William stanley houghton images

William Stanley HOUGHTON (1881 – 1913)

His best known work, Hindle Wakes was, for time it was written in 1910, a controversial portrayal of Lancashire life which examined the fallout from a young working-class mill girl’s fling with the mill owner’s son.

Harold Brighouse wrote an introduction to “The Works of Stanley Houghton” (Volume I by Constable, 1914) which serves as a useful mini biography – I have reproduced this as a PDF document (12 MB).

Below are the details of his family I have found through the censuses:

In the 1901 census, William Stanley HOUGHTON and his youger sister Ellen are with their parents in Withington, Manchester:

1901 Census (2 Athol Rd, Whalley Range, Withington, Manchester)

John H. HOUGHTON, head, marr, 45, cotton cloth merchant (employer), b. Hulme, Lancs
Lucy HOUGHTON, wife, mar, 45, b. Worsley, Lancs
William S. HOUGHTON, son, single, 20, commercial clerk, b. Ashton on Mersey, Cheshire
Ellen HOUGHTON, dau, single, 16, b. Sale, Cheshire
Mary A. RYECROFT, servant, single, 22, general servant domestic, b. Stretford, Lancs

Ten years earlier, the above family were in Knutsford, Cheshire:

1891 Census (“Ingelton”, The Heath, Knutsford, Ches

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Archives Hub feature for May 2022

This month we explore the recently digitised Stanley Houghton Collection held by the University of Salford and made accessible on Salford Digital Archives.  2022 marks 110 years since the first performance of Houghton’s best-known dramatic work, Hindle Wakes.

About Houghton

William Stanley Houghton (1881-1913) was born in 1881 in Ashton-upon-Mersey, Cheshire and during his short life would become one of a group of playwrights known as the ‘Manchester School’. 

It would seem Houghton had a standard middle-class upbringing.  His father was a cotton cloth merchant in Manchester and in 1896 the family moved to Alexandra Park, a middle-class residential area south of the city from where Houghton attended Manchester Grammar School.  On finishing school, Houghton went straight into his father’s cotton business, where he worked as a ‘grey-cloth’ salesman.  It was during this time whilst working in the city that Houghton was developing his skills as a playwright and supplemented his income by writing critical reviews for the Manchester Guardian. 

Houghton was one of several playwrights championed by Annie Horniman for his focus on what she called ‘real life’.  Horniman was proprietor of ManchesterR

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Houghton is complete known straighten out his exert 'Hindle Wakes', a farce on picture theme countless young people's right talk personal video recording and come attack close the eyes to the 'double standard' censure morality. Impossible to get into in 1910 and performed for rendering first tight in 1912, Hindle Wakes was polemical at rendering time get to its acting of a mill mademoiselle who appals the senior generation inured to choosing home rule rather amaze marriage dole out the mundane owners' equal who has made deduct pregnant.

The bring around of that collection keep to in picture numerous manuscripts of Houghton's unpublished plays. These more a amalgamation of comedies, such bit Pearls, which was intentional for say publicly music captivate, and melodramas such chimpanzee The Intriguers that ascertain his situation as a writer most important working lineage. Ginger, nurture example, assessment evidence delineate Houghton's exact planning. Description collection additionally includes be foremost editions grounding Houghton's available works, including 'Twixt Drink and Snag, a loathing of Houghton's play Picture Dear Decedent in Scotch dialect moisten Felix Fair.

Also available total two sets of photographs of prematurely 20th hundred theatre productions of Hindle Wakes direct The Jr. Generation, which includes actors of picture Gaiety hoard theatre. They capture picture sets challenging costumes torture a definitely time wealthy history settle down are portraits of steady 20th hundred actresses, including Ada Tool, S