Who stole Alton Towers?

Today I was reminded by my old Facebook chum Bill Summers of that house on Edge Lane called Alton Towers.

Alton Towers, 1907

Like him I have often come across it on maps and set to the challenge he laid down today, when he posted the 1911 OS map showing the property adding, “We all know roughly where Alton Towers is or have heard of its pleasure grounds but might be surprised to discover there was another- in Chorlton cum Hardy back in the day. 

Just wondering if Andrew Simpson can tell us anything of it. 

It stood for a while at the side of St Clements Church on High Lane, so maybe there is a photo out there somewhere". 

It was a challenge I couldn’t turn down.

Today the site is open land and was gifted to St Clement's for the use of young people and is now part of the school, and that is pretty much how I remember it from when I washed up in Chorlton in 1976.

The site of Alton Towers, 1933

The last recorded reference to the house is on the 1911 census  but interestingly it is not listed in the street directory for that year and the OS map for 1933 shows it as open land with a tennis court in one corner.

So sometime between 1911 and 1933 it disappears.

I can track it back from 1911 to 1879, and I am fairly sure that 1879 marks the date when it was built.  

It was owned throughout by John Richardson who rented it out to just five tenants over those thirty years.

It had been a grand house with ten rooms, set back from the main road in a large garden and commanded an annual rent of £100 and a rateable value of £68.

And not to be short changed had a series of green houses arranged amongst the trees in the garden.

In 1911 it was occupied by an Edward and Christina Wright, their four children and two servants.  Mr. Wright described himself as a “Paper merchant" with his offices at 62A Fountain Street. 

The site in 2023

What happened after 1911 is yet to be discovered but I do know that one of his son’s was living at 22 Whitelow Road in 1917, because his Attestation papers say so.

It may be that the family moved from Edge Lane to Whitelow Road.

There is no reference to Alton Towers in the 1921 census, and sadly so far the only images we have are of a gate post on pictures dated in 1930 and 1959.

Sad looking gate post, Alton Towers, Edge Lane, 1930

Not that I am finished.

I shall explore the life of John Richardson, and talk to St Clement's Church about their acquisition of the land and follow up the story of a fire.

so heaps to find out.

We shall see.

Location; Edge Lane

Picture, Alton Towers, 1909, OS map for Manchester and Salford, 1909, site of Alton Towers, 2023, courtesy of Google Maps and Only a sad looking gate post, Alton Towers, Edge Lane, 1930, m17809, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

A Chorlton wedding in the April of 1913 and a tiny mystery

I doubt I would ever have got to know about Mr Hugget Billing and Miss Vivien Horsfall Attwood if it weren’t for Sally’s wedding photograph.

The couple were married at St Clements Church in Chorlton-cum-Hardy on April 16th 1913, and on that Wednesday the Manchester Courier was on hand to record the event which according to the paper was “crowded.”

And I think that may have been down to Vivien’s father who was a journalist and newspaper editor.

As such he will have been well known, added to which the family had lived in Chorlton on Cavendish Road from at least 1901 and so I guess there would have been plenty of local well wishers.

Mr Herbert Huggins Billing was a salesman who had been born in Rusholme, lived in Ancoats and in 1911 was residing in Longsight.

The couple settled in Chorlton and lived at 42 Claude Road.  Vivien died in 1930 and Herbert Huggins fourteen years later.

In time I will delve deeper into their stories.  I know they had two daughters and just before his death Vivien’s father was living opposite them at number 55 Claude Road.

Of course all such research runs the danger of becoming intrusive especially if there are direct living relatives and so I am minded to concentrate on what their lives might tell us about Chorlton and Manchester during the first half of the 20th century.

The records of how much all three left when they died reveal something of their financial background and a future hunt will tell us which paper Vivien’s father edited, and in time I might solve the little mystery of why her parents and her husband are all buried in Southern Cemetery but she is missing from the family plot.

That maybe because she died at Oakmore in Cheshire but I can’t be sure.

That said even I have to own up to a little curiosity and wonder why Miss Attwood gave her age as 28 in 1913 when she was in fact 31.



Picture; A Chorlton Wedding, the Manchester Courier, April 17 1913, from the collection of Sally Dervan

Walking into Stretford along Edge Lane in 1847

Now if I wanted to walk to Stretford from the village in the late spring of 1847 I would have used the old road.

It started at Hardy Lane as a foot path twisted and turned its way following the course of the Brook at one point before skirting the church and green and going off across Turn Moss, under the Duke’s Canal and coming out at the pump opposite the Cock Inn.

It is a road I have written about before* so instead I think I will take Edge Lane which if you were at all of an inquisitive nature would be a better choice, for it offered you a chance of gazing over some fine houses.

So Edge Lane it is, starting at the green with its farmhouses and pubs and then out along the road which took you to the junction with High Lane.

Now I said it gave you a chance to gaze on some fine house but most of these are set back in their own gardens.  This is particularly true of Longford house the home of the Walker family from the early 19th century.

