Salford "Its My History"

A Memory of Salford.

Salford forms much of my family’s history, although I only spent a little time there, leaving when I was very young, some years ago I started to wonder how? why? what? brought both my families the HARRIS family on my Dad’s side and the KEMP family on my mother’s side, to Salford, what I found was like so many families the industrial revolution brought them in from the fields so to speak.

My GGGranpa William Henry Harris was a Hatter, he made hats in Tiverton town for over 40 years, (1840-1880) he had two shops at the opposite ends of the town in Tiverton, Devon, all his children worked in the shops, including one of his sons my GGrandpa Thomas Harris, due to mechanisation hats were beginning to be mass produced so work reduced in rural areas, Thomas and his brother John move to Salford and by 1861 are working at the Eveleigh Hat Company in Greengate, eventually Thomas left the hat making business and became a fruit and veg hawker, living in Sandywell Court and eventually, 9 Back Hampson St, Salford, his son William Henry Harris my Grandad, lived in Paradise Row, this is where my Dad Walter Harris was born, by the 1940’/ 50 my Dad, Grandad and their family lived at 143 Greengate, Salford. My Uncle, Joe Harris had a Barber’s shop on Blackfriars Rd.

The Kemp’s came from Pontefract in Yorkshire, my GGGrandpa William Kemp was a “Horse Breaker” perhaps it was his son’s (my GGrandpa Thomas Kemp) love of the horse, that motivated him to joined the mounted 5th Dragoon Guard’s, my GGrandpa Thomas Kemp spent 12 years in the Dragoons before leaving with the princely sum of 12 shillings and 7 pence allowance to look after himself and his family, he found his way to Ashton under Lyne and eventually to Salford, where he found work as a fireman / stoker in a Tarpaulin factory, he lived and died at 1 Richmond Hill, Salford, his son my Grandad also named Thomas Kemp had been born at Hulme Army barracks, so had always known Army life, maybe that’s why he spent 12 years in the M/c Regiment reserves then joined the Irish Rifles to fight in Gallipoli in 1916, strange decision as he had several children including my Mother Sarah Kemp less than a year old when he left, always wondered why?, was it poverty? excitement? as we know the establishment had told them it would all be over by Christmas, and for many, many thousands it was!!

The Kemp family lived all around Salford through the 1930/40/50s, Silk St, Ravell St, Hulchinson St, my Grandad Thomas Kemp survived Gallipoli, just, but died a young 42 yrs old, at some point my Dad Walter Harris and Sarah Kemp’s path’s crossed in Salford and 11 children later, well that’s another story, suffice to say I must have many Harris and Kemp Cousins around the City of Salford.

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