Were your ancestors from Angel Meadow? Do you have a family story about the slum, a myth or even a legend? Hit reply below and I’ll post a few brief stories here on the website. Feel free to include your ancestor’s name, where they lived in Angel Meadow and the years they were there.
Angel Meadow 
My 3x grandparents lived in Style Street, Angel Meadow. It was a far different place than where they had come from… a little village called Bunbury in Cheshire. They lived in Angel Meadow for around 15 years – raising their family in the place named as ‘hell on earth’ and eventually moving to the Salford area. I’m sorry, very proud of my roots and of the struggles they overcame.
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Lucy/ Lucey, George, Cunningham and Hurst Families lived Old Mount Street.
Ann Lucy was said to have lived in the same house for 54 years, she was stated as being 104 years old in a newspaper article that reported that five generations were represented in the same household. She had recently been confined to bed after suffering a stroke and was in receipt of 3s per week law relief at the time the article was written. She died in 1910 and was buried in Phillips Park Cemetery alongside other members of her family. The children of the Hurst family were baptised at St Chad’s from 1893 onwards. I have family history details of the families names above who were all decedents of Granny Lucey if anyone would be interested. x
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Hiya, just wondering which St. Chad’s church you mean? My Auntie’s family name was Hirst and she now lives in Saddleworth with us (there is a St. Chad’s here also) and I have grown a huge interest into this slum as of recent due to its closeness to us.
Thanks 🙂
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Ah, the place never even crossed my mind! I have done far too much reading for a Sunday!
This website and various others I have stumbled across on Google have really opened my eyes to Manchester’s incredible history. I hope to do a lot more research on it!
Keep up the good work 🙂
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Granny Lucy was my great, great, great grandmother. Most of the family moved to Salford from Ancoats after her death. I would be very grateful for any family history details about the families mentioned.
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John and Ellen Burns (Byrnes) are shown on the 1841 to be living at Nicholas Street, off Ludgate Street. They were born in Ireland but their three children were born in England. Margaret, the eldest, married Thomas Ward at St Chad’s in 1847.
The Ward family lived in the area of Ancoats and later Collyhurst until the houses were demolished in 1963.
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My great-great-grandma lived in Angel Meadow and married in what is now Manchester Cathedral. I was shocked on finding the marriage certificate to see lots of couples were married at the same time to save time. Really, really degrading! A factory production-line wedding! Horrible.
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My great-grandad was head of the Hope Street scuttlers, John Allmark. The BBC are doing a programme on them and interviewed my family last year. They sent me all their research which made very interesting reading
Lynne Glover 21/02/2016
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My great-grandmother, Miriam Allmark, was John’s sister. We were also interviewed for the TV series, but my dad was offended by the BBC suggesting that the Allmarks were Scuttles, due to the fact that we didn’t know anything about John Allmark. It seems that the family avoided mentioning him. My father met John Junior, John’s son, but never knew how he was related to us. Only discovered about John Allmark while I searched the ancestry website for our family tree.
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My great grandparents lived in Beswick Row. My Grandad was born in Gibraltar-bottom of Red Bank. My Mum used to attend St. Michael’s. I am really looking forward to reading your book. The ‘Medder’ might have been a slum, but it also produced some very fine people. I’m dead proud of my ancestors!
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I’m positive Lowry must of painted some of the area. Would be good to match up his view with some of the stories.
Theres also a “Friends of Angel Meadow” (FOAM) group on Facebook that have done a lot of research into the area.
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Kirby has found, investigated and collated the stories of individuals who lived in Angel Meadow. His book is full of tales of fights, struggles to survive, courageous stands for better conditions.
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My great grandfather lived in the meadow and my grandfather was born there in 1875. Great grandfather lived at 141 Charter Street and was a beer retailer according to the census and his death certificate. I went to see the diggings in the car park where some of the old house’s foundations were exposed before the new Co-Op building was erected. Unfortunately Grandad’s house being at 141 was on the other side of Charter Street facing 142 the Ragged School for Girls. but I got a general idea of that sort of housing the ancestors dwelt in and the conditions they endured there. I must arrange to obtain the book sometime it should be very interesting!
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Hi my great grandmoter lived in angel meadow and went to the girlis ragged school. her name was ellen boswell through ancestry i know she lived in nicholas street,mount street and lived their quite a few years angela
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I would love to find out if my 3x grandfather Joseph Bancroft 1779-1845 does have a flag with his name on in St Michaels flags.
My 2x grandfather James and wife Mary Ann Bancroft lived 11 St Michaels Place 1841-1851 censuses They raised 10 children there
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After moving to Manchester from Cork, my great great- grandmother, Elizabeth Geoghegan, lived on Rochdale Road between 1859 and 1867. She buried her husband Thomas in Manchester and then, with two of her four surviving children, left for the USA. All four of her boys worked in the cotton mills, the younger two as doffers, and the two older boys as grinders.
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