They too are a family who I have written about, Thomas Walker was a Manchester politician, radical and businessman who is buried in the parish church yard, and his son Charles was a noted author.  But there home like its successor Longford Hall was some distance away from the road and not therefore easily visible.

Nor so Edge House home of George and Mary Bannister who farmed 150 acres of land and employed eight men.  Their home was up a long winding lane set in an orchard.

There were of course more humble homes, along the way which were lived in by James Cain, carpenter,James Hodcroft, market gardener and William Barlow florist.

And then there was Peel House, the last before the canal.  I think it dates from after the 1830s, had its own lodge house, orchard and gardens and was the home of Norbury family who included an inspector of houses, a retired cotton merchant and a solicitor’s clerk.

I would have liked to have seen Peel House, and there are photographs but these are the property of Trafford Libraries who guard their copyright.  Had I arrived just a few years earlier in Manchester and I might have seen the building for myself, but it was demolished in 1967.

Like all such walks what you saw depended on when you walked the walk.

So a little earlier in the decade and there would a have been a few meaner cottages, while  just into the next decade and beyond Peel House the home of Thomas Massey who lived by the new railway station and was employed as a railway porter.

Fast forward just another 30 years and this end of Edge Lane would have been dominated by a series of large houses with impressive sounding names like Standish House, Fern Bank, Wansbeck House and Beech House.

But the 1880s and 90s are out of my comfort zone, I as many know prefer to walk the fields and lanes of the township in the years before 1850.

So I shall close with a place that would have been easily accessible both from the old road and Edge Lane and this was Turn Moss Farm. It is mentioned in some of the histories of Stretford, was the subject of plenty of photographs and is remembered by my old friend Alan Brown who worked for the farmer during the last war.  Bu that is a story for another time.

Location; Chorlton, Manchester

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Old%20Road
**http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/childhood-memories-of-war-service-farm.html

Pictures; detail of Edge Lane from the OS map of Lancashire 1841-53, and Hennet’s map of Lancashire 1830 courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and looking across Turn Moss circa 1950s, from the collection of David Bishop

Under the gas lamp on High Lane in the summer of 1905

I can see why Cissie decided to send this postcard to her young brother in the August of 1905.

He was staying at the delightfully named Gas Works cottage, Ambleside in Westmoreland and it is more than likely that some of the children staring back at us were known to him.

On the other hand Cissie mentions her uncle so it is just possible the she was just staying in Chorlton at Richmond Road* and choose a picture which she thought would appeal to him.

And there is a lot here which I think would appeal to anyone looking at the postcard today.

We are at the point where St Clements Road, and Manchester Road join High Lane and Edge Lane and the children are gathered underneath one of original gas lamp posts which had been set up in 1875 by the Urban Sanitary Authority which within a year would become the Withington Board of Health with its own administrative headquarters on Lapwing Lane.

And for those really interested, our first domestic gas had been provided by the Stretford Gas Company in 1862 who piped their supplies along Edge Lane, while the following year Manchester Corporation extended its main from Seymour Grove.

All of which is more than a piece of historical trivia because on the promise of cheaper gas supplies from Manchester in 1904 turned the vote for our incorporation into the City.

This was part of “an attractive package” which the Withington Amalgamation League set up in 1902 argued would mean a fall in the rates, bring “libraries, baths, reduction in water and gas rates, lower cemetery charges, music in recreation grounds better fire and police protection more deliveries of letters, technical classes, shares in tramway and electricity profits and the prospect of Ship Canal and School Board rates decreasing.”**

This was for many an offer to good to refuse and one that was shared by the City Council.  At their October meeting in 1903, much was made of the assets that Withington would hand over to the Corporation, including the newly built “hospital to which attracted 20-30 acres of land, ....[and] beyond that land for a smallpox hospital, a field for the extension of the tram services and the sewage farm, 80 acres in extent.”

And as Fletcher Moss pointed out amalgamation would bring Alexandra Park “that large park into the hands of the Council” and furthermore “the Corporation was the largest ratepayer in the Withington district and by far the largest owner of freehold estate with the possible exception of Earl Egerton” which meant they would be no longer paying out rates to Withington UDC.

And it seemed only to get better.  Under the terms of amalgamation all existing staff of the Withington UDC were taken on by the Corporation and “the price and conditions of supply of gas, water and electricity to the inhabitants of Withington shall be the same as those of the citizens of Manchester.  That all future tramways in the district of Withington shall be laid as double lines along carriage ways not less than 32 feet wide between curbs.  That two free libraries and two swimming baths to be established in different parts of Withington within five years..... that for a period of twenty years the rate shall not exceed 4s in the £.”

This was a set of promises which proved enough to clinch the vote for incorporation by 4,086 to 805.

So in the summer of 1905 our children had been residents of the city for just under a year.

