Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage.
Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word for a small island, or land surrounded by water or marsh, indicating that it may have been first settled by Norse invaders in the period of the Danelaw.
History
Hulme was formerly a township in the parish of Manchester, in 1866 Hulme became a separate civil parish, on 26 March 1896 the parish was abolished to form South Manchester. In 1891 the parish had a population of 7,196.
Toponymy Hulme derives its name from the Old Norse holmr, holmi, through Old Danish hulm or hulme meaning small islands or land surrounded by streams, fen or marsh.Ekwall, Eilert The Place-Names of Lancashire (1922, The University Press, Lime Grove, Manchester) The area may have fitted this description at the time of the Scandinavian invasion and settlement as it is surrounded by water on three sides by the rivers Irwell, Medlock and Corn Brook. Ekwall suggested that the considerable number of Danish names to the south and south-west of Manchester, unparalleled in the rest of Lancashire, pointed to a Danish colony on the north bank of the Mersey.
Early history Ouerholm and Noranholm were recorded in 1226 and Norholm in 1227. These are thought to be variations of Overhulm and Netherhulm, although recorded earlier.
The surname de Hulm is known from records of 1246, 1273, 1277, 1285,Parker, John (Editor) "Lancashire Assize Rolls" Vol. XLIX (49), Part I, pp. 126, 145 (1903, The Record Society), Part II, pp. 189, 195, 205 (1905, The Record Society) 1332 and 1339Farrer, William (Editor) "Final Concords of the County of Lancaster" Vol. XLVI (46), Parts I, II, III, (1899, 1903, 1905, The Record Society) and del Hulme from 1284. There are other early Hulm(e)s/Holm(e)s from which they might have received their surnames (by Warrington and Lancaster, for example).
In 1310 there is a mention of "the manor of Hulm with the appurtenances, near Mamcestre".
In 1322 in the records of rents of the lands of the recently executed enemy of the King and rebel Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the following are mentioned as in the Wapentake of Salfordshire:
"Geoffrey de Hulme holds half a ploughland in Hulme and renders yearly 5s[hillings]." or, in an alternate version: "Geoffrey de Hulme holds one ploughland in Hulme by the service of 5s. yearly at the 4 terms for all." and "John le Ware holds one ploughland in Hulme by the service of 5s. yearly at the 4 terms." In 1324 there is a record of "... ; farm of the land of Geoffrey de Hulme in Hulme which Jordan the dean formerly held in Overhulm and Netherhulm 5s ; ..."Farrer, William (Editor) "Lancashire Inquests, Extents, and Feudal Aids" Vol. LIV (54), Part II, pp. 104, 106, 204 (1907, The Record Society)
In 1440 there is a mention of the manor of Hulme and land exchanged for 200 pounds of silver: "Between William de Byrom, Henry de Par and John Hepe, late of Hulme, plaintiffs, and Ralph de Prestwich, deforciant of the manor of Hulme with the appurtenances, and of 9 messuages, 300 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow, 500 acres of pasture, and 100 acres of wood in Mamcestre, Crompton and Oldom.
Hulme was evidenced as a separate community south of the River Medlock from Manchester in 15th century map prints. Christopher Saxton included Holme in his map of Lancashire of 1577 on the south banks of the Medlock and the Irwell where they joined. Trafford was placed on the south bank of the Irwell to the south-west, Wordsall across the Irwell to the north-west and Manchester across the Medlock to the north.Saxton, Christophorus LANCASTRIÆ, Comitatus palatin vera et absoluta descriptio Anno Dm 1577 Hulme Hall was close to the River Irwell on a site near where St George's Church was later built, and the Hulme Barracks were built in 1799.
Until the 18th century the area remained agricultural, and pictures from the time show an idyllic scene of crops, sunshine and country life. The area remained entirely rural until the Bridgewater Canal was cut and the Industrial Revolution swept economic change through the neighbouring district of Castlefield where the Duke of Bridgewater's canal terminated, and containerised transportation of coal and goods rose as an industry to support the growing textile industries of Manchester. It was this supply of cheap coal from the Duke's mines at Worsley that allowed the textile industry of Manchester to grow.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution brought development to the area, and jobs to the poor, carrying coal from the 'starvationers' (very narrow canal boats), to be carted off along Deansgate.
Many cotton mills and railway links to Hulme soon followed, with the town served by the Mid-Cheshire line railway and the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway, as well as the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company. Thousands of people came to work in the rapidly expanding mills in the city. The number of people living in Hulme multiplied 50-fold during the first half of the 19th century. Housing had to be built rapidly, and space was limited, which resulted in low-quality housing interspersed with the myriad smoking chimneys of the mills and the railway. Reports of the time suggest that at times the air quality became so poor that poisonous fumes and smoke literally "blocked out the sun" for long periods.
