ABSTRACT
James Pickford was manifestly already in trade, but how long the business had been established is uncertain. By long tradition within the firm, it is of seventeenth-century origin. Relatively little is known about the family who originally owned the business which still bears its name. The Pickfords were a Cheshire family, living first in Adlington, a village in the parish of Prestbury, a few miles south of Manchester, and later in Poynton, in the same parish. Matthew in July 1741 implies he was in his early thirties when he married Martha Johnson. They had six children, three boys and three girls. Two of the boys followed their father in the family carrying business, but whether James Pickford had himself similarly inherited a carrying business is unknown. Fresh routes were opened up, additional services supplied on existing routes, speeds accelerated, improved vehicles introduced and new carrying businesses established.
