James Bateman

James Bateman (c1749-1824?) of Bateman and Sherratt

c1749 Born possibly at Kendal

1779 May 10th. Marriage. James Bateman of Manchester age thirty years and upwards to Margaret Nicholson of Saint Sepulchre, London, age twenty eight years and upwards. The newspaper announcement says Miss Nicholson of Kendal.

1780 April 25th. Christening of daughter Elizabeth at Manchester Cathedral

1782. Advertisement. 'JAMES BATEMAN, IRON-MONGER, Deansgate, Manchester, Begs Leave to acquaint his Friends and the Public, THAT he has lately erected an IRON-FOUNDERY, and begun to Manufacture a great Variety of elegant Pantheon, Bath, and other Stove Grates, Cast Iron Kitchen Grates, Cylinder, Octagon, and the new invented Hob or Side Oven, Plot Hearths, Ironing Plates, Laundry Stoves, Pots and Pans of all Sizes in Sand or Loam, for Chymists, Soap Boilers, Crofters, Dyers, &c. Stoves and Pipes of all Kinds for Warehouses, Printers, &c. Furnace Doors and Bars, Velvet Irons, Clock and Sash Weights, Weights of all Sizes adjusted by an exact Standard, Box, Sad and Hatters Irons and Heaters, Waggon, Cart and Chaise Bushes, Iron Wheels for Coal Waggons, Gins and Barrows, Gudgeons and Spindles for Mills, Wheels any Size, all Kinds of Shafts, Wheels, Pinions, and Rollers for Carding and Spinning Machines, Malt Rollers, Paper Screws, Boxes and Rolls for Copper and Slitting Mills, Garden Rollers, Calendar Bowls, Iron Gates and Railing, Iron Doors and Chests, Brass Steps for Mills, and all other Castings to Patterns or Dimensions, with many other Articles quite new in the Cast Iron Way. - best Price given for Scrap Iron and old Cast Metal.'. Note: Another advertisement adds the name 'Etna Foundery'

1788 Listed as (a) James Bateman {& Co.}, ironmongers, Deansgate; (b) iron founder, Water Street; (c)iron forger, Collyhirst; (d) iron founder & forger, Duckenfield . Note: Spellings as per source document.

1798 Advert, 'To Be Let ... All those Three Rooms or Chambers, situate and being over Mr. James Bateman's Smithy, on the Salford End of the Wood Bridge, in Salford aforesaid, as the same are now in the Occupition of Mr. John Gatley. The above Rooms and Premises are suitable for a Cotton Spinner or Machine-maker, being each 25 Yards in length, by seven in breadth. For further Particulars apply to the said Mr. Gatley, (who will shew the Premises or at the Office of Mr. Cooke, attorney, Salford.

1817. Advertisement. 'To be Let, And entered upon immediately, THREE Cotton and Twist WAREHOUSES, Nos. 285, 286, and 287, in Bateman's-buildings, fronting to Deansgate, and one large Room adjoining, over the grocer's shop. Also, all those Buildings lately occupied as an Iron Forge, turned by two water wheels, on the Moss Brook, Collyhurst, one and a half miles from Manchester, together with the Dwelling adjoining, (now in the occupation of Widow Barker.), which will be let separately if not taken with the Forge.
Apply at No. 5, Bateman Buildings (one property).'

1817 Advert: 'To be sold by auction, by John Wood, On Friday the 18th July, 1817, at the Iron Forge at Collyhurst, lately occupied by Mess. Bateman and Branthwaite, consisting of anvils vices, smithy lathes, two engines for screws, one of which is new, with cast iron framing, and their apparatus, and many sets files, sundry lots of iron, steel, &c &c. On Monday the 21st July, in the large Room in Bateman's Building, adjoining the late Iron Warehouse, a quantity of Ovens grates, boilers, pans, and a great variety of other ironmongery goods.'. Was Branthwaite James Branthwaite of Deansgate, ironmonger, who was bankrupt in 1830

1819 January 7th. Burial of Margaret, age 69 years, the wife of James Bateman of Salford. Also of Tolson Hall, near Kendal.

