“All gone now” ................... after two centuries Mr Sharpe’s house on Beech Road is no more

Now the last little bit of Mr Sharpe’s house which stood on Beech Road from early in the 19^th century has gone.

I suppose with hindsight its departure was never in doubt after the fire that destroyed half its roof back in 2011.

It had stood empty for even longer and I am told efforts to locate its last owner proved difficult with more than one story that he/she lived in the U.S.A.

It is a building I have often written about and at one time wondered if it would be sensible to try and buy it.*

Sounder counsels prevailed but in the course of telling its story I have come across quite a few people who remember it and have links with it, all of which means that it will not go away, even if as Mike Lever’s pictures taken yesterday show there is now just an empty space.

Location; Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; “All gone now” ............ 2016, Daniel Sharpe’s house, from the collection of Mike Lever

*Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road

Thinking back to that house on Beech Road

Now I was fully prepared for the interest about Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, on Beech Road.*

It had stood beside the old Wesleyan chapel and the smithy for over 180 years.

More recently it had fallen on hard times, and is now all but gone.

I had long speculated on its fate, especially after the second fire which destroyed half its roof and made it dangerous and finally finished it off as a dwelling place.

It was once a fine house and a good example of the type of properties built and lived in by the people of plenty at the beginning of the 19th century.

Once there were quite a few of these and now there is only one left here in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

So with that in mind here is my friend Peter’s painting of the building back in 2012.

The earlier picture I have of Mr Sharpe’s house dates from the 1980s but there will be earlier ones it is just a matter of finding them.

Location, Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Painting; Beech Road © 2012 Peter Topping 

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

*Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road

Goodbye to Daniel Sharpe’s house on Beech Road after a 183 years

Well after 183 years that sad looking house on Beech Road has gone.

Half gone, 2016

It was the home of Mr Daniel Sharpe who lived there from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier and now leaves only one example of the sort of house built for the people of plenty here in Chorlton in the early 19th century.*

We do have a few farmhouses which will be mid to late 18th century but that is it.

The very big houses one of which stood on the corner of Beech Road and the other between Barlow Moor Road and Corkland Road went at the beginning of the 20th century and that other fine middling property by Acres Road went one night a decade or so ago.

Still a home with historic promise, circa 1985-87

Of course Mr Sharpes‘s house had as one commentator put it become an eyesore, having suffered two fires and decades of neglect.

But it was once a fine house and deserved better.

I don’t know when Mr Sharpe moved in but it will have been around the time of his marriage in 1833.

He was a wine merchant and appears in the property on the 1841 census.

Sadly his wife died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him.

Not a lot left, 2016

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.

It is a story I will return to.

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then, gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century and even featured in a television series.

There was one planning application in to convert it into a mix of residential and retail but nothing seems to have happened to the plan.

And now it has gone.  There will be those who shrug and say with some justification that the community showed no interest in its preservation and given its years of neglect demolition was the kindest solution.

But that ignores the fact that for years it was difficult to ascertain who owned it, and even given what might have been structural issues, some nearby properties have been renovated and so saved.

And that is all I am going to say.  I shall await the verdict of the people of Chorlton and just thank Alexx for being in the right place to record the demise of Mr Sharpe's fine country house on what was Chorlton Row.

Location, Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; a demolition in progress, 2016, courtesy of Alexx O’Shea, and  sometime between 1985-87 from the collection of Tony Walker

*Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road

Saving the home of Mr Sharpe on Beech Road

Well it is a place with plenty of history which I have feared would soon be gone.

133 Beech Road survived a serious fire which destroyed half its roof, and while a planning application had been in from 2011 nothing seemed to be happening.

The application was  “for conversion of single dwelling house to five self contained flats and refurbishment of shop unit (A1), involving a two storey rear extension and rear dormer windows.”

And now it appears that some work is being done and the word is that it will indeed become flats. 

Historically it is one of our oldest surviving houses, only beaten by the farm houses and Lime Bank.

It was home of Mr Daniel Sharp who lived there from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier.

He was a wine merchant and may have moved into the property with his new wife after their marriage in 1833.

Sadly she died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him. 

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.  It is a story I will return to. 

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century 

And even featured in a television series.

Now its conversion may seem an awful fate for the old house but I suspect better than its demolition which was what I feared.

This way we will retain something of what is one of the oldest residential buildings in Chorlton, only beaten by our surviving farmhouses and Lime Bank.

Mr Sharpe's house does appear on the blog** and in the book*** and I regularly correspond with one of his descendants.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson 2013  and Tony Walker 1980

*Manchester City Council Planners, 131 Beech Road, Chorlton Manchester, http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/MCCList1.aspx?095811/FU/2011/S1

**Daniel Sharpe and 131 Beech Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Daniel%20Sharpe%20and%20131%20Beech%20Road  

***The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Another lost property on Beech Road?

Now I am not surprised a for sale sign has gone up on this property because it is a long time in coming.

It is a place with plenty of history but I fear won’t be with us for much longer.

It is 131 Beech Road and I have written about it in the past.

Once it was home to Daniel Sharp who lived here from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier.

He was a wine merchant and may have moved into the property with his new wife after their marriage in 1833.

Sadly she died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him.

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.  It is a story I will return to.

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century, and now after a second fire which destroyed part of the roof it sits neglected.

A planning application come to nothing and I suspect this fine example of what may be only one of two remaining town houses built in the 1830s will soon disappear.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2013

A piece of Beech Road which will soon be gone

The Home of Daniel Sharpe in 2013

It is a place with plenty of history but I fear won’t be with us for much longer.

It is 131 Beech Road and I have written about it in the past.

Once it was home to Daniel Sharp who lived here from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier.

He was a wine merchant and may have moved into the property with his new wife after their marriage in 1833.

Sadly she died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him.

The house circa 1985-87

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.  It is a story I will return to.

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century, and now after a second fire which destroyed part of the roof it sits neglected.

A planning application last year has come to nothing and I suspect this fine example of what may be only one of two remaining town houses built in the 1830s will soon disappear.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2013 and Tony Walker, 1985-87

Faded glory

131 Beech Road is today a boarded up ruin. Half its roof was lost to a fire and despite stories that it will be restored and converted into apartments it stands neglected and for the most part forgotten.

But it was not always so. Once it was a grand enough house commanding fine views across Chorlton Row to High Lane and beyond. It was during the 1840s through to the ‘60s the home of Daniel Sharp. There is every reason to suppose it dates back much earlier. Daniel Sharp described himself as a man of independent wealth and a long with a handful of other people was at the top of the social pile here in Chorlton.

There is every reason to suppose it dates back much earlier. Just a little of its faded elegance can be made out from Tony Walker’s picture from the 1980s.In it’s time it must have been a pleasant place to live, surrounded by its own gardens and cut off from Chorlton Row* by a high wall.

But time has not been kind to the place and by the end of the 19th century it served as a home and trading place, and a little later gained the ugly brick extension. Later still it was divided into bed sits before being abandoned, taken over by squatters and finally vandalised and set on fire.
Tony’s picture does however open one last episode in its history, which dates back to the time of the photograph. One night sometime in the mid 1980s we were walking past the place and noticed signs that advertised the grounds as a car park which according to my friend was all very irregular as there had been no planning permission granted for such use.

It was perhaps fortunate that before any of us could raise the issue with the Corporation we noticed that the firm was based in London and the vehicles parked up consisted of a London black cab and a London Transport bus. Had we looked a little closer at the signboard above the entrance to the brick extension we might have recognised the name Bulman and made the link with a television drama. And had we then turned up in the morning we would have seen the TV crew and actors.

Such today is Beech Road that it regularly features in television dramas and was the backdrop for the film, Looking for Eric, which provided gainful employment for some of our residents.

It would be nice to think that a restored 113 Beech Road could become a backdrop for a period drama, as well as a comfortable home. We shall have to see.

Picture; 131 Beech Road from the collection of Tony Walker

*Chorlton Row was the old name for Beech Road