"The dweller by the waterside looked cross the stream on green and undulating upland intersected by luxurious hedgerows, a bleachery at Walker's Croft and a short terrace of houses near Scotland Bridge, denominated Scotland, being the sole breaks in the verdure." (1)

Mrs Linnaeus Banks was writing of the Strangeways of 1799 in her novel set in the new Manchester of the Industrial Revolution, a revolution so recent that Manchester still retained many of the attributes of the Georgian country town: the coaching inns, reflecting its position on the main road which passed northwards over Scotland Bridge, the elegant town houses, for the bourgeoisie had not yet begun its migration to the suburban villas, and above all there was the close proximity of the countryside. The old nucleus of the town lay in the vicinity of the collegiate church, and facing it across the mingling point of the Irk and the Irwell lay that area of land denominated Strangeways.

The Strangeways family of Strangeways persisted through the medieval period and after, making occasional appearances in documents and deeds, until the elder line of the family died out and the estate was purchased by John Hartley, a successful merchant of Manchester, in 1624. The founder of the family fortunes appears to have been his father Nicholas Hartley a Manchester linen draper who died in 1609. John was born in 1609, and rose as successful merr¢hant to take on various offices, being at various times Constable and Boroughreeve of Manchester, and High Sheriff for the county of Lancaster. His success had been marked in material form by the purchase of Strangeways Hall, and it is to him that the fine map drawn by Richard Martincroft in 1641 of the Strangeways estate is due.

John's only daughter Ellen married in 1662 her cousin, another John Hartley of London. He died in 1681, survived by three sons, John, Richard and Ralph; the last survivor, Richard, died in 1710. The property then passed to their cousin, to be inherited in 1711 by her widowed daughter Catherine Richards. It is the subsequent history of the ownership of the estate that is so important for the way in which Strangeways was rapidly to exchange its rural landscape for a waste of bricks and barren brickfields. Upon her death ln 1713, there being at the time no known or discovered heirs to the Hartleys, Catherine Richards settled the estate in trust upon one Thomas Reynolds who had been managing her business affairs until her death as he had done for her mother, together with his interests as a director of the South Sea Company. Thomas's son Francis was an equally astute businessman, regulating in considerable detail the management of his estate, in addit1on to representing Lancaster in Parliament from 1745 until his death in l742. Francis made a fortuitously successful marriage with the daughter of Lord Ducie of Morton, for her brother, the second Lord Ducie, was created Baron Ducie of Tortworth in 1763 with a special remainder to his sister's sons, Thomas and Francis Reynolds. Francis senior recorded with immense pride the letter from his steward in Manchester telling him that the bells of the collegiate church had rung to celebrate the succesion of his son to the peerage in 1770, taking the name and arms of his uncle.

Francis succeeded his brother as the third baron in 1785, after a career at sea. His son Thomas was created Earl of Ducie and Baron Moreton of Tortworth in the coronation year, 1837.

Mentlon has already been made that the Strangeways estate was left to Thomas Reynolds in trust only, and indeed running as a parallel thread through the history of the Strangways estate during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is the remarkable picaresque tale of the attempt to regain possession by various members of the Hartley family, or by people claiming to be such. The tale contains most of the traditional elements, including the prolongued lawsuits the period was so partial to, but unfortunately lacks an ending: like many an old warrior it just faded away.

In 1721, only eight years after the estate had been left in trust to Reynolds, a Wllllam Hartley brought an action against him for ejectment and pursued his claim until it came to a head in 1736. He alleged that Richard, the th1rd son of John and Ellen Hartley who was supposed to have died at sea in 1681, had in fact lived long after, having concealed himself and married a chimney-sweep's daughter in Bungay, Suffolk, who bore him several children, one of whom was the plaintiff. The attempt failed, and the issue died down till 1750 when Reynolde précised a letter from his steward:

"He acquainted me that since I left the country three or more different persons, at various times, have come to Manchester to search the church register about Mr Hartley's family interred there, under pretence of having a right to the estate. Some called themselves Hartley from near Halifax in Yorkshire, and one of them says his name is Kitchen. They have wanted a list of the tenants' names, and Farrington, an attorney from Rochdale, had got a list of the greatest part of them, and said they would be served with ejectments about the middle of next month. Mr Byrom says it is the son of that Kitchen who made an attempt about twelve years since. Parson Shreigly, one of the chaplains in the old churoh at Manchester, says that when Kitohen was searching the register, upon being asked why they had not proceeded before this, answered that they were poor, but had a prospect when Lady Betty Hastings promised to stand their friend, but that her death put a stop to it, but that now they have got anothor great person. This, Shreigly is informed, is Lawyer Stanhope of Yorkshire. Attorney Farrington says he is employed by a Yorkshire gentleman." (2)

Presumably their hopes were once again dashed, for there is no record of their continuing with their plans.

Martincroft's fine map of 1641 is the earliest map that survives of Strangeways. (3) All fields are shown, together with their names and acreages, both statutory and customary. Strangeways Hall is sketched, together with the mill and the one or two other buildings that then existed. Strangeways Lane, later Great Ducie Street, is but a private bridle track running over the property. In the words of one of Strangeway's inhabitanta who could remember the days before Waterloo: "...the high road was through Strangeways, along Broughton Lane and the Lower Broughton Road, on to Broom Lane, past Clowes Park and through tetlow Fold to the old Bury Road." (4) The Lane was connected to Manchester by Hunt's Bank Bridge, a simple narrow structure "so insignificant that two vehicles could not pass. It gave entrance to what was called Strangeways Walk, with fields on the left, whilst upon the right were the pleasant grounds of Hunts Bank Hall, the residence of one of the Clowes family." (5), (6)

Some time during the eighteenth century a copy was made of this map, the only changes it recorded being some minor alteration in field names, and the subdivision of fields. 7