July 23, 1850, Liverpool England -- Last night there were thunderstorms and heavy rains. Thank God! The rain helped to wash down the grime and the stench of human garbage and waste. They say you get used to the smell if you live here long enough. But on a hot and humid day, like yesterday, the smell is overwhelming. Let's hope a cooler western wind prevails over the Liverpool port today.
We woke up to the cry of our newest cousin, seven-month-old Margaret Walch who was born on the 27th of January of this year. She is called Maggie. Her 2 ½ -year-old brother, Jimmie Walch, also is up and is playing on the floor with a small wooden boat his father made from scrap lumber. This is the Hopwood Street residence of our 2nd Great-Grandparents Stephen Walch and Elizabeth Charnock. They have been living here for at least four years, since 1846 the year they were married in St. Nicholas, the seamen church, which is not far from here.
Our great grandfather Stephen, a stone getter, has already gone off to work. Perhaps his route to the quarry is similar to the one we took last night. As you recall, we walked the 15 miles from Upholland to Liverpool in our new shoes. It was early evening as we turned south on Scotland Road. Scotland Road runs along what once was the old coach route from the town center of Liverpool to the north. The locals call it Scottie Road. As we walked down Scottie, we passed by scores of workshops, pubs, and doss houses (flop houses). The stores and sidewalk merchants were selling goods of every description and kind, including themselves. The road was teeming with people – beggars, hawkers, drunks and people just coming and going.
We woke up to the cry of our newest cousin, seven-month-old Margaret Walch who was born on the 27th of January of this year. She is called Maggie. Her 2 ½ -year-old brother, Jimmie Walch, also is up and is playing on the floor with a small wooden boat his father made from scrap lumber. This is the Hopwood Street residence of our 2nd Great-Grandparents Stephen Walch and Elizabeth Charnock. They have been living here for at least four years, since 1846 the year they were married in St. Nicholas, the seamen church, which is not far from here.
Our great grandfather Stephen, a stone getter, has already gone off to work. Perhaps his route to the quarry is similar to the one we took last night. As you recall, we walked the 15 miles from Upholland to Liverpool in our new shoes. It was early evening as we turned south on Scotland Road. Scotland Road runs along what once was the old coach route from the town center of Liverpool to the north. The locals call it Scottie Road. As we walked down Scottie, we passed by scores of workshops, pubs, and doss houses (flop houses). The stores and sidewalk merchants were selling goods of every description and kind, including themselves. The road was teeming with people – beggars, hawkers, drunks and people just coming and going.
The narrow side streets are packed with poorly built cramped houses, many of which are crammed into dark courts. Hopwood Street is no exception. Hopwood is about eight blocks long, stretching between Scotland Road and Vauxhall. Three blocks beyond Vauxhall is the port of Liverpool.
The population of Liverpool from 1841 to 1851 skyrocketed to 360,000. This was primarily due to the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. 1847 was the peak year when an estimated 300,000 Irish immigrated. Many went on to America, but many others remained in Liverpool because they could not afford the passage. Irish families are crammed into the nooks, crannies and basements of the houses and tenet buildings between Scotland Road and Vauxhall. As a result, the strip of land between Scottie Road and Vauxhall is said to be the most densely populated land in the civilized world.
The boom creates its own special excitement, but it also fosters cholera and typhus. The proliferation of diseases, the poverty, cold and hunger prompts one health official to declare Liverpool to be the unhealthiest town in England at this time. It is of little wonder that Elizabeth and Stephen Walch are looking for a new place to raise their fledging family.
The population of Liverpool from 1841 to 1851 skyrocketed to 360,000. This was primarily due to the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. 1847 was the peak year when an estimated 300,000 Irish immigrated. Many went on to America, but many others remained in Liverpool because they could not afford the passage. Irish families are crammed into the nooks, crannies and basements of the houses and tenet buildings between Scotland Road and Vauxhall. As a result, the strip of land between Scottie Road and Vauxhall is said to be the most densely populated land in the civilized world.
The boom creates its own special excitement, but it also fosters cholera and typhus. The proliferation of diseases, the poverty, cold and hunger prompts one health official to declare Liverpool to be the unhealthiest town in England at this time. It is of little wonder that Elizabeth and Stephen Walch are looking for a new place to raise their fledging family.
-----------------
Above is a photo (top) taken of the rear of numbers 48-74 Hopwood Street and 1-45 Benledi Street. Notice the latrines below. Another photo (middle) shows a typical court along the strip. Both photos were taken in the 1930s. The street photo (bottom) shows Scotland Road in 1908. Much of the strip described above was razed in the 1960s during urban improvement projects.
Posts
4 comments:
My family also come from Hopwood Street off Liverpool famous Scotland Road. They were in Hopwood Street in the 1880s (my great great grandfather Peter Rogers at 133 and his son, my great grandfather Thomas McLoughlin Rogers at 88. The houses would not have changed at this time and so I was absolutely fascinated to read the descriptive account written vy Stephen and Elisabeth Walch. I have written a book about the wider, recently published, entitled "The Lost Tribe of Everton & Scottie Road". You can view it on www.losttribeofeverton.com
Hopwood Street still survives by name, but now contains terraced houses from circa 1930s/1940s. It remains a really famous street and one many people, including myself, still associate with. Many thanks for the highly illuminating memoriesm of your ancestors.
Kind regards
Ken Rogers, Liverpool, England
My Mother wss born and bred in Hopwood Street. Born in 1936, the 6th child of the 8 Toner children. Anyone remember them?
The Skarratts family (and their clan) lived in Hopwood Street, Silvester Street and Atholl street from the 1820's to the 1930's when they moved off Breck Road, Ullswater Street. I still have a surviving aunty (91 this November) who used to live in those streets as a child and remembers them. She emigrated to Australia in the 1950's but has returned a few times and always visits the area. The Skarratts' were all glass blowers/cutters up until my granddad, George, who became a carter - his cousin married a teamster/carter and must have got him a job. This was unusual as all that area around Scottie road was catholic (strong sectarianism in those days) and almost everyone worked on the docks. Carters in those days were nearly always protestant, so for my granddad (who was a catholic) to work as a carter must have been very unusual! Regards. Jamie Skarratts
My Doyle family lived there in the 1880's at 106 Hopwood. Husband died of Typhus at the Liverpool workhouse in 1884 and the wife died at home from leg ulcerations.
Post a Comment