Northampton Boot and Shoe Philanthropists: James Manfield

To encourage all you wonderful fundraisers and friends, the NGH Historical Archive thought you might like to know about some of our Boot and Shoe Philanthropists in days gone by.  We start with James Manfield.

Everyone associates James Manfield , a local shoe manufacturer, with Manfield Orthopaedic Hospital.  James lived in this beautiful neo-Jacobean mansion, known as Weston Favell House, with his wife Louisa and family.  He had nine children but after their youngest son Neville, a keen aviator, was killed in WW1 Louisa couldn’t bear to live there any longer.  After two unsuccessful attempts to sell the property, and refusing to sell it for a fraction of its worth, James decided to give the house and grounds to the Crippled Children’s Society in 1925.  It was known as the Manfield Hospital for Crippled Children, later changing its title to Manfield Orthopaedic Hospital.  It closed and was sold in 1992 and the main building was converted into apartments under the name of Manfield Grange.

What isn’t so widely known is that over the years James Manfield gave thousands of pounds to local causes.  When he became Mayor in 1905, he shunned the Mayoral reception and payment of expenses whilst in office, donating the money to poor relief in the town.  Reading about the poor health of children in other parts of the country, he decided to finance the provision of two meals a day for three months for 110 children and then continued this programme for several years.

He became Chairman of the Corporation Improvements Committee and to experience the slums of the town himself he walked the streets accompanied by a plain clothes police officer for his safety.  He was so appalled by the living conditions he had seen that he vowed he would devote himself to the improvement of slums and the lives of those less fortunate than himself.  He privately gave large sums of money to the Salvation Army to distribute amongst the slum dwellers.  His acts of benevolence were carried out quietly and privately, never seeking publicity.

One of his favourite quotes was … ‘’The way to have friends, is to be one’’.

 

Julia Corps

Volunteer at NGH Historic Archive and Museum.