Talk:James Watts (Mayor of Manchester)

Notable references
There seems to be conflicting information that makes me suspect that much of the details of James and Samuel has been embellished. Here is a posting on Samuel.

The following is taken from the book "Looking back   at Levenshulme and Burnage", ISBN 0 946361 22 3 Willow Publishing.

< Burnage Hall,built around 1840 was a substantial brick and stone house with ornamental gardens,orchards and glasshouses, set back about 150 yards from Burnage lane and approached by a magnificent avenue of lime trees some of which can still be   seen in Burnage lane. Samuel Watts moved into the hall about 1840.he was one of the sons of John Watts,founder of the firm S & J Watts which built a palatial warehouse in Portland st,Manchester,now the Britannia Hotel. The other son Sir James Watts lived at Abney Hall,Cheadle. Miss E.Watts Sidebottom writes that the clay dug to make the bricks to build Burnage Hall came from a field where the Garden Village now stands. The resulting hollow formed a pond " and it was for some years used for   curling    matches,and great was the excitement and the shouting,and many were the    cabs,    four-wheelers,and hansoms,which drove up on a clear winter's day.At night    fires were lit and the game continued with no lessening of enthusiasm    until late    at night " The Hall and grounds[about 36 acres] fetched £14,000 at auction and the house was demolished in 1911 to allow the building of Burnage Park estate.The outbuildings remained and were used by Bidder's the scaffolding firm,until subsequent demolition when two houses were built on the site.>

Also from the same book :



In the 1858 Manchester directory[Archive Cd Books] the following are listed :

WATTS,Saml esq.Burnage Hall,Burnage WATTS,Samuel & James & Co.general warehousemen & merchants, Portland st.

In the 1895 Manchester Directory[Archive CD Books] :

WATTS,Edward,merchant[S & J WATTS & CO],Sunny Bank, 21 Birch Hall lane.Dickenson rd,Longsight [Also at this address in 1873] WATTS,James,merchant [S & J WATTS & CO] Cheadle Old Hall, Cheadle, Cheshire

Cheers Kath

--ClemRutter (talk) 23:41, 22 October 2012 (UTC)