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Howcaster Cottage & Singleton Lodge
Howcaster Cottage first made an appearance on the map of 1891. Prior to that, on the map of 1844 the location had been the site of Singleton Brook Cottage, a property which was also shown on the tithe map of 1839.
Looking back at the earliest census of 1841, the enumerator records the following properties along Bury Old Road:
George Wood became a magistrate and deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire, and also went on to be MP for Kendal in Cumbria from 1837 until his death. He was involved in the establishment of The Royal Manchester Institution and the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, and an inaugural vice-president of the Manchester Athenaeum.
George Wood owned over 20 acres of land in Prestwich, as recorded in the tithe map of 1839. He died of a stroke at a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (of which he was vice president), was buried in the family plot at St Mary's in 1843 and the estate passed to his son William.
An article of 1878 shows how William did not take too kindly to some Nuns who knocked on his door.
By 1881 Prestwich had received a second Police station on Bury Old Road near Singleton Lodge Cottage. This was operated by PC Robert Randle from Sutton in Bedfordshire, who lived at the station with his wife and three daughters. The police station was one of four properties listed along bury Old Rd, with a mix of gardeners, a locksmith, a butler a dressmaker and their families all recorded. Most of this row of buildings was demolished by 1932 to make way for the junction with Ravensway.
The census of 1891 finally shows Howcaster Cottage has replaced Singleton Brook Cottage, and a Mr Hugh D Wynter from Oxfordshire was in residence. He was listed as being a Managing Director of a Company, and lived in the new cottage with his wife and four servants: a cook; housemaid; footman and groom.
Singleton Lodge had passed to Williams son, George William Rayner Wood, who had followed his father by becoming a Justice of the Peace. His wife two children and a boarder had four servants in attendance.
When we look for John Collinson in the 1841 census, he's living with his father (also John) who is a brewer. The property they were found at was on Monsal Lane in Manchester.
Once he had sold the brewery, John Collinson senior had set up in the Cotton Industry, and by 1862 operated Reservoir Mill, Beswick (now under the Etihad Campus). By 1891 John Collinson and Co. Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers ran 200 looms at the Mill, producing ginghams, checks, stripes and ticks.
George Cowel, the previous resident of Howcaster Cottage in 1901 had been Managing Director and Head Brewer of Wilson's Brewery during the investigation into a disease that had spread through Manchester in 1900.
George Cowell testified that they had destroyed 1,292 barrels at the brewery, and 97 in
various pubs. There had been some delay in destroying the beer, because of uncertainty as to whether the excise duty would be refunded, in the meantime the beer had been stored at a disused brewery in Oldham belonging to Wilson's which was going to be pulled down.
Singleton - home to Vernon Royle, retired merchant, his wife and two servants. This house was later called Brooklands.
Singleton Cottage - was split into two properties home to John Hulme, a gardener, his wife and two children. they had two men of independent means lodging with them. In the other half of the cottage was Richard Mills, a book keeper, with his wife and two children.
Singleton Lodge - this was actually a large house where William Wood a merchant, aged 29, lived along with five servants.
William Rayner Wood (b:1811, Leeds) was the son of Sarah & George William Wood (b:1781) who was a merchant born to William Wood (b:1745), a Unitarian Minister and his Wife Louisa nee Oats.
George Wood had moved to Manchester in 1801 to continue his business interests, but soon retired to follow more fulfilling pursuits. He became MP for South Lancashire (1832-35) in the first reformed Parliament of England,as was George Philips of Sedgley Hall.
By 1851 Sarah Wood, widow and annuitant had moved into Singleton Brook cottage. She was aged 78, and living with her sister Mary Oates, two visitors and two servants. Her son William, aged 39 (born 1811), was married and lived in Singleton Lodge with his wife and four servants.
William had married the girl next door at Brooklands, Sarah Jane McConnel (born 1814), he also became a magistrate, as did his son.
The census of 1861 shows that William Wood had moved on, and his mother Sarah had moved along with her sister to Singleton House, along with five servants. Singleton Brook Cottage was listed as hosting three families, Nicholas Buckley/Brickley, a gardener with his wife and two children. Also in the cottage were Alive Allen and her daughter and Samuel Gee, coachman.
William's mother Sarah died in 1864, and his wife Sarah Jane died in 1867, all were placed in the family plot at St Mary's.
William Wood was still in residence at Singleton Lodge with his son George WR Wood, a Barrister from Ireland was visiting and they had three servants to look after their needs, plus a coachman & his family living in a lodge. William died in 1884 and joined his family in the vault at St Mary's.
At the stable block lived the coachman, Peter Holdsworth along with his family, and JOhn Williams, a gardener lived with his wife and five children in a cottage. (probably the gate lodge on Bury Old Road).
David Murdock was now the local PC, with a warehouseman for a waterproof manufacturer living in the adjoining property.
The following census of 1901 shows George Cowell, the director of a brewery had moved in to Howcaster Cottage with a housemaid and cook. George Wood was still living at Singleton Lodge with his wife and one daughter. Their gardener lived in another cottage and P.C. Green was now looking after local affairs.
Finally in the 1911 census, John Collinson (born 1839), a Commissioning Merchant of Cotton Goods, was living at Howcaster Cottage with his wife and two servants. This resident gives us a lead as to the Brewery that the previous residents managed. When I see a loose thread on the garment of history... I pull it :-)
The brewery had been established on Monsal Lane in 1834 by John Collinson and George Simpson and was acquired by Henry Charles Wilson and Thomas Philpot in March 1865. By the 1890's it was trading as Wilson's & Co.
The disease was found to be arsenic poisoning, spread by contaminated beer ! In Salford the change in the colour of peoples skin led to it being called 'khaki disease.' But in other areas people named it after their local brewery.
The source was actually traced to be the sugar provided by Bostock's in Liverpool, whereby contaminated sulphuric acid (from Leeds) had been used to create the sugar. Beer in Liverpool and Staffordshire were also affected.
All the affected breweries (Groves & Whitnall, Wilson's, Threlfall's, Bass etc...) recalled their beer (spirits were unaffected) and poured hundreds of gallons down the sewers.
Hugh Wynter, the resident of Howcaster cottage in 1891 had been a partner with Herbert Wilson and owned several pubs together, assumed to be houses tied to Wilson's Brewery.
Wilson's only had two Public Houses in Prestwich: The Plough Inn which stood on Rainsough Brow, and The Railway and Naturalist which is still operating in the heart of Prestwich.
Joining dot-to-dot puzzle that history always leaves behind, with John Collinson living at Singleton Lodge, and two Wilson's Brewery managers living at Howcaster Cottage, that suggests that the estate was sold by the Wood family and purchased by the Collinson family, who must have still had some ties with Wilson's Brewery, providing residence for the managers.
Looking back at the 1841 census of the Monsal Lane Brewery, next door to John Collinson were living the Wilson family. John Wilson was an engineer aged 30 (b:1811), with his wife Isabella and six children plus 1 servant, perhaps Charles Wilson who bought the brewery from John Collinson was a relative...the loose threads are always wanting to be pulled... the dots to be joined.