1824 April. Died. 'In the 76th year of his age, James Bateman, Esq. of Knypersley Hall, Staffordshire, of Tolson Hall, in the county of Westmoreland, and Islington Hall, Manchester.'

1824 April 8th. Burial of James Bateman, age 75 years, of Salford.

1824 November. Tolson Hall contents and cattle to be sold.

1825. Advertisement. 'SALE BY AUCTION, Islington House, (the Residence of the late JAMES BATEMAN, Esq.) BY MR. HOME, On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the 26th, 30th, and 31st, of the present month, each day the Sale will commence at 10 o'clock:— sundry HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE is in great variety, and in good Condition, embracing Two Sets of of excellent Dining Tables, Mahogany and Painted Chairs, valuable Sideboard, Sofa, Turkey, Brussels, and Kidderminster, Carpets, handsome Chimney Glasses, Pembroke and Snap Tables, Pair of handsome Card Tables, Window Curtains of Moreen and fancy Drapery, a fine toned Piano-forte, with additional Keys by Clementi, an Eight Days Clock, Mahogany Four Post and Tent Bedsteads, Feather and Flock Beds, Mattresses, &c.; a variety of Chimney Ornaments, Dinner and Tea Services, and elegant Dessert Service of Derby China, handsome Set of Dessert Dishes in Richly Cut Glass, Decanters, Tumblers, Wines, &c.; capital Mangle, Fenders and Fire Irons ; small collection of Books, and a few valuable Prints, by Woollett and other Artists, Framed and Glazed; a complete Set of Brewing utensils, and every requisite in the Kitchen department; also a quantity of Carriage Harness, Green-house Plants, in Pots, &c. The MANSION and GROUNDS on SALE by PRIVATE CONTRACT— For particulars please to apply to Mr. Howe. (One concern.)'

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Biographical Note

James Bateman was born in 1749, the son of John Bateman 1719-1783 and his wife nee Elizabeth Braithwaite. His father John Bateman 1719-1783 was the son of Thomas Bateman of Tolson Hall in Westmoreland and his wife nee Isabella Redman.

James Bateman moved south, and built Islington House, a mansion in Salford. By 1773 he was established as an ironmonger in Deansgate, Manchester. By 1781 he was trading also in Salford.

In the following year he advertised his newly erected iron foundry where he had begun to manufacture "a great Variety" of ovens, grates, hearths, pipes, weights, pots and pans for domestic and industrial use, and iron wheels, cogs, bushes, pinions, shafts, screws, spindles, furnace doors and bars, as well as garden rollers, gates, railings, "and all other Castings to Patterns or Dimensions, with many Articles quite new in the Cast Iron Way".

By 1788 James Bateman & Company were still ironmongers in Deansgate, but had iron foundries at Water Street in Salford and in Dukinfield in Cheshire, and iron forges at Dukinfield and Collyhurst in Manchester. William Sherratt 1754-1822 joined as a partner.

In 1791 Bateman and Sherratt set up the Salford Iron Works, and became one of the largest manufacturers of cast iron products and stationary steam engines, outselling even Boulton & Watt of Birmingham. They manufactured the first marine steam engine. Their machines powered the cotton mills that were rapidly making Manchester the world's first industrial city.

James Bateman made a fortune and retired to Knypersley Hall in Staffordshire. He went on to buy the nearby vicarage called The Grange, which together with Woodhouse Farm and Poolfields formed the Biddulph estate. The farmhouse was demolished and replaced by the large mansion called Biddulph Grange.

The firm of Bateman & Sherratt continued under the management of William Sherratt, and later by his son Thomas. However when Thomas Sherratt died in 1837 his trustees sold the business to Mather and Platt, who continued manufacturing at the Salford Iron Works site until 1938.

James Bateman married Elizabeth Braithwaite (6). She was the daughter of Edward Braithwaite of Carlinghill, Westmoreland.

They had the following children:

• John Bateman 1782-1858. He married Elizabeth Holt on 29 May 1810 at Bury in Lancashire. She was born at Bury in 1782, the daughter of William Holt of Redivals in Lancashire (7).

• Thomas Bateman 1784-1800.

• Elizabeth Bateman. She was married 0n 21 January 1802 to William Thorpe of York, cotton merchant (8).

• Margaret Bateman. She was married on 7 October 1806 to Obadiah Paul Wathen of Woodchester in Gloucestershire, the son of Sir Samuel Wathen and his wife nee Margaret Peach, the daughter of Benjamin Peach of Westbury in Wiltshire (9).

• Susan Bateman 1795-1828. She was married in 1817 in Manchester to Richard Gould 1792-1868 of Willow Bank in Broughton, Salford in Lancashire. At the time of their marriage Susan Bateman was living at Islington House in Salford, which was then the family home (10).

James Bateman died at Islington House in Salford on 2 April 1824, and was buried at St. Stephen's Church, Salford on 8 April 1824 aged 75 years.

1824 "Died. On Friday last, at Islington House, Salford, aged 75, James Bateman, Esq. formerly of the firm of Bateman and Sherratts, iron-founders; much lamented by his relatives and friends"

1824 "Died. In the 76th year of his age, James Bateman, esq. of Islington House, Manchester"

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Development of the Area

William Green's map of Manchester and Salford (1787-1797) shows Mr Bateman's Iron Works in Collyhurst. The words 'Collyhurst' and 'rural idyll' were unlikely to be found in the same sentence for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, but Green's map shows the iron works situated by a meandering stream in a shallow valley. Just to the south east was Collyhurst Hall, with its gardens and ponds. An adjacent field is marked Coal Pitt Meadows, Messrs Norman & Co., with a single circle drawn, marked 'Coal Pitt'. Upstream was Clough's Mill, and nearby was a quarry called Stone Delph. Otherwise the area was dominated by fields and hedges.

The iron works is shown having three buildings, the largest having a small square projection, which may represent a chimney. Immediately upstream is a dam, and a leat runs from the largest building to rejoin the stream. One of James Bateman's occupations was listed in 1788 as an 'iron forger, Collyhurst', and the use of water power is consistent with forging, using tilt hammers and perhaps water-powered bellows or a blowing engine. This was a very rare example of an 18th century water-powered forge close to central Manchester. There was another water-powered iron works close to central Manchester, that of Phoebe Fletcher, but there is no evidence that this was anything but a foundry.
The cost of transporting the heavy iron raw material and finished products would be a drawback of the Collyhurst location, but water power was the obvious attraction. Also, tilt hammers are noisy neighbours, so a remote location was desirable. No doubt the residents of Collyhurst Hall were unimpressed. It seems that the last prominent resident was Mr Charles Ryder, who died in 1801.

The stream was Moston Brook, and it meandered on to join the larger River Irk. The map shows Collyhurst Mills at the confluence.

An 1850 O.S. map shows that Bateman's forge had become the Collyhurst Clough Chemical Works. The occupant was William Dentith and Co. Collyhurst Clough was the name of the valley through which Moss Brook ran. Rochdale Road (turnpike) had been built, passing within 120 yards of the former Bateman's forge and crossing Moss Brook immediately east of Clough Mill.

The forge was less than 2 miles from central Manchester, and inevitably the area changed beyond recognition with the coming of the industrial revolution. Hills and valleys were uncharacteristic of central Manchester, but the arrival of streets of terraced houses and brick-built chimneys and factories brought an ugly familiarity. The area changed so much that it is difficult to locate the exact site of the iron works on later maps. It appears that the lane which formerly led to Collyhurst Hall and thence to Bateman's works is now Collyhurst Street, and that trees and grass have returned to the site of the forge, following landscaping.

Although not relevant to Bateman’s forge, it is interesting to see the later character in old photographs. One, taken in 1917, shows that the old world had not been completely swept away

See Also

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