Catalogue description PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED TO ESTHER CLARKE AND FAMILY

Clarke, Esther, fl 1983, of Urmston, Manchester

• St George's School, Carrington
• Carrington, Cheshire
• Urmston, Lancashire

The donor's parents were Arthur and Louisa Clarke. Louisa's parents, John and Esther Bailey were farmers at Carrington. She helped to look after the family until they left the farm in 1906. They removed first to a corn merchant's business in Partington and then to a similar one on Stretford Road, Urmston. Arthur's parents kept the Greyhound Hotel in Partington. He had 3 brothers, James, Thomas, Peter, and one sister, Mary. After his father died in 1897, his mother moved into a house in Partington where she opened a grocery business with her son, Peter. James continued to run the hotel. Arthur and Louisa married in 1909. He was a master baker and opened a bakery and sub-Post Office at Heatley Heath, near Lymm. With a horse van, he delivered bread to all the surrounding shops. They had 3 children, Arthur, the donor, Esther and her younger sister, Ellen. In 1926 due to problems brought on by World War One and strikes, the business went bankrupt. The family moved to Urmston, to the present address. Mr. Bailey worked for a local baker but died shortly afterwards in 1931. After leaving school Esther worked in a local Woolworths store. She was conscripted into war work in 1939 and worked in Trafford Park on munitions. The war over, she found employment at Kendal Milne's Ltd., and remained there until her retirement.