What you find when you go looking down Wilbraham Road

Merlewood on Wilbraham Road, 1949

Now against my better judgement I got drawn in by a lock up garage, a very big house on the corner of Maidstone and Wilbraham and a line of workaday cottages which I doubt lasted half a century.

It started with that lock up garage captured on film my A E Landers in 1959 which the caption records was “originally stables and coach-house to Merlewood, and now used as garages.”

And that of course led me to go looking for Merlewood which is still there.

Stables and garage Maidstone Avenue, 1959

It was a huge 11 roomed property in its own grounds and commanded a yearly rent of £120 which in 1900 Mr Samuel Ashton was paying to Burgess and Galt who were a company of “joiners, builders and contractors” on Upton Street off Stockport Road.

In time I will track down when it was built.

I know that it was there by 1894 and all probability was part of that surburban creep up from the station at Stretford which followed the cutting of Wilbraham Road in the 1860s.

It will just be a matter of pouring over the rate books and matching names with census entries.

But these big houses did not fare so well in the mid 20th century.  Most were too big and uneconomic and were converted into multi occupancy or were demolished.

Cottages Maidstone Avenue

So Egerton Bank which stood opposite on the other corner of Wilbraham and Maidstone and was later renamed Rylestone and later still Sutton was pulled down in 1958 while Merlewood had been converted into flats at about the same time.

And a full half century and a bit since then that big pile is still there although the garage has gone as has the row of four cottages which stood beside it.

Now I can’t be sure when the cottages were put up.

They post date 1911 but are there by 1933 which will mean looking at the directories to find out when Maidstone Avenue was cut.

In 1911 it was still just a short stretch of lane but by 1933 had been extended and joined the new development on Hewlett.

But when the garage and the cottages came down I have yet to discover.

Mr Landers thought the cottages may have been homes for the servants who lived at Merlewood.

That I think is unlikely, back in 1911 Mr Holden employed three servants all of whom lived in and I rather think as Merlewood's fortunes sank the owners used some of the grounds for a bunch of more modest properties.

So less a finished story and more a work in progress.

Pictures, stables and coach-house to Merlewood, and now used as garages, 1959, A E Landers, m18287, Merlewood, m18286, and row of cottages nu 2,2a, 4, 4a,Maidstone Avenue,  m18288, 1959, A E Landers, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass