GLUMANGATE, CHESTERFIELD ~ THE FAMILY HOME

Glumangate 1876

Having made my last post on the birth of Margaret Hannan I wanted to find out more about their time living in Glumangate, after all this street is the only place where Margaret and her parents and siblings all lived together ~ the family home.

Looking at the 1861 census for Glumangate I do now think that the family originally lived on the other side of the road from number 38 (the house mentioned in the last post) on the west side of the street.  Following the route along the 1861 census return the Hannan family are living in between Mary Townsend who ran a lodging house and John Dutton who ran the Spinning Wheel Public House.   This public house had a variety of names over the years including the Joiners Arms, Green Dragon, White Hart, Foresters Arms and the Jubilee, it closed in 1955 when it was known as The Cavendish. 

Updated map of Glumangate showing

Hannan residence in 1861

Life on the street was not always peaceful; an article in The Sheffield Independent on 29th July 1862 describes one neighbourly disagreement ~
Mary Townsend reported a "very disagreeable smell, arising from the defendants house" to Constable Browell.  The defendant was John Hannan, shoemaker of Glumangate.  Constable Browell went to the Hannan home to find "a quantity of leather shavings burning on the fire".  So what would be John's explanation?....... blame the children of course!  "the defendant said his children had put them on the fire without his knowledge".  Naughty Hannan children or quick thinking John?  John was fined 1 shilling and costs of 9 shillings for an offence against the bye laws.

The Burgess roll for Glumangate, which lists who was entitled to vote in the borough election's includes John Hannan for the years 1863 until 1866. To qualify for this vote in 1863 he must have either lived or paid rates in the borough for two and half years. This entitlement was widened in 1869 to included females and the term in residence was reduced to one year. 

Sadly family life was to change forever in 1867, when John became ill suffering from consumption, also known as tuberculosis (TB) or phthisis.  Consumption is highly contagious, spread by air via coughs and sneezes.  Its symptoms could include fatigue, fever, night sweats, breathing difficulty, weight loss and eventually led to wasting away of the body tissues ~ which is where it gained it name "consumption".  In 1867 little was known about the disease, an inoculation was not used successfully until many years later in 1906.  It was not until the 1880's that the disease was classed as contagious and made a notifiable disease, so John had remained living at home, probably going about his day to day activities and working as a shoemaker whilst gradually becoming seriously ill.  Ann must have really struggled to care for her dying husband and a houseful of children, there were six children aged from 13 years old to baby Annie, the newest and last member of the family who was under 1 year old.  It is amazing that none of the children became infected as they would have been highly susceptible to the disease. 

John died with his wife Ann by his side at Glumangate on Monday 10th June 1867, he was only 40 years old.  His condition was documented as consumption but this had not been certified by a doctor, this may have been because the family could not afford medical care.  Margaret was only 9 years old when she lost her father.  Ann was left alone, with no husband or income, to survive the hardships of an Irish immigrant in Victorian England and raise her six children.  

A death notice was placed in the Derbyshire Times newspaper on 15th June 1867 page 2.  It simply reads -

HANNAN - June 10 at Chesterfield - Mr John Hannan,

shoemaker, aged 40

John was buried in a common grave on 12th June 1867 at Spital Cemetery, Chesterfield.  This cemetery was the only one in Chesterfield at the time to have an area for Roman Catholic burials.  He has no gravestone but looking at the plan of the grave plots I can roughly work out where he was laid to rest.  Some years later, on 5th February 1898 John's son Patrick buried his young wife Elizabeth in the same plot as John.  As common graves were allocated in plot order it may just have been pure chance that the same plot was used for both Hannan family member's. 

John's illness was not the first time that the family had contact with the consumption.  Back in 1855 John's father another John Hannan died of phthisis on 23rd April 1855 again at Glumangate.  The death certificate states that he had suffered with the disease for 3 years and this was certified by a doctor.  John senior was also a master cordwainer.

Life continued and by 1871 Ann and her six children are living across the road on the east side of Glumangate, in the last recorded house on the census enumeration schedule before Saltergate begins.  They live next door to John Bryan the greengrocer.  It is not clear if they had moved to this house before or after the death of John.  The two eldest son's John aged 16 years and Timothy aged 14 years old are both employed as coal miners.  All the other children, Margaret 12, Patrick 10, Thomas 6 and Annie 4 are all attending school.   The rate book for 18th May 1871 records "Ann Annon" as living in a property belonging to Wm Towndrow.  The rateable value for this property was £4 8s 0d, which was one of the lower values for the street, but not the lowest.  

During the following ten years Margaret married and moved into her own home just across the town centre in Church Alley.  The other children are all still living with Ann and all but Annie are working for a living.   The boys have left their employment in the mines and both Timothy 23 and Patrick 19 are working on the railways as a platelayer and labourer. John the eldest son is now 25 years old and has a trade as a blacksmith striker.  These times were probably the most well off and comfortable the family had ever experienced with at least three wages coming into the house, plus I am sure that Ann had a side line of some sort to make ends meet.

 The later Burgess rolls show that Ann was given the right to vote in the borough elections and she appears on the list from 1870 to 1878 and then again in 1880 till 1884.  This does tie in with the end of our Hannan connection to Glumangate as by the 1891 census Ann and two of her children John and Annie are now living at 6 Corporation Street, down towards railway station at the other side of the town centre. 

Before 1919 the Towndrow family sold some land and properties to Scarsdale Brewery.  The properties included the four houses at the top of the east side of Glumangate, one of which was number 38, the Hannan family home.  The smithy just below was also included in this sale.  The four houses had been built sometime in the 1850's after the old malthouse and warehouse used by Sarah Riggott were demolished.  They were built for the working classes and consisted of four rooms. 

Glumangate - east side showing Gardener's
public house and Thai restaurant behind

Possible location of number 38 Glumangate

The Corner House public house was built where the four houses had stood, sometime before 1923.  The top end of the row cornering on to Saltergate was the three storey house which was the premises for George Gascoyne's newsagents shop.  The pub has also been known as The Manhattan and is now a Thai restaurant.

Looking south down Glumangate -
1st Hannan house would be on the left
of the street, the west side

The Gardener's or Gardener's Arms, as it has been known, was rebuilt in around 1927 to replace the original smaller building.  The original pub had been known as The Grapes until around 1870 and it was originally situated in between Blacksmiths Yard and number 25 Glumangate. 

Sources -

Map image, Chesterfield Local Studies Library ref XXV.6 1876 1st edition
The Glumangate Story, David G Edwards
Images of Chesterfield, Roy Thompson