Taken for the W.C.Minutes: Vol 30. 27th February 1902.
The Rateable Assessment v Establishment
Table 7 formed part of the 1902 Manchester Watch Committee’s report from its Lock-Up Sub-Committee on the rateable values coupled with the annual population / acreage census. Regular statistical reports were commissioned by the Watch Committee and then submitted onto the General Committee of the Manchester Council. Their subject was normally in line with a proposed change to the establishment of the police force.
The rateable assessment can be seen as an indicator of the size of the housing stock in any one residential district. Allowances have to be made on the value of individual houses and flats, from the villas to the boarding houses, but the above table does appear to bear this indication out. The WC minutes do not state directly the agenda of these statistics, but with the changes to the housing stock, especially affecting the south- east districts, it is argued the purpose of the Table 7 was to support the need for more stations and officers and the capital costs involved due to the relentless urbanisation within Manchester’s boundaries during the 19th Century which brought with it the extra demand for policing.
Table 7 indicates the first reduction of the 1891 rateable assessment in Chorlton on Medlock and Hulme and the reduced rise in Ardwick’s rate. In South Manchester the districts of Ardwick, Chorlton on Medlock and Hulme had been extensively developed by the end of the century. The significant rise in the housing stock is displayed by comparisons of the 1849 and 1890 OS maps, which show in the late 1840s significant areas of open land and large villas as near to the city centre as Booth St [north of Owen’s College] and including most of west Hulme. By the 1890s the maps show the city boundaries extended as far out as Brook’s Bar and the soon to be acquired Chorlton cum Hardy and Moss Side districts, incorporated in 1904.
[See Police Stations 1885-1889 Map City Growth].
The rateable assessment can be seen as an indicator of the size of the housing stock in any one residential district. Allowances have to be made on the value of individual houses and flats, from the villas to the boarding houses, but the above table does appear to bear this indication out. The WC minutes do not state directly the agenda of these statistics, but with the changes to the housing stock, especially affecting the south- east districts, it is argued the purpose of the Table 7 was to support the need for more stations and officers and the capital costs involved due to the relentless urbanisation within Manchester’s boundaries during the 19th Century which brought with it the extra demand for policing.
Table 7 indicates the first reduction of the 1891 rateable assessment in Chorlton on Medlock and Hulme and the reduced rise in Ardwick’s rate. In South Manchester the districts of Ardwick, Chorlton on Medlock and Hulme had been extensively developed by the end of the century. The significant rise in the housing stock is displayed by comparisons of the 1849 and 1890 OS maps, which show in the late 1840s significant areas of open land and large villas as near to the city centre as Booth St [north of Owen’s College] and including most of west Hulme. By the 1890s the maps show the city boundaries extended as far out as Brook’s Bar and the soon to be acquired Chorlton cum Hardy and Moss Side districts, incorporated in 1904.
[See Police Stations 1885-1889 Map City Growth].
