History and Today

I keep finding sales of various items owned by prominent loyalist magistrates from the North West in modern auction catalogues. The luxury and opulence of these items is clear, and shows how much money they were making from mining, textile, canal and later railways interests, and how they chose to display their wealth and gentility. Here are the links to: Sotherby's: Colonel Ralph Fletcher of Bolton's presentation cup , 1812 (awarded to him for his services in suppressing the Luddites) Bonham's: William Hulton of Hulton Park's four-poster bed , 1812 The reader comments on the MEN article on the latter are particularly telling of the legacy of Peterloo for Mancunians. I discuss these items in a chapter I'm writing for a book on trans-Atlantic loyalism edited by Allan Blackstock (forthcoming). There's also William Hulton's estate in Westhoughton, which was for sale in 2010 for £8.5m. 

Leeds improvement act, 1845, section showing the free market extension, Vicar's Croft/Kirkgate, on Google Earth. The Corn Exchange is in 3d in the background.