A study which combines personal reminiscences with careful historical research, the myth of the 'good old days' is summarily dispensed with; Robert Roberts describes the period of his childhood, when the main affect of poverty in Edwardian Salford was degredation, and, despite great resources of human courage, few could escape such a prison.
1 Class Structure
2 Possessions
3 Manners and Morals
4 Governors, Pastors and Masters
5 The Common Scene
6 Food, Drink and Physic
7 Alma Mater
8 Culture
9 The Great Release
10 High Days and After
Appendices
1 Conducted Tour
2 Snuffy
3 Bronze Mushrooms
Select Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
The photographs, which have not been published before, were taken around the early 1900s by a Worsley man, Samuel Coulthurst, who went about Salford dressed as a rag and bone merchant with his camera concealed on a handcart.
1. Corner shop
2. A muffler-white, if possible, for the Lord's day
3. Some were too poor to buy at the old clothes shops
4. General dealer
5. The clothiers
6. Women of the time I
7. Women of the time II
8. Water for the wheel: a knife and scissors grinder
9. Hawkers at rest
10. 'The short way out of Manchester'
11. A barrel organ called Tuesdays and Saturdays
12. Theatre by the market
13. Boys haggling at the hen market