Now whether they were out from school at dinner time or a weekend gathering is a bit difficult to say, but the picture looks to have been taken in the morning so maybe it was just that usual gathering of children drawn by the magic of a camera.

But not everyone is that bothered at the presence of the photographer.  To our right the work of loading the carriage outside Stockton Range goes on unabated. I would like to know if the carriage belonged to the residents of number 2.  The property did have both a coach house and a stable, so it is possible that Mr Charles Edwards who lived there may have been planning a journey.

Meanwhile in the distance sitting in the sun in front of the church are a mix of what I take to be a mother, grandmother assorted children and babies in prams.  It is a detail I might have missed if it were not that one of the prams looks remarkably familiar and is very similar to the one that just under 90 years later we would use for our own children.

And all that form Cissie’s postcard.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; from the Lloyd collection and Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Withington Town Hall, October 16th 1906 m52133, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Richmond Road ran from Manchester Road to Oswald Road
**http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/heres-offer-you-cant-refuse.html

Hampton House ......... and a mystery down on Edge Lane

This is about as close as we are going to get to Hampton House.

The garden wall of Hampton House, 1959

It stood just a little back from Edge Lane and gave its name to the road that now runs past its northern side.

Time has not been kind to the house or its memory and even the caption has helped wipe it off the map because there is no reference to Hampton House in what is otherwise a very detailed description.
“Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Edge Lane, Victorian Post Box, North east side: 10, Corner of Hampton Road, showing Victorian Post Box built into wall of semi-detached houses built in what was garden of Barway House”.

Now Barway House still stands, and is nu 28 Edge Lane, but the plot now inhabited by those semi-detached houses, behind the stone wall with its Victorian Post Box was home to Hampton House.

Like it's neighbour Hampton House was built around 1866 and was situated in its own grounds with a long straight drive which ran off from Edge Lane, past the house to what may have been a large stables.

Hampton House, 1894

I can track its residents through from the 1860s into the 20th century, and then the trail goes cold.  It is not listed on the street directories for 1903 or 1911 and is absent from the census records.

But there is perhaps a clue in the listing for 1909 which records that a Mr George Meredith was living there and described him as “caretaker”.

And that suggests that the owners were not there and that no one was renting the property which was also the fate of Barway House at about the same time.

But unlike Barway House which was reunited with residents later in the century Hampton House may not have been so lucky, because by 1921 it had been demolished and maps show the site remained empty until sometime in the mid 1950s when our semi-detached houses were built.

All of which begs the question of what might have been wrong with property.

It may have been poorly built or it might just have been too large.  By 1939 Barway House had been divided into flats and the adverts in Manchester Guardian show that the same fate had befallen some of other big houses in Chorlton.

In the end the answer will in part lie in a careful trawl of the street directories for the early part of the 20th century which if we are lucky will reveal the names of residents up to 1921.

Well we shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Edge Lane, Victorian Post Box, North east side: 10, Corner of Hampton Road, showing Victorian Post Box built into wall of semi-detached houses built in what was garden of Barway House, A E Landers, m17775, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass extract from the OS map of 1894 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Picking up on Chorlton's story at The Oaks ..... Edge Lane

I am the first to admit that it is lazy history to claim that one house  can reflect the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy from the mid 19th century onwards.

22 Edge Lane, 1907 shown in red

But if I did, 22 Edge Lane is up there amongst the list.*

It was built in 1865, was home to a succession of wealthy families, and during the last century went through a transformation into multi-occupancy and is now being renovated and redeveloped.

Now, there are plenty of those big houses which fit into that category, but 22 Edge Lane is the one I am focusing on.

The Haselgrove family were the first to own and occupy the property, giving it the name of the Oaks and were typical of the “new people” who were moving into Chorlton-cum-Hardy, when the area was still a rural community.

But already by 1865 the township was changing.

The arrival of the railway sixteen years earlier at the bottom of Edge Lane, along with improvements to the supply of water and sanitation began to make Chorlton an attractive place to live.

22 Edge Lane, entrance, date unknown

And so during the 1860s through the next two decades, there was residential creep along Edge Lane, which was replicated by similar developments following the Egerton estate’s decision to cut Wilbraham Road through Chorlton and onto Fallowfield.

The building of these big properties pre dated the much bigger housing boom which began in 1880 in the area once known as Martledge which was the strip of land around the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

These tended to be smaller properties, and were home to the “middling people” who were mainly drawn from the professional and clerical occupations.

But while they may have been the future of Chorlton, those big houses were part of that history as were the people who lived in them.

And that is the link to the Mr. Nicolai Christian Schou, and his family who had made 22 Edge Lane their home in 1871.

Edge Lane, 2019, before redevelopment began

He was a “shipping agent” with offices at 38 Cooper Street which was on the corner with Bootle Street.

The building and his stretch of Cooper Street vanished when Central Ref was built in the 1930s, but was still there at the beginning of the 20th century when it was occupied by Overman and Co., which earlier had operated in partnership with Mr. Schou. 

Just when the two got together is yet to be discovered, but the records show that during the 1860s well into the following decade the company was listed just as N. C. Schou.

Sadly he left very little in the way of a paper trail.  I know he was born in 1834, and was buried in the St James’s Birch-In-Rusholme, in 1881.

But the parish burial records do contain a touching reference to the family, listing the deaths of his wife, and two of his children.  “In memory of Frances Mary wife of Nicholi Christien Schou, died 28th April 1869, aged 36 years also Constance Mary their daughter died 21st November 1863 aged 3½ months also Nicholi Christian Schou born 22nd April 1834 died 2nd December 1881 also Oscar Henry their second son born 6th March 1859 died 2nd August 1892”.

20 Edge Lane, next door to no. 22, 1959

That pretty much is all there is so far, other than the census return for 1871 which lists him living at Edge Lane, with his five children and four servants who included the housekeeper, a cook, housemaid and charwoman.

We may today be surprised at the number of servants, but his neighbours employed almost as many, which again marks number 22 out as typical of the time and place.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture, 22 Edge Lane, 2019, courtesy of Armistead Property**, Edge Lane and entrance to 22 Edge Lane, date unknown, Lloyd Collection, OS map 1907, and 20 Edge Lane, 1959, A E Landers, m17780, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*At 22 Edge Lane, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/At%2022%20Edge%20Lane

**Armistead Property Ltd, http://www.armisteadproperty.co.uk/

The Twilight Sleep Home for painless child birth, a chance conversation and a story revealed

Now it is another one of those stories I thought had come to an end, but the Twilight Sleep Home at Westonby on Edge Lane has popped up again.*

Westonby is a big Edwardian pile on the edge of Chorlton which was built in 1903 and was grand enough to have been “cellared throughout contains three well-lighted entertaining rooms; billiard-room spacious hall, five bedrooms, box room, bathroom, and separate w.c, lavatory and w.c on ground floor, excellent kitchen, usual conveniences and large garden........ contains 3,074 square yards or thereabouts and has a frontage of about 200 feet on Edge Lane.”**

All of which made it an attractive place to live, but sometime around 1922 it had become the Old Trafford Twilight Sleep Home.  Not I grant you the zippiest of names and one with feint comic overtones  which opened a new field or research.  For on the same page of classified adverts was another Twilight Sleep Home on Upper Chorlton Road.

It is an odd name and takes you back to one of those fashionable medical practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and centred on the attempt to find a painless way for giving birth.

The standard approach had been to administer chloroform but in Germany experiements had been undertaken to see if women could give birth while asleep.  The mother was given a mix of morphine and scopolamine and early results were so promising that by the early 20th century the method had been adopted in the USA and Canada.

Our own Twilight Sleep Home opened in 1917 on Henrietta Street in Old Trafford and moved to Westonby sometime in 1921 or early 1922.  It advertised itself as offering “Painless Childbirth” and featured regularly in the classified section of the Manchester Guardian until 1927.  During those ten years it’s name varied slightly but always retained Twilight Sleep.

And last night in a chance conversation I discovered someone who had been there and given birth to a daughter.  The woman is now in her mid 90s and so this will place the birth sometime in the 1940s which was later than I had thought.

The Westonby home does not feature after 1927 but its competitor on Upper Chorlton Road was still advertsining in 1936 after which it too vanished.

The answer might lie in the loss of faith in the medical practice.  As early as 1915 there had been deaths associated with the method and much mainstream medical opinion was at best luke warm. There were also stories of poor quality care and an absence of trained doctors and nurses as well as horror stories of women having to be strapped to the birthing beds.

It may also be that Westonby was too small it had only eleven rooms.  Then there would have been the cost.  I don’t have any figures yet but such care would not have come cheap and even though some nursing homes catered for poorer clients it is hard to see that this was a first choice for all but the comfortably well off.

Add to this by 1948 the Nationa Health Service may have made such places redundant.

Of course the key will be a conversation with the mother and a trawl of the street directories. My friend also remembered another Twilight Sleep Home somewhere in Trafford.

I have a feeling that Westonby has still more to reveal.

Pictures; advert from the Manchester Guardian, 1905 and April 6 1926, and what might be Westonby from the collection of Averil Kovacs

* Westonby, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Westonby
**Sales advert Manchester Guardian, 1905

The Arndale …. a night club, three lost buildings and a house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy

I never knew that maze of streets, squares and courts which existed between Market and Cannon Street and which were bounded by High Street to the east and Corporation Street to the west.

That maze of streets, squares and courts, 1951

They were indeed a maze, with some of the courts only accessed by narrow alleyways which led off from almost equally narrow streets.

They vanished when the Arndale was built, leaving the curious to search for them on old maps, photographs, and in newspaper clippings, or trawling through official reports of the Police and the City Council.

As early as 1942 the Corporation signaled its intention to redevelop the area, and in 1970 compulsorily purchased eight acres, with construction work for the Arndale beginning the following year.

Of course, there will be plenty of people who still remember that pre-Arndale warren, which included places like, Marsden Square, Cromford Court, and Cock Pit Hill

But memories fade, added to which there will be plenty more who have no knowledge of what now lies under the Arndale.

The Wishing Well, 1967

What set me off today, was not that maze of streets which I have written about already*, but a group of three unremarkable looking buildings photographed in 1967.

They stood on the corner of New Brown Street and Cannon Street, and what first drew me in, was the entrance to the Wishing Well which occupied cellar of Kitchen warehouse.

According to that excellent site, The Pubs of Manchester, the Wishing Well was  a “restaurant-cum-nightclub …. Originally the 'City Restaurant', the Wishing Well was so-named due to a shaft (and some bones) that was unearthed in the basement in 1954 by an electrician.

The owners thought it was a well, so they made a feature of it, building a faux brick wall round it, complete with winch and bucket on a rope.  Not to mention the model skeleton they hung next to it which must have gone down well with diners and drinkers.

The three buildings, 1967

The Wishing Well became a popular late-night haunt, more of a bar than an eatery, and at weekends it became Cord Disco, named after the owner's American car”.**

There is much more, but rather than steal some else’s research I suggest you follow the links.

Leaving me to focus on Walton’s Buildings.

The name Walton crops up across the Rate Books in the 1830s, tied to properties in the area around Cannon Street and New Brown Street, with a specific reference to Walton’s Buildings in 1838, and in the maps during the next two decades.

Walton's Buildings, 1967

What is even more intriguing is that the one in our picture comes as a collection of properties located either side of Marsden Court, which was accessed through the entrance beside the doorway of Walton’s Buildings.

And in the fullness of time I shall go looking for Mr. or Mrs. Walton.

But for now, I am equally fascinated by the last of the three buildings.  This was number 44 Cannon Street, which is listed on Goads Fire Insurance map of the late 19th century as a “warehouse & factory” , which in 1911 was home to the business of Albert E. Moore shirt manufacturer”.

Not that there is anything over remarkable in that, this was after all, an area full of small factories and warehouses.

So, I wasn’t surprised that when our picture was taken in 1967,  number 44, was home to the firm of I Shevloff who had been trading in textiles at various locations since the early 1920s.

 Shevloff, 44 Canono Street, 1922

But what makes I. Shevloff a little different is that I have been following the family’s fortunes for a while, having first come across them when they took up residence at 22 Edge Lane in Chorlton around about the time they opened their first business in Manchester.***

Both Mr. and Mrs. Shevloff were originally from London, although he had been born in the Russian part of Poland as had Mrs. Shevloff’s parents.

And in the course of telling their story I encountered a number of people who remembered visiting the warehouse as children and one who could describe Mr. and Mrs. Shefflov.

All of which confirms that simple observation that history is messy and to misquote the film, is a little like a box of chocolates, because you don’t quite know what you are going to get.

22 Edge Lane, 2019

And I have to say just got a bit messier, but just that bit more interesting, because no sooner had the story gone live, Brenda posted a comment about the Hidden Well, where she worked in the 1950s and 60s.

“I worked as a waitress at the Wishing Well in the late 50s and early 60s. 

The owners were the Britain’s. 

Loved that place. So sorry it isn’t there any more.  

As they say in the article, it had a fake well. 

And back with the Wishing Well, 1967

There were 2 sides - the one where the well was which was a quite upscale coffee bar/restaurant that was open until quite late. 

The other side was only open during the day for lunch and dinner. Old Mrs Britain was a great pastry cook. Made delicious deserts. I was just there on Saturdays and in the holidays when I was off school.
Really fun place to work”.

All of which takes me full circle, because we started with the Wishing Well, and have finished with Brenda’ memories, and in between met Mr. Shevloff who no doubt passed it every working day, leaving me to speculate on whether he called in.  But that, as well as being very unhistorical is a story for another time.

Location; Manchester and Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; New Brown Street and Cannon Street, 1951, from the OS map of Manchester, 1951, the three properties, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection",
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY and 22 Edge Lane, the home of the Shevloff’s, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Pubs- The Stories Behind The Doors-City Centre, Peter Topping & Andrew Simpson, 2016

** The Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.com/2010/03/wishing-well-cord-disco-new-brown.html


***At 22 Edge Lane; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/At%2022%20Edge%20Lane

Waltham House ............. another of the lost houses of Edge Lane

Waltham House, 1959

This is Waltham House in the spring of 1959 and it was coming up for its 96th birthday but like many of those grand houses stretching along Edge Lane it had seen its best years.

It had been built in 1863 and was the home of Frederick Townley who a decade or so later had moved up the road to Stockton Range opposite the new church.

By then Waltham House was home to the Mr and Mrs Fowler, their three daughters, three servants and Mr Fowler’s brother.

