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Family notes for James CHADWICK and Alice JODRELL

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

Person record last updated: 23 May 2025

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