Notes for James CHADWICK CH FRS Discoverer of the neutron. Awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1935 and a knighthood in
1945. Further information in the web page: Happy
Valley: James Chadwick history , and a fuller
biography is to be found on Wikipedia.
James Chadwick was left behind when he was 4 years old when his parents John Joseph
Chadwick (Railway worker) and wife Anna Mary née Knowles moved to
Manchester. James lived probably with his paternal grandparents, James Chadwick and
mother Alice Jodrell, until about the age of 9 years.
James`s mother-to-be Anna Mary Knowles was age 16 on the 1881 census.
So perhaps James didn`t spend all of his school years living at
Clarke Lane, just the first four, and then moved to the house his
grandparents lived in at Bollington Cross (close to Clarke Lane).
James joined his parents in Manchester when he was 9, presumably because he had
finished at Bollington Cross school or maybe one or both of his grandparents died. He appears
on the 1901 census in Failsworth with two brothers, Harry Douglas Chadwick aged 5, and
Hubert Knowles Chadwick aged 3, and their parents John Joseph and Anna Mary. Then same
again in 1911 when James was 19. The odd thing is the boys are all listed as born in
Bollington. It seems as though they didn`t want the boys to be known to be `their` children, I
have seen a couple of articles where it states the grandparents were James`s parents. [169]
The story about James`s maternal grandmother bringing him up seems now to be very
unlikely as she died the year before he was born.
Thomas Knowles, James`s maternal grandfather, was a widow living in Moss Lane (now
Moss Brow), Bollington Cross, in 1891. I have also found John Joseph
Chadwick, James`s father, living in Bollington Road a few doors along from
the Steam Engine inn in 1891, together with John Joseph`s
father James and mother Alice, working along toward the
Cock & Pheasant inn, so that row between the Steam Engine and the Cock,
(although you never can be sure with these census`s). No number for either of these houses.
I have searched Clarke Lane in 1891 for any mention of Chadwicks and
there are none. The cottages you come to first are now numbered 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10.
Briar Cottage is number 4. The house on the right opposite these five
cottages wasn`t there on the OS maps at that time. It then goes to the
Lord Clyde inn, those houses are numbered in the 40s now.
So it`s all a bit confusing, I actually suspect the Chadwicks were not in Clarke Lane at
all, but were in fact living in Bollington Road in the row between the Cock & Pheasant and the
Steam Engine with James`s grandfather. I think James`s mother moved in (from
Manchester) once they were married and then had the baby James there. This was
September and October so the census may well have been already done. [169]
Sources | 119. | Website, 13/11/2018, Wikipedia, James Chadwick |
| 169. | Historical Society, 26/08/2023, Linda Stewart research |
| 170. | Website, 26/08/2023, weebly.com, https://jameschadwick-scientist.weebly.com/family.html |
| 171. | Website, 26/08/2023, aip.org Niels Bohr Library, https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/3974-1 |
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