Always look beyond the old stone wall, out on Seymour Grove in the 1890s

Seymour Grove in 2014

Now here is a lesson in always looking at what you pass by.

Over the years I have passed this spot on Seymour Grove countless times and never clocked the stone wall and the gateposts.

And yet here is a little history and perhaps some stories.

It was Andy Robertson on one of his regular wanders around the city armed with just his camera and a  notebook that recorded what was once here and is now long gone.

Fairlawns in 2014

I say long gone but I don’t really have a clue when the block of flats went up on what had been Fairlawns and the Sycamores.

Nor for that matter when the original two houses were built.  Andy has dated Fairlawns and its northern neighbour which was Beech House to 1871 and within another 20 years the Sycamores had joined the other two.

There was still plenty of open land around the houses in the 1890s and all three properties were big houses.

The Beech and Sycamores had ten rooms a piece and Fairlawns weighed in with 8, and all three were set back from the road with largish gardens.

Seymour Grove in 1894

In 1911 all were occupied by those who could regard themselves as comfortably well off.

At the Sycamores was Mr Rueben Bennet who described himself as a former director of the Old Trafford company of Bennett’s which made church stained glass, while at Fairlawns was Richard Haig Brown who had been a railway manager, and at the Beech lived George Forbes who was listed variously as a nurseryman and Cut Flower Merchant.

Now in the fullness of time I think I shall go digging into the lives of all three but in the meantime will content myself with reflecting on just how easy it is to overlook even our most recent past.

Travel down Seymour Grove today and I doubt that many will give a second thought to what was here  or rather not here just over a century and a bit ago.

Back in the 1840s our spot was still farm land dissected by a culverted water course with views north east to woodland and Hullard Hall and west out across more farmland to Great Stone Farm and Chester Road.

The Sycamores in 2014

The Botanic Gardens had yet to get it’s Royal title and the railway was waiting for the funds to drive the plans into a working line.

That said just a little to the north on the opposite side were Lime Grove House, Broom House and Brainerd Terrace which with a additions and name changes were still there 50 years later.

Today only Broom House has survived.  I doubt that any of the original features are left inside but I bet Andy will be down there soon to photograph it, and  I shall go looking for Mrs Emily Lawton who was there in 1911 along with the other residents back as far as the 1840s when Fairlawns, the Sycamores and Beech House were still just a field.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson and the OS for South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/