Now anyone who has walked down Beech Road towards the village green will know, it is a busy place, with cars parked on both sides which often straddle the pavement.
But in the early morning, just after sunrise, it is less busy and many of those cars have yet to arrive, making it a perfect moment to get a sense of what the road was once like.
It only acquired the name of Beech Road sometime in the 1870s, and before that was known as Chorlton Row, which I suspect was shortened to Row, by the locals who knew they were in Chorlton.
It was already very old when Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn and then as now connected the village with Barlow Moor Lane.
And it does still meander down, with more than a few twists which will have been to avoid ancient obstacles, now long since vanished.
The hint of one of those obstacles is still there almost opposite Reeves Road which was once Regent Road before it tired of that name sometime in the 1960s.
Today, the obstacle is nothing more than a slight feature which juts out, but looking at our picture it had been more prominent and was home to a very impressive Beech tree.
The exact date of the photograph is not clear, but we must be in the first decade of the last century.
This I know because the houses on the south side were built by then.
Nor can it be any older than 1908 when the big house and garden behind the wall ceased to exist.
It had been the home of the Holt family from the 1830s, but the last of the Manchester Holt’s died in 1908, and the house was demolished, and chucks of the garden were bought by the Corporation who used it to widen Barlow Moor Road.
The rest of the estate which ran from Beech Road along Barlow Moor Road to High Lane, and then down High Lane to Cross Road was developed piecemeal, with the cinema and shops in 1915, Mr Dawson’s house and Malton Avenue a little later, and finally the row of detacted houses on Beech Road afterwards.
All of which brings me back to that tree, which by the early 20th century had itself become a feature.
Interestingly it does not appear on maps from the 1840s and 50s and what causes our road to take slight diversions are a series of cottages which stick out at right angles, and part of the fields known as Row Acre and are now part of the Rec.
But they are for another time.
Location; Chorlton Row now Beech Road
Pictures; from the Lloyd Collections
 |
| Looking down Beech Road before 1908 |
It only acquired the name of Beech Road sometime in the 1870s, and before that was known as Chorlton Row, which I suspect was shortened to Row, by the locals who knew they were in Chorlton.
It was already very old when Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn and then as now connected the village with Barlow Moor Lane.
 |
| The tree and the big house, pre 1908 |
The hint of one of those obstacles is still there almost opposite Reeves Road which was once Regent Road before it tired of that name sometime in the 1960s.
Today, the obstacle is nothing more than a slight feature which juts out, but looking at our picture it had been more prominent and was home to a very impressive Beech tree.
The exact date of the photograph is not clear, but we must be in the first decade of the last century.
This I know because the houses on the south side were built by then.
Nor can it be any older than 1908 when the big house and garden behind the wall ceased to exist.
It had been the home of the Holt family from the 1830s, but the last of the Manchester Holt’s died in 1908, and the house was demolished, and chucks of the garden were bought by the Corporation who used it to widen Barlow Moor Road.
 |
| Looking up Beech Road from the Rec, date unknown |
All of which brings me back to that tree, which by the early 20th century had itself become a feature.
Interestingly it does not appear on maps from the 1840s and 50s and what causes our road to take slight diversions are a series of cottages which stick out at right angles, and part of the fields known as Row Acre and are now part of the Rec.
But they are for another time.
Location; Chorlton Row now Beech Road
Pictures; from the Lloyd Collections
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