5 Johnson
Living in Tyldesley
Technology is an amazing thing! Using Google Streetview, I was able to locate the house in which Frank was born - 5 Johnson Street in Tyldesley.
Number 5 Johnson Street is the second house from the left. I don’t know exactly how long Frank and his family lived there but he was recorded there still on the 1901 census. By the 1911 census, his family had moved to 114 Shuttle Street which was only about a block away.
114 Shuttle Street is the end unit of the row houses on the right. It appears smaller than the house on Johnson Street and is likely a typical four-room row house – two bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen and sitting room downstairs. The toilet was found outside in the back of the house.
My grandmother, Hannah Whittaker, lived only a few steps away from 114 Shuttle Street, just down John Street. Today, her house at 26 John Street has made way for redevelopment!
It certainly is an improvement over the row houses that previously stood there. However, some of the original row houses can still be seen today just across the street at 25 John Street, shown below. These would be representative of the house that Grandma lived in.
Sometime between 1901 and 1911, the Whittaker family moved just around the corner to 84 Ellesmere Street. It was out of this house that Margaret Whittaker ran her fish and chip shop to support her family. Gentrification has continued here as well and 84 Ellesmere no longer exists. The redevelopment that began on John Street has wound around the corner to Ellesmere Street, shown below. The last row house is numbered 78 but it is evident that 84 Ellesmere would have been another standard row house, so typical of its time.
