People
Throughout its history Eccles Old Road has been the home and workplace for many interesting and intriguing people. These include ordinary folk combining working on the land with making artisan textiles before the advent of the cotton industry, early chapmen dealing in textiles and local plantsmen making use of the light sandy soils and nearby peat at Chat Moss. Later, local landowners involved in the political and commercial life of the region and an emerging professional class, represented by doctors, teachers and those involved in commerce, establish their homes along the road. Census returns reveal these households to be supported by servants and companions, many coming from across the country.
The aim is to document individual lives across all levels of society wherever possible. We welcome readers of this site to contact us with additional information and suggestions for inclusion.
Click onto one of the people listed below to discover more about their history.
A-Z list of people
Maximillian Baerlein (1849-1917) was a businessman and partner in Baerlein & Company. From around 1872 he lived at the Limes […]
Caroline Birley (1851-1907) was a geologist, fossil collector, traveller and children’s author. Born in Manchester she lived with her family […]
Thomas Hornby Birley (1815-1885) was a cotton manufacturer; india rubber merchant; Governor of Owen’s College; Conservative; churchman and JP. Thomas […]
John Carver, 1793-1863, was part of a family of international cotton traders with companies in Lisbon, Gibraltar, Casa Blanca and […]
Charlotte Cole (1844-1911) was one of a small number of domestic servants who spent most of their working lives in […]
Myles Fenton Davies (1867-1928) was a solicitor in a Preston and Manchester based practice. He lived on Eccles Old Road […]
James Dugdale of Hart Hill (1813-76) was a Lancashire cotton manufacturer, merchant, businessman, landowner and art collector. Around 1859, whilst […]
Robert Gardner, of Chaseley was a cotton manufacturer, Tory and Evangelical Christian who was born into a farming family in Sunderland, Lancashire.
John Dudgeon Giles (1880-1940) was medical superintendent of Hope Hospital in both World War I and World War II. For […]
Isabel Mary Heywood OBE (1851-1940) was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Percival Heywood and Margaret Heywood. Isabel spent her […]
William Hinmers (1821-1902) was a Yorkshire born businessman. He moved to Salford as a young man and made a very […]
Annie Amelia Hipwell (1885-1985), from a working class family in Oldham, may have been destined to spend her life working […]
John Bingham Housley (1847-1936) spent much of his life in domestic service. For many years he worked as butler to […]
Thomas Mason Johnson, 1841-1916, surgeon, worked at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and was a medical officer for the Salford Union. […]
Peter Keevney (1833-95) was a tea and coffee merchant and businessman. Conservative in politics, he became the Chair of the […]
John Edward King (1858-1939) Distinguished classicist educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Oxford. High Master of Manchester Grammar School. Lived […]
A century of cabs and funeral cars Alfred Laithwaite (1868-1950) was born in Turton, near Bolton. His father managed a […]
Henry Lightbown (1819-1899) was a ‘paper stainer’, Congregationalist, Liberal Unionist, magistrate and Salford councillor. Lighbown was born in a rural […]
Thomas Percival (1740-1804) MD FRS SA: Physician Extraordinary. A true polymath – physician and philosopher; moralist and ethicist; Dissenter and […]
For almost 100 years the Roberts family of solicitors, father and all three sons, lived and practised in and around […]
Mary Jane Colvin Ross (1879-1940) was matron of Hope Hospital in both World War I and World War II. For […]
Louis Schwabe (1831-1922) was a yarn merchant, shipping agent, long-standing member and Freeman of Manchester Royal Exchange, Governor of the […]
John Simpson (1758-1802) of Hart Hill was a cotton spinner, industry innovator, property owner and magistrate. Born in Bonsall, Derbyshire […]
John Benjamin Smith (1794-1879) began his career as a cotton merchant but quickly became more interested in politics. He was […]
George Southam (1816-1876) served the people of Salford and Manchester for almost 40 years. Surgeon and academic, he was a […]
David Thom (1823-71), soap boiler and tallow chandler of Whit Lane, was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1823. The son […]
Thomas Trueman of Hart Hill (1781-1858) was a banker, merchant, hospital trustee and inspector and philanthropist. Thomas Trueman lived at […]
John Walker (1753-1827), was a Manchester cotton merchant who, at some time before 1815, headed west to the cleaner air […]
A medical graduate of Glasgow University and member of the Pathological Society of Manchester, Williams was for a time in […]
Archibald Winterbottom (1815-1884) was a textile merchant and bookcloth (bookbinding cloth) manufacturer who lived at The Limes, Eccles Old Road […]
Thomas Wright (1782-1843) was an architect, surveyor and landowner. He was the eldest and only surviving child of Ann Hartley […]