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The Jewish Community of the South Manchester Suburb of Didsbury 1891-1914: a socio-economic comparison with the Northern sector of the city's Jewry
Introduction
This paper stems from a local history paper I wrote in 1996 for a degree module on the formation of the Didsbury Jewry between 1891 and 1914. Situated five miles south of Manchester, Didsbury has long been known for its thriving Jewish community, colloquially called "Yidsbury" and "Palestine Road" in reference to Palatine Road.
The project arose not from personal faith – I am not Jewish – but from a long-standing interest in Didsbury’s local history, where I have lived for much of my adult life. I was struck by the lack of published research on Didsbury’s Jewish community, despite its significant presence and cultural contribution. An appreciation of Didsbury’s period architecture, many examples of which once housed prominent Jewish families, also drew me to the subject, alongside a broader interest in genealogy and social history.
For the purpose of this research, I have included the neighbouring suburb of Withington, as many members of its Jewish community resided along major thoroughfares like Palatine Road and Wilmslow Road, which traverse both areas. Determining precise boundary lines on these roads proved challenging, and excluding certain historically significant individuals simply because they lived just beyond the Didsbury border would have been frustrating.
1. Aims and Strategy
Following a primarily hypothesis-testing strategy, the aim of this study is to identify socio-economic divisions between the Manchester Jewish communities. By focusing on the Didsbury Jewish community during 1891-1914, divisions were expected to emerge between this group and the northern sector of the city’s Jewry, which was the focus of Williams (1976).
The hypotheses tested are drawn from Englander (1994, p.184), that ‘separation of classes affected the Manchester Jewish minority as much as the general population’ in that:
Due to time factors and word limitations for this study, no attempt was made to distinguish between orthodox and non-orthodox Jews.
2. Relation to the
work of other researchers
Williams, in the k The Making of Manchester Jewry: 1740-1875 (1976) provides valuable statistical data for making quantitative socio-economic comparison and important contextual information on the origins of Manchester Jewry. He demonstrates that the principal suburban movement from around 1815 was northwards towards Broughton, with a smaller southward movement into areas such as Chorlton-on-Medlock and Rusholme. This is significant to the present research, as trade directory and census data show that many Didsbury Jewish residents followed a similar southward migration route through these areas. Gustav Behrens (a wealthy Jewish merchant), for example, lived on Plymouth Grove, Chorlton-on-Medlock in 1881-86 before moving to Didsbury. Novelist Elizabeth Gaskell also lived on Plymouth Grove until her death in 1865 and assimilation into mainstream middle-class society is evident amongst her Jewish neighbours who socialised at her house - it was a ‘social centre’ for ‘Jewish as well as non-Jewish’ (Williams, 1976, p 169).
Waterman and Englander identify similar patterns of Jewish suburbanisation in other cities. Waterman’s study of Jewish settlement in Dublin shows a progression from clustered segregation to suburban dispersal, as prosperous families moved outward, with suburbs subsequently attracting further migration and institutional development (Pryce, 1994, p.166).
Englander’s study of East London demonstrates comparable class-based spatial divisions, identified through synagogue distribution. He notes the establishment of new synagogues in the West End as a result of ‘the westward march of the wealthy’ (Englander, 1994, p.184). Similarly, new synagogues were founded in South Manchester from 1872 to serve the expanding middle-class suburban Jewish population.
By way of illustration, Mrs Brewer’s article (1892), Englander also highlights the predominance of working-class immigrant trades such as tailoring and cap making within the East End Jewry. These patterns also appear in Manchester Jewry, in contrast to the Didsbury Jewish population, which was dominated by wealthier shipping and commercial occupations.
A major question raised in my research was what brought Jews to Didsbury. Although several factors were influential, including cleaner air and improved transport, educational opportunities were particularly significant given the area’s academic character. Williams’ research shows that the Jewish community placed emphasis on education as ‘an instrument of social change’ (1976, p.89), particularly as a route into the professions. ‘The movement of Jews into the professions had begun when Jacob Nathan sent his son, Lewis Henry, to Manchester Grammar School ... and on to London to train as a surgeon’ (Williams, 1976, p.123). This study reveals similar aspirations among numerous Didsbury Jewish parents.
Elias Canetti,
Jewish author of
The Tongue Set Free
(1988), for instance, lived in Didsbury as a child and recalls his father’s
response to his wish to become a doctor, ‘You don’t have to become a
businessman like me and the uncles. You will go to the university and you
will be what you want most’ (Canetti, 1988, p.42). A less explicit factor that may have drawn Jews to Didsbury relates to Anglo-Jewish leadership, who perceived the conditions and lifestyles of poorer Jewish communities as obstacles to integration into British society (Englander, 1994, p.185). Williams similarly suggests that early Jewish settlers in South Manchester moved southwards to distance themselves from their social inferiors (Williams, 1976, p.313). However, establishing the role of snobbery remains difficult within this primarily quantitative study.
Evidence relating to socio-economic divisions within the Didsbury Jewish community itself supports Price (1984), who argues that such divisions were evident between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, with Sephardim clustering in the prestigious Palatine Road area (Price, 1984, p.44).
To compare the socio-economic divisions between the North and South
Manchester Jewish communities, Armstrong (Drake and Finnegan, 1994) and
Rau’s (1984) class indicators have been used which will be discussed under
Section 3.
Table 1 – Sample database of Didsbury Jewish residents in 1905
Area key: AP - Albert Park; WD - West Didsbury; W - Withington; D - Didsbury Sources: Manchester Trade Directories
Table 2 –
Number of Jewish households
identified in the Didsbury area
Sources: Census Enumerators' Books for 1891 and Manchester Trade Directories 1869-1914
Observation of Jewish family residences reveals a stark contrast between those in the northern sector of the city's Jewry and those in Didsbury, where many Jews had relocated. The 1891 census reveals that most Didsbury Jewish residents lived in large villas or palatial mansions set in their own grounds, typically employing an average of three servants. In sharp contrast, the northern sector of the city's Jewry was dominated by rows of terraced houses in densely populated areas. In 1871, over one-third of its inhabitants lived in the notorious Red Bank district of Cheetham Hill.
The directories show a marked
improvement in transport facilities in Didsbury with the opening in the
early 1880s of railway lines and horse-bus services (followed by electric trams
from 1902) running from Didsbury to the city centre. This was likely to
have influenced Jewish settlement in the area, as most Jewish residents
worked in or near the city centre. As the map in Appendix 4 shows, a
large proportion of Jewish settlement
was concentrated in the
Albert Park area, which
lay within a short walking distance to the Withington & Albert Park
Railway Station on Lapwing
Lane and the horse-bus terminus on Palatine Road, West Didsbury.
Educational opportunities, in
particular, appear to have drawn Jewish families to Didsbury. The
directories list a wealth of educational establishments in the area and
surrounding districts, and
Mr and Mrs 'A' stated (1996) that many
local Jewish
children attended preparatory schools before progressing to the local
grammar schools. Mr 'A' himself attended the highly academic and
prestigious Manchester Grammar School
while his wife attended the
equivalent Withington Girls’ School.
A Biographical Register of Old Mancunians 1888-1951 confirms that numerous Jewish boys from Didsbury
gained entry into the
Manchester Grammar
School. Ephraim Ascoli, a Sephardi shipping merchant of
Wilmslow Road, for example, sent his
four sons to the
school between 1894 and 1906.
His second eldest
son, Francis, became Managing Director of Dunlop Plantations Ltd. (MGS,
1965). Some Manchester Grammar School pupils, such as Leonard Behrens (son of Gustav
Behrens)
and Louis Rosenberg, moved on to Manchester University (Owens College
until1903) which was a short tram-ride from Didsbury.
This class indicator contrasts
sharply with the
educational profile of the northern sector of the city. By the turn
of the century,
The Jews School
on
Derby Street had a child population of 2,000 (Williams, 1988, p.63).
Unlike the non-Jewish preparatory schools in Didsbury, which
emphasised academic attainment, The Jews School ‘reflected working-class
needs’ (Williams,
1976, p. 330). Girls were encouraged to develop domestic skills, while boys were prepared for apprenticeship schemes.
Table 3 – Occupations of the Didsbury Jewish Community, 1891–1914
Sources: 1891 census and Manchester Trade Directories 1891-1914
There is also a marked difference between the occupations of the Didsbury
Jewish groups. The vast
majority of Sephardim were cotton shipping merchants, whereas a diversity
of occupations, including professions, is evident amongst the Ashkenazim
(see Table 3). Although I found no
professional status amongst the Didsbury Jews in the directory and census data
for 1891, by 1914 there
were two physicians, one surgeon, one solicitor, one barrister, and two
engineers, all of whom were
Ashkenazi Jews.
Assimilation into mainstream
middle-class society has been shown to be most prominent amongst the affluent
Ashkenazi
members of the community.
Cretien Gradisky, for instance,
represented Didsbury Ward on the City Council (Obituary), Israel Sieff,
co-founder
of Marks and Spencer, donated £5,000 to the
Manchester Grammar
School (Graham and Phythian, 1965, p.86) and Gustav Behrens was chairman
of the Hallé
Concert’s
Society and a director of the Chamber of Commerce (Obituary).
Siegmund
Oppenheim also participated at a high level in the local community
as Vice-Consul, and Justice of the Peace, and Magistrate.
This study has found, through
analysis of various class indicators (such as occupations, education and
servant-keeping), significant socio-economic divisions between the
Manchester Jewish communities of Didsbury and the northern sector of the
city’s Jewry. Divisions were also found between the Didsbury Sephardi and
Ashkenazi
Jews. Although there were many wealthy Ashkenazim, it was the
Sephardim who held the reputation associated with wealth and elitism.
Yet, unlike some prominent Ashkenazim who assimilated into mainstream
middle-class society, the Sephardim were more inclined to ‘keep themselves
to themselves’, as evidenced by their residential clustering patterns and
shared occupations as shipping merchants. This study, then, bears out the
wider comparative findings of other researchers in confirming the
hypotheses that ‘separation of classes affected the Manchester Jewish
minority as much as the general population’.
Brewer, Mrs 1892 'The Jewish
Colony in London - First Paper' in DA301.
Canetti, E. 1988
The
Tongue Set Free, London, Pan Books Ltd. Collins, Lydia 2006 The Sephardim of Manchester : Pedigrees and Pioneers, Manchester, Shaare Hayim
Drake, M. and
Finnegan, R.
(eds.) 1994
Sources and Methods for Family and Community Historians:
A Handbook, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in association with
The Open University.
Englander, D. 1994 `Jewish
East London, 1850-1950', in Pryce, W.T.R. (ed.) From family history to
community history, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in
association with The Open University.
Graham, J.A. and Phythian,
B.A. 1965
The Manchester Grammar School -1515-1965, Manchester
University Press.
Price, S.L. 1984 Unpublished
dissertation for Honours degree of BA - The Rise of the Manchester
Jewish Suburbia: a study of intra-urban migration, Department of
Geography University of Nottingham.
Pryce, W.T.R. (ed.) 1994
Volume 2,
From Family History to Community History, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press in association with The Open University.
Rau, D. 1984 `Who chose Chalcots? Aspects of family and social structure in 1851', in DA301
Offprints Booklet 1, The Open University.
Williams, B. 1976
The making of Manchester Jewry 1740-1875,
Manchester, Manchester University Press. Williams, B. 1988 Manchester Jewry - A Pictorial History 1788-1988, Manchester, Archive Publications.
7. Primary Source References
Census Enumerators' Books,
1891, for Didsbury and
Withington, Manchester Central Library (Local Studies Unit).
Manchester Trade Directories,
1869-1914, of Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury, Manchester Central
Library (Local Studies Unit).
Manchester Grammar School,
(1965) A Biographical register of Old Mancunians 1888-1951,
Manchester, H. Rawson & Co. Ltd.
Obituaries, Manchester Newspaper Cuttings, Manchester Central Library (Local Studies Unit).
Oral Sources
Mr and Mrs 'A' (second generation Jewish immigrants, Director of men’s retail outfitters). Interview not recorded. Interviewed in Manchester by Julia Maine (1996).
Website
Visitors Sources
8. Postscript
Given the project's time constraints and word limit, it proved impractical to encompass all class indicators comprehensively. Notably, the exclusion of social and cultural aspects was particularly regrettable, given their significance as class indicators alongside occupations, education, and servant-keeping. Throughout my research, I encountered ample evidence of the active engagement of the Didsbury Jewish community in literary and philosophical debating societies, classical music, and amateur dramatics. Exploring the nuances of such interests across Didsbury Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, as well as between the northern sector of the city’s Jewry, would have been particularly valuable.
Given the qualitative nature of this area of research, oral interviews remain the most promising primary source for further investigation. However, the passage of time inevitably limits the number of surviving community members available for interview, thereby restricting the potential richness of the data available for analysis.
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