Getting things wrong ........... that house Westonby

Just when you thought you had nailed a story down up pops a disconcerting comment from a friend.

Now yesterday  I confidently wrote that “I think I may have found Westonby.*

It was a house on Edge Lane which has preoccupied me ever since I first came across it almost a year ago.
And the clue my well be this 1914 photograph of Edge Lane from the Stretford boundary.
Westonby was a large Edwardian house built in 1903 on the edge of the Township.

It boasted “three well lighted entertaining rooms, billiard-room, spacious hall, five bedrooms, box room, bathroom and separate w c, lavatory and w con ground floor, excellent kitchen, usual conveniences and large garden” and “was cellared throughout.”  It was set back in its own grounds had views across the fields to the Mersey “and was convent to Stretford trams and trains.”

It was perhaps the last of its type.  They were expensive to run and only worked well if there were servants on hand. They had names like Westonby, Sunwick and Ebor House.”

All of which might have been a tad premature.

My old friend Michael of Hardy Productions UK did a bit more digging and overlaying my 1907 map with a current satellite image of Edge Lane along with a picture of a house looking more than a little like my Westonby in 1914 has made me reconsider my confident assertion about both the house and its final demolition.

Now a little bit more research needs to be done but I suspect that will just prolong the dispute.

I could of course be petulant but I am rather pleased at the outcome to date.

And long may the blog continue to spark both comments and suggestions.  Thanks again Michael and I all of you to wander down Edge Lane and confirm my mistake.

Pictures; of Westonby and Edge Lane, 1914, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m17757 and the OS map of 1907.