Saving the home of Mr Sharpe on Beech Road

Well it is a place with plenty of history which I have feared would soon be gone.

133 Beech Road survived a serious fire which destroyed half its roof, and while a planning application had been in from 2011 nothing seemed to be happening.

The application was  “for conversion of single dwelling house to five self contained flats and refurbishment of shop unit (A1), involving a two storey rear extension and rear dormer windows.”

And now it appears that some work is being done and the word is that it will indeed become flats. 

Historically it is one of our oldest surviving houses, only beaten by the farm houses and Lime Bank.

It was home of Mr Daniel Sharp who lived there from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier.

He was a wine merchant and may have moved into the property with his new wife after their marriage in 1833.

Sadly she died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him. 

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.  It is a story I will return to. 

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century 

And even featured in a television series.

Now its conversion may seem an awful fate for the old house but I suspect better than its demolition which was what I feared.

This way we will retain something of what is one of the oldest residential buildings in Chorlton, only beaten by our surviving farmhouses and Lime Bank.

Mr Sharpe's house does appear on the blog** and in the book*** and I regularly correspond with one of his descendants.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson 2013  and Tony Walker 1980

*Manchester City Council Planners, 131 Beech Road, Chorlton Manchester, http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/MCCList1.aspx?095811/FU/2011/S1

**Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road  

***The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html