Townships: Broughton

BROUGHTON

Burton, 1177; Borton, 1257; Burghton, 1332, 1450; Bourghton, 1572; Broughton, Brughton, xvi cent.

Kereshale, Kershal, 1200; Kereshole, 1212.

Tottelawe, Tettelagh, 1302; Tetlawe, 1368.

In the west and south this township is bounded mainly by the winding Irwell. The northern and eastern portions are hilly, the ground sloping west to the river, and also to the south. The old hamlet of Broughton lay on the western side of the township, close to a ford across the Irwell. The higher ground in the north is known as Broughton Park and Higher Broughton; the more level tract to the south as Lower Broughton, while the north-western arm, in a bend of the Irwell, is Kersal. (fn. 1) Almost the whole township is covered with buildings, there being many handsome residences in it. (fn. 2) The area is 1,426½ acres. (fn. 3) The population numbered 49,048 in 1901.

The principal road is that from Manchester to Bury, joined by another road from Salford, crossing the Irwell by Broughton Bridge. (fn. 4) From the Bury Road others branch off to the west, crossing the Irwell into Pendleton by Wallness (fn. 5) and Cromwell Bridges. (fn. 6) There is no railway in Broughton, but the district is served by the Salford electric tramways. Albert Park, close to Cromwell Bridge, was opened in 1877; there are several recreation grounds.

Some neolithic implements and other pre-Roman remains, as also some Roman coins, have been found. (fn. 7) The Roman road from Manchester to Bury passed through the township. (fn. 8)

Broughton was incorporated with Salford borough in 1844; there are now three wards—Grosvenor, Albert Park, and Kersal. A branch library was opened in 1890 and a reading-room 1905. (fn. 9)

William Crabtree, the astronomer and friend of Horrocks, lived in the township, at Broughton Spout it is supposed. (fn. 10) There were ninety-five hearths paying to the hearth tax in 1666. (fn. 11)

The Manchester races were held on Kersal Moor from 1730 till 1847, with a short interruption. (fn. 12)

A duel was fought on the moor in 1804. (fn. 13) Great reviews were held there in 1831 and 1835, and Chartist meetings in 1838 and 1839. (fn. 14)

There were zoological gardens in Higher Broughton from 1838 to 1842. (fn. 15)

MANOR

BROUGHTON was formerly ancient demesne of the honour of Lancaster, (fn. 16) being a member of the royal manor of Salford, (fn. 17) but was about 1190 granted by John, Count of Mortain, to Iorwerth de Hulton. On becoming king in 1199 John did not confirm this grant, but gave Iorwerth the vill of Pendleton instead of it. (fn. 18) Restored to its former position it remained in the hands of the lord of the honour, yielding a varying rent, (fn. 19) for perhaps a century longer. About 1324 Broughton proper was held by Katherine daughter of Adam Banastre by a rent of 27s., (fn. 20) and descended to the Harringtons of Farleton (fn. 21) and their successors in title, the Stanleys, Lords Mounteagle. In 1578 the manor of Broughton and lands there were sold by William, Lord Mounteagle, to Henry, Earl of Derby, (fn. 22) who gave the estate to his illegitimate son Henry Stanley. (fn. 23) Ferdinando Stanley, the son and successor of Henry, as a Royalist, had to compound for his estates in 1646. (fn. 24) He recorded a pedigree in 1664. (fn. 25) Ferdinando and his son Henry having mortgaged the manor and lands to the Chethams of Turton and Smedley, it finally, about 1700, came into the hands of this family. (fn. 26)

The manor then descended in the same way as Smedley, and on the partition of the Chetham estates in 1772 became the property of Mary younger sister of Edward Chetham of Nuthurst and Smedley, and wife of Samuel Clowes the younger. (fn. 27) She died in 1775, having survived her husband about two years, and by her will left Broughton and other estates to her eldest son Samuel, who died in 1801, having survived his eldest son Samuel, high sheriff in 1777, and being succeeded by his grandson, also named Samuel. This last died without issue in 1811, and was, in accordance with a settlement he had made, succeeded by his brother the Rev. John Clowes, one of the fellows of Manchester Church, who made Broughton Hall his chief residence till his death there in 1846. (fn. 28) A younger brother, Lieut.-Colonel William Legh Clowes, who had served in the Peninsular War, then inherited the estates, and dying in 1862 was followed by his son, Samuel William, who in turn was in 1899 succeeded by his eldest son Captain Henry Arthur Clowes, late of the First Life Guards, born in 1867; he resides at Norbury near Ashbourne.

TETLOW

TETLOW was an estate partly in Broughton and partly in Cheetham, held in the 14th century by a family using the local surname, (fn. 29) the service due being the fortieth (later, the sixteenth) part of a knight's fee and a rent of 6s. 8d. It passed by marriage to the Langleys of Agecroft, (fn. 30) and then descended with Reddish to the Cokes. (fn. 31) The name Tetlow has long been disused, but is preserved in Tetlow Lane.

KERSAL

KERSAL was in 1142 given to the priory of Lenton, (fn. 32) and a small cell called St. Leonard's was established there. (fn. 33) On the suppression of monasteries it was in 1540 sold by Henry VIII to Baldwin Willoughby, (fn. 34) and some eight years afterwards was sold to Ralph Kenyon, apparently acting for himself and for James Chetham and Richard Siddall. (fn. 35)

The Kenyon third descended in that family for some time. (fn. 36) It included the cell or monastic buildings. The Siddall third (fn. 37) was alienated in 1616 to William Lever of Darcy Lever, (fn. 38) and descended to Rawsthorne Lever of Kersal, who died in 1689 without issue, (fn. 39) having bequeathed it to the Greenhalghs of Brandlesholme in Bury. (fn. 40) This part was purchased by Samuel Clowes in 1775. (fn. 41) The Chetham third (fn. 42) had already come into the hands of the Clowes family, (fn. 43) whose descendants retain their estate in Kersal.

The Kenyon third was about the year 1660 alienated to the Byroms of Manchester, (fn. 44) whose line terminated in the death of Miss Eleanora Atherton on 12 September 1870. It had one famous holder— John Byrom of Kersal, Jacobite, hymn-writer, and shorthand inventor; he was born in 1692, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow, and died at Manchester in 1763. (fn. 45) Like the manor of Byrom it was bequeathed to Mr. Edward Fox, who took the name of Byrom.

The house now called Kersal Cell occupies the site of the old religious house. It is a small two-story building of timber and plaster, much altered from time to time, but probably dating from the middle or end of the 16th century. It stands on low ground near a bend of the River Irwell, facing south, with the heights of Broughton and Kersal Moor immediately to the north and east. In more recent times a large brick addition has been made on the north, and extensions have also been made on the east in a style meant to harmonize with the timber front of the older part. The original house, which possibly is only a fragment of a larger building, has a frontage of about 56 ft. and consists of a centre with a projecting wing at each end. The west wing has a bay window in each floor, but the east wing has an eight-light window and entrance doorway on the ground floor and a slightly projecting bay above. Both wings have gables with barge boards and hip knobs, but the timber construction is only real up to the height of the eaves, the black and white work in the gables being paint on plaster. This is also the case with the east end and the whole of the front of the later extension on the same side. The roofs are covered with modern blue slates, and the west end is faced with rough-cast. The general appearance at a distance is picturesque, but at close view the house is too much modernized to be wholly satisfactory, and it is dominated by the brick building on the north, whose roof stands high above that of the older portion.

