Tuesday 15 August 2017

More from Tony Goulding ......The Art Heritage of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Normally I don’t return to previous posts; however I am happy to do so in this instance. 

Following a request from a descendant I was further researching the Haigh family and came across a story which enhances both their history and the story of the High Lane.

“The Oakes” The Haigh’s family home on Greenheys Lane, Hulme in the 1880’s

The Haighs were a prominent family in Edwardian Chorlton-cum-Hardy centred on The Oaks Music School situated at the junction of Wilbraham and Manchester Roads.

The picture opposite shows the family’s earlier home and comes from a painting of it by Juliet Knowles who was related by marriage to the Haighs. Juliet’s sister Florence married Robert Wallace Haigh at St. Mary’s, Hulme on 16th October, 1894.

Juliet had two brothers who were also artists, Frederick James (a landscape and figurative painter) and the more celebrated George Sheridan (who is described as a “Genre” artist). Juliet and George Sheridan lived as children on High Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the house which became when they left it in March, 1873 Robert Davies’s “Commercial School” (1)

High Lane, 2017
Their younger brother, Frederick James, was born the following year with the family living at 117, Moss Lane West, Hulme, Manchester..
   
All three of these “Knowles” became professional artists whose works are regularly sold at auction houses around the world. George Sheridan appears to have been the most successful; after starting his career in Manchester he settled in the affluent London area of Hampstead.

Frederick James also moved away from the area to Oswestry in Shropshire and later near Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Only Juliet remained working in Manchester.

The 1890,s rate books show her with a studio on the 3rd floor of the Oxford Arcade on Oxford Street.

In the 1933 trade directory she is located at Ocean Chambers, 54, Deansgate. (2)

Former art school, 2017
The value of auctioned lots of paintings by each of the three artists varies but as a rough guide the highest “hammer prices” were obtained by George Sheridan – up to around £10,000. Frederick James’s landscapes fetch up to £1,500 whilst Juliet’s still lifes reach up to around £500.


Thus we have three more local artists to add to Thomas Edwin Mostyn who ran his art school on High Lane at the turn of !9th?20th centuries. The glass roof of its studio is still evident today in the building which now houses the Buddhist’s World Peace Café.

© Tony Goulding

Pictures, The Oakes, 1897, Juliet Knowles,m31791, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass, remaining images from the collection of Tony Goulding

NOTES

1) The school’s name was changed after two years to “Chorlton High School” The proprietor sold the building to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford in 1897 from when it was used as Chorlton-cum-Hardy’s first Catholic Church and parish school. After the new church was opened in 1927 it retained its educational role until a new school was built in the 1960’s. It now functions as a parish centre (with a successful amateur boxing club using part of the old school buildings)
2) Juliet resided with her father until his death after which she moved in with her younger sister, Florence and brother-in-law Robert Wallace Haigh and their children. This arrangement lasted for over 40 years first in Stockport and later in Levenshulme, Manchester.

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