MANCHESTER

Three items (letter, photographic card, and pamphlet), all in good condition. ONE: ALS. 31 December 1954. 1p, 8vo. Signed '(Mrs.) Rita Spurr.' and addressed to 'Dear Mr. Christopher Fry'. She begins by thanking him 'for the very great pleasure & stimulus' which she derived 'during the year that is passed' from his play 'The Dark is Light Enough'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf. The recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'My Dear Sir, | I beg to introduce my friend Mr. Walker to you as he is frequenting the Leeds Anniversary Meeting of the Association'.

The background to this letter is explained in Simpson's entry in the Oxford DNB which states that he 'took a deep interest in the movement for better elementary education. He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh modern infant school, in which he attempted to solve the problem of religious education by allowing parents to select religious instructors themselves. Failing to receive adequate support, however, the school was ultimately sold to the kirk session of New Greyfriars.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He thanks her for remembering him and sending 'that splendid photograph of yourself – I really think it is the best I have seen'. He continues: 'I have been “slogging” away at water-colours for a shew in Manchester and so have kept pretty busy.' He is sending 'a Nile water colour to the New Gallery', and has sent 'an oil to the Academy – they are sure to kick it out so I shan't mind'. He hopes that she and her sister 'are all right' and 'enjoying this lovely weather'.

1p., 8vo. Slight damp damage along left-hand margin, otherwise in fair condition. Reads: 'My Lord, | I have been honoured with your Lordship's Letter of this day's date; and I will lose no time in giving fresh authority to the Secretary at War to issue the pay and allowances to the Lamerton and Milton Abbott Corps, according to the amended return now transmitted to me by your Lordship.' Docketed on reverse.

In 1899 Mrs Mills published a biography of her husband, titled 'From Tinder Box to Larger Light'. See the references to her in Crawford, 'Women's Suffrage Movement' (2003), and Daley and Nolan, 'Suffrage and Beyond' (1994), the latter work containing a reference to a meeting with Frederick Douglass. Her father, as she states in this letter, was 'John Petrie of South St Rochdale' (Petrie (1792-1883) was a Belfast-born engineer). 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

1p., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed by Clater on verso of second leaf to 'T. W. Winstanley | Royal Manchester | Institution'. Opens: 'Dear Sir | I beg leave to forward to your Exhibition two pictures'. 'No 1', which Winstanley has given the catalogue number 294 is 'May day', priced at 100 guineas, for which Clater provides a six-line poetic quotation. 'No 2' (catalogue number 135) is 'The Village Post Office', priced at 30 guineas.

1p., 4to. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed by Stanley, with red wax seal, on reverse of second leaf, to 'The Secretary | In the Manchester Institution | Moseley [sic] St | Manchester'. The text itself consists of the names and prices of the two pictures to be submitted to the 1842 show, with the date and Stanley's name and address: 'No 1. | Water Mill | North Devon | 25£ with Frame. | No 2 | Lane Scene | Painted from Nature | 25£ with Frame | C R Stanley | 25 Gt Maddox St | Hanover Sqre. | August 9th. 1842'.

Ballet Today was a monthly magazine founded in 1946 by Phyllis Winifred Manchester (1907-1998). In 1951 Manchester settled in New York, leaving four colleagues, one of whom was Janet Sinclair (c.1922-1999), in joint charge of the magazine. The present item is a volume from the editorial office of 'Ballet Today', containing numerous cuttings of photographs and reviews from the magazine, with typed captions and manuscript annotations, also a few photographic prints, laid down over 104pp., 4to, of a scrapbook bound in green cloth.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient is not named. Grindon's handwriting is difficult and the reading is in parts tentative. The letter begins with a references to 'The Secretary of our “Manchester Field-Naturalists' Society', who appears to have placed a communication from the recipient in Grindon's hands. Grindon agrees to bring the matter 'very distinctly before our members', but explains that there are difficulties. 'Our members reside, almost wholly, in the town, or, if a few miles away, they come into town by train by 9 a.m. Or so, & remain till eve.