In the interior, however, Kersal Cell preserves some interesting features, many of the rooms being panelled in oak and some good plaster-work remaining. The ground floor is now below the level of the garden, the ground apparently having risen something like 3 ft. The plan has been a good deal altered to suit modern requirements, but preserves a centre apartment or hall about 18 ft. long with a seat against its west wall, which is oak-panelled for 6 ft., and has an ornamental plaster frieze. The lower room in the east wing has oak panelling all round to a height of 7 ft., and in one of the upper lights of the window is a circular piece of heraldic glass with the arms and name of Avnesworthe. The lower room in the west wing has a bay window 8 ft. 8 in. across and 5 ft. 6 in. deep. The lead lights in this and in other rooms of the house are of good geometrical patterns, and in one of the upper lights of the bay is an interesting glass sundial so fixed that the shadow is visible from the inside. The staircase is of Jacobean date with square oak newels and open twisted balusters, now varnished. It goes up to the top of the house, which in the centre has an attic. The most interesting room, however, is that usually called the chapel, on the first floor at the west end. It is a small room about 18 ft. long and 13 ft. wide with a five-light window facing west. It occupies the rear portion of the west wing, the room in front with its bay window being sometimes known as the priest's room. What authority there is for these names does not appear, and at present the only indication of the back room having been used for religious purposes is a small square of 17th-century glass in the window depicting the crucifixion. The two side lights of the window are plain, but the three centre ones contain fragments of 16th-century heraldic glass. In the second light is a shield, with the arms of Ainsworth, with helm, crest, and mantling. The centre light has two small diamond quarries in brown stain, over the crucifixion already mentioned. On a beam in front of the window is an elaborate plaster frieze with three shields of arms, somewhat similar to those at Slade Hall, Rusholme. The centre shield bears the royal arms (France quartered with England) with crown and supporters, dexter a lion, sinister a dragon. The left-hand shield is of six quarterings, encircled by a garter, and originally with crest and supporters, but the dexter support and the crest have been cut away, when the plaster panel over the angle fireplace was inserted. The arms are those of Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, who quartered FitzWalter, Burnel, Botetourt, Lucy, and Multon of Egremont with his paternal coat.

The right-hand shield has the arms of Stanley, Earl of Derby, encircled by a garter, with crest (eagle and child) and supporters. There is a frieze in the south wall apparently of the same date with Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lys. Over the angle fireplace is a plaster panel of later date, with a shield bearing the arms of Byrom (a cheveron between three hedgehogs) with crest (a hedgehog), and the initials E. B. over. On each side of the shield is a fleur-de-lys, and below is the date 1692. The south and part of the north wall are panelled to the height of 6 ft. in oak, and the door is set across the south-east angle, balancing the fireplace.

There is a tradition that Dr. Byrom wrote 'Christians, Awake' in Kersal Cell, and that it was first sung in front of the house on Christmas Eve 1750, but both events are more likely to have taken place at Byrom's house in Manchester.

North of Kersal Cell, facing west towards the road, is Kersal Hall, a two-story gabled timber building, the front of which has been rebuilt in brick and painted black and white. The back of the house, however, shows the original timber construction above a lower story of brick with stone mullioned windows. The house preserves the central hall type of plan with passage and porch at the north end, and has north and south wings. It is a picturesque building with stone slated roof and brick chimneys. The hall has three windows to the front, and in the lower room of the south wing is some good 17th-century panelling.

William Ravald purchased land in Kersal in 1548. (fn. 46) About 1619 this, or part of it, was sold to James Chetham of Crumpsall. (fn. 47)

Apart from the families named, little is known of the early landowners. (fn. 48) Allen of Broughton recorded a pedigree in 1665. (fn. 49) In 1798 Samuel Clowes paid three-fifths of the land-tax, and a small additional sum in conjunction with Elizabeth Byrom, whose separate estate was but small. (fn. 50) The Protestation of 1641 found eighty-three adherents. (fn. 51)

In 1836–9 St. John the Evangelist's was built for the worship of the Established Church; (fn. 52) St. Paul's, Kersal Moor, followed in 1852; (fn. 53) and to these have been added the churches of the Ascension, Lower Broughton, in 1869; (fn. 54) St. James, Higher Broughton, in 1879; (fn. 55) and St. Clement, Lower Broughton, in 1881. (fn. 56) The residence of the Bishops of Manchester, known as Bishop's Court, was fixed in Broughton by Bishop Fraser.

The Wesleyan Methodists have four churches in Higher and Lower Broughton, (fn. 57) the Primitive Methodists one, and the Methodist New Connexion also one, called Salem. The Baptists have a church in Great Clowes Street, 1868; and the Congregationalists one in Broughton Park, an offshoot of Richmond Chapel, Salford, in 1874–5. (fn. 58) The Presbyterian Church of England has a place of worship in Higher Broughton, founded in 1874. The Unitarians have a school chapel. The Swedenborgians have a New Jerusalem Church in Bury New Road.

For Roman Catholic worship there are the churches of St. Boniface in Lower Broughton, and St Thomas of Canterbury in Higher Broughton. The latter mission, which includes Cheetham, was founded in 1879; the present church dates from 1901.

There is a Greek church in Bury New Road, founded in 1860. (fn. 59)

A Jewish synagogue was opened in 1907 in Duncan Street.