A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 11 … .the plan of a pub

The story of Didsbury in just twenty objects, chosen at random and delivered in a paragraph or more.

I am looking at the plan of the lost Ring o’Bells, which stood the site of the Church Inn which in turn became the Didsbury Hotel.*

The plan is dated 1821 and formed part of the sales transaction by which Mr. Bethell bought the Ring o’Bell,s which he later demolished for his new pub which he called the Church Inn.

The name, the Ring o’ Bells goes back a long time and was a venue for the annual election of the township’s constable, was used by various Friendly Societies and once for a short while was used to hold a suspected criminal.

Added to which like many public houses it was occasionally used for the public sale of local properties.  In 1822 “at the house of Mr. Bethell, the Ring o’Bells in Didsbury the valuable estate of Mr. Lawrence Walker of Heaton Norris”, was for sale, along with several parcels of land, and “an excellent DOUBLE and SINGLE PEW, in Didsbury Chapel.  The large pew is subject to an annual payment of £1.1s and the other of 10s”. **

The same adverts provide a clue to as when the Ring o’Bells became the Church Inn, because in 1830 the sale of the home of Mr. Leech was offered up as “a Desirable Country Retreat” to be sold “at the house of Samuel Bethell, the sign of the Church Inn, Didsbury”.***

Location; Didsbury

Picture; map of the Ring o’Bells and surrounding area

* Plan of the Ring o’Bells, 1821, DCB 1595/36/8, Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, http://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/home.aspx 

*Valuable Estate in Didsbury To Be Sold by Auction, Manchester Guardian, September 14th, 1822

***Desirable Country Retreat Manchester Guardian, May 1, 1830

A history of Didsbury in just 20 objects number 3 ........... the advert ..... 1824

Now, in the November of 1824 Parrs Wood House was not the only fine residence in Didsbury, but it was the only one up for sale, which made it a talking point in the elegant dinning rooms of the township and the less elegant pubs and beer houses.

Parrs Wood House, 1970

Those with a heap of money might well have wondered if the property was for them, while the curious and less well off might just have wanted to know how many rooms there were in the house.

And how “extensive”  were “the offices, and out buildings” how productive, “the hot houses, gardens, orchard, plantations, and rich meadow and pasture land” along with just how pleasant was “the lawn and pleasure ground”.

Parrs Wood House, 1824

Parrs Wood House, 1980

According to the advert of sale, “Tickets maybe had for viewing the premises, on Fridays only, between the hours of ten and three”.

Not that I would have been vouched safe a passport into a viewing.

We come from a long line of agricultural labourers and I have no reason to think that had I lived in Didsbury in 1824, I would have been anything other than a lowly farm worker.

So, I would have had to content myself with reading this advert, providing of course that I could read.

But that is another story for another time.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; the Parrs Wood House notice of sale, Manchester Guardian, November 6th 1824, Parrs Wood House, 1970, m21314, and the interior, 1980, m0604, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass