R E V I E W S

D avid Lewis, The illustrated history o f Liverpool’s suburbs. Derby: Breedon Books, 2003. 17 4 pp. £ 14 .9 9 . ISB N 1 85983 353 5.

There is a sense in w hich Liverpool has often been thought o f as greater than the sum o f its parts. This book goes som e w ay towards disputing that judgem ent. The author published The churches o f Liverpool in 200 1 and his latest effort will appeal to the ever-grow ing num bers o f local history enthusiasts.

The book is arranged into twenty chapters, each dealing with areas from Bootle in the north to H alewood in the south, although four chapters include m ore than one suburb. M any o f the fam iliar suburban names can be traced from A nglo Saxon origins: Aigburth, Speke, Childwall and others; and Lewis shows how so m any o f the field tracks o f that period can still be followed in som e o f the m ain routes. Som e other locations such as Kensington are o f m ore recent origin occurring because o f a convenient location on the coach road to Prescot and beyond. The reader is given a brief but clear account o f the transform ation o f the area from a landscape o f farm s and w oodlands by stages, through the building o f m ansion houses for m erchant princes to a m ixture o f housing— terraced or sem i­detached— for accom m odation o f a constantly expanding population. A striking exam ple here is the W alton area, the ‘oldest village’ , w ith a population in 18 0 1 o f 700, rising to 19 ,000 in 18 8 1 . The author is particularly interested in the architecture and buildings o f his subject and o f the effect on an area o f the developm ent o f docks, railways and canals.

As m ay be guessed b y those w ho have read his previous book Lewis enjoys walking around and looking at the features he discusses and his book is handsom ely illustrated by a splendid range o f black and white photo­graphs, m ostly bearing dates. These have been chosen to show either a building o f particular interest or a street scene with people and transport in evidence. On p. 38 there is for this reviewer a w onderfully evocative picture o f the narrow section o f Breck Road between Sedley Street and Esm ond Street: the road devoid o f traffic, and with shop and trade signs all visible. The selection on pp. 14 2 -4 3 is another o f great interest. Those on p. 14 3 show a prefabricated tenement block in Eldon Street, c .19 0 5 . This is a very early ( if not the first) exam ple o f such housing and Lewis pays tribute to the architect, J. A. Brodie. Brodie— really the city engineer— and Sir Lancelot Keay, the city architect and director o f housing in the 19 30 s, between them

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achieved a transform ation o f Liverpool in civic planning and m unicipal housing terms. It was Brodie in 19 0 4 w ho launched the construction o f Q ueen’s D rive, intended to be the first o f three concentric rings. Brodie’s inspired phrase for this was a ‘ circum ferential boulevard ’ . The construction o f the ring road opened up huge areas o f the rural hinterland for housing and Keay provided council houses w hich are ‘am ong the best exam ples o f m unicipal houses undertaken at the tim e’ . Certainly the credit given here to these two m en could stim ulate further research into this crucial phase o f Liverpool’s developm ent. Lewis provides som e hum an interest where, for exam ple, we get an am using m ention o f a youthful W . E. Gladstone playing cricket at Seaforth; Paul M cCartney and Ken D odd appear briefly, and the influence o f the m ajor football clubs is not overlooked.

The author has drawn on the out o f print series The lost villages of Liverpool, by Derek W hale, and various other printed works which are acknowledged in the reading list at the end o f each chapter. The m any excellent photographs are ascribed solely to the Liverpool Record Office, from whence the author obtained them, but as m any o f them are obviously from the w onderful C ity Engineer’s collection deposited in the Record Office it seems a pity that that source is not acknowledged directly.

Alan W. Andrews, Liverpool

Richard Brooke, Liverpool as it was, 17 75-18 0 0 ( 18 5 3 ) . Liverpool: Libraries and Inform ation Service, 2003. xxiii, 558 pp. £ 17 .5 0 hbk. ISB N 0 902990 225 . Peter Aughton, Liverpool: A people’s history. Revised edition. Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2003. 294 pp. £20.00 hbk. ISB N 1 85936 1 1 4 5.

M ike Fletcher, The making o f Liverpool. Barnsley: W harncliffe Books, 2004. 19 2 pp. £9.99 pbk. ISB N 1 903425 53 0.

Published in 18 5 3 , Richard Brooke’s Liverpool as it was, 1775 to 1800, gave joyous expression to the M erseypride so prevalent in V ictorian times. Long since evaporated, this confident fram e o f m ind is suddenly back in fashion. H ence the handsom e republication o f Brooke in the series o f reprints published by Liverpool Libraries and Inform ation Services as the city prepares for its ‘year o f heritage’ in 2007, the 800th anniversary o f the granting o f letters patent. Hence too the flood o f new popular histories, designed to cash in on the heritage market as Liverpool, belatedly regenerated through conservation, looks forw ard to opening its ninth century as European Capital o f Culture. It should be said straightway that for all its faults and obvious signs o f age, Brooke’s m eticulous research- based study o f a single generation com es considerably closer to capturing

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the essence o f L iverpool’s past than the broad brush sweep o f the populist histories.

A s Jane Longm ore notes in a m ost helpful and useful introduction Brooke’s book, part scholarly history, part recollection, part antiquarian study, was also a tribute to his recently-deceased father, the last o f the ‘old school’, a Cheshire in-m igrant who had arrived in Liverpool at the time o f the Am erican w ar o f independence. D raw ing upon the crystal clear recollections o f the nonagenarian prior to his demise, Brooke displays som e occasional nostalgia, as in the rem em brance o f the talent, wit and eloquence form erly on display at Liverpool hustings, but there is no desire for a return to the past, no evocation o f a past golden age. Indeed, the narrative is defiantly forw ard-looking and progressive: the decline o f rhetorical talent was as nothing com pared to the advance in electoral behaviour, no longer stigmatized by bribery, corruption and ‘treating’ . Liverpool, Brooke delights, reached pre-em inence through com m erce, the civilising force which, having eradicated darkness, barbarism and electoral corruption, brought ‘opulence, increased knowledge, useful arts and intellectual pursuits’ . The horrors o f the slave trade, an ‘odious and inhum an source o f em olum ent’ are not denied, but in Brooke’s progressive narrative (echoed in the town guides and histories which began to celebrate Liverpool’s distinctive identity) the enterprise and acum en by which Liverpool came to dom inate the ‘odious trade’ were soon applied to higher effect.

Com m erce, the essential dynam ic leading to the econom ic and m oral wealth o f nations, carried Liverpool through w ar and riots: its continued progress brought an end to the slave trade, the adoption o f an elevated m orality and the opening o f new markets (with profits which proved m ore sustainable). V iewed through Brooke’s m id-V ictorian perspective, com ­merce and culture were in perfect harm ony. Publication o f his book came in the im m ediate aftermath o f celebration o f the centenary o f Roscoe’s birth, festivities recorded in one o f the (lengthy but useful) appendices. Roscoe, Sam uel H olm e observed on the occasion, ‘taught us that elegance is not incom patible with com m erce, that the Athenaeum was an adjunct o f the Exchange, and that our Botanic Garden and our Royal Institution were perfectly consistent with our com m ercial transactions, docks, warehouses, the essential dynam ic leading to the econom ic and m oral wealth o f nations and counting-houses’ . For Brooke and his contem poraries, m id-Victorian Liverpool, having shed its slaving links, stood forw ard as second m etro­polis, a capital o f culture dedicated to the culture o f capital.

W hile revelling in Liverpool’s Victorian pre-em inence, Brooke does not deny its form er insignificance (a lesson which needs to be learnt by those currently writing popular accounts celebrating 800 years o f history). Despite an antiquarian relish and reverence for archival retrieval and the

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‘h istoric’ past, Brooke was unable to reconstruct a venerable chronicle for ‘ ancient’ Liverpool. After lengthy exegesis o f the m edieval charters, he spent less than a page on what Ram say M uir later categorized as ‘long centuries o f small things’ , hastening over L iverpool’s insignificance as ‘quondam village’ to extol its subsequent exponential growth to becom e a great w orld port city, the second city o f em pire. In charting Liverpool’ s ‘progressive increase’ in the form ative last quarter o f the eighteenth century Brooke, the gentle­m an scholar, draws upon what M uir, an unduly harsh academ ic critic, described as a ‘hodge-podge’ o f docum ents. Often reprinted at tedious length in the text, footnotes or appendices, these written sources do not m ake for easy reading but they are invaluable as points o f entry for those seeking to explore the past in greater depth.

Neither o f the popular histories under review here offers such an essential service, leaving the reader unable to confirm or question their generalizations and assertions. References are either banished altogether or rendered exiguous to the point o f uselessness, precluding any socially inclusive process o f open debate or further study. It is to be hoped that other studies scheduled to m ark Liverpool’s 8ooth anniversary will find som e m iddle w ay between Brooke’s antiquarian excess and the disregard for referencing displayed in populist accounts. To be fair, in the absence o f proper references, Aughton and Fletcher offer a wealth o f illustration. Fletcher draws for the m ost part on his own private collection: in this respect (as in m uch else in this introductory survey), he is overshadowed by the range and style o f A ughton’s second edition. N ow published in hardback, this ‘people’s history’ has the look and feel o f a top quality art exhibition catalogue, w orthy o f pride o f place on the coffee table. As well as the new ‘L iver-cool’ look, it includes an upbeat forew ord by the leader o f the C ity Council (whose nam e is one o f several m isspellings in Fletcher) and a new final chapter, fittingly entitled, ‘The w orld in one city’ , the strapline o f the successful Capital o f Culture bid. It looks good and reads well but does not provide the authoritative history— the new Ram say M uir— which regenerated Liverpool deserves.

John Belchem, U niversity o f Liverpool

Stephen J. Roberts, A history o f Wirral. Chichester: Phillim ore, 2002. [x iv], 2 10 pp. £20.00 hbk. ISB N 1 86077 236 6

In the 19 50s, the Liverpool Echo published a weekly ramble, with sketch- m ap, o f a suitable area in W est Cheshire or South-west Lancashire. I f you lived on a W irral farm at that time, as this reviewer did, and your area was favoured that particular week, then hundreds o f Echo readers w ould take part. They w ould be told how to get there (ferries and buses in the case o f

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W irral), where the cafes were situated, and som ething o f the history o f the places they w ould see.

There is a long history o f the production o f historical guidebooks for the W irral visitor, beginning with W . M ortim er in the railw ay age, Philip Sully, M rs Gam lin and H . E. Young, for the bicycle and tram era, m oving into the beginning o f that o f the m otorcar. It continued in the twentieth century, until it reached D avid Randall’ s excellent The search for old Wirral in 1984. There was an assum ption that underlay all these works, nam ely that the intelligent visitor w ould want to have the ‘antiquities’ o f a place explained to him or her in a lively and accurate manner. Som e o f the books are m ore heavily laden with historical explanation than others, and som e are less accurate than their fellows. Three generations o f local historians have tried to eliminate the fantasies o f H ilda G am lin ’s ‘ Twixt Mersey and Dee from the collective m em ory.

