James Standring was my 3x great grandfather. He was born in 1800, to John Standring and Jane Stott, who was a toll gate keeper for the Failsworth Toll Bar, on the Oldham Road. Oldham Road, which connected Oldham with Manchester city, was, at that time, a turnpike road; a Georgian/ Victorian motorway.
Turnpike roads were so called because they were originally gated by a 'frame of pikes' that could be 'turned to allow passage of horses' (turnpikes.org.uk). By the time that James' father John Standring was working the Failsworth Toll Bar the road's barrier was not so defensive, and was simply a gate that crossed the road and barred passage, until the toll had been paid. Turnpike roads were built by turnpike trusts, in an effort to develop well maintained highways that would allow for horse driven transport to move quickly and easily. It was thought that turnpikes would provide a commercial community with better opportunities, by being able to transport goods faster. J Bateman, of Lincoln's Inn, wrote in the index to the General Turnpike Road Act of 1823;
'By the improvement of our roads every branch of agriculture, commerce and the manufacturing industry would be benefitted. Every article brought to market would be reduced, and the expense of five millions would be saved annually to the public. The produce which is now wasted in feeding unnecessary horses would be devoted to the production of food for man.'
(The Toll Bars of Manchester, by S W Partington)
The aforementioned Turnpike Road Act laid down some rules and regulations;
- Windmills were not allowed to be constructed within 200 yards of a turnpike, with a penalty of £5 per day until the windmill was removed.
- Doors or gates of any kind were prohibited to open onto a turnpike road.
- Weight regulations should not include vehicles carrying materials with which land could be improved, nor any chaise, marine, coach, berlin, barouche, sociable, chariot, calash, hearse, break, gig, or taxed cart. (It seems to me that there weren't many vehicles that would be subject weight regulations!)
- All caravans or four wheeled vehicles, conveying goods, and built using springs were allowed a weight of three tons, fifteen hundredweight in the winter, and four tons five hundredweight in the summer.
Since John Standring worked the Failsworth Toll Bar in 1800, he may have had different regulations with which to work.
I can't find a record of how much it cost to use the Oldham Turnpike, but the booklet, by S W Partington (The Toll Bars of Manchester) tells us that tokens were not used for Manchester turnpikes. It was strictly cash only, and where cash was not to be had, toll bar keepers would take pocket knives or whips from the drivers. The toll bar keeper would have lived in a gate house next to the toll bar, with the rest of his family. The gate on the Oldham Road would open at 5am, and close at 11pm, and the toll bar keeper would need to be on duty all through the open hours, or have someone be there in his stead.
The toll bar keepers were not employed directly by the Turnpike Trust. Instead the trusts leased the turnpike gate, and the leaseholder would pay for the lease out of what he had taken in turnpike fees. The leaseholder was allowed to keep any other income he had earned for himself. The Failsworth Toll Bar was leased by auction, and the highest bidder won the right to take toll fees at the gate. They had the sum of £620, clear of all expenses, which would be about £65,000 in today's money. Quite a sum! The Standrings clearly were on their way up.
I've not been able to locate any records to pin down a death date for my 4x great grandfather John Standring, but we know from further baptism records, that his son James, was also a toll bar keeper. James Standring married Anne Massey in Bowdon, Cheshire, on 5th September 1824. I have found baptismal records for some of their 6 children; Harriet, James Massey, John, Hannah, Mary, and Sarah. James Massey Standring's baptismal record of 1832 states that his abode, at birth, was the Longsight Turnpike. The Longsight Turnpike was on the Stockport Road which led from Manchester towards London; a crucial highway for the health and wealth of Manchester.
This watercolour painting of Longsight Crescent, by Daniel Orme, completed in 1818, gives us a good idea of what the toll bar might have looked like at the time that the Standrings lived and worked there.
James Standring continued to be the Longsight Toll Bar Collector when his son John was born and baptised in the August of 1834, and Hannah Standring, his second daughter, and my 2x great grandmother, named Longsight as her birth place on most of her later census returns. Hannah was born on the 25th January 1839, but was not baptised until 2nd June 1839, by which time the family's abode was recorded as 'Pendleton', where her father was working as a bookkeeper. Perhaps the family moved from the Longsight Toll Bar, and new work commenced at Pendleton, in the months between Hannah's birth and baptism.
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| Manchester Cathedral (circa 1851) |
It seems that the family were on the up and up. The fifth child, another daughter, was born in October 1840. Mary Standring was baptised, also at Manchester Cathedral, on 1st March 1841. In the baptismal records we find that James Standring, the father, was no longer a bookkeeper, but had been raised to 'manager'. James Standring continued to work as a manager the following year when his final child, Sarah Standring was baptised on the 25th January 1842.
The 1841 Census gives us an idea of what James Standring managed; a coach establishment. He may not have been collecting at a toll bar any longer, but he was still involved with the business of the roads, and transport. It's clear that the family were doing well for themselves as James Massey Standring, the first born son, was not living with the family in the 1841 census, but was instead, living as a boarder at a boys school on the Manchester Road. I've not been able to ascertain the name of the school he attended, but needless to say, boarding school fees would have required a degree of wealth that was not achievable by most people of the time. The rest of the family were found living with two servants; a luxury only the wealthy could afford.
The owner of the 'coach establishment' for whom James Standring worked, was John Greenwood. Greenwood had started out as the Pendleton Toll Bar Keeper, and had amassed a great deal of wealth in that line of work. He had started the omnibus business circa 1828; the first of its kind in the nation. The boxlike coaches, which carried 8 passengers inside, and were run by a driver who also acted as conductor, initially had run from the Pendleton Pole to Market Street, for a fare of 6d (six pence). The coaches were originally called the 'Auxilium', but this was soon dropped for the term 'omnibus', although locals called the conveyance the 'Pow Mail', since it carried mail from the Pendleton Pole. John Greenwood, described as 'a big man with knee breeches and coloured stockings', died in 1855. The omnibus business was passed on to his son, also John Greenwood, which later became known as the Manchester Carriage Company.
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| The Five Wheeled Omnibus, Pendleton to Manchester 1861-66. |
In 1857 James Standring demonstrated his canny business sense. Possibly using his connections with the Longsight toll bar owners, he bought the licence to the Longsight Bar, meaning that his omnibuses could run right through the bar without stopping. Other omnibus companies (namely the City Omnibus Company, his major competitor) would have to stop at the toll bar, disembark their passengers, and have them walk around the bar, to be collected by a second omnibus on the other side of the bar, thus avoiding having to pay the fee. Being able to pass right through without hindrance would have been a major coup for his conveyance company.
By 1861 James Standring was no longer an employee but had climbed to the heights of a 'coal merchant and omnibus proprietor'. The family members living in the family home, now at Marlborough Place, Withington Road, Moss Side, included father James, son John, daughters Hannah and Mary, and niece Florence. Anne, his wife, had passed away at the age of 51, in 1855, from 'apoplexy'. Two other members of the household were servants; one a cook and the other a general servant. Alas, James' upwards trajectory was apparently too fast, and in 1862 he was declared bankrupt. He entered into an Indenture of Assignment with his creditors, John Rhodes, John Moss, and William Lancaster. The latter, William Lancaster was, by this time the father-in-law of his son, John Standring. William Lancaster was at that time settled in Douglas, Isle of Man, and John had married his daughter Rachel in July 1859. William Lancaster, however, was a Liverpool pilot, whose job it was to help ships navigate the River Mersey safely. Pilots were held in high regard, and were paid handsomely for their work. In the 1861 census John Standring had been recorded as working with his father at the coal and omnibus company as a clerk, and it was this connection that undoubtedly secured William Lancaster's financial assistance.
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| A John Greenwood Three Horse Omnibus, circa 1856 |
By 1865 James Standring had sold his coal merchant business, perhaps in an asset liquidation effort related to his bankruptcy. It was agreed at this time, by Mr John Greenwood (junior), that James had earned the sole right to run omnibus routes along the Stretford Road, City Road, Old Trafford, Brook's Bar, Chorlton Road, and Oxford Street which are described as 'decidedly the best in Manchester.' His business was named the 'Standring Omnibus Company, Limited' and it included '215 horses, and 20 omnibuses... all in excellent condition. There is a commodious office and waiting room for the purpose of the omnibus traffic, and the stables are very advantageously situated. The omnibus business has always been conducted very successfully and profitably by Mr Standring.' Interestingly, one of the co-directors named in the article was William Nicholson Edgill, my 2x great grandfather and the man who was to become James Standring's son-in-law, when his daughter Hannah would marry in 1872.
Further stories from the newspapers shed some more light on his reputation as an omnibus proprietor. in 1857 James Standring, as proprietor, and one of his drivers, Walter Day, were taken to court for acts of cruelty against a horse. The horse had been observed to be whipped until it bled by passengers of the omnibus going to the 'exhibition', and they had drawn the attention of Inspector Crawkle, a police officer, on their arrival at the event. James Standring denied any responsibility, saying that the horse had been fine on leaving the stables, and so threw Walter Day under his omnibus! James was found not guilty, but his driver was fined 10 shillings (about £30 in today's money), and costs.
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| Following the invention of the omnibus, cartoonists happily used the idea in their art, to poke fun at various establishments, and politics. |
In 1863 James Standring was fined £5 by Manchester City Police Court for allowing more people than his licence allowed to ride his omnibuses. In today's money the fine would amount to about £313.
A gentleman passenger on a Standring Omnibus in 1866, was travelling on the box, next to the driver when he was thrown from his seat, and broke his ankle. He was a travelling salesman for a Manchester wine merchant, and was unable to travel or work during his convalescence, and incurred high costs as a result. He claimed that the omnibus driver was intoxicated and was driving the horses by unnecessarily whipping them, and pulling them back. The plaintiff, William Piercy, was granted costs of £70 (around about £4,400 in today's money.)
An article from The Manchester Weekly Times and Examiner reported in March 1871 of a court case whereby several omnibus guards had been found guilty of embezzlement against James Standring. A police investigation had found that guards had been altering their fare collection records and pocketing some of the fare money to a total cost of 6 shillings and 5 pence (6s 5d), which in today's money would be about £20. It seems incredible to a modern day mind, that the guards on trial were each sentenced to 6 months jail time for this relatively petty crime.
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| A Victorian version of today's 'manspreading', was the problem that men experienced when travelling on the omnibus with women dressed in the large krinoline skirts, popular in the day. |
James Standring died in 1872, whilst still under the Indenture of Assignment agreement made when he declared bankrupt. A notice of his death was published in the national newspaper, The Guardian on 7th December 1872, calling for all claims to be sent to his solicitors, so his estate could be settled. James Standring was buried, with his wife Ann, at St Luke's, Cheetham. Later the same year his daughter Hannah married William Nicholson Edgill, a co-director of his omnibus company.
It isn't clear what happened to his omnibus company, at his death. The company was struck from Companies House in 1883. Today, the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport does not mention the Standring Omnibus Company, and only references John Greenwood as the founder of the original horse bus. World of Coins, however, demonstrates that the Standring Omnibus Company did indeed exist, and shows these omnibus tokens, used by passengers, by way of a fare, perhaps used in an effort to protect the business from any further staff embezzlement.
Whilst this story of toll bars and omnibuses clearly predates the invention of the automobile, it seems to me that without the work, entrepreneurship, and vision of men like John Greenwood, and of my 3x great grandfather, James Standring, automobiles would never have come to be imagined. The toll bars paid for the development of better roads, and the horse drawn omnibuses proved that public transport was a desirable and profitable service. Whilst James Standring might have overshot his mark and declared bankrupt, Greenwood's omnibus system proved to be a financial success, one that became one of the most profitable of its kind in the United Kingdom.
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https://tringlocalhistory.org.uk/Tring/c_chapter%2002.htm
http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/
https://www.worldofcoins.eu/wiki/Standring,_James_-_Manchester
https://alifeatsealife.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/liverpool-pilot-service-arnet-robinson/
https://worldofcoins.eu/wiki/Standring,_James_-_Manchester
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/
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