19 - The Mosscrop Draper's Shop
The Mosscrop family at Household 19 stayed for a very short time in Romiley. Neither of the newlyweds, named Anthony and Agnes, originated from the area. Agnes Richardson was born in Dunbartonshire, Scotland where her father worked as head colour mixer at a Printworks. Anthony Mosscrop was born in Bollington, Cheshire, and came from a long line of Drapers and Tailors. His father Thomas was also a very well known preacher for the Primitive Methodists and the Wesleyans and was abstinent throughout his life.
The couple married just days before the 1871 census at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in New Mills, Derbyshire. It was the very first wedding hosted at the chapel and Anthony's brother, Reverend Edwin Mosscrop, married the pair.
The wedding was very well attended, with girls from the Sunday School, where both Anthony and Agnes taught, acting as flower girls. Most of the town came to celebrate and watch the four horse drawn carriages make their way to the chapel. The guests continued the celebrations at Agnes' father's house where they had a "splendid breakfast".
After a short honeymoon in Lytham, Agnes and Anthony began their own draper's shop from their home on Romiley Road, with their living accommodation upstairs. The shop perhaps didn't prosper, or maybe the couple wanted to live nearer to their families, as they moved to Whaley Bridge shortly after. In 1873 their only child Martha was born.
Anthony continued to run a draper's shop but later broadened his business to sell groceries. He also bought some property in Whaley Bridge and became a member of the Local Board there. Agnes joined the Whaley Bridge Women's Association and she and Martha helped out with fundraisers and events at the church.
They lived in a part of Whaley Bridge known as Horwich End and just next door was Agnes' brother John, running his own stationery business. The two shops were merged together to form Messrs Mosscrop and Richardson and in 1884 their "large and temptingly ornamented Christmas Tree" was mentioned in the local newspaper.
When Anthony retired Martha continued to work with her uncle John and she would later move in with him when her parents died in the 1920s. He lived until 1947 and left Martha all of his money, which she used to buy her own home on Reservoir Road. She died in a nursing home in Buxton in 1958. The Mosscrop family had no descendants.
You can find out more about the Mosscrop family in the book "Residents of Romiley Road" which will be coming soon.