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William Crabtree
Five generations of the Crabtree family lived at the Croft in Broughton.
A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4 (1911) describes Broughton Spout:
The house on the left of both images is Ivy Cottage which still stands today, and is thought to be the home of William Crabtree.
There is no evidence of of other earlier properties that existed at the Cliff due to the area's gradual change from a rural area to a residential suburb. The oldest other house that now exists is Cliff House dating from 1817, which was the first of a number of large houses to be erected overlooking the River Irwell. Originally called "Bank Side" on the map of 1845.
More about Venus....
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus appears in Earth's sky never far from the Sun, either as a morning star or evening star.
Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction from most planets. A thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system.
More about Transits...
When the planet Venus passes between Earth and The Sun it appears as a small dot moving across the face of the Sun, and this is called a Transit. Johannes Kepler predicted in 1627 that a transit of Venus would occur in 1631. Sadly lack of accuracy meant he failed to predict that it wouldn't be visible from most of Europe. However Kepler also predicted that a near miss of a transit would occur in 1639.
More about Horrocks & Crabtree...
So it was that in the 17th century Horrocks and Crabtree got to work on making Kepler's calculation more accurate and predicted the 1639 transit would not be a near miss, and it would actually be observable from Europe.
The ground-breaking work of these friends was influential in establishing the size of the Solar System.
A commemorative plaque was unveiled a few yards away in December 2005, along the pathway to Ivy Cottage (388-90 Lower Broughton Road).
Ivy Cottage is thought most likely to have been the home of William and his family at the time when he was collaborating with Horrocks, and now sits within the Cliff Conservation Area.
The first known observations and recording of a transit of Venus were made in 1639 by the English astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend and correspondent William Crabtree.
William Crabtree (1610-1644) performed his observation of the transit of Venus from his home on Crabtree Croft, Broughton in Salford.
Crabtree Croft 1808 - Bury New Rd/The Roman Road is dotted
In the 17th century Broughton was still regarded as a member or hamlet of Salford and the area around the Cliff, and what is now called The Priory, at the northern end of Lower Broughton Road, was a picturesque hamlet with a spring, known as Broughton Spout.
Broughton Spout by James Bourne (1775-1863) - Newport Museum
Some little distance beyond the "Griffin" in Lower Broughton Road, opposite Castle Irwell, a clough dipped into the Stony Knolls, and down it came the rain water and found its way to the Irwell across the road. This watercourse gave the clough the descriptive name of Broughton Spout.
Crabtree croft through the centuries
A sketch of Cottages at Broughton Spout was also made by James Croston (1830-1893).
Cottages at Broughton Spout by James Croston (published 1875)
Ivy Cottage
Broughton Spout (1845)
Venus (NASA)
Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures (Inc. Greeks) did not recognise Venus as a single entity, instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon.
In the second century, Ptolemy theorized that both Mercury and Venus are located between the Sun and the Earth.
The 11th-century Persian astronomer Avicenna claimed to have observed the transit of Venus, which later astronomers took as confirmation of Ptolemy's theory.
Galileo Galilei first observed Venus in the early 17th century, and found it showed phases like the Moon. When Venus is furthest from the Sun in the sky, it shows a half-lit phase, and when it is closest to the Sun in the sky, it shows as a crescent or full phase. This could be possible only if Venus orbited the Sun, and this was among the first observations to clearly contradict the Ptolemaic model that the Solar System was centred on Earth.
However, the ancient Sumerians already knew that the morning and evening stars were the same celestial object and
the Chinese historically referred to the morning Venus as "the Great White" (Tàibái 太白) or "the Opener (Starter) of Brightness" (Qǐmíng 啟明), and the evening Venus as "the Excellent West One" (Chánggēng 長庚).
2012 Transit of Venus
Where is venus now?
The last transit of Venus was in 2012, and that was the last one of the 21st Century ! The next transit is in December 2117.
Crabtree making his observation
Crabtree is celebrated in one of the Manchester Murals in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall (above).
The men made their observations independently on the 4th December 1639 (24 November under the Julian calendar then in use). Horrocks observed from the village of Much Hoole in Lancashire, and Crabtree from his home in Broughton, Salford.
Horrocks making his observation (The Linda Hall Library)
Jeremiah died the day before he was due to actually meet Crabtree, possibly for the first time, in 1641.
William died in 1644 (aged 34) and was buried within the precincts of the Manchester Collegiate Church on 1st August.
On 9 June 2004, the day after a transit occurred as had been predicted by Horrocks, a commemorative street nameplate in memory of William Crabtree was unveiled at the junction of Lower Broughton Road and Priory Grove which marks the northern boundary of Crabtree Croft.
2005 Plaque
2005 Plaque
Ivy Cottage
Conservation Area
Get involved with Heaton Park Astronomy Club
