I take a great interest in lost Manchester manufacturers (they’re nearly all lost now, sadly), and T. Taylor gave me something to get my teeth into.
A photo of a Taylor lathe and of Rammerc’s(?) planer on Tony’s site helpfully show the address as
74 Chester Street, Hulme.
From the various old trade directories that are online, together with some maps, and with Mrs Asquith’s probing of the old census returns, we can pretty well pinpoint Taylor’s premises at particular times.
We know he was at No. 74 in 1861and 1876. In 1861 and 1863 he was listed as a cutler. He was born in Sheffield, the epicentre of English cutlery making.
In the 1871 census he was listed as a mechanic, and as a master mechanic in 1881.
The 1876 trade directory has him as a tool maker, still at No. 74.
In 1879, 1883 and 1886 he was also listed as a tool maker, but now living across the street at No.
65 Chester Street. At the moment, the trail has gone cold after 1886. Unfortunately, Thomas Taylor was a very common name in Manchester.
We can conclude that a machine with No. 74 in the address was built before 1879, but how much before, we don’t yet know.
We know that Nos. 65 and 74 were where he
lived, and we know that 74, at least, was his business address. Did he actually make the machines there? We know that No. 74 was subsequently occupied by a hairdresser and a fried fish dealer, which gives an idea of the type of property. In fact the whole area consisted of mean little terraced houses and shops, with a few small industrial buildings.
I have managed to find an old photo which almost pinpoints No. 65, the Global HQ of this maker of long-lived machine tools:-
http://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...hp?irn=30776&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=58479
Impressive, eh?
Let me present the evidence.
We know from the old trade directories that Nos. 65 & 67 were on the south side of Chester Street, straddled by Duke Street and Kingston Street. No. 67 was occupied by a coal dealer. Reference to the highly detailed 1844 Ordnance Survey map (an excellent
Alan Godfrey Maps reprint), shows a building about 60 ft by 40 ft, next to a Coal Yard.
The photo in the link above was taken in 1933, and I’m fairly certain that it is taken from Chester Street, with Kingston St on the right, and what appears to be a coal dealer in the foreground, with its little carts for customers’ use. The building to the left of it, I believe to be No. 65. It is typical of the ‘corner shops’ of that time and place, familiar to viewers of TV’s 'Coronation Street'. We know from the directories that No. 65 did become a shop, and at one time 65 & 67 were owned by a dairyman.
It’s hard to believe that the machines were made there, but based on my findings of other old Manchester engineers, I certainly would not rule it out. If he bought the castings in, and wasn’t too ambitious with his order book, what’s to say he didn’t make them there?
Incidentally, just 500 yds south west of here was an unimposing factory where Henry Royce made electrical equipment, cranes, and the first Rolls-Royce cars:-
http://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...hp?irn=63176&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=27102
500 yds north of Taylor’s was Galloway’s engine works, and 600 yds north east was the Crossley Brother’s first engine works.