Viii + 99 + [1]pp., 12mo. In Victorian half-binding, with dark-green calf spine and corners, and brown marbled boards. The original yellow card front cover has been bound in with the volume. It carries the price (one shilling), title, publication details, and a portrait of Brierley, and is headed 'AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH', The volume contains no library markings whatsoever, but the front pastedown carries a pink printed notice of the 'Rules of the Library' of the Bury District Co-operative Society Ltd.

Williams Deacon's Bank Ltd, which was founded in Manchester in 1836 and subsequently headquartered in London, had a large network of branches in the north-west of England. It was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1930. In 1970 it was merged with Glyn, Mills & Co and The National Bank to form Williams & Glyn's Bank. Carpenter was a director of the bank for 21 years, serving as chairman for 12 years.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to Allchin at 5 Chandos Street, W. He asks him whether it would be 'convenient to you to come across today to see my Son who has a swelled face, & whose mother thinks he is not in a condition to go outside the house'.

Totalling 17pp., foolscap 8vo. The main paper, 'The Organisation and Functions of British Chambers of Commerce', 14pp; the supplementary paper (separately paginated), titled 'Joint Chambers of Commerce', 3pp. Separating the two papers is a leaf carrying a faded duplicated image of a plan copied from The Chambers of Commerce Manual 1954-5'. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with rusty staple and paperclip, and slight creasing to the last three leaves of the main paper. Minor pencil emendations throughout the main paper by Carpenter.

Carpenter, who was knighted in 1951, 'For services as President, Manchester Chamber of Commerce', was a leading Manchester industrialist and banker. Among the numerous positions listed in his entry in Who Was Who, he was for 40 years the chairman and managing director of the Manchester cotton manufacturers Greg Brothers & Co., and for 21 years a director of Williams Deacon's Bank (serving as chairman for 12 years), a leading member of the Cotton and Rayon Merchants' Association, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, and the International Chamber of Commerce.

Five maps, four of them fold-outs, together with duplicated text on two leaves, stapled into 8vo pamphlet of buff printed wraps with 'PORT OF MANCHESTER' and logo on the front, and printers' slug on back. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The five maps include three fold-outs: the first, coloured in blue and light and dark green, titled 'Principal oil docks and installations with their road connections' ('For particulars of sites on the Company's Estate application should be made to the Company's Land Agents | Dunlop, Heywood & Co.

Carpenter, who was knighted in 1951, 'For services as President, Manchester Chamber of Commerce', was a leading Manchester industrialist and banker. Among the numerous positions listed in his entry in Who Was Who, he was for 40 years the chairman and managing director of the Manchester cotton manufacturers Greg Brothers & Co., and for 21 years a director of Williams Deacon's Bank (serving as chairman for 12 years), a leading member of the Cotton and Rayon Merchants' Association, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, and the International Chamber of Commerce.

2pp., 12mo. A square has been cut away at thee head of the leaf (probably to remove Pender's monogram), otherwise in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The recipient is not named but it is the physician Sir William Henry Allchin. The letter reads: 'On my arrival here last evening I found an invitation from the Directors of your Company to dine with them at Richmond on the 17th. inst. I regret that I will not be in Town at the time. The Card I fear by some mistake reached my hands late.' From the Allchin papers.

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The first paragraph reads: 'Dear Cuming Walters, | Forgive me for not writing sooner. The fact is I have been down with influenza and pneumonia for the last three weeks. The worst time of the year for me! After the first week I contrived with difficulty to carry on with things, lying on my back dictating letters to my daughter, who has helped me enormously. But I am up again, and though not allowed out of doors have for the last four days been working in my room here, so shall manage all right and get my Christmas No.

Both items in fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. ONE: 8 December 1929. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. He begins by stating that he has read Walters' 'Charm of Lancashire' with great enjoyment, and considers it one 'of which every Lancashire family and lover of the county should possess a copy'. He continues: 'I myself was born between Pendle and Boulsworth. My Father's stock farmed around Trawden and the Boulsworth side, and my mother's around Blacko and the Pendle slopes, so your section devoted to this locality has an especial attraction for me.

