The Greens and the Hallows: groceries, coal and defective scales

    We stand amongst sacks of dusty black at a coal yard on Green Lane, just off Romiley Road, near to the Duke of York pub. It’s the middle of summer, the sun beating down, and 42 year old Andrew Hallows is serving a customer, weighing out the coal that will be used to heat water for cooking and washing. Andrew is a confident salesman having worked as a grocer for many years; first in Romiley and then in the Market Place at Compstall. When the grocery business started to struggle Andrew entered a new market and became a coal agent. He buys directly from the producers at the nearby coal mines in Bredbury and sells at a higher price to the people of Romiley. The demand for coal has been going up every year and there are no signs of the increase slowing, but it’s now summer and sales are naturally lower. 
   Another man enters the scene, dressed smartly and with an air of authority. Police Superintendent Lawton heads straight towards the weighing scales before Andrew can have a chance to make any adjustments. A standard weight is used to check that the scales are correct and above board, and to ensure that customers are receiving exactly what they have paid for. Andrew looks uncomfortable, a gleam of sweat forming on his forehead. He licks his lips, his mouth suddenly very dry as it becomes apparent to all present that the scales have not been found to be accurate. They are 2 3/4lbs out of balance. A criminal offence and one that will be dealt with in court, potentially damaging his business and leaving it in ruins like those that went before. 

 

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1871 census

Household One

Andrew Hallows Head 1832 Carrier
Millicent Hallows Wife 1834

Thomas Hallows Son 1862 Scholar
William Hallows Son 1868

Hannah Hallows Daughter 1869

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Household Two

Samuel Green Head 1842 Grocer
Annie Green Wife 1847

   
   Andrew Hallows was fined 10 shillings plus costs during the court hearing. Not a great sum in and of itself, but having his name appear in the local newspaper accused of owning defective scales would have brought a heavy blow to the business. He left Romiley shortly after the court hearing to return to his birthplace of Denton, where he started a new coal business. He had come to Romiley as a child with his parents William and Martha, where he lived at Dingle Hollow, about halfway between the centre of Romiley and Compstall. His father and brother both worked as engineers, likely in one of the mills and factories in Romiley or Compstall. Andrew chose a different career path however, working as a greengrocer and opening his own business in Compstall. 
   He met Millicent Green, a woman from a long line of Romiley residents, and in 1860 they married. Her grandparents included Mary Ridgway and Jarman Williamson, two very common surnames in Bredbury and Romiley. Millicent’s father John Green lived on Romiley Road and worked a number of different jobs throughout his life, from labourer to hatter, bookkeeper to grocer. He sat on the Grand Jury at the Knutsford Sessions in 1843, where he and his fellow jurers, including another Romiley man named Thomas Andrew who worked as a merchant, made judgements on the guilt or innocence of fifty prisoners. 
   Millicent’s brother Samuel also lived on Romiley Road, running a greengrocer’s, florist and nursery. The family were neighbours with Charles Ridgway, the nurseryman, and were possibly related through John Green’s mother Mary Ridgway. Samuel and his wife Annie Timperley, like the Ridgways on the road, were committed members of the Wesleyan church. It would have been a familiar sight to see the carts of the Greens and the Ridgways, delivering their plants and produce to homes or collecting stock from Stockport. Unfortunately, cart and trap accidents were frequent at this time and Samuel Green was involved in one such accident in 1879.
   Samuel was friends with another greengrocer, Thomas Mellison, who lived on Bents Lane, Bredbury. One August day the pair, along with Thomas’ daughter, were driving a cart laden with fruit and vegetables down School Brow, just up the hill from Romiley. The cart hit a stone and completely overturned, Samuel leaping out of the conveyance without any serious harm. Samuel calmed the horse and Mellison’s daughter managed to wriggle out from beneath the cart and call for help. The cart was righted, Mellison was released and only the fruit and veg, scattered all over the street, was damaged. 
   Just two years later Samuel’s servant was riding in Samuel’s trap, bringing beans and flour from Stockport to the grocer. She rode with Mary Ridgway, the wife of Andrew Ridgway. When they reached Bredbury Toll Bar the wheel of the trap caught on the wheel of a timber cart that was passing, smashing the gears and all0wing the horse to walk off, the seat of the trap landing heavily on the ground. Both women were thrown onto the road but fortunately the driver of the timber cart offered to take the broken trap to be fixed and a Romiley resident named Mr Morton offered to transport the goods in his milk cart. 
   Samuel Green put his name forward for the local board elections in 1880. There were six seats to be filled and Samuel came 7th, losing out to some of the big names of Romiley such as James Syddall, the calico printer, and Simeon Hopwood, a grocer and gentleman. Samuel may have missed out on that occasion but he was later appointed an overseer of the poor in April 1887. Shorty after, he became unwell. The illness continued through the summer and well into autumn. He passed away in November, aged 45, leaving behind a wife and two children. His obituary tells us that Samuel Green had hoped to travel in his lifetime but doctors had advised against it as his health would not have coped with the change. 
   Andrew Hallows and Millicent had seven children whilst in Romiley but only four went with them to Denton. Between 1871 and 1874, Mary Emma, Martha and John were all born and buried within the same quarter. Three years then passed before Andrew was born in 1877, and happily, he survived. The family moved to 270 Manchester Road and the new coal merchants was opened at Denton train station. An advertisement from 1877 claims that Hallows’ coal is “The Best House Coal” and “The quality of the above cannot be surpassed in the neighbourhood.” He charged 10d per hundredweight (about 51kg) of “Best house coal” and 7d for “Good burgy”, which was coal in smaller pieces with more impurities. 
   Whilst business was booming for Andrew, Millicent had become unwell, and she died on the 30th July 1881, aged 46. Millicent’s sister Mary died at 40 and of course her brother Samuel at 46 so it’s possible there was some genetic disease that limited their lives. Their son William also died young, at just 33. With the loss of Millicent, 50 year old Andrew took on the sole responsibility of their three young children. Unlike many widowed men at the time, he didn’t immediately remarry to provide care for his children. He may have taken on a servant to fulfil the role. 
   Disaster almost came for Andrew’s business in July 1886 when some children were caught playing near his office at the station yard and the office caught fire. The office, being built of wood and covered in tar, was at high risk of being completely destroyed, but luckily a man was passing and acted quickly to put the fire out. 
   In addition to the coal merchants Andrew diversified in 1889, starting a bus service from Crown Point to Denton Train Station for the cost of a penny. The residents had been angry at the tram company for a long time as they had to pay the full fare, even for this short distance. The newspaper encouraged the local people to support the enterprise. Three years later Andrew had given up the coach business and was selling everything pertaining to it. The auction included two horses, one omnibus, one waggonnette, an old mourning coach, four box carts, one gig, two traps, one lurry, and many more items including some coal weighing scales, perhaps the same scales that had led to his court hearing years before.
   The letting go of the old business marked a new start for Andrew, who had remarried and begun a new business. His new wife was Sarah Torkington, nee Ardern, a 49 year old widow from Buxton, Derbyshire. The new business was in furniture removals, a business he would still be working in at the age of 70. His son Andrew was listed as being a “warehouseman” so there’s a good chance they worked together. 
   Andrew Hallows passed away aged 73 in 1904. His second wife Sarah took on a very small cottage on Billinge Street in Stockport. She was living on her own means, which perhaps suggests that Andrew’s final business had done fairly well, but clearly she was economising by living in a house with just two living rooms. Sarah lived until 1921, where we find her one last time in the census visiting a friend named Mary Elizabeth Jennings. 
   Andrew and Sarah had no children of their own, but three of Andrew and Millicent’s children outlived their parents. Andrew junior, went on to work as a carter for the London and North Western Railway, transporting goods to the local area. He married Mary Emma Fraser in 1908 and they had four children, the third child being named Millicent after Andrew’s mother. Eldest son Thomas also worked as a carter and coal porter, marrying Ellenor Witchell but never having any children. Hannah Hallows worked as a servant for an American named Howard Evan Howells, a bicycle maker. She never married and worked as a servant until her retirement. She lived to 85 years of age.