Talk:James Watts (Mayor of Manchester)

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Notable references

There seems to be conflicting information that makes me suspect that much of the details of James and Samuel has been embellished. Here is a posting on Samuel.

   The following is taken from the book "Looking back
   at Levenshulme and Burnage", ISBN 0 946361 22 3
   Willow Publishing.

   < Burnage Hall,built around 1840 was a substantial brick and
   stone house with ornamental gardens,orchards and glasshouses,
   set back about 150 yards from Burnage lane and approached
   by a magnificent avenue of lime trees some of which can still be
   seen in Burnage lane.
   Samuel Watts moved into the hall about 1840.he was one of the sons
   of John Watts,founder of the firm S & J Watts which built a palatial
   warehouse in Portland st,Manchester,now the Britannia Hotel. The
   other son Sir James Watts lived at Abney Hall,Cheadle.
   Miss E.Watts Sidebottom writes that the clay dug to make the bricks
   to build Burnage Hall came from a field where the Garden Village now stands.
   The resulting hollow formed a pond " and it was for some years used for
   curling
   matches,and great was the excitement and the shouting,and many were the
   cabs,
   four-wheelers,and hansoms,which drove up on a clear winter's day.At night
   fires were lit and the game continued with no lessening of enthusiasm
   until late
   at night "
   The Hall and grounds[about 36 acres] fetched £14,000 at auction and the
   house
   was demolished in 1911 to allow the building of Burnage Park estate.The
   outbuildings remained and were used by Bidder's the scaffolding firm,until
   subsequent demolition when two houses were built on the site.>

   Also from the same book :

   <Transport,housing and industry tend to swamp farms,country lanes and
   rural prettiness.but Burnage residents sometimes resisted the onrush of
   modern Manchester. There was an outcry against the removal of Barcicroft
   Gate Cottage,once the home of the Watts family,founders of the firm S & J
   Watts >

   In the 1858 Manchester directory[Archive Cd Books] the following are
   listed :

   WATTS,Saml esq.Burnage Hall,Burnage
   WATTS,Samuel & James & Co.general warehousemen & merchants,
   Portland st.

   In the 1895 Manchester Directory[Archive CD Books] :

   WATTS,Edward,merchant[S & J WATTS & CO],Sunny Bank,
   21 Birch Hall lane.Dickenson rd,Longsight
   [Also at this address in 1873]
   WATTS,James,merchant [S & J WATTS & CO] Cheadle Old Hall,
   Cheadle, Cheshire

   Cheers
   Kath

--ClemRutter (talk) 23:41, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]