Woodlawn in Didsbury in the summer of 1914 and again in the winter of 1950

Woodlawn was one of those very big houses that Didsbury used to excel at.

It stood on what was Fielden Park and is now Mersey Road which runs from Palatine Road up to Barlow Moor Road.

It had fifteen rooms, was set in extensive grounds which ran down towards the Mersey and was flanked by the even more impressive houses of Brockhurst to the north and Mersey Bank to the south, both of which commanded even bigger gardens and both of which had their own fountains.

Now I can’t be sure exactly when it was built but it was there by 1891 when it was the home of James and Rosamund Halliday.

He was an accountant and partner in a number of firms including Deloitte and Halliday with offices at Queen Elms on High Street and on Oxford Street and later described himself as a banker.

Born in Scotland he was here in Manchester by 1861.  We can track him from Chorlton on Medlock to Broome House in Didsbury where the family were living in 1881.  And like so many of the other residents of Broome House they went on to bigger and better homes which in the case of the Halliday’s was Woodlawn.

There is no doubting that this was an impressive property.

You reached it by a tree lined drive with paths off across the gardens down towards the river and past a series of large greenhouses.

The house was built on a raised bank which meant the entrance up to the front door was by way of a set of stone steps.

Looking at the pictures of the place you have to admit that it was a solid and magnificent place which befitted a banker.

He died in 1913 and this will have been when Mrs Laura Churchill bought the property and a year later offered it to the Red Cross as a hospital at the start of the Great War.

But that is a story for another time.*

The house was demolished I think in the 1990s and may have been a convent school which pretty much means there is more to find out about the place and that also will be for later.

And soon after I posted the story Marion added a postscript which took the story of the building forward into the middle decades of the last century.

"Woodlawn was part of the new Hollies convent and school when they moved from Oak Drive in Fallowfield. I was there from 1949 to 1958, my sister and daughter followed. 

I loved every moment, the buildings fed my love of grand houses even though they took a bit of a battering from us girls. 

Wonderful memories include the maid from Oak house hotel bringing a tray with drinks and biscuits across at playtime for the owners daughter to enjoy at the prep school gate. Have a look at the book Against the Odds where there are some pictures of Woodlawn. A vanished world.

All of which opens a whole new area of research, not to mention stories pictures and memories.

Wood Lawn features in our book on the history of Didsbury, Didsbury Through Time

Pictures; of Woodlawn courtesy of Rob Mellor, and detail of Wood Lawn and gardens from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1888-94 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*With the Red Cross hospital in 1914 at Wood Lawn in Didsbury posted on the blog on October 11th