In the Irish Poor Report of 1836 the Deputy Constable of the Township of Manchester, Joseph Sadler Thomas, found that the Irish were so fiercely neighbourly in Little Ireland (located on the other side of the River Medlock, just north of Hulme Ward) and the larger Irish area of Angel Meadow (north-east of Victoria Station, on the other side of central Manchester from Hulme) that: "if a legal execution of any kind is to be made, either for rent or debt, or for taxes, the officer who serves the process almost always applies to me for assistance to protect him; and, in affording that protection, my officers are often maltreated by brickbats and other missiles".Busteed, M. A. and Hodgson, R. I. Angel Meadow: a Study of the Geography of Irish Settlement in Mid-Nineteenth Century Manchester, Manchester Geographical Society www.mangeogsoc.org.uk
Hulme Hall was demolished in 1840 with the construction of the Bridgewater Canal.Farrer, William & Brownbill, J. (editors) "Hulme" A History of the County of Lancaster Vol. IV; pp. 335–338 By 1844, the situation had grown so serious that Manchester Borough Council had to pass a law banning further building. However, the thousands of "slum" homes that were already built continued to be lived in, and many were still in use into the first half of the 20th century.
Friedrich Engels was the heir of a German cotton manufacturer who had come to work for the Ermen & Engels factory in Weaste, Salford, from Hulme though he worked in the firm's offices in Manchester. He made Little Ireland infamous throughout the world as a disastrous slum despite it being relatively short-lived (a little over 30 years) and other areas of Manchester having worse housing, poverty and disease.Busteed, Mervyn Exploring Greater Manchester: a fieldwork guide 3.1 Little Ireland (Web edition) , Manchester Geographical Society www.mangeogsoc.org.uk Little Ireland was a small slum between Oxford Road, the Medlock and the railway serving Oxford Road Station, mainly inhabited by Irish immigrant workers. Described at length by Engels, he estimated that there was one inaccessible privy for every 120 residents. "The cottages are old, dirty and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, fallen into ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, offal and sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions; the atmosphere is poisoned by the effluvia from these, and laden and darkened by the smoke of a dozen tall factory chimneys. A horde of ragged women and children swarm about here, as filthy as the swine that thrive upon the garbage heaps and in the puddles."Engels, Friedrich The Condition of the Working Class in England, Chapter: "The Great Towns" German edition Leipzig 1845, English translation New York 1887, London 1891. Archived at the Marx/Engels Internet Archive at www.marxists.org Reinforcement of the Medlock to protect the factories raised the level of the river above the surrounding residential hovels leading to frequent flooding with filthy river water. Hulme was also described by Engels: "the more thickly built-up regions chiefly bad and approaching ruin, the less populous of more modern structure, but generally sunk in filth."
Large numbers of Irish immigrants settled in Hulme, and in various other districts of Manchester.
The Tithe award for Hulme was made in 1854.Frangopulo, N. J., ed. (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Manchester Education Committee; p. 278 In 1863 members of the Hulme Athenaeum club for working men established an association football club, believed to be the earliest example in the city and in the county of Lancashire.Gary James & Dave Day (2014) The Emergence of an Association Football Culture in Manchester 1840–1884, Sport in History, Vol 34, Issue 1, pp.49-74 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17460263.2013.873075?src=recsys Records of association games in the 1860s and 1870s exist with the club surviving into the early 1870s.
In the 1860s, as Hulme became more established, new facilities sprang up. Municipal buildings were developed on Stretford Road, including the Town Hall, baths and public library, and Chorlton Union Workhouse on Leaf Street. The former Turville Public House, on the corner of Ellesmere Street, dates from c1870.
The foundation stone of the first school erected by the Manchester School Board was laid in Vine Street, Hulme, on 11 June 1874 by Herbert Birley, chairman of the board, and the school was opened on 9 August 1875. Other board schools in Hulme were at Hamer Street (1872), Zion Chapel (1875), Lloyd Street (1878), Mulberry Street (1881), Upper Jackson Street (1883), Bangor Street (1886) and Duke Street (1890).Frangopulo, N. J., ed. (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Manchester Education Committee; p. 89, 150 The temperance hall in Hulme, in 1880, hosted a fancy dress ball, where all the 47 attendees were men, but 22 of them came dressed as women. The attendees were later arrested and put on trial accused of soliciting sex with other men.
In 1913 it was said "It is probable that in no northern city is the divergence between classes so marked as it is becoming in Manchester. Among the 80,000 inhabitants, for example, of Hulme, the poorest and most neglected district of the city, is to be found only a tiny minority of persons of much education and refinement, these being with rare exceptions doctors, or ministers of the various religious denominations, and their wives"Russell, Charles E. B. (1913) Social Problems of the North. London: A. R. Mowbray.
In the early 20th century transport in Hulme was improved when the existing horse-drawn omnibus services were replaced by electric trams. These services connected Hulme with the suburbs further south, Moss Side, Whalley Range and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Boston Street and Preston Street carried complementary single lines of track southwards from Jackson Street.Yearsley, Ian (1962) The Manchester Tram. Huddersfield: Advertiser Press From 1949 the tram services were withdrawn and replaced by the motorbuses of Manchester Corporation Transport.Yearsley (1962)
Hulme Hippodrome (1901), The Playhouse (1902)