James Vernon Shelmerdine.1878 was born on the 5 Jan 1878 and baptised on the 19^th June 1878 at St Michael church in Hulme to the parents of James Shelmerdine & Emma Harrop who are living at 13 Bright street, Hulme.

St Michaels Church C of E register entry

1881 census James Vernon is living with his parents at 12 Bright Street, Hulme.
James Shelmerdine. age. 39. Head. Occ Cotton Warehouseman,  born Manchester.
Emma nee’ Harrop Shelmerdine. age 39. Wife. born Manchester.
Emily Shelmerdine. age 19. Daug. Occ Weaver. born Manchester.
Minnia Shelmerdine. age 16. Daug. Cotton Winder. born Manchester.
Sarah Shelmerdine. age 9. Daug. born Manchester.
Fanny Shelmerdine. age 7. Daug. born Manchester.
James V Shelmerdine. age 2. Son. born Manchester.
Alice Shelmerdine. age 10m. Daug. born Manchester.

   1881 Census entry

1891 census features James Vernon age 12 living with his parents at 12 Bright Street, Hulme.
James Shelmerdine. age 49. Head
Emma Shelmerdine. age 49. Wife
Minnie Shelmerdine. age 26. Daug
Fanny Shelmerdine. age 17. Daug
James V Shelmerdine. age 12. Daug
Alice Shelmerdine. age 10. Daugh
Gertrude Shelmerdine. age 8. Daug
Jessia Shelmerdine. age 5. Daug

1891 census entry

 James married Louisa Young on the 11 May 1896 at St Stephen church Hulme, Manchester. Unlike his parents James is literate along with Louisa which demonstrates that both attended school unlike their parents. Schooling for 6 year olds was made compulsory in 1880 until the age of 11. You will see most old schools have a date stone revealing the change in the law as they were constructed around the time of the law change. James is arguably the first family member to be able to read and write. Not being able to read & write held the working classes back and keep them in a  submissive state,  'in their place'.   James and Louisa's children would now have a fighting chance of pulling them and there future family out of the submissive clutches of  the ruling middle classes like so many others would do but would face a fight as class would follow them in any line of work they applied for.

St Stephens Church C of E register extract.

Louisa’s parents lived on Lloyde Street in the same area. James and Louisa first home address is given as Wood St, so they are all living within streets of each other. Hulme was at the poor working-class suburb specifically developed to house the lower working-class families when developed in the 1840s but at the time the housing was of good quality and a vast improvement of what they had to endure before and the infrastructure was well develop with good transport links into central Manchester. Looking through the OS maps of the area in 1830 it was all fields and later on in 1836 we see an OS map showing a grid street system being constructed, no houses built as yet but the roads and infrastructure  is being installed first with gas and sewerage supply along with Towns water taps at the end of the street.  Also the river Medlock is being culverted to prevent it from flooding the area to which it was susceptible along with the river Irwell. So we have a massive civil improvement of sanitation and infrastructure in the area. 

 
Junction of Crown St. and Wood St. taken in 1954

 1901 Census: 34 Green Street, Hulme, Manchester. Ref: RG13 3708 p20
James V Shelmerdine age 23.  Head. Occ Warehouseman. Born Manchester.
Louise Shelmerdine age 22. Wife.  Occ Weaver. Born Manchester.
James V Shelmerdine age 10m   Born Manchester.

1906 census extract

32 Green St. Hulme. 1954.

Green Street. Having track the street through historical maps it was built between 1836-1849 these being built on virgin land at the time, so the first mass building of sanitary homes to house the ever growing working class supplying cheap labour to the ever growing manufacturing base . The house is a typical terrace 2 up and 2 down construction being one of the earliest type built around 1836-1849 with a back yard and outside toilet which was connected to an enclosed sewer as it was written into local law that such dwelling had to have such at the time of their construction in the 1840’s. Its doubt full that they had running water in the houses and at first, they did have street taps at the end of the street as water wasn't as well controlled source as it was a private enterprise and the supply was erratic. it wasnt until  1860 when further legislation came into place, placing water supply under the local borough councils obligations, such water supply was then being retro fitted to the properties by the 1870s.

1911 Census: 13 Bright Street, Hulme, Manchester. RDN: 464  Piece:23897
Louisa Shelmerdine. age 32. Widow/Head.  Occ Hemmer working at home.  Born Manchester.
James Vernon Shelmerdine. age 11. Son.  Occ at home.   Born Manchester.
Albert Shelmerdine. age 6. Occ at home.   Born Manchester.
 Catherine Buchanan. Age 81.  Lodger/Widow.    Occ. None      Born Glasgow Scotland.

Extract from the 1911 census entry and Louisa’s signature as she may have filled it in herself.

Louisa Shelmerdine is described in the 1911 census as a Widow, her husband James Vernon died in the  Autumn of 1910 age 32. His death certificate would have to be viewed to yield the cause of death.  Louise is working from home, working for an employer in the census. She was employed as a Seamstress by trade and is described as a ‘Hemmer’ in the census. It was common practice to work from home as a seamstress and you would be given a sewing machine and supplied with the materials by a local employer on piece work conditions so by the amount of units you had completed you would be paid per piece. A daily collection service would have ensured Louise got all the materials required and would have collected what work she had completed.

Bright Street. Again, having track the street through historical maps it was built between 1836 to 1848 being a 2 up 2 down standard Terrance house of its time. We can assume therefore there was a Parlor and kitchen down stairs and normally these rooms are around 11 feet square(3.5metres) with stairs between them leading to two equal size bedrooms. There would have been an outside toilet in the back yard which you can see on the 1845 os map below. This was a modern housing development of it time and such were a vast improvement to what the working class had before, with a Gas supply, an outside toilet connected to a buried sewage system and Towns water via a tap at the end of the street, such was retro plumbed into the properties later on around 1870 and around 1910 electricity came. As they second world war came and went these properties were now decaying and posed a health risk, famlies were over crowed with just two rooms and further legislation was enforced to prevent  and cattail over crowning they would good for their era but had exceeded their life and in the 1950 through to the 1970's vast sways of such housing was being demolished and replaced with multi-plex housing in the Hulme area this too was quickly condemned as inferior in the 1980' and that too was replaced with a more tradition housing stock.
 In the 1809 os map the area is clearly being laid out on a grid section development pattern.  There isn’t a picture of the street in the Manchester Photo archives but adjacent streets are shown, so you can imagine the street type. You can track the area through time using on line map sites through this link.

Bright St. Highlighted by the blue square in the 1849 OS map in comparison to the current 2020 OS map along side  the 1845 os map  LINK to the 1845 os map

Bright St. Highlighted by the blue square in the 1960 OS map in comparison to the current 2020 OS map along side the 1809 os map for te area Bright st is below the arrow, Crown st top right.

 The slump clearances after the second world war would have had a dramatic impact on the area and the last mention of the Bright street is in the 1960 OS map and a picture of the area showing its neighbouring street Walter street off Bedford street in a rather bleak photo of the time featured below. Its around 1964 when Bright street and other streets in this area are completely demolished along with the roads and re-devolved with new flats being built and in such the old streets disappear completely.

    
Walter St. being one street down from Bright St.

Aerial view of Hulme taken on the 9^th June 1926