Hi folks, Thanks to Heather and Geoff for these... > My Dad was a temporary postman in his youth (quite along time ago > now!) > but he has always believed that house numbering started at the end of > the road closest to the town/city centre. Working on this basis, I > would think that #405 was quite a way out of town. > The numbers run out from the city, this is the normal convention, > with the > even numbers on the right. I have done a little surfing from page to page of the 1871 census in District 41 within Hulme - this district covers part of Hulme on the north side of Chester Road. I was looking to find mention of the Derbyshire glass works in Trentham Street actually, but it isn't there no doubt because the census was only for houses. Anyway, I thought you would like to know some of the findings... 1. Indeed, the numbering of Chester Road appears to follow the conventional pattern. The enumerator began at 196 Chester Road and continued to 262 Chester Road without a single odd number. The District was all for the north side of Chester Road, so that makes it even numbers on the right moving away from the city centre. The odd number houses will be on another District of Hulme. 2. Here's how the enumerator walked the district, (I started on page 1 and finished on page 35 of the total of 49 pages) 196-262 Chester Road 1-7 Cornbrook Road, including "Manchester Orphanage" or "Birch's Orphanage" 8-20 Cornbrook Road Cornbook, four wealthy households 13-17 Cornbrrok Place 42-2 and 11-1 Dover Street 1-19 and 2-18 Runcorn Street 2-28 and 11-27 Westminster Street 2-32 Trentham Street plus 2 unnumbered 101-.... Ellesmere Street etc etc. (There are anther 14 pages in the District, but sorry, I stopped there) Perhaps this list may help someone sometime. Sally in Yorkshire