Stephen Roberts’ book w ould certainly benefit the intelligent traveller, but it is m uch m ore than an historical guide-book— it is the first proper, com prehensive history o f W irral to be published using the full range o f both published and unpublished sources. It draws on another tradition o f W irral historiography, that established in the last decades o f the nineteenth century, o f which the greatest exponents were John Brownbill, W illiam Fergusson Irvine and, to a lesser extent, Ronald Stewart Brow n. They were responsible for opening up the vast treasures o f the H undred ’s official records to be found in the church court and palatinate records. Their findings were often very technical, but it is salutary to rem em ber that large num bers o f original records were published in a Birkenhead local news­paper (collected as Wirral notes and queries), as well as the m ajestic series that appeared in a succession o f Chester papers collected as The Cheshire sheaf.

Roberts’ book, which is aim ed at the intelligent general reader, is com prehensive, well-researched and well-illustrated. It begins with the geology o f W irral, takes us through its pre-history and m edieval and m odern history, up to the twentieth century. Its approach is through the political, econom ic and social history o f the H undred, set in a chrono­logical fram ework. It is difficult to pull o ff such a feat in an era o f extreme specialisation, but the author does it very well indeed. The m edieval section, for instance, deals with the D om esday evidence, the palatinate o f Chester, the forest, and the m onasteries. G ood use is m ade o f the proceedings o f the 13 5 3 trailbaston court, which was held in the presence o f the Black Prince, as earl o f Chester. In particular, the som ewhat disreputable history o f the Stanley fam ily, W irral’s m aster-foresters at this tim e, is well brought out. Less good is the section on W irral m onasteries, since no use is m ade o f Bishop Blythe’s visitation records o f the early sixteenth century, which include an account o f Birkenhead priory.

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The only section I could happily do w ithout is the description o f W irral in the early nineteenth century through the eyes o f George O rm erod, whose dism issal o f alm ost all W irral villages as not worth bothering with, except for those that had a m anor-house, preferably on an ‘em inence’, and inhabited by a m anorial lord, is notorious. Com pare that blinkered view with the fine w ork on the social and cultural history o f W irral by Canon Abraham H um e in the m id-nineteenth century.

This fine, i f rather expensive, book deserves to be read w idely by ‘W irralites’ (a term that dates back to the early seventeenth century). The specialists can inform the author o f mistakes to be put right in a new edition, and it will certainly hold its own until that tim e when substantially new research on sources for W irral’s history is available.

P. H. W. Booth, U niversity o f Liverpool

M ichael Nevell & John W alker, Denton and Dukinfield Halls and the archaeology o f the gentry and yeoman house in north west England 1500 to 1700, 2002. viii, 1 1 6 pp. £7.99 pbk. ISB N 1 8 7 13 2 4 27 o. M ichael Nevell & John Roberts, Park Bridge ironworks and the archaeology o f the wrought iron industry in north west England 1600 to 1900, 2003. viii, 10 2 pp. £7.95 pbk. ISB N o 000030 37 6. M ichael Nevell & John W alker, The archaeology of twentieth century Tameside, 2004. viii, 1 1 5 pp. £9.95 pbk. ISBN 1 8 7 13 2 4 29 7. (All three volum es are published jo in tly by Tam eside M etropolitan Borough C ouncil and the U niversity o f M anchester Archaeological Unit (U M A U ) and can be obtained from Tam eside Local Studies and Archives U nit, Staleybridge Library, Trin ity Street, Staleybridge S K 15 2BN ).

These three books are the final com ponents o f two series totalling no fewer than eleven publications which together form a com prehensive review o f the history and archaeology o f Tam eside from m ediaeval times to the present day.

Given that the local authority nam e ‘Tam eside’ has yet to be fully absorbed into the national consciousness, this enlightened set o f publica­tions goes a long w ay in identifying the particular character and historical developm ent o f the com m unities which have been absorbed into the sprawling urban edge to the east o f M anchester. The authoritative author­ship, and the structured and com prehensive approach, has provided a valuable source o f reference as well as a key to local identity and civic pride.

As paperback books published b y a local authority, they m ight be m istaken for typical local history publications o f great interest to the locals but not m uch wider than that. In fact they are o f both regional and national im portance— regional because each one carefully sets its topic in the context o f north west England, and national because they represent a

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dem onstration o f U M A U ’s considered approach to the study o f archae­ology within its social environm ent.

The authors spend som e time explaining the ‘M anchester m ethodology’ and analysing their fieldw ork w ithin the polarised fram ew ork o f lord, freeholder, and tenant, and the relative contributions m ade by each o f these social strata. They acknowledge that while this approach appears ideally suited to the understanding o f Tam eside’s transition from a rural to an urban econom y, it has not yet been tested in other geographical contexts. The archaeological theorising m ay be rather too heavy-going for the average reader (‘sigm oidal curves’ and ‘ seriation’ make their appearance as early as pp. 6 and 7 in the Twentieth century book) and this is a pity because the books will be o f interest to a wide readership. (It alm ost comes as a relief that the sub-heading ‘ rural dissertion’ is not another obscure term but sim ply one o f the frequent m isprints suffered by all three books— perhaps one day archaeologists w ill unearth the various m issing lines o f print from the Twentieth century book!)

‘Transition ’ is a theme which occurs again and again, and which helps to structure the books— Tam eside’s transitions from rural to urban; from agriculture to industry; from a hierarchical to a m ore dem ocratic social structure; as well as the geographical transition so obvious today as one travels from M anchester city centre across Tam eside to the tops o f the Pennine Hills. The origins are the two long-established lordships o f Ashton and Longdendale, the latter extending beyond the m odern borough boundary into Derbyshire. Earlier books in the series deal w ith these lordships during each stage and aspect o f their transition, and the theme is followed through in these volum es.

The study o f Denton and D ukinfield halls is a com bination o f social and architectural history and archaeological fieldwork, for little now rem ains o f these once fine m ediaeval houses which were the hom es o f the prosperous H olland and Duckenfield families. Denton H all was destroyed by fire in 19 30 , and D ukinfield H all was dem olished twenty years later after six centuries o f continuous occupation. The excavation o f their sites has thrown light on the developm ent o f the gentry and yeom an house in the region, and how they were at first adapted and rem odelled to meet rising social expectations. W hen in spite o f m odernisation they could no longer keep up with their ow ners’ growing aspirations they were let to tenants and eventually ended their days as farm houses. These changes are explained through typological analysis o f the developm ent o f sim ilar halls, and com parative floor plans.

Regional gazetteers add value to the Denton and Dukinfield Halls and Park Bridge books. The former gives the locations and brief descriptions of no fewer than sixty-three gentry and yeoman halls in Greater Manchester alone, and the latter describes forty-two associated archaeological and

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historical sites in the M edlock valley, plus a further eighteen ironworks sites in north west England.

The Park Bridge ironworks was founded in 17 8 6 -8 9 in a steeply sided valley, w ith little room for expansion. The eventual result was an intricate and congested site, the developm ent o f which is analysed thoroughly in the Park Bridge book. It is an im portant industrial archaeological site about which one gains a m uch clearer understanding by reading the book rather than by visiting the location where the rem ains were rather crudely consolidated som e years ago. The site was involved in the secondary processes o f iron production, examples being the production o f iron rollers for textile m achinery in the early nineteenth century, and the reprocessing o f scrap iron from the 1870 s until the 1940s. Once again it is the contextual approach which makes this book stand out from others, relating the developm ent o f the ironw orks to their social and regional contexts.

Three principal industries o f Tam eside were textiles, coal m ining and hatting. A ll three had their origins in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the grow ing influence o f landowners and tenants. The form er prom oted the transport routes and m ineral rights, while the tenants developed the handcraft-based industries which were rapidly mechanised through sequential technical innovations. Taking 18 7 0 as its starting point, the Twentieth Century book makes an excellent job o f reviewing the history and archaeology o f these and other industries— as always in their social and regional contexts.

The review o f hatting is particularly interesting, pointing out that by i8 6 0 (and the first bowler hats) Denton, H yde and Stockport were dom inating the British hatting industry. Also it is surprising to learn how extensive was coal m ining, with collieries strung from north to south across the borough. Little now survives from the m ining era.

The ‘transition’ theme again helps to structure the book, and chapters analyse the influence o f changes in local governm ent, new urban com ­m unities, rural landscape, and industrial change. In order not to interrupt the flow o f the text, a variety o f particular topics are picked out as separate insets within the chapters, and these provide interesting brow s­ing. The book concludes with m ore discussion o f archaeological m etho­dology as applied to the recent past. Again this w orthwhile explanation o f a m odern approach to archaeology m ay be too philosophical for the general reader.

The M etropolitan Borough o f Tam eside has gained a valuable historical and educational asset in these two series o f publications, which also make an im portant contribution nationally. For completeness, the eleven volum es are listed below. They represent a rem arkable achievement over twelve years b y D r M ichael Nevell o f U M A U (who is also Endangered Sites Officer for the Association for Industrial Archaeology) and his colleagues

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including John W alker who co-authored five o f the books and is now C hiefExecutive o f the Y o rk Archaeological Trust.

First series: The history and archaeology o f Tameside (8 volum es)1 M ichael Nevell: Tameside before 1066 (19 9 2)2 M ichael Nevell: Tameside 106 6 -1700 ( 19 9 1)3 M ichael Nevell: Tameside 170 0 -19 30 (19 9 3)4 M ichael Nevell: The people who made Tameside (1994)5 T om Burke & M ichael Nevell: The buildings o f Tameside (1994)6 M ichael Nevell & John W alker: Lands and lordships in Tameside; Tame­

side in transition 134 8 -16 4 2 (1998)7 M ichael Nevell & John W alker: Transition in Tameside; The archaeology

of the industrial revolution in two north west lordships 16 4 2-18 70 (1999)8 M ichael Nevell & John W alker: The archaeology o f twentieth century

Tameside (2004)

Second series: The archaeology o f Tameside (3 volum es):1 M ichael Nevell & John W alker: Portland basin and the archaeology of the

canal warehouse (20 0 1)2 M ichael Nevell & John W alker: Denton and Dukinfield Halls and the

archaeology o f the gentry and yeoman house in north west England 1500 to 1700 (2002)

3 M ichael Nevell & John Roberts: Park Bridge ironworks and the archae­ology o f the wrought iron industry in north west England 1600 to 1900 (2003)

Ken Catford, Oxton

T. C. D ickinson, Cotton mills o f Preston: The power behind the thread. Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2002. viii, 200pp. £ 12 .0 0 pbk. ISBN 1 — 859 36-09 6—3; A lan Fowler, Lancashire cotton operatives and work, 19 0 0 - 1950 (M odern Econom ic and Social H istory Series). Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. xv, 236 pp. £47 .50 hbk ISB N 0 7546 0 1 1 6 1 .

The steady stream o f books about the Lancashire cotton industry continues to flow, as each generation brings new views and perspectives, fresh assessments and reassessments. The topic does not becom e stale and weary, and the central position which it occupies in the history o f the county since 17 5 0 rem ains clear. Analysis o f the cotton industry in social, econom ic and political terms began alm ost as soon as the trade itself loom ed large in the eighteenth century, but by the end o f the nineteenth century historical analyses were appearing, and twentieth century historians wrote o f a trade which was increasingly seen in term s o f the past, not the

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present. In the post-war period a new dim ension to research and analysis was added, as historians began to consider the architectural and archae­ological aspects o f the industry, an interest which grew as mills closed and the survivors were valued by those who sought to retain and conserve these dram atic legacies o f the im m ediate past. Here we have two recent books w hich are totally different in character, looking at different dim ensions to this hugely-varied and extensive subject— one deals with the w orkforce in the first h a lf o f the twentieth century, the other the infrastructure o f mills and engines.

Colin D ickinson is well-known locally for his w ork on the industrial archaeology and industrial architecture o f the Preston area. For well over thirty years he has been recording and researching the cotton m ills o f the town, and has taught courses and classes on the subject across the district. This book brings together m uch o f his m aterial in an attractively-produced and realistically-priced paperback, w ith m any excellent illustrations. W hile the title im plies that it provides a w ide-ranging account o f the Preston mills and the tow n’s cotton industry, the particular em phasis o f the book is the steam engines which powered those mills. Therein lies its overwhelm ing weakness. There are ten chapters, each covering a single period, from ‘The first engines’ and ‘Post-w ar developm ents o f the 18 2 0 s ’ to ‘The Golden Autum n: 1900 to the Great W ar’ and ‘The Final Years’ . W ithin these the mills are described in sequence according to the date o f their construction, and the subsequent history o f m ost is recounted. This can be an awkward arrangem ent, because the narrative (such as it is) jum ps to and fro from opening to closure and then back again— there is not enough sense o f an overview.

A great deal o f inform ation is packed into these 200 pages, but it is extrem ely difficult to find out where it is. A book o f this sort needs a really good index, but that provided in Cotton mills o f Preston is, unfortunately, pathetically poor. The so-called ‘General Index’ has a m ere 1 3 entries, on topics such as Handloom industry (one reference), Cotton Famine (one reference) and Rope Drive (one reference)— it is thus m inim alist to the point o f futility. The rem ainder o f the index com prises a list o f just over 10 0 mills, alm ost all o f them with a single reference only. There is no indexing o f people, com panies or firm s, or o f alm ost any o f the innum er­able subjects and themes covered. So, even before starting to read the book, the user is likely to be frustrated unless he or she intends to begin at p. 1 and w ork through to p. 19 7 .

That w ould be an option, o f course, but the text is not o f the sort which w ould encourage such action except on the part o f the truly fanatical or dedicated. I reproduce a typical short sample, to illustrate w hy this is so:

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During the nineties, in their McNaughted form the engines were driving 760 looms, each having identical high pressure cylinder bores of 29” x 3’ stroke and 33” low pressure cylinder bores x 6’ stroke. Average corresponding working pressures in one engine amounted to 20 and 5.3 psi to give respective ihps of 72 and 48.9 at 3orpm. Figures for the other engine were 22 and 5.8 psi for 80 and 53.5 ihp respectively.

Apart from the fact that the first sentence reads as though each o f the 760 loom s was the fortunate possessor o f these attributes, I am afraid that none o f this really meant anything at all to me. It is incom prehensibly esoteric and so although I am very interested in the cotton industry, and I live in Preston and know m any o f the sites discussed, I found m uch o f the book well-nigh unreadable. C olin D ickinson clearly has an encyclopaedic know ­ledge o f steam engines and their use in the cotton industry, but i f the aim was to im part understanding and inform ation to a general readership this was not the w ay to go about it.

There is another m ajor problem . The book is entirely unreferenced and has no bibliography. The text makes it plain that plenty o f prim ary m aterial has been consulted, but in only a couple o f instances is it stated, in passing, where that is to be found and what it is. W hile only the m ost fervent w ould want to verify the facts and to check the reliability o f the endless lists o f bore dim ensions, ihps, psis and strokes, it is essential that in any w ork which purports to be a definitive account the sources should be given.

T o criticise in this w ay grieves m e, for I am well aware o f the love and devotion, and the m any years o f m eticulous and painstaking w ork, which have gone into this book. But it seems to m e tragic that such a w orthy research project, w hereby one m an alm ost singlehandedly recorded a vanishing industry, should have produced such an unsatisfactory volum e, one so conspicuously and alm ost w ilfu lly lacking in essential requirements and so very unfriendly to m ost potential readers. A better structure w ould surely have been a series o f overview chapters which looked at the history o f the industry in Preston, then an annotated gazetteer o f all the mills, alphabetically arranged and giving all the technical m inutiae which makes reading the book so— well let’s be honest, so tedious. Tabulated lists of, for exam ple, types o f engine, builders and suppliers, or opening and closing dates, could have been included as appendices, a proper index given and a full b ibliography and referencing offered. The jacket blurb says that the book w ill ‘enthral those who worked in the m ills’— but o f that I have considerable doubts, and the thought saddens me.

The second book com es from an entirely different world. It is an academ ic history o f the later industry in which the m ills are the vast and shadowy backdrop to hum an experience. A lan Fow ler has written what is surely destined to be, for a good m any years, the definitive account o f the circumstances o f the Lancashire cotton w orkers in the first h alf o f the

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twentieth century. The book is H arvard-referenced (m arks are deducted for that) but the sixteen-page bibliography is adm irable and the detailed twelve-page index is likewise exem plary. Stylistically the writing som etim es leaves a little to be desired, w ith clum sy and awkward constructions and too m any over-long sentences, but this is a very rewarding book which can be read as a narrative or used as a source. Som e sections, such as those on the health o f the w orkforce which describe the diseases peculiar to the industry (notably cancer o f the scrotum and the issues associated with steaming and the inhalation o f dust in the cardroom ) are gripping. This m ay seem an odd term to use in the context o f an academ ic textbook, but there is in this work a pow erful sense o f the hum an dim ension which greatly strengthens its value.

Lancashire cotton operatives and work, 1900-1950, is in seven chapters, each o f which takes a key theme: the historical overview; fam ily, factory and leisure; cotton operatives in the depression; trade unions and politics; health and safety; and cotton operatives in war, austerity and decline. It draws upon a very wide range o f sources, extending beyond governm ent reports and anecdotal autobiographies to include trade union histories and internal union reports; published works on, for exam ple, sport, leisure and holidays; and contem porary reports o f meetings and conferences. V ery little prim ary source m aterial has been used for the book, which is essentially a synthesis o f published w ork and unpublished theses and dissertations. There are six illustrations, placed in a rather old-fashioned w ay in a separate plate section at the back o f the book— one is an indifferent map o f the cotton towns (which apparently include Huddersfield, Halifax, Blackpool and Southport, but not— for exam ple— W alton-le-D ale, Eccles, M iddleton, Radcliffe or Kearsley). The pictures could probably have been om itted w ithout any loss to the value o f the book, and to have done so m ight have helped to bring down its price from the £47.50 which will doubtless ensure that few people other than those with access to institu­tional libraries will ever read it.

I f such is its fate it will be a great pity, for this book is rich in detail and written with a clear but not cloying or unvarying sym pathy for the workforce. It is particularly strong on the debates and argum ents over issues, touching matters such as health and hygiene, w orking conditions and hours, the relationships between different groups o f workers within the industry, the role and status o f w om en and young people, and the im pact o f the vast and traum atic changes which econom ic depression and boom brought. W hereas D ickinson’s book suffers from being the product o f a passionate enthusiasm , which means that it is grossly overburdened with highly-technical detail, Fow ler’s is a cool and m easured assessment o f the circumstances o f the w orkers in the greatest industry o f north-west England. It is neither sensationalist nor im personally detached, and it

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will be required reading for anybody who wants to understand the realities o f the twentieth century cotton industry.

Alan Crosby, Preston

Edw ard H enry Stanley, 15 th Earl o f Derby, The diaries between 18/8 and 1893: A selection, ed. John Vincent. O xford: Leopard ’s Head Press, 2003. xxxii, 920 pp. £40.00 hbk. ISB N o 904920 45 3.

W ith the publication o f this fourth volum e o f the diary o f the fifteenth Earl o f Derby, John Vincent completes a project w hich began m ore than thirty years ago. To it he has devoted m uch time, skill, scholarship and, because o f the reluctance o f com m ercial publishers to jo in him in the endeavour, m oney. O nly when Vincent was already engaged in this w ork did the full extent and significance o f the d iary becom e apparent. The existence o f a journal relating to the 1850 s had been known since at least the 1920s. Then, in 19 74 , building w orkers at the Know sley Social C lub, adjoining the D erby fam ily M unim ent Room , came across a trunk containing diaries from the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. Finally, Professor Vincent h im self discovered a further series running from 18 6 1 to 18 7 5 . In fact D erby’s d iary runs continuously from 18 6 1 to just three days before his death in A pril 18 9 3 . N ow that publication is com plete— though it is w orth noting that all the volum es are abridged from the original entries which D erby m ade on a daily basis in large Letts’s diaries— it is clear that the diary represents one o f the m ost im portant political docum ents o f nineteenth-century British history.

The present volum e begins with D erby out o f office following his resignation from D israeli’s cabinet in 18 78 after a series o f disagreements over the direction o f the country’s foreign policy. B y the tim e o f the General Election two years later D erby had severed m ost o f his form al links with the Conservatives and was in practice a supporter o f the Liberal party, claim ing that there was little to distinguish m oderate Liberalism from m oderate Conservatism . His scruples, however, com pelled him to decline office at the form ation o f the new Liberal governm ent, headed by W . E. Gladstone, w ho had returned to the political frontline follow ing his celebrated M idlothian Cam paign. As D erby explained, ‘ I shall give a cordial support to the new govt., but cannot take office, as I think that, when a m an is com pelled by convictions or circum stances to change his party connec­tion, he is bound to show that he is not a gainer by the change’ [ 14 April188 0 ]. But Gladstone rem ained keen to secure his services and when, in D ecem ber 18 8 2 , Lord Kim berley m oved to the India Office, D erby took the latter’s place as C olonial Secretary. Serving for two and a h a lf years in Gladstone’s cabinet, he thus achieved the singular distinction o f holding

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high office under both o f the colossal and rival figures o f m id-Victorian England. The diary is particularly im portant in these years. In the absence at this tim e o f cabinet m inutes (first introduced by Lloyd George at the end o f 19 16 ) , D erby provides a uniquely inform ative, fly-on-the-wall insight into the inner workings o f G ladstone’s governm ent with its diverse concerns ranging from Ireland to Egypt and the Sudan via the intricacies o f franchise reform . H e vivid ly shows how, by 188 4 , the Prim e M inister’s failure to take a controlling lead in cabinet discussions produced som ething approaching governm ental paralysis. B y the m iddle o f the decade it was the problem s o f Ireland which dom inated all else. After a b rief interlude o f Conservative governm ent, Gladstone returned to power, com m itted now to the introduction o f H om e Rule. Derby, opposed to this policy, declined to take office and from 1886 until his retirem ent from public life in 18 9 1 he led the Liberal U nionists in the H ouse o f Lords.

