breeches into teenage.

Men would typically wear woolen trousers, jacket and waistcoat with cotton shirts. Only foremen or over-lookers would wear ties. The ubiquitous cloth-cap was worn at all times even on work premises but again foremen and over lookers would be identified by a bowler hat rather than the cap. What a man wore on his head was very much a badge of status within Edwardian society. Outdoors men and boys would wear their jackets at all times even in warm weather only the better off would have an overcoat.