Mary Jane Smith (Polly)
b. 27 January 1878
Sycamore St, Newton
d. 30 October 1960
|
Thomas Arthur Birchall (Tom)
b. 2 August 1881
d. 1960s |
Tom Birchall was a reservist in the Boer War. His first car was a belt-driven Sunbeam in 1918. Then he had a BSA three-wheeler and three more cars. He bought a new car in 1939 for 145 pounds.
At the time of the 1911 census, the Birchall family were living at 189 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester. Polly was 32 years old and Tom was 29 years old. Freda was six months old.
Polly's mother, Sarah Smith (age 70), was a widow and lived with them. It says that Tom and Polly had been married for six years and had had another child who had died. Tom was working as a Cap Manufacturer (Tweed cloth). He was an "Employer" since he employed persons other than domestic servants and he carried on the trade "At Home".
 |
1911 CENSUS (cropped) OF TOM AND POLLY BIRCHALL |
Tom later became a forman at a factory that made windows and doors.The company did volume. He was sent on site to houses being built to figure out what they needed.
Tom was always busy. At home, he did his own joinery. He had lots of equipment upstairs such as a band saw, a fast wheel chipper. He was very methodical. He got his grandson, Trevor to do it with him. When his daughter bought her home in Buxton, he probably went over to her house to see what furniture was needed and he wrote it down in a book and then saw what wood he had in stock so he could do it in a cost effective way. "Make do and mend" was the philosophy.
Tom also fixed peoples' cars in the back yard where he had built a dug out in the ground for working underneath cars.
|
Freda Leach born 28th September 1910, Manchester
|
Freda Birchall was born in Manchester on 28th September 1910 to Mary Jane Smith (Polly) and Thomas Arthur Birchall (Tom). They married in about 1904/5 according to their 1911 census form. She was named after her Uncle Fred (her father's brother, Frederick Birchall) who had recently died. Her family lived in Manchester.
|
Cromwell Road School - Std VI
Freda is on the 3rd row and is second from the right |
|
Cromwell Road School - Std VIII
Freda is on the back row second from the right |
Freda told Trevor that she played hopscotch and skipping when she was a girl. One of her friends was Alice Beckett who lived at Pendlebury, down the road from Swinton. Freda liked her school in Swinton very much. Ahe also liked her piano lessons. Freda went to Greenwood's Secretarial College on Doulton Street, Manchester. Her first job was with Melor's, an estate agent, where she did invoicing to collect ground rents and other accounting work. She worked there twenty years. When she left, they gave her a beautiful metal fillagree standing mirror.
Freda told Trevor: "Mother didn't like her name Mary Jane, so she called herself Polly." They lived at 34 Bingham Street, Swinton, England. The outside toilet at Bingham Street had a telephone directory hung up beside the toilet. There was a bath in the kitchen which her dad put in. There was a workshop on the first floor, where her dad would do his joinery. He was always the happiest when he was doing his joinery and dealing with wood. Her parents' room was downstairs in the front room. Her dad would always have a rice pudding every day. He liked porridge in the morning. He wasn't into fishing. He had a motor bike with sidecar where Grandma would sit. The belt would break and she had to jump off and pick it up. He loved his Ford car and was very proud of it.
|
The Birchall Family on Holiday: Polly, Tom and Freda Birchall |
|
Thomas Arthur Birchall (Tom) |
The family later lived at 34 Bingham Street, Swinton. Thomas Birchall had a friend, Mr Pinder, and together they had an allotment and grew vegetables and reared hens for eggs and chicken. The family always cooked a chicken on Christmas Day. (Karen saw on GoogleEarth in 2010 that right behind the house there is a large plot of land with allotments).
Tom Birchall retired from J. Gerrard and Sons Ltd in 1946. He was given a barometer that his grandson, Trevor, has in his home now. It has a plaque on the front saying:
"T.A. Birchall
35 years' service
J.G. & S Ltd"
Every New Year's Day, they had a party at Auntie Alice's (Henshaw) in Sale, Cheshire. They did puzzles and Uncle Frank played the piano.
Freda told Trevor in 2001 that her father had made the dining table, the seats beside the fireplace, the bedside cupboards, and the bookcase under the hatch in the livingroom.
Polly and Tom Birchall went to the pictures (movies) every Saturday night and sat in the same seats each time (pre-booked!) They always got custards (tarts) from the corner shop on a Saturday morning.
Trevor remembers visiting his grandparents. He recalls how his grandfather loved listening to the radio and would have the volume turned up very high as he was hard of hearing and had hearing aids. His grandfather's wood workshop was up the steep stairs on the left-hand side. It was a large room and had a long rack of tools hanging on the wall that was beautifully organized with tools such as various chisels that were different sizes and shapes. Each tool was in its right place and Tom would put his tools back where they belonged when he finished. The workshop was noisey with multiple saws and drills going.
Grandad Birchall would take his grandson Trevor to see football games when Manchester City played at home. Trevor went to see his grandparents every other weekend.
Mary Jane Birchall was cremated on 2nd November 1960 at Manchester Crematorium. The bill for the cremation was 6 oounds and 6 shillings. The expenses from Eccles and District Co-operative Society Limited, Peel Street, Eccles, totalled 42 pounds, 9 shillings and 6 pence, included a casket with the best fittings, good quality swansdown robe, complete with attendence.
Their next door neighbours were the Morrisey family. Trevor played with Lily Morrisey's daughters.
At age 80, Tom Birchall had his first car accident and it was in the paper. He kept the newspaper cutting.
|