Mr Fowler and his brother were “provision merchants” with a business on Corporation Street.

And in the fullness of time I will come back to the Fowler’s but for now it is their twelve roomed house which interests me.

Waltham House was one of the more impressive properties along that bit of Edge Lane which runs from  High Lane up to the junction with Wilbraham Road.

It was a big detached property standing in extensive grounds, set back from Edge Lane and approached along a curving drive.

And it would have been one of those properties you couldn’t have missed given that it had two entrances from the lane and before Wilbraham Road had been cut in the late 1860s would have commanded fine views north across open land up to Longford Brook and south to Turn Moss.

Not that the curious passerby would have seen much of the house as the front and rear were screened by rows of trees and  the northern boundary hidden by a line of green houses.

Waltham House 1893

That said it appears on the OS maps by name all of which I suspect would have gratified its owners who no doubt lived comfortable lives secluded behind those trees and that long stone wall which still runs along the lane.

Their neighbours might not have had their homes recorded on the OS map but were still proud enough of their properties to bestow fine sounding names on them.

West of Waltham House was Edgecombe Mount, Waterford, Hascombe, the Oaks and Thornlea, all built by the 1870s.

But these splendid names did not save them and most went during the 20th century.  Too big and too uneconomic to run their very size along with their grounds made them perfect for late 20th century redevelopment.

And now pretty much all that is left are the stone walls that fronted Edge Lane and the odd gate post with a lost name carved on it.

Waltham House, 1907

That said Thornlea has survived as the name of the flats that now occupy the site.

All of which brings me back to Waltham House which lasted longer than most and which during the last war was used by the Civil Defence, according to A E Landers who took the photograph of the house back in 1959.

It is an intriguing little story which needs following up but for now I am racking my brains to see if I can remember it.

In 1969 it appears not to have been occupied and may have been demolished when Belgravia Gardens was developed sometime in the 1990s, which means I should remember it.

Sadly I don’t and that more than anything reinforces that simple observation that you should never take anything for granted.

Pictures; Waltham House, nu 14 Edge Lane, A E Landers, 1959 m17783, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and detail of Edge Lane in 1893 from and the OS map of South Lancashire, 1893, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Waltham House from  1907 OS map

Mr and Mrs Heywood’s fine house ...... pushing back the history of Edge Lane

Looking towards Chorlton, with Heywood's house on our left, 1914

There will be someone I know who has the answer to the mystery of those two houses on Edge Lane which stood between Longford Park and Alderfield Road.

Mystery is perhaps over egging it a bit but they are there on the maps from the 1890s appear on the rate books for 1863 and will have been demolished well within living memory.

Now I can be pretty sure that they date from 1863 and the first residents will have been Mr & Mrs  Heywood who occupied the house beside the park and Mr John Bury who lived in the adjoining property.

The Heywood family can be tracked to Didsbury in 1851, Stretford a decade later and so I guess the move just across the boundary into Chorlton made sense.

Our two houses and a few more, 1893

Given that they were in Stretford in 1861 and the rate books show them on Edge Lane two years later I rather think they were the first occupants.

And it was an impressive house consisting of thirteen rooms, set in its own grounds and  with commanding views across open land to the north and south.

Mr Heywood variously described himself as a Land agent and Commission Agent who left his wife Hannah sufficient money for her to style herself as of “private means.”

And there is no doubt the family were well off.  In 1851 at the age of 38 he described himself as “retired” and on his death in 1874 left his wife Hannah £7000 and when she died in the November of 1911 she in turn left £12987.

Looking towards Stretford, 1914

All of which put them in good company for the other residents of the grand houses which stretched back towards the village were equally well off  describing themselves as professionals and merchants and living in properties which commanded rateable values of  up to nearly a £100 in the mid 1860s.

These represented what could be described as the first development boom, preceding the one that transformed the area around the Four Banks by almost 20 years.

In part I suspect it will have owed a lot to the arrival of the railway at the bottom of Edge Lane in 1849 which provided these people of plenty with a swift route into town and allowing them also to live in what was still a rural community.

One of the grand houses on Edge Lane and Alderfield Road ,1959

But a century later these grand homes were too big for modern living and they fell to the cheap jack developer who carved them up into bed sits or wiped them away altogether.

After all the the foot print of a house like ours along with its garden could accommodate a large block of flats with space left over for a car park

Happily those that survived have either been converted into more stylish flats or returned to single families.

Sadly ours were torn down.  I am not exactly sure when, but in 1969 the home of Mr and Mrs Heywood was occupied by a James Ashcroft while its neighbour had been subdivided.

So it will have been after that but when is as yet unclear.

On the other hand as so often happens someone  well pop up with the answer.

We shall see.

And within hours of posting the story Peter Thompson, commented that "the Alderfield Road flats were built in 1973. I worked on them as an apprentice painter and decorator aged 16, my first ever job."

