View source for Manchester Square

A Collier image of 1920s Manchester Square South:
[[File:1920s Manchester Square South.jpg|frameless|center|alt=A Collier image of 1920s Manchester Square South|A Collier image of 1920s Manchester Square South]]

Manchester Square is interesting. It was originally called Market Square but, by the time of the 1891 census, if not before, it had became known as Manchester Square after 13-roomed Manchester House, which housed the up-market drapery store of tailor and draper Richard Pigg (1865-1915), Methodist preacher, parish councillor and local JP. He was the Clothing King of Bellingham, who held widely advertised and eagerly awaited Spring sales, just as Manchester (aka Cottonopolis) was the Cotton Capital of the nation. Local photographer W. P. Collier moved to Manchester around 1901 to seek his fortune after completing his apprenticeship as a draper in Newcastle. He soon turned to photography, however, but always knew a good bit of cloth and would have known Richard Pigg well. It is quite possible that he worked, on occasions, for him between his arrival in Bellingham around 1912 until 1917 when he joined the Army Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force. The Pigg family carried on the business for many years after he died suddenly aged 51 in 1915, trading as Richard Pigg.

The Drapery Store premises are now (1924) the location of the Masonic Hall.

[[Category:Streets and Premises]]