May 4th. – The wheather still continues extreemly cold, and verey little apearance pf grass, so that it as caused a verey great scarsety in food for cattle. Hay is selling 14d. to 16d. per stone; straw, 7d.; bran dust, shudes, &c., extreemly dear and scarse. Meal and flour is rising verey fast. May 17th. – Ended Kersal Moor races, wich on the 16th (the midle day) where verey numerously attended, but owing to the coldness and wetness of this day, verey few attended in consideration of its being the last day’s race. May 16th. – John Shepperd, cotton manufacturer, of Heyside, unfortunately killed by his horse stumbling on a large stone at Middleton, as he was returning from the races. The yearly Kersal Moor races (Manchester Whitsuntide races) were established on Kersal Moor in the year 1730. Afterwards a long controversy arose on the propriety of continuing or discontinuing the races in a large manufacturing town. Ashton Lever, Esq., and William Hulton, Esq., advocated the races, which were opposed by Edmund Chetham, Esq., Mr. John Byrom, M. A., and Mrs. Ann Chetham, through whose exertions they were discontinued from 1745, the year of the second Jacobite rising, to about 1760, when they were resumed. For many years these local races formed one of the chief attractions to Manchester, and the population of the large manufacturing district of which it is centre, during the Lancashire annual holiday at Whitsuntide. Kersal Moor, or, as provincially pronounced, “Karsy Moor”, was one of the oldest race courses in the kingdom, and was unrivalled for the crowds of merry gazers, who annually witnessed its sports. “Nimrod”, in an article in the ‘Sporting Magazine’ for 1822, thus incidentally writes: “No course I was ever on is so well kept as Manchester. I have ridden over it amongst 100,000 spectators, and nothing can be better than the clear way for the race-horses and the good humour of the people. So far back as 1730 races were first established on the moor. In that year John Byrom issued a pamphlet against them, condemning all such sports on the score of their immoral tendencies. Nevertheless, the meetings were continued till 1745, in which year Prince Charles Edward Stuart marched into the town at the head of his Highland clans. Kersal Moor races were discontinued during fifteen years, the influence of Byrom and his friends being sufficient to prevent their renewal until Wednesday, 1st October, 1760. Manchester races consisted then, as now, of three days’ sport; but uninfluenced by Whitsuntide, they took place on the 7th, 8th, and 9th September.
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The prizes of the meeting were restricted to one for each day, and were made to yield plenty of running, being thoroughly earned by multiplied heats of three or four miles each. The first official printer of our race lists was Mr. Joseph Harrop, appointed 1765. In 1766 there was no race on the middle day “for want of horses”, and blank days occurred on several other occasions. The sports were extended over four days in 1767, when a silver cup was added for hunters. After a trial of three years, the number of racing days was reduced to the former standard. Previously the races had been held in August, September, or October; but in 1772 Whitsuntide became the recognised race week. In that year a ladies’ stand was erected, and the lack of diversion was compensated by the presence of the fair sex, who are stated to have “shone forth a pleasing sight to many thousands of spectators in all the beauty of their sex, in all the gaiety of fashion, and with that delicacy of behaviour which inspires the heart”, and so on. The ten years next ensuing yielded nothing of interest, though programmes of the races were regularly advertised; and the stakes were frequently interspersed with matches. Although John Byrom died in 1763, the opposition which he had commenced to the sports died not with him, but was renewed by other persons until 1782, when the ensuing manifesto, signed by the borough reve, constables and 40 others, was issued to the public:- ‘We, the undersigned gentlemen, being of opinion that it would be for the interest of the town that the races should be discontinued, are determined to subscribe to them no longer.” Despite the borough reve and all the constables, etc., the Whitsuntide diversions were enjoyed that year as usual. Another 10 years of mediocre racing must be passed over, and then (1792) came a step in advance, in the shape of 11 days’ sport and a stake increased to £100. In 1793 and 1794 there were five days’ races, commencing on the Monday, there yet being only one stake a day contested, all of which were in heats. From 1795 to 1804 there were usually two prizes daily, and in the latter year, Mr. Houldsworth’s name first appears on the list. – Lancashire Legends May 18th. – This morning was found hanging Robert Kaye, of Lane End, Denton. He had been missing several days, and is supposed to have committed this rash act a day or two before he was found. May 21st. – Large snow drifts in consequence of large falls of snow last winter, and this unparreled cold spring, there still remains on several hills in this neighbourhood large drifts of snow, particularly Blackstone Edge. There is one wich is verey large, and there is one wich is verey plain to be seen from Northmoor on one of the hills north. |
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May 31st. – Every necessary of life is in consequence of this unpareled spring in a risening state, Meal sells at 2s. and 2s. 2d.; flower, about 1d. a peck higher; old butter, 10d.; new butter, 15d. a pond in Manchester, 12d. at Oldham; beef and mutton, 7½ d. and 8d. a pond; hay, 15d; straw, 7d. a stone; and all sorts of provender dear and scarce. Fustian weaving everey day worse and worse. All sorts of light goods extremely brisk, and wages tolerable good. Hatting was never brisker in the memory of man. Cotton Fustian worse and worse. “Light goods extremely brisk” Here, however, comes the dividing of the streams. The old hand industry was practically dead. The new industry “light goods” made from weft spun by machinery – 40’s for instance – which was worth then 7s. 6d. a lb., was coming to life. Imports of cotton to be spun by machinery were increasing fast every year, and so were exports of goods. Phoenix like, the new trade was rising out of the ashes of the old. Wool still rises. Comon weaving is now selling 3s. 2d. a pond. May 30th. – The cold wheather still continues, to the detrement of vegetation. June 4th was his Majesty’s birth-day, wich was intended to have been ushered in with great pomp and festivity, but it proved a verey unfavourable morning, by its raining, wich prevented a deal of publick demonstrations of joy.
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His Majesty George the III, King of England, was perhaps at this time the most popular man in all England. Who has not heard of “Farmer George” peering into the cottages of his neighbours, gossiping with labourers, catechising ploughboys and lecturing housewives? What homely tales were told of him to be sure! How he once turned a bit of meat in an old woman’s cottage with a string, and left behind him five guineas to buy a jack; how he patted a little boy who refused to kneel to the Queen lest he should spoil his new breeches; how he blew out the candles at the card tables to save the ends; how he walked to Gloucester new bridge with a crowd of country bumpkins at his heels, and had a “hurray” there. If we want to know more about him, let us read Charles Knight’s memoirs, or Peter Pindar’s satires, or Miss Burney’s gossipy tales. King George III was just the man to be popular in Oldham. No wonder that Oldham celebrated his birthday with “pomp and festivity”. Of course his sons were rather rude boys, but who shall say how far the father was to blame? Have we not known austere parents bring up sons even to daily family prayer, and yet they have not turned out the best specimens of humanity? |
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William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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