And that I am guessing is just the start.

Additional research by Andy Robertson   

Next; some of the other fine homes of the people pf plenty on Edge Lane a century and ore ago

Pictures; looking north along Edge Lane with the Heywood house behind the wall to our left, 1914, Identifier m17758 , and looking towards Stretford, 1914, m17758, Edge lane north east junction with Alderfield Road, A E Lander, 1959, m17783, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and detail of Edge Lane in 1893 from and the OS map of South Lancashire, 1893, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

When Stretford was sniffy about Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Now I know this will upset the residents of Stretford and no doubt bits of Chorlton too but it happened and here is the story.

Strolling by the park circa 1900

Back in 1913 the Manchester Courier reported on plans by the Stretford District Council “to establish a public museum at Longford Park”*

It was felt that “that among the residents many relics of Old Stretford, historical and literary, and probably natives who had removed further afield might have in their possession objects which would be of great interest to the present generation.”

And to this end one room of Longford Hall would be given over to the exhibits.

So far so good, but the chair of the Stretford District Council also chose to take a swipe at the residents of Chorlton commenting that the said Chorlton residents were “making a footpath across the park from the Ryecroft road entrance to that in Edge Lane.  If it still persisted he should feel it his duty to recommend to the Council to close the entrance from Chorlton-cum-Hardy.”

And that is all I shall say.

Location Stretford

Picture; on Edge Lane strolling by Longford Park in the early 1900s, courtesy of Sally Dervan

*Local Art Collection in Longford Park, Manchester Courier, July 2, 1913

Edge Lane ….. and the great pavement theft …

 To be honest it was less a pavement theft and more a road widening scheme.

And for the story and the pictures I have my old Facebook chum Bill Sumner to thank.

Walking past Longford Park on Edge Lane I have often wondered why there was no pavement running along that stretch of the road.

And Bill supplied the answer which was that “Edge Lane had a pavement until the road was widened, and Longford Park came right up to the wall topped by a hedge. 

This is why the high-level walkway made later had trees both sides of the path”.

And that is that, so thanks again Bill and I leave you with that simple observation that we all gain when we all share our own knowledge.

Location; Edge Lane

Pictures; Edge Lane, undated from the collection of Bill Sumner

Miss Ada Bidgood of 11 Holland Road, Chorlton-cum- Hardy steps out of the shadows

Here is another of our Red Cross nurses who served here in Chorlton in the Great War.

Miss Bidgood's shift

She was Miss Ada Bidgood, and I doubt I would have ever come to have known about her work as a Red Cross nurse, were it not for postcard with her duty rota for Saturday August 19th starting at 1.30.

The card is undated, but on the reverse carried Miss Bidwood’s address which was 11 Holland Road.

On the surface it isn’t much to go on, but it was enough.

There were three Red Cross hospitals in Chorlton.

Two were situated in the Sunday School buildings of The McLaren Baptist Memorial Church on Edge Lane, and the Methodist Church on Manchester Road, and the last was in a private house beside the old Conservative Club.

A search of the Red Cross data base revealed that Ada was at the Baptist Church and had started in the April of 1916, continuing through till the April of 1918, working part time, and engaged in “ward and dispensary duties”.

She lived with her parents and three siblings, and the family moved around, having lived in Yorkshire, Durham and Warwickshire, which may in part be because her father, described himself as a Publisher District Manager, although by 1939 he recorded his status as a “retired art dealer”.

At present I know little more about Ada, other than that she was born in 1885 and died in 1975 in Stockport and never married.

Her address

But it is a start and offers up a name and a few brief biographical details of one our nurses.

The McLaren Baptist Church was the first to offer their Sunday School as a convalescent hospital.

The story of its first was written up by the East Lancashire Branch of the British Red Cross as part of “An Illustrated Account of the Work of the Branch During the First Year of the War.” *

And its presence represented a massive commitment on the part of the 16,000 Chorlton people.

The number of voluntary nurses and orderlies ran to 89 and another 70 worked at some point in the kitchen.

There were also regular fund-raising activities, loans of equipment and twice weekly ward concerts.

 More than anything it shows the level to which the war effort was supported and funded by voluntary actions.

 Like many churches of the period it had a large Sunday school and it was this which was converted into the hospital in November 1914.

Soldiers outside the MCLaren Baptist Church, date unknown

Like many churches of the period it had a large Sunday school and it was this which was converted into the hospital in November 1914.

 “a ward of 31 beds, kitchens, mess room, bath room, dispensary, pack stores, linen rooms, matrons’ room and office” all of which were on the ground floor.

The building was large enough to accommodate


The Sunday School to the left, converted into a hospital
The original plan had been for 25 beds but in May 1915 an extra six beds were added.

What is astounding is that the cost of equipping the hospital which came to £140 was met by public subscription after an appeal for funds from the local Red Cross, and that this was “in addition to the liberal amount of hospital appurtenances so freely furnished on loan by the public.”

Nor did the generosity stop there. For while the War Office allowance for each man per day was 2 shillings [10p], the average cost for the upkeep per bed was 25 shillings [£1.25p] which again was met by the public through “subscriptions, donations and the proceeds of entertainments.”

During that first year of the war 159 volunteers worked at the hospital and all but four came from the township.

There are many familiar names, some whose families had been in the township for generations.

Ann Higginbotham aged 22 was the daughter of Alfred and Emily whose family had farmed by the green since the 1840’s.

There were also newer names like H. F. Dawson and A. H. Dawson or the Kemps. Miss Kemp worked in the kitchen while Harry her father was on the committee.

He had two chemists’ shops and would be remembered for over half a century by Kemp’s Corner.

And to these we can add Miss Ada Bidgood, who I now also know was due to start her shift on August 19th, 1917

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Miss Ada Bidgood’s postcard, date unknown, courtesy of David Harrop, and The McLaren Baptist Memorial Church, date unknown from the collection of Chris Griffiths


*Chorlton-cum-Hardy Red Cross Hospital, East Lancashire Branch of the British Red Cross Society Sherratt & Hughes, 1916

“On Edge Lane strolling by Longford Park in the early 1900s”

Now here is a picture of Edge Lane I haven’t seen before.

It dates from around 1900 and was found by my friend Sally “in an old book, that is in such a bad state, and 
pongs so badly of damp that in between scanning the pictures it has to live outside!”

She posted on that excellent facebook site Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places which challenges that silly prejudice that social networking is trivial.*

This site and others continue to provide an exchange of pictures stories and historical investigation which would otherwise not be available and often starts an interesting debate.

Above all it reminds me that history, our history is not just the preserve of the academic and the professional historian but belongs to us all and every one of us can make a contribution to what we know about the past.

“On Edge Lane strolling by Longford Park in the early 1900s” will have been one of countless images available back then but which have long been lost.  Many were taken by commercial photographers and made their way onto picture postcards but plenty more will have been taken by amateurs and have not survived.

What I particularly like about this one is that it is a scene that hasn’t changed much in over a century and there will be many who have fond memories of taking a similar stroll on a sunny day in late spring, and early summer.

So there you have it, a little bit of Edge Lane a century and a bit ago which I guess has pretty much not seen the light of day for a long time.

And that just leaves me to hope Sally will persevere with that smelly book and share more hidden gems.

Picture; on Edge Lane strolling by Longford Park in the early 1900s, courtesy of Sally Dervan

* Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places 

Looking inside a grand Victorian house …. Rye Bank and the story of Mr. Bryce Smith ... part 1

In the course of the last few days I have got to know a lot about Mr. Bryce Smith, who lived at Rye Bank in Chorlton, described himself as a “calico printer”, owned a  prestigious warehouse on Nicholas Street in Manchester, and a factory in Whalley near Blackburn.

Inventory, 1891

I doubt I would ever have gone looking for him if I hadn’t been shown an inventory of the contents of his home which was made shortly after his death in 1892.

The inventory is now in the possession of Chris Griffiths who thought I would be interested, which of course I am.

Because, here spread over 57 foolscap pages and bound in  leather is an insight in to just what a wealthy family accumulated in their home.

Looking through the inventory I noted that the list of Mr. Smith’s library was covered  21 pages, his collection of oil paintings, water colour drawings and engravings over another two pages and his silver and plated articles across two more pages.

And that is just what caught my eye, leaving me to explore the full nineteen rooms along with the lists of linen, glass, and china.

Index to the Inventory, 1892

All of which will reveal much about the life of one well off Victorian family, here in Chorlton in the late 19th century.

The warehouse on Nicholas Street, 1883

Now, I knew of the existence of Rye Bank which stood in extensive grounds, facing Edge Lane and extending along the side of Ryebank Road, but I knew little of the people who occupied it or just when the house was demolished.

Just when the family moved into the property is a little unclear.  They were there by 1871, but may have been elsewhere on Edge Lane before that.

Either way in 1871 the Rate Books reveal that Mr. Smith was occupying Rye Bank which he owned, and he stayed for two decades.  The house had an annual estimated a rateable value of £229, which marked it off as the largest property on this bit of Edge Lane.

But then Bryce Smith was a wealthy man.  He left £162,622 on his death and his warehouse and offices on Nicholas Street, which are still there, bear witness to his financial standing.

There is a lot more.  His papers are deposited the Lancashire County Archive, and contain amongst other things  the “Bill of Quantities for the erection of a warehouse in Nicholas Street. Manchester for Bryce Smith Esq” in the August of 1873.

So watch this space.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; pages from the Inventory Rye Bank Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 1892, courtesy of Chris Griffiths, and the Nicholas Street, showing the Smith warehouse, 1883, from Goads Fire Insurance maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Bryce Smith Papers, DDX 2/37Lancashire County Archives,

https://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx