Long Lane smithy, old post office and shop
139, 141 and 143 Wilmslow Road

With the Long Lane area being surrounded by farms, a blacksmith was a necessity. A smithy is where a blacksmith works. It was in the smaller building on the photo. Here metal would have been heated up on a forge or hearth, hammered into shape and then cooled.

On the 1841 census the building was known as the “Long Lane Smithy”, and there was nothing between it and Bradshaw Hall Lane. The blacksmith was William Rowlinson who lived in a house with the smithy and garden. He lived there with his wife Hannah. Both were now aged 40. They had a large family. Sarah was 15, Peter 13, John 11, Frances 9, Samuel 7 and Amos who was 4. Also living there were Jonathan Parkinson aged 85 and John Parkinson aged 45 who was an agricultural labourer.

By the census of 1851 the sons had become blacksmiths themselves, whilst Amos was a scholar. Sarah may well have left to be married. John Parkinson, still an agricultural labourer was noted as a relative. A servant, Bethany Smith, also lived there. Then nothing else until Bradshaw Hall Lane again.

All change by 1861 as family members moved away to start families of their own. At “Manchester Road’s Long Lane Smithy” lived Samuel Rowlinson with his family. Wife Mary, 1 year old daughter Sarah Hannah and new baby Agnes, along with Francis Edward Walkley an 18 year old blacksmith’s apprentice. Father William and Mother Hannah, along with their youngest son Amos and his wife and their new baby, had all moved in together further along Long Lane towards the School’s Hill area.

That is as near as I can place the building called The Blacksmith Arms beer house! I know that the Swan Beer Shop along Long Lane disappeared when Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum (Cheadle Royal) arrived in 1848. This beer house building was next door to Charles Hankinson senior, who was farming at Highfield farm. Perhaps then it was part of a farm building, somewhere around there?

In 1869 William died and Amos as head of the family changed the name to the Royal Oak by 1871. His mother Hannah moved out to Collyhurst Street in Manchester with her daughter Frances, who had married James Broughton. Amos died in February 1876, aged just 39.

Back at our smithy, Samuel now a “master blacksmith” and his wife Mary had added more children to their family. Sarah was now 11 and Agnes 10. Then there was Arthur Oswald 9, Ada Alice 5, Walter 3, Charles 2 and new baby Gertrude. Business was probably brisk as there were still many farms around, plus the huge Asylum estate and not forgetting Bruntwood Hall estate nearby, that was also breeding horses and had its own farm. By 1881 the older sons, Arthur and Walter were now blacksmith’s apprentices. On the census an unmarried 21 year old daughter Annie has been registered, perhaps she was Sarah Ann as the age is the same? Agnes is not recorded. Charles and Gertrude were scholars and there were now two more daughters. Mary aged 7 and Effie aged 4.

All change to a new property by 1891. The smithy and forge were small and so possibly, with business booming, the Rowlinson family had moved to the corner of Finney Lane and utilised old farm buildings that stood there for the business. Samuel was now 58 and Mary 53. Arthur Oswald at the age of 29 was a widower and there was a granddaughter, 1 year old Charlotte, who may well have been Arthur’s child. The cruelty of these times recorded right there. Arthur and Charles are blacksmiths too. The two youngest daughters Mary and Effie are still at home. Effie was a dressmaker’s apprentice now.

The story of the post office and shop, next to the old smithy, begins with a branch of the Chantler Family. Chantler being a common family name in our area. In 1851 Alfred Chantler was a 2 year old living in Brown Edge (the house on the corner of Green Gables and Finney Lane). His father Josiah, born 1808 was a farmer and his mother was Ellen born 1807. Along with Alfred they had four more sons and three daughters. James 17, Charles 12, Joseph 10, Hannah 8, William 5, Ellen 4, Emma 3 and Alfred. It was a large house with a family of ten living there.

All change by the 1861 census. The family had moved to Long Lane. It gets tricky now. The property they were in was somewhere between Griffin Farm and Bradshaw Hall Lane. The properties have no house numbers and are all just Long Lane! On the census schedule the farm is number 37 and Bradshaw Hall Lane number 51. The smithy was number 52. Their house was numbered 43. Ellen was the head of the household although still recorded as married and not a widow. Son Thomas aged 23, who was not on the last census and Charles are both agricultural labourers. Daughter Hannah was a laundry maid and Alfred and Emma were scholars.

Father Josiah was farming 7 acres with his older widowed sister, Mary Bentley at a place called Wilds Tenement. This was further down Long Lane towards the School’s Hill area and numbered 61 on the schedule.

By 1871 Alfred had married Caroline and they were both 22. He was a house painter and decorator. Living with them was his 65 year old mother Ellen. The address on the census is “Turnpike Road Manchester and Wilmslow Long Lane.” Again, going off the schedule numbers, their house is numbered 39. Next door lived Charles Chantler, an agricultural labourer and his wife Matilda. He would be Alfred’s older brother. Younger brother Thomas was a boarder at schedule number 42 and was a gardener. Wherever these cottages were, there were 8 together, as in 1875 they were all put up for sale together.
 

Fig. 2 Alderley and Knutsford Gazette. 28th August 1875
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