Now, it is stating the obvious to say that Beech Road has changed a lot.
In the 44 years that I have lived in Joe and Mary Ann’s house facing the Rec, the road has gone from one which supported a range of traditional shops to a strip of cafes, bars, and restaurants.
During the 1980s it hit the doldrums, with some businesses closing and little likelihood that they would be replaced with more of the same.
But with the opening of Café on the Green, the deli Buonissimo, followed by Primavera and the Lead, the future was set.
And for anyone living in the last quarter of the 19th century, the transformation of Beech Road must have been equally striking.
Until the 1850s, it was a narrow twisty lane, fronted by a few farmhouses, some wattle and daub cottages, and three homes of the gentry, with great stretches of it given over to fields.*
So, the buildings which are now the shops and bars, pretty much date from the 1870s onwards.
Only those at the Chorlton Green end are there a few buildings which date from the 1830s and of these only the two shops beside the Beech Inn have survived, and they can claim to being the oldest two commercial properties still trading.
Here too could be found the blacksmith, and the road’s only drinking establishment which by the 1840s was run by Samuel and Elizabeth Nixon. Mr. Nixon’s father was the landlord of the pub over the water, which today is Jackson’s Boat but in its long history has had other names, of which the Greyhound was but one. One of their son’s occupied the stationer’s and post office, and his son was the first occupant of the newsagent’s which now belongs to the Etchell’s family.
Sadly, all three of the fine houses of the gentry have gone.
Beech House which stood in its own substantial grounds at the Barlow Moor Road end of Beech Road went in 1908, while the remaining two were lost this century.
But already the very name of the road had gone. Originally it was called Chorlton Row, and the name of the fields that stretched from what is now Cross Road down to Acres Road had been known as Row Acre.
And some time in the late 1870s it became Beech Road.
I bet there will have been those in the Traveler’s Rest which was the name of the beer shop run by the Nixon family who muttered into their beer about the unwarranted changes which started with rows of shops and ran on with the change from Chorlton Row and the slow loss of Row Acre to new houses.
I still lament the loss of Mr. Sharpe’s fine house which was demolished in favour of a Co-op, but am reconciled to the closure of the launderette, and pleased that after a long time of sitting empty what was the Parlour has been taken over by Bar San Juan.
Change is in the air, and I shall close with the thought that launderette’s helped do for the traditional laundry, one of which operated from Crossland Road, and while our own launderette is no more we have a new one on Wilbraham Road, in the old Gregg’s.
And that is it.
Location; Beech Road
Pictures; Beech Road, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, The History Press, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html
**Beech Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Beech%20Road
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| All that is modern, 2020, in the grounds of Mr. Sharpe's house, circa 1830 |
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| Beech Road, circa 1980s |
But with the opening of Café on the Green, the deli Buonissimo, followed by Primavera and the Lead, the future was set.
And for anyone living in the last quarter of the 19th century, the transformation of Beech Road must have been equally striking.
Until the 1850s, it was a narrow twisty lane, fronted by a few farmhouses, some wattle and daub cottages, and three homes of the gentry, with great stretches of it given over to fields.*
So, the buildings which are now the shops and bars, pretty much date from the 1870s onwards.
 |
| Beech Road, circa 1880s, with Mr. Clarke's smithy |
Here too could be found the blacksmith, and the road’s only drinking establishment which by the 1840s was run by Samuel and Elizabeth Nixon. Mr. Nixon’s father was the landlord of the pub over the water, which today is Jackson’s Boat but in its long history has had other names, of which the Greyhound was but one. One of their son’s occupied the stationer’s and post office, and his son was the first occupant of the newsagent’s which now belongs to the Etchell’s family.
 |
| The Launderette, 2020 |
Beech House which stood in its own substantial grounds at the Barlow Moor Road end of Beech Road went in 1908, while the remaining two were lost this century.
But already the very name of the road had gone. Originally it was called Chorlton Row, and the name of the fields that stretched from what is now Cross Road down to Acres Road had been known as Row Acre.
And some time in the late 1870s it became Beech Road.
I bet there will have been those in the Traveler’s Rest which was the name of the beer shop run by the Nixon family who muttered into their beer about the unwarranted changes which started with rows of shops and ran on with the change from Chorlton Row and the slow loss of Row Acre to new houses.
 |
| Bar San Juan, 2020 |
Change is in the air, and I shall close with the thought that launderette’s helped do for the traditional laundry, one of which operated from Crossland Road, and while our own launderette is no more we have a new one on Wilbraham Road, in the old Gregg’s.
And that is it.
Location; Beech Road
Pictures; Beech Road, 2020 from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, The History Press, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html
**Beech Road, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Beech%20Road
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