Now there is nothing better than a bit of historical curiosity, and set back amongst the trees along the East Didsbury stretch of Wilmlsow Road there are more than a few places which might offer up some secrets.
And so in no particular order I shall start with the Cedars, which was the first of the new collection of pictures taken by Barbarella on her latest “essential walk”.
The house appears on a number of sites dedicated to listed buildings, and was the subject of an open night back in April 2019 when a developer threw open the doors and invited “respected local historian Diana Leitch [to] share stories of the property, and describing how Didsbury would have been when the property was first built in 1857”.*
So, with that in mind and never wanting to steal other people’s work, I went off to trawl the historical records for myself.
I knew from the various posted articles that its first resident was a John Williams, who was a wool merchant, and armed with this bit of information I discovered his offices were at 34 Charlotte Street in town and that from at least 1848 he had been in Fallowfield.
In 1861, he, and his wife and seven children inhabited the 15 rooms of Cedar House and were looked after by five staff, one of whom was a Governess.
His neigbhour at the equally grand Didsbury Lodge was also a merchant who came from Hamburg, and also employed five students, one of whom and been born in Frankfort, and another in Wales.
To which can be added Edward Dean the coachman and his wife who lived in the lodge, and John Eastward the gardener and his family who lived in a cottage in the grounds.
Sadly the number of rooms in Didsbury Lodge and the size of the very modest cottage of Mr. Eastwood is lost to me, but I do know that Edward Dean’s house consisted of four rooms, which was ample for him, his wife and one daughter, but less so a full half century later when it was occupied the Woodbridge family who consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Woodbridge and their four children.
Location; Didsbury
Pictures; Along Wilmlsow Road, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento,
The house appears on a number of sites dedicated to listed buildings, and was the subject of an open night back in April 2019 when a developer threw open the doors and invited “respected local historian Diana Leitch [to] share stories of the property, and describing how Didsbury would have been when the property was first built in 1857”.*
So, with that in mind and never wanting to steal other people’s work, I went off to trawl the historical records for myself.
I knew from the various posted articles that its first resident was a John Williams, who was a wool merchant, and armed with this bit of information I discovered his offices were at 34 Charlotte Street in town and that from at least 1848 he had been in Fallowfield.
His neigbhour at the equally grand Didsbury Lodge was also a merchant who came from Hamburg, and also employed five students, one of whom and been born in Frankfort, and another in Wales.
To which can be added Edward Dean the coachman and his wife who lived in the lodge, and John Eastward the gardener and his family who lived in a cottage in the grounds.
Sadly the number of rooms in Didsbury Lodge and the size of the very modest cottage of Mr. Eastwood is lost to me, but I do know that Edward Dean’s house consisted of four rooms, which was ample for him, his wife and one daughter, but less so a full half century later when it was occupied the Woodbridge family who consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Woodbridge and their four children.
Pictures; Along Wilmlsow Road, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento,
Check out The Grove a bit further towards The Didsbury pub hidden on the right as you walk towards the village. I think they were built around a similar time and would have been tied into the geography and feel of Didsbury around the time.
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