 Julius
and Elise Delius
Julius Delius was born in Bielefeld, a thriving linen
manufacturing town in the Prussian province of Westphalia, Germany.
After coming to England he spent a few years with a merchanting
firm in Manchester before moving to Bradford. He worked first for
S.E. Sichel in Bradford before going into partnership with Mr Speyer.
When Speyer left Bradford Julius took his brother Theodore into
partnership in the company Delius and Co., wool, stuff and yarn
merchants.
He is first recorded in Bradford on the 1851 census
lodging in the house of John Walker, woollen manufacturer and stapler,
at 3 Manor Street. Julius was described as a 29 year old stuff merchant,
born in Prussia. In 1856 he returned to Bielefeld to marry Elise
Kroenig who was about 16 years his junior. The Delius and Kroenig
families had intermarried frequently.
The house that Julius Delius chose for his family
home in Bradford was a large middle class villa, indicative of his
growing wealth, built on a hillside above the squalor of the town
centre in what was open country at the time. The family home remembered
by Clare Delius in her memories of her brother was in fact two houses,
numbers 1 and 3 Claremont, joined together to accommodate the large
family of ten girls and four boys: Ernest, Elise, Minnie, Fritz,
Rose, Max, Clare, Willy, Lucy, Marguerita, Hedwig, Lily, Theodora
and Elfrida. Two of the children (Willy and Lucy) died in infancy.
There were also servants. In 1861 at 6 Claremont, a cook, a nurse
and a general house servant are shown on the census. In 1871 at
number 3, a cook, a housemaid, a nurse and a sewing maid were also
living in the house.
 (click
image for bigger view)
Claremont was built in the late 1850s and early 1860s. This extract
from the sale plan of the Mann Ville Estate in 1864 shows the layout
of the houses on the north side of the street and the names of their
original purchasers. The first pair of semi-detached villas, 1-3,
became the Delius family home. Mann Ville was previously the home
of the Mann brothers, founders of the oldest merchant house in Bradford,
also well known as manufacturers of artificial limbs. Delius' sister,
Clare, remembers the street as "a private thoroughfare, its
privacy being accounted of so much importance that for many years
the public were denied access to it. When I was a child the mill
hands were allowed to pass through it on their way to work, and
one of my earliest recollections is the sound their clogs made.
For many years the residents were content to maintain their rights
as against the public by closing the gates once a year, but on account
of the alleged damage done to the gardens, especially my father's
garden, the privilege of using the avenue was finally withdrawn."
From "Frederick Delius: Memories of my brother" by Clare
Delius, 1935
 It
was very much a wealthy middle class street as the census returns
demonstrate. In 1861, in the 18 houses, there were already 5 German
families living there with 14 of the heads of households involved
in the Bradford trade as either manufacturers or merchants. In 1871,
in 20 houses, there were 8 German families and 12 merchants. After
the death of Julius Delius in 1901 the house was sold. In 1908 when
Ernest William Busby moved to Bradford to set up business as a draper
on Kirkgate he moved his family into 1 Claremont. He told his childen
the house was "built like a stone fortress". By way of
welcome an established neighbour told Ernest that "the people
who used to live at Claremont were somebodies."
From "The short one on the right; letters from
Eric Busby to his grandchildren", 1995.
|