D erby was an astute observer o f the w orld in which he lived. M uch o f the d iary can be read with delight as well as historical interest. It is littered with cam eo biographical sketches o f the fam ous and o f the not so fam ous, often written as potted obituaries. In 18 7 9 he noted the death o f the m inor writer and historian, W illiam H epw orth D ixon, ‘ a busy, pushing, active-m inded, clever, and vulgar m an o f letters who by a succession o f books on popular subjects had contrived to m ake his nam e w idely known. His style was detestable in point o f taste, but vigorous in its way: his biographies and histories are worthless from utter inaccuracy, but they as well as his travels can be read by those who are not fastidious, for they are never dull, w hatever faults they m ay have’ [29 D ecem ber 18 7 9 ].

W hile the d iary’s status as an unrivalled chronicle o f V ictorian high politics m ay be its greatest claim to fame, it is b y no means its only value. There is m uch m ore for the reader to savour. Here too is an invaluable docum ent o f social history, depicting the life o f a great territorial magnate at the dawning o f the dem ocratic age. Even when in office D erby was careful to divide his tim e between his duties in London and his respon­sibilities as a landowner in Lancashire and elsewhere. A n efficient rail service eased his task and evokes the envy o f a reader from a later generation: ‘O ften as I have noted the ease o f travelling between London and Knowsley, I never did so m ore than today. Luncheon was h alf an hour earlier than usual, dinner h alf an hour later: otherwise the day’ s arrange­ments were not m ore disturbed than i f we had taken a long drive in the afternoon’ [ 16 June 18 8 1 ] . D erby occasionally voiced m isgivings over whether the lifestyle o f aristocratic privilege into w hich he had been born could endure. H e was particularly concerned that his principal estate at Knowsley, sandwiched uncom fortably between the sprawling conurbations o f Liverpool and St Helens, and with its trees ‘apt to look as though they had been used to sweep a chim ney’ m ight becom e untenable [29 September

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18 8 1] . ‘I often wonder— will another generation be w illing to live here? I f the towns continue to extend as they have done, anything like country life at Know sley w ill be out o f the question’ [ 17 June 1880]. Such worries proved unfounded and, unlike his father, D erby becam e a successful landed proprietor. He accum ulated a large fortune, paid o ff all the inherited debts on his estates, avoided extravagance and died a m illionaire. In the process he increased his fam ily’s total acreage, while m aking a huge profit from the sale o f urban land for building development.

D erby once wrote that ‘a certain indolence, mental and bodily ’ was ‘the chief danger against which I have to guard’ [1 January 18 8 1 ] . I f so, he seems to have been uncom m only successful in countering his natural inclinations. Even out o f office, his life was extraordinarily full. In N ovem ber 18 7 9 he found h im self ‘rather lost for want o f occupation’, but he insisted that this ‘does not happen to me five times in a year’ [26 N ovem ber 18 79 ]. M uch o f his activity derived from a strong sense o f duty and obligation. He believed that his position in society created a m oral im perative towards public service. W elcom ing the freedom which came with his resignation from the Foreign Office in 18 7 8 — for he cared ‘nothing for the show or appearance o f pow er and m uch for freedom in personal relations’ , he added an im portant caveat: ‘ so far as a great peer can be a private m an’ [2 A pril 18 7 8 ]. This attitude meant involvem ent in activities which were not always congenial, but in which he felt obliged to engage. ‘I made a short speech about the Stanley H ospital,’ he noted after an open-air meeting in a Liverpool park, ‘the object for which the bazaar is held: we then bought all sorts o f rubbish at the stalls, as is expected on such occasions’ [ 10 June 18 7 8 ]. Cheered b y crowds in Southport, he regretted that ‘m ore o f them insisted on shaking hands than was altogether pleasant’ [26 O ctober 18 7 8 ].

The same sense o f obligation appears to have determ ined his involve­ment as a local magistrate. ‘It is really w ork for a police magistrate, and below m y position: the only reason for continuing to perform it is that it keeps m e before the public here as engaged in local business, which otherwise I shall not be: and it is good that a local magnate should be known to take his share o f personal trouble’ [28 October 18 7 9 ]. This w ork meant, as Vincent notes, that ‘he knew m ore than any other leading figure o f the ways o f the drinking classes’ (p. xxvi). But his status and birth inevitably created an unbridgeable separation from m any o f his fellow men. In Ju ly 18 78 he found the roads ‘ full o f excursionists: who find pleasure in driving out, packed as tight as they can m anage to be, in open vans, blowing horns and shouting: they then stop at a public house on the road, dine, drink and com e hom e rather noisier than they went. It is well that am usem ent can be found on these term s’ [6 Ju ly 18 7 8 ]. Such thoughts, confined to the privacy o f his diary, do not show D erby at his best. M ore

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generally, the m an’s essential decency shines through these pages. Particu­larly revealing are the references to his charitable donations. A sizeable part o f his daily postbag seems to have consisted o f begging letters and D erby responded positively to a considerable proportion o f these, sometimes against his better judgem ent. ‘Sent £5 to a literary beggar,’ he noted in 18 8 1 , ‘which I h alf regret, believing the fellow to be a rascal: but it is done’ [ 12 Ju ly 18 8 1] .

In sum , V incent has placed all students o f nineteenth-century Britain firm ly in his debt. This diary is a far m ore valuable and certainly m ore readable source than the m ore celebrated Gladstone journal in its m any volum es. N or does the story end here. As V incent him self points out, the rest o f the 15 th Earl’s archive rem ains largely unexploited. This, together w ith renewed interest in D erby’s father, the 14 th Earl, curiously neglected despite having served three times as Prim e M inister and being the longest serving party leader in Conservative party history, offers the tantalising prospect o f a significant revision o f the historiography o f V ictorian England. The dom inant presence o f Disraeli in the annals o f nineteenth- century Conservatism m ay well need to be m odified by an increasing appreciation o f the ‘view from Know sley’ . In this process Professor Vincent w ill have played a crucial role.

D. J. Dutton, U niversity o f Liverpool

Stuart Hylton, A history o f Manchester. Chichester: Phillim ore, 2003. x i[i], 244 pp. £ 18 .9 9 ht>k. ISB N 1 86077 240 4.

There has been for som e tim e a need for a good, general, and up-to-date introduction to the history o f M anchester, as an alternative to Alan K id d ’s m ore academ ic approach, and in spite o f som e criticism s noted below, Stuart H ylton ’s new book fills that gap: it is, in fact, a good read. The author was born, and now lives again, in Berkshire, but spent five years at M anchester U niversity gaining qualifications in social sciences and town planning, and worked for several years in the city as one o f its planners. The publisher’s blurb, from which these personal details are taken, also inform s us that ‘he soon developed a keen interest in M anchester and its rich history’ , and this shows through in his writing. H is prose style is popular, even at times journalistic, but it reads easily and w ill appeal to that som ewhat unclassifiable person, ‘the general reader’ , for w hom this book is intended. H e is swept along at a good pace, and within the limits im posed on the author, the M anchester story is well told, but just occasionally I suspect that M r H ylton w ould have preferred a little m ore space to tell the tale: I felt that the Peterloo episode, for instance, though occupying five pages, was no m ore than adequate, and the chronological

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approach has meant that the developm ent o f the textile industry, particu­larly the cotton industry, is divided between chapters— here I w ould have preferred a subject approach, the story being told within one all-em bracing chapter.

There is a good account o f the developm ent o f local governm ent (Chapter 1 1 : The Borough), but I felt that the sections on Belle Vue, and M anchester and the Irish, were out o f place: the latter w ould have been better incorporated into the following chapter, an excellent account o f ‘The C ondition o f the W orking Class in M anchester’ . ‘The Iron R oad ’ (Chapter 10 ) has sections on the influence o f M anchester’ s railways, and its effects on the com petition; the chapter concludes, som ewhat perversely, with a section on M anchester’s roads! Again, a subject approach here, on com m unications: road, rail, canal, and air, w ould have been preferable. The final chapter includes sections on the tram s (com m unications again!), m ulti-racial M anchester, the 19 9 6 IR A bom b, with a far-too-sm all reproduction o f ED A W ’s m asterplan for the redevelopm ent o f central M anchester, and concludes with a section on ‘Looking to the Future’ .

H aving a chronological approach, and to get away from the obvious titles (‘R om an M anchester’ , ‘N orm an period ’, etc), the chapters have titles such as ‘The Edge o f the Em pire’, or ‘The W ork o f Titans’ , which m ay not im m ediately give a clue to their content. One m ight successfully guess that the first exam ple refers to the R om an period, but w ould you guess that the second exam ple (Chapter 7) is about canal building? A nd the title o f Chapter Tw o, ‘The Lost Castle’ , is totally m isleading: this should have been entitled ‘M edieval M anchester’ ; as the castle only merits one paragraph!

The clearly-printed text (I have only spotted three m isprints) is not cluttered by footnotes, and references are gathered together at the end o f the text, just before the bibliography. The bibliography itself is m ore than adequate for our general reader, but could with advantage have m ade m ore use o f papers in specialist journals: there is one reference to the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and another to one o f its separate publications; there is no reference to the Chetham Society, and only one reference to a thesis (unpublished). N or is the standard w ork on a subject always listed: Robert Reid and Joyce M arlow on Peterloo are both in, but not Robert W alm sley’s m agisterial study— perhaps this was thought to be too m uch for our general reader?— and I noticed the om ission o f two or three other titles which I w ould have thought m ight have interested him.

Illustrations, particularly the photographs, have reproduced exceedingly well, even i f the one on p. 1 0 1 is a strain on the (certainly my) eyes, but one or two o f the m aps and diagram s m ight with advantage have been enlarged. The photographs are m ainly w ell-known, though one or two were new to me, and I suspect that one or two others were taken especially for this book. The index is adequate, no m ore; to give three examples: the Luddites are

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m entioned in the text but are not indexed, while other subjects are (nor is there a reference to them in the bibliography); Stockport viaduct is there, but not Sankey viaduct, nor Stockport itself; and personal names seem to be indexed arbitrarily— M ark Elder merits an entry but not the Reverend Charles Ethelston.

Nevertheless, as I said above, the book is a good read, the tale well told, and I quite agree with the publisher’s blurb that we have here ‘an entertaining account o f a vibrant city’ . H ighly recom m ended.

Morris Garratt, Cheadle H ulm e

Janice Hayes and Alan Crosby, Warrington at work: Images from the collections o f Warrington Library, Museum and Archive Service. Derby; Breedon Books, 2003. 207 pp. £ 14 .9 9 hbk. ISB N 1 85983 365 9

‘The times, they are a-changing’ was a constant cry, and nowhere m ore than in W arrington. From small settlement to N ew Tow n, W arrington has seen a wide range o f social and econom ic developm ent. This book sets out to docum ent changes specifically w ithin the w orld o f w ork over the past two centuries. It is im portant to em phasise this specific subject matter, since although it touches on other aspects o f W arrington life, it aims to show the changing face o f w orking W arrington, rather than attem pting to be a general history o f the town.

As the authors point out, W arrington is a m odern phenom enon. A north west town, it has yet m anaged to avoid the m alaise and stagnation which has characterised so m any other towns in the region through their over­dependence on one industry. B y contrast, W arrington’s lack o f any one m ajor m aterial benefit, such as coal or iron ore, has caused the diversifica­tion w hich is the basis o f its continued prosperity. Indeed the one central element o f transport has provided the very change which has powered that prosperity because it never stands still, both literally and figuratively.

It is arguably obvious from the title that the m ajority o f the images will be o f an historical nature, since the collections o f W arrington Library and W arrington M useum are both rich in early photographs and illustrations. H owever, not all the im ages are from the collection, and the interesting text is interwoven with selections from oral history records. It is surprising, indeed som etim es shocking, especially to younger readers, to realise how radically w orking practices and social attitudes have changed w ithin the com pass o f one person’s lifetime. The quotations from this oral history, even w ithout the em phasis o f the original speaker’s voice, paint a vivid picture o f w orking life and give a personalisation to the im ages we see staring from the posed photographs.

Although there is m uch m odern inform ation w ithin the text, past

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industries figure largely. G iven that the need to keep production costs down has m eant that all the photographs are in black and white, even the m odern photographs have a ‘period ’ feel to them. This perhaps gives the wrong im pression since the book very m uch aims to give a continuous analysis rather than an historical snapshot.

The chapter headings provide a flavour o f the text, ranging through the expected historical heavy industries, such as wirem aking, soap and tanning. H owever, few w ould regard sailcloth and shipbuilding as typical W arring­ton industries, yet the authors show how they played their part in the developm ent o f the town through its location on the R iver M ersey and close proxim ity to the M anchester Ship Canal. There are also chapters on local governm ent and the professions, as well as several m ore general chapters o f scene setting and analysis.

The text, although frequently discussing detailed statistics, is never dull or tedious. By the use o f input from m any speakers and writers, the tone is constantly varied, so that the description brings the accom panying im age to life. Few w ould forget Robert D avies’ graphic description o f the Royal M ail coach thundering into the old Lion Inn ’s yard, having its horses changed for the next leg o f the journey. A nd yet the accom panying photograph if taken on its own w ould have no such im pression.

The use o f contrast between m odern and historical practices, together with anecdotal evidence, make the book suitable both for serious study and for discussion o f the ‘coffee table’ variety. It evokes a wide range o f reaction from its readers, usually dependent on their age. To an older person, such as m y 92 year old m other in law, there is the interest in recognition o f the past rem em bered. Phrases such as ‘I rem em ber that (or him /her)’ are interspersed with detailed m em ories o f the area under discussion. By contrast, for a younger person, m any o f the im ages invoke a feeling o f history rather than recollection. A nd yet each is a valid reaction, and emphasises the im portance o f the book. It can be recom m ended to the scholar and general reader alike and should form part o f every W arringto- nian’s library.

Albert Hartley, W arrington

144 Reviews

Steven H orton, Street names o f the City o f Liverpool. Birkenhead: County- vise, 2002. viii, 10 2 pp. £5.00 pbk. ISB N 1 9 0 12 3 1 30 5. Steve H orton, Street names o f Wirral. Birkenhead: Countyvise, 2003. 76 pp. £3 .9 5 pbk. ISB N 1 9 0 12 3 1 40 2. R oy Redm an & Colin Sands, Bootle signposts: A history and directory o f Bootle streets. [Southport]: Sefton C ouncil Leisure Services Departm ent (Libraries), 2003. 60pp. £5.00 pbk. ISB N 1 8 7 4 5 16 12 X

Jam es Picton, in his Memorials o f Liverpool, 18 7 5 , says ‘there has been o f late quite a crusade against the old nam es o f streets, so m any changes having been m ade that it is difficult to preserve one’s orientation. The names o f streets ought not to be altered lightly. They are historical m ementoes illustrating the times and circum stances under which they were form ed. I f the names o f Old H all Street, Tithebarn Street and Castle Street were obliterated from the m ap o f Liverpool, the associations o f its early history w ould lose m uch o f their interest’ . Street names are fascinating items in an area’s history and the nam e can rem ain long after the origin o f its nam ing has disappeared. They can tend to represent the great and fam ous o f the Victorian era when m ost o f the streets were laid out in the large towns like Liverpool and in Bootle on its northern boundary. V ictoria herself cut a great swathe through old rural nam es as old lanes became streets and roads nam ed after her and were adopted and then m ade up by local councils.

W hat is the best w ay o f laying out books dealing with street names? Are they to be reference works in dictionary form or can they be taken up and read through chapter by chapter? The above works take both approaches. The two books by Steve H orton follow the second m ethod. They are given chapter headings linking together the categories into w hich streets can be sorted, such as the London influence, Royal Liverpool, etc., o r in the W irral volum e by area starting with Birkenhead and m oving outwards to Heswall and Gayton.

Redm an and Sands take the first approach and the book is designed as a reference w ork in which the streets are listed A -Z , though there is a them atic approach at the end where they are listed by type, i.e. local builders, saints, ‘W elsh’ streets etc. This book is am bitious and states that it seeks to trace ‘the origins o f the names o f all recorded streets o f Bootle, Orrell, Netherton and that part o f Sefton incorporated into Bootle in the 19 60s’ .

H ow well do these books work? Bootle signposts not only covers all the streets in the town but gives an approxim ate date o f building and the location o f where the street is or was; particularly useful for streets which have long since disappeared in clearances. Several photographs are included, including som e useful aerial views, for example, o f V aux Crescent, Orrell (p. 54). Finally a bibliography is given o f sources used,

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including m inutes o f the Highways Com m ittee and Council minutes. A lot o f research has gone into this book and it should prove to be the source o f reference on the streets o f Bootle. The authors are to be congratulated on groundbreaking w ork on an area that is still awaiting a com prehensive history, though several books o f photographic images have been lovingly com piled by Peter W oolley.

Steven H orton takes on a m uch bolder challenge in covering the street names o f Liverpool and could never hope to list all, though he does state that he has ‘attempted to be as com prehensive as can be’ . H e is more interested in showing ‘how patterns have changed’ rather than just ‘a b rief description o f where different streets got their names from ’. The book has an essential index at the end and the street nam es are em boldened in the text. There is no bibliography but there is a m ap o f Liverpool in 16 50 . The W irral book states that nearly 700 street names are listed and the book also has an index but no m aps. The W irral is defined as being part o f W irral M B C not south W irral in Cheshire (thus excluding places like Neston and Parkgate).

I f one thinks o f street names one usually relates them to a street map and it is surprising that so few m aps are shown in the three books reviewed. The Bootle title’s form at is A 4 landscape and has plenty o f room for m aps, and I w ould have liked to see how Bootle has changed from having its own shoreline, to a heavily congested dockland com m unity. Likewise in H orton ’s books a few m aps w ould have helped to illustrate the text to advantage.

But I w ould not want to give a negative view o f any o f these books. They are all attractively presented and for all the w ork that has been lavished on them are very attractively priced.

Roger Hull, Liverpool Record Office

Len H olden, Vauxhall Motors and the Luton economy, 1900-2002 (Publica­tions o f the Bedfordshire H istorical Record Society, V olum e 82). W ood- bridge: Boydell Press, 2003. xviii + 249 pp. £25 .00 hbk. ISB N 0 8 5 1 5 5 068 1

It m ay seem out o f place for a review o f a book concerned m ainly with a vital aspect o f Bedfordshire’s history to appear in Transactions. But although this new history o f Vauxhall M otors is prim arily focussed on the com pany’s activities in Luton, it will also prove to be o f great use to those interested in the history and developm ent o f V auxhall’s operations at Ellesmere Port on M erseyside and indeed the history o f m otor m anufactur­ing in Britain generally. Its author, Len H olden, has been w orking on the history o f Vauxhall for over twenty years and this m onograph em erging out o f his 19 8 3 Open U niversity thesis has been long awaited. Ultim ately it

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provides a significant new contribution to the study o f business history, as despite the im portant role played by Vauxhall in the U K econom y and the great m any studies that have already appeared charting the rise and fall o f the British car industry, this is the first tim e that the developm ent o f Vauxhall has been the subject o f in-depth academ ic research.

H olden traces the origins, growth and evolution o f Vauxhall with a study o f the firm ’s managerial policies, vehicle production, finances and em ploy­ment strategies. This is done with considerable analytical skill and attention to detail while also including the personal stories o f som e o f the individuals who m ade the com pany a success— m anagers, w orkers and trade unionists. Utilising a wide-range o f well-chosen source material, the author plots V auxhall’s trajectory from a small London-based general engineering com pany in 18 5 7 to a fledgling car m aker by 19 0 5 , dem onstrating how initial success before the First W orld W ar was then m atched by weak and m isguided m odel policies after 19 2 1 . Severe financial difficulties meant the continuing existence o f Vauxhall was only secured after a takeover by U S- based General M otors (G M ) in 19 2 5 . O ver the next quarter century, GM provided Vauxhall with the capital investment, technical knowledge and advanced m arketing and distribution skills that enabled the com pany to secure a place am ong the ranks o f the largest British car and com m ercial vehicle producers.

Yet a further factor underpinning success, H olden argues, was that o f peaceful labour relations, an area left entirely to the discretion o f the British m anagem ent team. K ey to this success was the appointm ent o f Charles Bartlett as M anaging D irector in 19 29 . Previously, Vauxhall m anagem ent had dealt harshly with the unions and uncom prom isingly with its w ork­force. Bartlett’s appointm ent, however, coincided with a paternalistic ‘golden age’ o f job security, rising wages and a unique system o f shop- floor consultation through the M anagem ent A dvisory Com m ittee. Holden then considers how V auxhall’ s singular concentration in Bedfordshire came to a halt in the 1960s when the com pany’s activities were dispersed under the influence o f governm ent regional policy, and a second factory success­fully established at Ellesmere Port. H olden then intertwines the story o f these two plants, charting their respective successes and failures over a forty-year period, exam ining their products, productivity and profitability. Following the story through to its conclusion, it is clear that, in part, H olden sees the m ove to Ellesmere Port as partly responsible for bringing about the end o f vehicle production in Luton, as facing increased com ­petition, overcapacity in its European operations and a new set o f global econom ic conditions, when G M had to choose between its two U K plants it chose the m ore m odern and (thanks to its production o f the Astra) profitable operation on M erseyside.

W hile H olden’s w ork undoubtedly provides a valuable case study, this is

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not to say that the book is w ithout its difficulties. Considering the im portance given to labour relations in accounting for the success o f V auxhall prior to 19 50 , greater attention could perhaps be given to the justification behind the rapid dism antling o f Bartlett’ s system in the 1960s. The resulting difficulties in m anagem ent-shop floor relations could also be expanded upon, although as H olden shows Vauxhall always rem ained less prone to disruption than Ford or British Leyland— a phenom enon that in itself requires further analysis. Perhaps m ore problem atically, and as the author h im self acknowledges, the m ain focus o f the book is devoted to the history o f Luton and Vauxhall only up to the 1950s. Despite its attempt to look at Vauxhall as a whole from the 1960s, there certainly remains considerable scope for m uch m ore research to be done on the Ellesmere Port plant, its developm ent, industrial relations and im pact upon the local econom y. Furtherm ore, the focus m eans that, despite the prom ise o f a history which covers 19 0 0 -2 0 0 2 , the book is rather unbalanced in its chronological coverage. The decades in which V auxhall’s fluctuating fortunes ultim ately saw the firm expand then descend into a phase o f notable un-profitability, from which it emerged to becom e second only to Ford in the British m arket, before increasingly becom ing subordinate to Opel in G M ’s European organization prior to the eventual closure o f Luton operations receive an all too cursory account. As a result, H olden fails to provide the overall account o f V auxhall’s business history that the com pany deserves.

Notwithstanding these criticism s, this rem ains a well-written, well- researched and enjoyable book that anyone with an interest in business history, econom ic history or labour history w ould be well advised to read.

Jon Murden, U niversity o f Liverpool.

Patricia Runaghan, Father Nugent’s Liverpool, 1849-190$. Birkenhead: Countyvise, 2003. vi, 68 pp. £4.95 pbk. ISB N 1 9 0 12 3 1 39 9.

In recent years m uch publicity has been attracted to the unhappiness o f em igrant children from Liverpool in Canada and Australia. But this book about Fr N ugent’s Liverpool presents a detailed picture o f the appalling deprivation o f fam ilies living in the overcrowded slums, which led Nugent to have a vision o f happy, healthy children prospering in lands o f opportunity.

The book ’s title is appropriate, since the story o f N ugent’s valuable w ork o f charity embraces also the contribution o f others to the needs o f the Liverpool poor, including the protestant clergym en the Rev. Abraham H um e and C anon M ajor Lester who, along with Nugent, recognised the

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need for the am elioration o f poverty and the provision o f adequate education and health services.

Nineteenth-century Liverpool was overwhelm ed by the desperate p o v­erty in over-crowded slums, resulting from the arrival o f som e 90,000 people fleeing from the Irish fam ine in the 1840s. A n inadequate supply o f housing for such an in flux meant that dwellings already unsuitable for their purpose becam e filled with m any m ore families, while others lived on the streets. The num erous court dwellings were so unsanitary that conditions inevitably led to over 5,000 deaths from cholera in the sum m er o f 1849.

Jam es Nugent was born in Liverpool in 18 2 2 , the oldest o f nine children, and, after starting his priestly life in the cholera year, he becam e convinced that the solution to the poverty he observed in the town lay in education. D uring the fifty years o f his clerical life he set up schools, and was instrum ental in providing orphanages, training schools, reform atories, m other and baby hom es and hostels for single w orking m en and wom en. H is successful fundraising efforts stemm ed from the preaching o f persuas­ive serm ons and begging businessm en for contributions.

H e bought a printing press to teach boys a trade, and they became responsible for the printing o f the Northern Press and later, its successor, the Catholic Times. The scandal o f children who were convicted o f m inor offences being sent to adult prisons roused Nugent to establish the Liverpool Catholic Reform atory Association, w hich he set up on the ship The Clarence, m oored in the M ersey. A lthough ultim ately this experim ent failed the training was m oved to dry land with greater success.

He was responsible for pioneering the practice (now m uch discredited) o f sending orphans abroad to Canada and the U SA . H e was appointed the first Catholic chaplain to W alton gaol and, realising the contribution played in crim e by drunkenness prom oted the Total Abstinence League o f the Cross which prom oted weekly concerts to draw people away from the tem ptations o f drink. H is last success was in setting up a refuge for prostitutes, a cause which had long troubled him , and with his usual enthusiasm , raised enough m oney to provide a hom e, with a steam laundry, w hich trained 2,000 w om en before his death in 19 0 5.

Patricia Runaghan gives full details o f the appalling living conditions o f the Liverpool poor, which are already well-docum ented, but little descrip­tion o f Fr N ugent’s ideas and attitudes, or his relationships with influential people at hom e or abroad, recruited by him to achieve his aims.

A lthough this is an adequate account o f a rem arkable m an’s life for the general reader it does not supersede the biography published by Canon John Bennett in 1949. Bennett reveals what Nugent learnt from his contacts with prisoners and destitute people and also how he co-operated with protestant clergy and others not always well-disposed to Catholicism , but w ho were engaged in sim ilar kinds o f social w ork, thus scotching anti-

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Catholic prejudice to som e extent. Bennett also describes N ugent’s per­sonality and behaviour, including his weak points.

Brenda Murray, Blundellsands

T. Cecil Gray, Dr Richard Formby Founder o f the Liverpool Medical School. London: Royal College o f Physicians, 2003. xviii, 1 1 6 pp. £ 14 pbk. ISB N 1 86 016 18 5 5.

Everybody knows that m edical history is written b y retired doctors who want to pay their respects to their m ore eminent predecessors or to extol the great benefits to m ankind discovered in the hospital or m edical school that nurtured them. It has to be said that this book fulfils m ost o f these criteria. The m ore recent, sociological, approach to m edical history does not apply. Yet the com poser o f atonal m usic A rnold Schonberg said ‘There is m uch good m usic still to be written in the key o f C m ajor’ .

Professor G ray took the opportunity offered by his house m ove to the township o f Form by to research the antecedents and the life history o f Dr Richard Form by ( 17 9 0 -18 6 5 ) w ho was a m em ber o f the fam ily from which the tow n’s nam e derives and who becam e a consulting physician at the Liverpool Royal Infirm ary. He discovered a great deal about the fam ily which was very strong in clerical gentleman, but o f which Richard was the only m edical m em ber. This is not too surprising since in the early years o f the nineteenth century m edicine was scarcely regarded as a suitable calling for m em bers o f the landed gentry.

R ichard’s father was not only a clergym an but he was also the owner o f a large estate and was very wealthy. This enabled him to pay the rather large prem ium asked for Richard to becom e a pupil o f D r Brandreth, Physician at the Liverpool Infirm ary. The sum was £70, which the author translates into m odern m oney as £3,700. He does this, helpfully, whenever m oney is mentioned. Being a pupil at the Infirm ary was a privileged position and it is hard to see w hy the author thinks that R ichard ‘m ust have reacted with utter revulsion’ , when a few sentences earlier he says ‘Fourteen now seems young to have to face the unpleasantness o f a hospital, but at that tim e it was the usual age’ . Richard was probably unwilling to becom e a clergyman like his father and he survived the ordeal o f being a m edical student, for he went on to Cam bridge, where he graduated in m edicine, and then on to Edinburgh to further his m edical studies. He then graduated M D at Cam bridge— a curious and arcane cerem ony, not calling for m uch m ore than a knowledge o f the classical authors— and then on to candidacy and subsequent fellowship o f the Royal College o f Physicians o f London.

After setting up in practice as a physician in Liverpool, Richard then did a m ost surprising thing: he started to teach anatom y. This had been

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regarded as the preserve o f surgeons and in the Greek tradition, not for gentlemen, who were not expected to dirty their hands. W hy Richard becam e interested in anatom y is not really known. H e was appointed to the Liverpool Infirm ary in 18 3 2 and to the Asylum probably in the same year— a time o f great change in the m anagem ent o f the insane, particularly in the abolition o f physical restraint started by Pinel, the French physician, who died in 18 2 6 , whose hum anitarian ideas spread throughout the world, and were adopted by Richard Form by.

There is a good account o f the establishment o f the Liverpool M edical Library; o f the M edical Institution, their subsequent m erger and the rather unsavoury in-fighting within the m edical profession w hich went on before the merger.

There is also a good account o f the Royal Institution in which Richard conducted his anatom ical teaching and where he was joined by other m edical teachers w ho eventually, after considerable squabbling— not helped by R ichard ’s petulance on being asked to pay reasonable rent for the room he used for his lectures— started the Royal Institution M edical School in Colquitt Street. In 18 4 3 the school m oved to an annexe at the infirm ary and became the Infirm ary M edical School (subsequently the Royal Infirm ary). The notes, which form an excellent com m entary on the text, are however, not infallible. Note 24 on ‘The Evolution o f the U niversity o f Liverpool’ , paragraph 3, says ‘U niversity College was inau­gurated in 18 8 2 (the im m ediate initiating factor being the need o f the Royal Infirm ary M edical School for a D epartm ent o f Physic)’ . This is quite wrong. The need was for a D epartm ent o f Physics. O liver Lodge, the true discoverer o f radio, was appointed as Foundation Professor o f Physics so that Liverpool students w ould be taught enough physics to sit the London M B exam inations under the new regulations— but that’s another story. There are a few m inor errors, one o f which has a Form by ancestor interred behind a wall in Y ork Cathedral.

The real problem with this book is that Form by him self left very little docum entation. He appears to have published nothing apart from his H arveian oration— in Latin— at the Royal College o f Physicians. G ray says Form by discovered two original treatments. Chloric ether was a weak solution o f chloroform in alcohol, w hich Form by used for pain relief and possibly gave a clue to Sim pson, w hom he met, and which led to the use o f chloroform as an anaesthetic; the other was the inhalation o f creosote for pulm onary tuberculosis. This was certainly not original for the inhalation o f coal tar for this disease had been recom m ended since 1 8 1 3 .

C learly a great deal o f research has gone into this book and students o f Liverpool history will find m uch o f interest in it, including a hint o f how the Grand N ational came to be run at Aintree and not at M aghull.

/. /. Rivlin M B ChB MSc, Liverpool

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Susan Pedersen, Eleanor Rathbone and the politics o f conscience. N ew Haven/ London: Yale U niversity Press, 2004. xv, 479pp. £25.00 hbk. ISB N o 300 10 24 5 3-

H ad Eleanor Rathbone, and not N ancy Astor, been the first wom an M P then w om en w ould have had a doughty, m uch needed cham pion in Parliam ent and her country w ould have rem em bered her name. So opines Susan Pedersen in her excellent biography, reflecting on the w ay in which so energetic a cham pion o f social justice has been so quickly forgotten. I f further p ro o f o f this com m unal am nesia were needed, it was provided b y the Lord M ayor o f Liverpool in his speech at a civic reception to celebrate the publication o f this book— having forgotten her nam e, he was forced to refer to Eleanor as ‘that lady’ .

W ho was this w om an who has so easily slipped from public memory? Eleanor Rathbone was a fem inist whose views were shaped partly by her fam ily background— her father, W illiam Rathbone V I, was a noted Liver­pool m erchant, philanthropist and M em ber o f Parliam ent— as well as by her experience as a student at Som erville College, O xford, in the com pany o f other talented wom en. From these, she absorbed principles founded on optim ism about state action and a stress on individual and voluntary service that were to govern the whole o f her public life. As a young and idealistic graduate, she also ran up against the disadvantages attached to being a wom an. H er tutors had persuaded Eleanor and her contem poraries o f their abilities, and encouraged them to be am bitious, but there was alm ost nowhere to exercise ability and few fields in which to pursue am bition. They could not influence policy by standing for Parliam ent nor were m any professions anxious to recruit w om en in the m id -1890s. Although depressed b y their lack o f opportunity, the class o f 18 9 3 possessed vigour and determ ination and Eleanor and others threw them ­selves with energy into the task o f w orking to open doors both for themselves and for other wom en.

H aving m oved to Liverpool from London, where she had spent m ost o f childhood, Eleanor joined a local branch o f the W om en’s Industrial Society, became the honorary secretary o f the Liverpool W om en’s Suffrage Society and a m em ber o f the N ational Executive o f the N ational U nion o f W om en’s Suffrage Societies. She also helped to realise her father’s hope that she w ould engage with him in charitable activities in Liverpool and received her introduction to social w ork with the Central R elief Society in Liverpool. In 19 0 2 , she was recruited by Elizabeth M acadam and Em ily Jones to w ork with them at the V ictoria Settlement and im m ediately took responsibility for its social investigations. Together the three wom en transform ed the Settlement and, as a result o f their experiences there, helped to found the School o f Social Science and Training for Social W ork at the U niversity o f

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Liverpool in 19 0 5 . E leanor’s fem inism inform ed alm ost every aspect o f her activity. W ork with her father into the pay and conditions o f Liverpool dock workers had shown her the dam aging effects that casual labour systems had on the wives o f workers, who had to try to manage a fam ily budget on irregular and often inadequate wages, and in 1909 she produced a report that sowed the seeds for radical proposals. This was eventually published in 19 2 4 as The disinherited fam ily and argued for fam ily endowm ent, an allowance to be paid to wom en to enable them to fulfil their role as mothers. It took m ore than twenty years for her ideas to receive official approval and partial im plem entation.

Eleanor the social scientist was also Eleanor the politician. As a suffragist she had denounced the sort o f m ilitant tactics adopted by the W om en’s Social and Political U nion, but both in Liverpool and nationally she was active in prom oting constitutional means to achieve the vote for wom en and in stressing its im portance for social reform . A lthough still barred from standing for Parliam ent, in 1909 w om en ratepayers were for the first time allowed to stand for election to local authorities and Eleanor, as an Independent, successfully contested a seat in G ranby W ard in Liverpool, representing it w ithout a break until 19 3 5 . In 19 29 , when full suffrage was granted to wom en, she was elected as an Independent M em ber o f Parliam ent for the Com bined English Universities, a seat she retained until her death in 1946 . She used it to argue for fam ily allowances, for unem ploym ent benefits that reflected the cost o f feeding a fam ily and other ‘w om en’s issues’ . But that was not all. She was also prepared to speak— or, m ore often, to ask Parliam entary questions— about international affairs; to deplore British policy towards Abyssinia in 19 3 5 ; to urge rearm am ent in 19 36 ; to castigate the governm ent for its policy o f non-intervention during the Spanish C ivil W ar (so consistently and fearlessly that she found herself in trouble with the Speaker); and to m ount a sustained attack on the policy o f appeasement. Few M Ps could have been m ore active— and m ost would not have had the double disadvantage o f being both female and an Independent.

In spite o f all this, by and large, E leanor’s country has forgotten her name. H er w ork during the Spanish C ivil W ar; her activities on behalf o f all refugees but particularly Jews fleeing Europe with the help o f the ‘Parliam entary Com m ittee on Refugees’ (despite its official title, this was an unofficial Rathbone-funded organisation); her well-m eaning but per­haps ill-judged w ork on behalf o f Indian w om en— all have faded from the corporate m em ory. Even the fight for fam ily endowm ent, m etam orphosed first into fam ily allowances and later into child benefit, has lost its association with her nam e and has becom e too easily seen as just one aspect o f the Labour Party’s post-war welfare reform s. W e m ay regret that, and rejoice that this adm irable biography has rem inded us o f her

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achievements. But perhaps Eleanor w ould have accepted the neglect with equanim ity. She was no shrinking violet, but her background in a fam ily that believed in doing good by stealth meant that she w ould never have sought personal publicity. M oreover, as Pedersen has shown so skilfully, her shy, reticent— sometimes prickly— personality meant that she became skilled in developing a w ay o f w orking through others, briefing well- connected allies and setting-up cross-party com m ittees that achieved her ends while concealing her guiding hand. But although Eleanor m ight be content to rem ain in the shadows, her country should not allow her to do so and should rem em ber and celebrate her nam e and her contribution. Pedersen’s long-awaited study o f this rem arkable w om an will go a long w ay towards rem inding her city and her country o f Eleanor’s achievements.

Pat Starkey, U niversity o f Liverpool

Bob Burrow s, Cheshire’s famous: A comprehensive guide to celebrity Ces- trians. Derby: Breedon Books, 2004. 19 2 pp. £ 14 .9 9 hbk- ISB N 1 85983

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M y im m ediate reaction when I received this book for review was ‘what is its purpose— indeed does it have one?’ The fact that the author is described on the back blurb as a regular contributor to Cheshire Life gives som e o f the answer— it’s a coffee table book. The dust jacket shows a num ber o f people who are indisputably natives o f Cheshire (Sir Jam es Chadwick, Patricia Routledge, Glenda Jackson, Bob Greaves, Chris Bonnington, Leonard Cheshire and M elanie Chisholm — M el C. o f the Spice Girls)— but W illiam Shakespeare? The Bard is included because he was christened by John Bracegirdle, late o f Great Budw orth and because he might have had an affair with M ary Fitton o f Gawsworth (who despite at least two references in the text is not listed in the index). On this thin evidence Shakespeare should also qualify for inclusion in a volum e o f Lancashire’ s fam ous, because o f his connections to Lord D erby and with H oghton Tower. Those in W orcester­shire w ho possibly have a greater claim to him as their own m ight not be convinced!

This publisher has proved the ability to break into local history provision recently with som e titles (also reviewed in this volum e) which are o f merit to the local historian. This book has som e merits: its arrangem ent is not one o f them. Although there is a serviceable (but in som e cases inaccurate) index, the arrangem ent o f the text is arbitrary (chapters have headings like ‘W arriors and Soldiers’ , ‘Entertainers’ , ‘ Scientists, Academ ics, C lergy’ ) and the standard o f illustrations, although generous in extent, leaves m uch to be desired (see the photograph o f Heather Couper on page 14 3 ).

H ad the book been arranged alphabetically by nam e it w ould be o f

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greater use to the local historian or the local studies professional. It will, however, be o f interest to fans o f television, popular m edia and sport, who w ill find m uch inform ation on personalities in those fields. It will not, though, add m uch to the greater knowledge o f those interested in the history o f the C ounty Palatine from a serious historical point o f view. As a populist introduction to county biography it has its lim ited uses, but the internet w ould provide as m uch— if not m ore— easily accessible in form a­tion on m ost o f the subjects covered.

John Tiernan, Liverpool

Angela Brabin, The Black Widows o f Liverpool: A chilling account o f cold­blooded murder in Victorian Liverpool. Lancaster: Palatine 2003. 1 5 3 pp, £8.00 pbk. ISB N 1 8 7 4 18 1 2 1 7.

On 14 February 188 4 the trial o f M argaret Higgins and Catherine Flanagan com m enced at St G eorge’s H all Liverpool before M r Justice Butt and a jury, for the m urder o f Thom as H iggins, M aggie Jennings and John Flanagan junior. M argaret Flanagan was also tried for the m urder o f M ary Higgins. M r Justice Butt was an Adm iralty judge so presum ably his list o f adm iralty cases had collapsed. The trial was short and the ju ry had no difficulty in convicting the two w om en o f the m urders. They were hanged on 2 M arch at Kirkdale prison. The victim s o f the m urders had all been insured under policies with various friendly societies for sums ranging from £ 1 2 12 s . to £50 ; on their deaths the sum s insured were paid out to the two w om en or their friends.

M s Brabin suggests that there m ay have been another fourteen victim s and that there were m any other w om en involved in these activities. She describes the streets in which the w om en lived, their families and friends. Particulars o f all the victim s, both those the sisters were charged with m urdering and the others, and their deaths, together with the policies taken out on their lives are set out in detail, albeit not in chronological order, which is confusing.

Patrick Higgins was surprised when his brother Thom as died in 1884 , two years after his m arriage to M argaret. W hen he learned that Thom as’s life had been insured with a num ber o f friendly societies, he contacted a D r W hitford, who had attended his brother. The doctor advised him to see the coroner which he did, and the next day the coroner’s beadle and the doctor went with Patrick to M argaret H iggins’s hom e. Catherine Flanagan slipped quickly out leaving her sister to be arrested. Catherine Flanagan then went on the run for som e ten days and was ‘supported and sheltered by the com m unity in w hich [she] lived’ .

The friendly societies were severely criticised by the judge and Ms

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Brabin, who comes to the justifiable conclusion that ‘the com panies and agents bore a share o f liability for the deaths o f the victim s’ . A lthough she says that there were ‘swingeing reform s o f the insurance laws’ , unfortu­nately she does not say what those reform s were.

She also deals with the ease with which potential poisoners could get hold o f arsenic, the poison o f choice, and criticises the failure o f the doctors to carry out adequate post-m ortem s. D r W hitford had seen Thom as Higgins on a num ber o f occasions before his death and thought he had irritation o f the bowels. On being told that he had died he made out a death certificate w ithout seeing his body and gave dysentery as the cause o f death.

This is all o f interest but does not seem to be the aim o f the book. There appears to be a sociological subtext and a num ber o f references are made to an article by Ellen Ross in History Workshop Journal 15 ( 19 8 3) , ‘Survival networks: w om en’s neighbourhood sharing in London before W orld W ar O ne’ . M s Brabin is interested in whether the sisters ‘were but part o f a ring o f like-m inded w om en’ but does not distinguish this ring from ‘the close- knit com m unity in which they lived’ . Indeed she goes further and says ‘they [wom en poisoners] were portrayed as m onsters, whereas in reality they were ordinary but poor wom en, with nothing extraordinary about them to separate them from their peers’ .

A contrast is then, however, m ade between the angry reactions o f the crow d as the wom en were driven back to prison. Earlier M s Brabin has said that ‘the V ictorian image o f a killer was an isolated figure but that in the case o f these w om en they were supported and protected by a “ sharing, caring working-class com m unity” ’ . I am not sure i f all this leads to ‘the inescapable conclusion that Catherine Flanagan and M argaret Higgins were accepted by that com m unity as norm al, working-class wom en, even though part o f that norm ality involved insuring people and then killing them ’ .

Angela Brabin— w ho was a Crow n Prosecutor Solicitor— has used a substantial num ber o f prim ary sources, including newspaper reports, trial docum ents and various H om e Office docum ents dealing with the problem s raised by the circumstances o f the deaths.

The publisher (a subsidiary o f Carnegie Publishing) does not appear to em ploy an editor, which leads to a num ber o f unfortunate editorial failures. For exam ple on p. 88 the arresting Inspector ‘ realis[es] her likeness to the description on the w arrant’ , and on p. 90 the same Inspector going to the same house ‘noticed her description tallied with that on the handbill’ . On p. 12 8 a M rs Stanton was arrested but released w ithout charge and exactly the same happens on p. 13 0 . D isem bodied names appear, and since there is sadly no index, it is im possible to identify the people to w hom they belong. In a book where sisters m urder m em bers o f their fam ilies, a fam ily tree w ould also have provided welcom e clarification.

Peter Urquhart, Birkenhead

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Ralph T. Brocklebank, Birkenhead: An illustrated history. Derby: Breedon Books, 2003. 176 p p . £ 14 .9 9 hbk. ISB N 1 85983 350 o.

This illustrated history o f Birkenhead lives up to its nam e with 202 drawings and photographs supplem enting an inform ative text. Ralph Brocklebank has com bined inform ation from popular historical sources at Birkenhead Library with his knowledge gained from w orking for m any years as Principal Reference and Inform ation Services Librarian for W irral to provide a popular history o f the town. The book is divided into seven sections, and Brocklebank makes good use o f the prints and photographs to illustrate his easy flowing prose. Som e m aps o f the town in relation to the surrounding area, w ith highlighting o f the m ain landm arks, w ould have m ade it easier to follow, and thus help the reader appreciate the develop­ment o f the town from early Rom an times, while putting the history and layout o f the town into perspective.

The book com m ences by covering the period to 18 10 , when Birkenhead rem ained a small hamlet, and discusses in detail the developm ent o f the Priory— the earliest known settlement— and the ferry links to Liverpool. Poor editing, though, means that the early prints and photographs are undated, and the chapter ends som ewhat incongruously with a m odern 1960s photograph o f W oodside. The chapter gives details o f the buildings and developm ent o f the Priory which enable the reader to have a better understanding o f the buildings that rem ain today, though a shaded diagram o f the growth and decline o f the Priory w ould have m ade it even clearer.

W hile the drawings and photographs com e from the Birkenhead Library archives, there is no list o f the archives used or an illustration list (another editorial failing?) The back cover states that the book is an accessible entertaining introduction to Birkenhead’s history with m em orable portraits o f the notable individuals who shaped Birkenhead. W hile this is a true representation o f the book, a m ore detailed bibliography, with further reading suggestions for the am ateur at w hom it appears to be aim ed, w ould have m ade it even m ore accessible. The index could also have been im proved by highlighting photographs and cross-referencing them to the text, particularly as m any photographs do not appear alongside the relevant text, and are not numbered.

These criticism s o f the referencing and indexing however do not detract from the enjoym ent o f reading the book. The second section, covering the developm ent o f the town, is particularly interesting with collated snippets from m any o f the books referred to in the bibliography. Birkenhead owes its transform ation in the early nineteenth century to a succession o f successful entrepreneurs: Francis Price, W illiam Laird, Sir W illiam Jackson to nam e but a few and to the vision o f Jam es Gillespie Graham , the

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Edinburgh architect, for the layout o f the town. In Brocklebank’s prose these characters com e alive, though I was surprised that he failed to tell the reader that Joseph Paxton ’s design o f Sir W illiam Jackson’s Eden o f a park— Birkenhead Park— was used as a basis for the design o f Central Park, N ew York.

M uch o f the anecdotal inform ation accom panying m any o f the photo­graphs is both am using and inform ative: George Francis Train was not only a candidate for the U S presidency, caught up in a revolution, jailed for obscenity, and travelled round the w orld in 80 days but also introduced the street railw ay to Birkenhead!

The third section o f the book, although interesting, is disjointed, starting with culture and entertainm ent and then returning to the theme o f the dock developm ent, sectarian tension and general hardship. Photographs o f old cinem as, theatres and Birkenhead Park Football are out o f context with the m ore serious themes. I don’t know if it is lack o f illustrations for the period or m ore poor editing, but, for instance, a w onderful 1940s photograph o f the T ow n H all rebuilt after the fire o f 19 0 1 , is opposite the paragraph describing the opening o f the Tow n H all in 18 8 7 — just one exam ple o f the rather odd juxtaposition o f unnum bered and unlisted photographs to text.

Later parts o f the book cover charity and social im provem ent, art and education and provide a fascinating insight into the town, going a long w ay to explaining the resolve o f the people o f Birkenhead. The history o f Birkenhead contains m any h alf im plem ented schemes which for a variety o f reasons were abandoned, but each tim e the town survived. Brocklebank intersperses am using anecdotes with the m ore serious themes o f the tow n’s developm ent and this sums up the strong cohesion o f town and people. Som e o f the photographs the author has chosen are particularly arresting— a photograph showing a Charles Thom pson m ission picnic with the men that had been w ounded in the first W orld W ar and the Birkenhead policewom en at the Bridewell Y ard in 1 9 17 , both poignantly apposite.

The pictures— and the prose— o f Birkenhead: An illustrated history vivid ly explain the history and character o f the area and provide an enjoyable and inform ative read for the interested local historian.

Sally Warnock, Birkenhead

Jon Stobart, The first industrial region: North-West England, ciyoo-6o. M anchester: M anchester U niversity Press, 2004. x, 259pp. £49.99 hbk. ISBN o 7 19 0 6462 7

This thought-provoking study is not so m uch about industries in the North W est per se, as about ‘regions’ and the ways in which they developed the

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capacity to initiate and sustain econom ic growth. ‘Rather than sim ply telling the story o f econom ic developm ent in north-west England . . . the purpose here is to respond positively to H udson ’s call for theoretically- inform ed analyses o f regional history’ . ‘ In m any ways, this region form ed a m icrocosm o f Britain as a w hole’ so that it is meant to stand as ‘a m ethodological and historical exem plar’ , typifying the ‘range o f processes shaping the national space econom y’ .

On the one hand, m uch o f the analysis seeks to explain the distinctive­ness o f the N orth W est and w hy it was ‘vital to national econom ic developm ent’ . ‘In places like north-west England, as this study has dem onstrated, the econom y and society were changing in ways that were truly revolutionary in the h alf century up to 17 6 0 ’ , and ‘the juxtaposition- ing o f industrial regions and m utual interaction between them which did much to stim ulate wider industrialisation in the nineteenth century was evident within the north west a century earlier’ . This is intended, therefore, as both an exposition o f a thesis about regional developm ent, and a specialist study o f the N orth W est per se. W hat it is not is a straightforward, chronological account o f the latter’s development.

The book begins with an extended discussion o f theoretical perspectives on regional econom ic developm ent, before m oving on to look at the spatial developm ent o f industrial and urban settlements in the N orth W est from the late 1 7th to early 1 9th century. The core o f the book is devoted to three chapters on textiles, the m ineral-based econom y and the service sector. The final chapter focuses on the urban system, dem onstrating the w ay in which it was m anifested through transport links, ‘ executorial linkages’ in probate records and selected business records. W ithin the region, ‘ the role o f the urban system is seen as being central: it helped to structure spatial divisions o f labour and articulated internal and external spatial integration’ . ‘Tow ns were central to both specialisation and integration, and were instrum ental in the structure and dynam ic o f the regional econom y, not so m uch as individual places, but rather as nodes on networks or interaction’.

But what is the N orth W est and w hy is 17 0 1 - 6 0 the critical period? For the purposes o f analysis and data collection, the N orth W est here is defined as Lancashire South o f the Ribble and the whole o f Cheshire. Quite w hy this particular area has been chosen is not m ade clear, especially since little industrial developm ent occurred in m id and southern Cheshire and this area is om itted from m ost o f the m aps about the textile economy. Conversely, textile districts which were over the county border in Yorkshire are treated as ‘ extra-regional’ , even though N orth W est towns enjoyed extensive links with them. Quite w hy 17 0 1 - 6 0 has been chosen as the critical period is also not totally clear since the evidence presented here does not suggest that the scale o f change over this particular period was particularly dram atic. Indeed, the region already exhibited ‘exceptionally

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high levels o f industrial developm ent’ in, or even before, the early 18th century and m ore substantial changes occurred in the last third o f the century. A lthough the source on which the study is overwhelm ing based— probate records— suggests change was not particularly dram atic, this is explained away by suggesting that ‘it is probable that change was m ore profound am ong sections o f the population who did not leave probate records’ . Furtherm ore, it became ‘increasingly difficult to equate one individual with one unit o f production ’ over the period. ‘ In 170 0 a glassmaker, brewer or even cloth m anufacturer w ould, in all likelihood, have been one m an w orking for and even by himself. B y 17 5 0 , however, these individuals were equally likely to be em ployed by another person or em ploying m any other people and operating as part o f a large industrial plant’ . Quite how m any large industrial plants there were by 17 5 0 , however, is not clear.

The rationale for relying so heavily on probate records is that they are ‘a reliable and consistent source’ which provide aggregate tem poral and spatial data on occupational structures which can then be presented in tables or maps. O ver 40,000 were identified for the entire period, o f which around 28,000 have been used (wom en and m inors are the m ain exclusions). In interpreting the tables derived from analysis o f these records, readers, particularly students, should be advised to read the sm all print and to consult an im portant appendix (pp. 2 2 9 -3 3 ) . O ccupa­tional figures refer only to individuals identified in probate records over the entire period, not to the num bers actually engaged. Even these are not necessarily raw data. 6 ,3 12 textile workers are listed in tables 3.5, 3.6 and 4 .1 , for exam ple, but the latter two include a footnote to the effect that a m ultiplier o f five spinners for every weaver has been applied to the figures, a ‘ conservative’ estimate based on a reference in W adsworth and M ann. Other tables, such as 4.2, include no such m ultipliers and relate only to part o f the region. No such ‘corrections’ are applied for other trades since ‘these other sectors have no “ know n” body o f workers (such as the weavers) to act as a basis for any m ultiplier’ . A lthough this inflates textiles in relation to other trades, Stobart thinks it is warranted ‘because it provides a truer picture o f both regional and local economies than w ould otherwise be possible’ and produces a picture which accords m ore closely with the proportion o f the population recorded as being engaged in textiles in other sources such as parish registers. This m ay be so, but it could be argued that it sheds doubt about the validity o f using probate records in this w ay to describe either occupational or business structures. Fifty-three records are also quoted in detail for illustrative purposes, although only 15 o f them post-date 17 3 0 reflecting the declining quality o f the inform ation contained in them during the 18 th century. There are fewer references to other prim ary sources so that broader interpretations o f the occupational

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patterns and social networks revealed by the probate records tend to rely on published works and on m odels o f regional development.

As m ay be evident, this is not a book to recom m end to som eone who is as yet unacquainted with the region’s history, who is unwilling to engage with theory, or who is fazed by statistics. Rather it should be viewed as a serious contribution to a debate about internal regional econom ic devel­opm ent and the relationships between regions in the process o f indus­trialisation. A bove all it raises im portant issues about the nature o f social and credit networks during the 18th century and the ways in which these m ay have provided the internal and external integration which facilitated econom ic growth. It also raises questions about whether and how different the N orth W est, however defined, was in this respect from other regions, and what indeed propelled it, rather than other regions, into being ‘the first industrial region’ .

Michael Winstanley, Lancaster U niversity