The 72 items (17 TLsS; 53 ALsS; 2 ACsS) are in good overall condition; with only three items exhibiting slight damage. In buff card folder with note in pencil on cover: 'LETTERS ON JCW's “The Charm of Cheshire [sic]”, “The Charm of Lancashire” etc'. By far the larger part of the correspondence concerns Walters' 'The Charm of Lancashire' (London: A. & C. Black, 1929) rather than his 'Romantic Cheshire' (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930). There are two anomalies: a 1924 letter from F. W. D. Mottershead regarding a talk by Walters for 'the B.B.C.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper.Reads: 'Dear Sir | The 19th May is out of it; becase it falls in Eights Week, which is an impossible time for any sober event – college concerts & dances per evening, with a vista of importunate relatives behind. | Fir the rest, the 26th is very much our best evening, if you can possible manage it without putting yourself to too great inconvenience.' See Ensor's entry in the Oxford DNB.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged, worn and creased paper. Written in a hurried, difficult hand. He begins by saying he was 'just thinking' of him, 'and wondering!' He then invites him to dine the following Sunday in the 'usual way'. He continues: 'No, I didn't write about H. H. . There was a <?> ordinary notices in the D[aily]. T[elegraph]., but by whom written I can't say. I didn't really know enough about him.' He is 'going with Mr. Crawshay to the Elgar performance: it appears the new things are wonderful.

The Chapel was erected in 1811 and still stands, albeit with unsympathetic internal alterations dating from the 1990s. Kelly's Directory of 1889 describes it thus: 'The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (situated in St. Peter's Street) is a handsome building, with portico, erected in 1811, and provides accommodation for 960 persons. Ministers are elected at the Annual Wesleyan Conference.' 2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed, with two postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, 'To J. Fernley | Manchester | Care of the Rev. J.: Rigg, | Wesleyan Minister, | Oldham St. | Manchester'.

For the background to this letter see William Otto Henderson, 'The Lancashire Cotton Famine 1861-65' (1934) and Angela V. John, 'By the Sweat of their Brow' (2013). Between 14 April and 16 October 1862 Whittaker published a dozen letters on the 'Lancashire Distress' in the London Times, under the pseudonym of 'A Lancashire Lad'. Edwin Waugh, in his 'Home Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk During the Cotton Famine' (1867), describes Whittaker as 'one of the first writers whose appeals through the press drew serious attention to the great distress in Lancashire during the Cotton Famine.

See S. Taylor and J. Holder, 'Manchester's Northern Quarter' (English Heritage, 2008), which refers to 'the construction in 1781 of a Methodist Chapel, in a grand Georgian-Gothic style on Oldham Street, which replaced the earlier chapel on Birchin Lane'. This is said by Taylor and Holder to have been replaced, 1855-1856, by the Methodist Central Hall, which still stands. The dramatic changes being proposed in the present collection would appear to have been contemplated in the face of a new and large working class congregation.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with light staining to the signature. He thanks the unnamed recipient for his 'programme of Lectures' and states that he will not 'want a Lanthern, [sic][ but I shall want a good Supply of gas to the table'. (Dixon was an authority on the explosion of gases.) He asks the size of 'the Exchange Hall', as he wants 'to adjust exp[erimen]ts. to the size of hall'. Dixon played football for Oxford University in the FA Cup Final in 1873.

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Docketed crosswise across the valediction, including the signature, but not in an overly-obtrusive fashion. An interesting letter, casting light on the franking system and fraud within the pre-Hill Post Office.

[Title continued] for the support of the Sunday Schools of Children of all denominations," 8pp., inc. title, 16mo, sewn, no wraps or binding, text complete, but pp.[1] and eight grubby. several closed tears, some chipping, overall poor condition. Some information added to p.[2] - lessons and other points of order, and the name "Mrs Swallow No 2 New Market Lane" perhaps the original possessor of the item. No other copy traced.

A useful background guide is Geoffrey Russell Searle's 'Country before Party: Coalition and the Idea of "National Government' in Modern Britain, 1885-1987' (London, 1995). As the manuscripts in this collection indicate, Cuming Walters cherished the idea of a national party from the 1890s, and he was able to re-use material from that period on the formation of the National Party in 1920 (not to be confused with the party of the same name, a pamphlet relating to which is present, dating from 1917).