Village Memories

Lets have a look at the top of Gatley village, what we call "Top End", where the Guardian Lodge is. That was a farm in 1914, kept by a Mr. Hulse followed by a Mr. Leach. Then it was taken by a Mr.Tomlinson who had a threshing machine and went round the farms threshing corn and baling hay. Next to the farm was a lovely house similar to Gatley Hill House. It had a yew hedge all the way round it so you could not see the house. In the middle of the lawn was a large tulip tree. I think there was only one tree like it in the whole of Gatley. The flowers were beautiful!

The people who lived there used to go out most Saturdays in a Carriage and Pair, with a groomsman, to the Halle concerts at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, the house was called Green Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Shinwell lived there, he was a cotton merchant in Manchester and they had a son and a daughter. The son was the Rector of a church in Ancoats. He used to preach at Gatley Church sometimes when he was home on holiday. The daughter became a missionary and went abroad.

They kept three maids and a gardener who's name was Chantler. I used to work there painting. They wouldn't allow you to go through the front door, we had to get a ladder up to the windows to do our decorating because Madam was keen that you didn't smoke in the house. When the Shinwells died small memento's were left to some of the village people. My father received a compass which he left to me. I have given it to my grand-daughter, Sarah. Mr.Shinwell was an enthusiastic churchgoer who often read the lesson at services.

The house was taken over by Bracegirdles who opened it up as a garage called the "Tulip Tree Garage". A little way up the road we come to Stonepail, where four lovely thatched cottages stood. They were the property of Thomas Neild who had them made into his offices. He had a sandhole and sold sand, cinders,mortar and cement,anything for building at the time that Wythenshawe Estate was first being built. He was a good business man. It was knocked down and Ferranti's was built on the site. I remember as a boy the thatch catching fire because of a spark from the chimney. My Greatuncle and Greataunt Rafe and Sarah Warren lived in the first of these cottages. At the back was a farm and orchard belonging to Mr.Nield and once he had found sand he started selling it, at first with a horse and cart and then with a Foden Steam Engine and trailer, then with a Bedford truck.

Across at the other corner is Gatley Hill House.
It was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart, who had cafes in Manchester. They kept three gardeners and four maids! I used to work there, that was in 1922. My father told me that a family named Baker lived there at one time and that they gave some silver to St.James' Church, which is still used for communion on special occasions. The rest of the time it is kept at the bank. A family called Kendal also lived there at one time and the wall that forms the boundary on Styal Road was called "Kendal's Wall". There was always a lovely show of crocus's behind it in the spring. At the back of Gatley Hill House was a farm owned by a Mr.Worthington. Also a three story mill where the people of Gatley worked making fustian, a kind of velvet. I never remember the mill being worked. In my day it was used as a storage place for farm implements. Mr. Worthington had the land that is now William Scholes playing fields, and also land at Gatley Road.

When the cows wanted milking they had to be brought from Gatley road right through the village. It was a grand sight. Now houses have been built there, Delamere Rd, Torkington Rd etc. Gatley Hall, in Old Hall Road, was kept by a Mr. Parks who had an iron foundry in Stockport, "Parks and Nephew". During the 1914-1918 war they used to give the lads in Gatley tuppence per hundred for tram tickets off the trams to help the war effort. That was when the trams ran from Reddish to Gatley. I remember peacocks at Gatley Hall, they used to come out onto the road! Then there was Gatley Laundry. It was kept by Listers. Forty people worked there, they did most of the washing round Gatley. Now it is pulled down and houses are being built on the site. Opposite the laundry was a lane, which we now call Pendlebury Road. This led on to the sewage works land belonging to Cheadle and Gatley Urban District Council, which is now part of Gatley Carrs. From the laundry you could walk through the fields to Northenden, along the side of the Cheshire Lines Railway, but now they have cut a motorway through the woods and all the walks have gone. The valleys were full of wild flowers, even wild orchids, bluebells and birds like the snipe and the kingfisher were to be seen there. There were also willow bushes that were used for basket making. When you were walking along in the quiet of the countryside you could sometimes hear the steamtrain puffing along on it's way to Liverpool.

Along High Grove Road there was High Grove farm kept by Leslie Worthington, son of the Worthingtons who kept Gatley Hill farm. The farm was a large house, a three story building. In front of it was a lake, we used to go skating there in winter. Just around the corner was what we called Schools Hill, or Milk Can Corner, where Sir Alan Sykes lived. He has a bleach works in Edgeley which had one of the largest chimneys in Stockport.

Then there was Bruntwood Hall, the Pollits lived there. Later it became council offices. We painted it all through. The council left later and went to Abney Hall in Cheadle. This was the house of James Watts who had warehouses in Manchester. One of them is now a big hotel. Out of High Grove Road into Gatley Road was a farm. A farmer called Tom Moult kept it and a milkman called R.Coombes used to get his milk from there. Some people still remember Coombes' dairy in Gatley. It was at 58 Church Rd. where Gatley Glass is now. Just down the road towards Cheadle was a big house called Richmond Hill, which had two entrances and was owned by Taylors who had breweries in Manchester. Richmond Hill Rd. and Wensley Rd. now occupy that site.
At the back of the Tatton Cinema was another farm. It was kept by a farmer named John Goddard. He was a cattle dealer who used to buy cattle from Ireland and have them shipped via Liverpool to Cheadle station, the top line next to Cheadle Green, where they were unloaded and brought down on foot to the farm at Gatley. The farm was next to Gatley Hall. People would walk through the farmyard on their way to play tennis at the tennis club, at the top of Belmont Road.

All the houses at Oslo Park were built by J.M.Bagley and the estate was named Oslo Park after the capital of Norway. A Norwegian explorer called Captain Nansen went on an expedition and the roads on the estate were named after him and other members of the expedition.

Before the houses were built it was a brickworks and most of the houses in Gatley were built with bricks that were made there.

In Cow lane was a works which had a big chimney and round kilns with a large clay pit with trucks going up and down bringing the clay. The works used to employ about thirty people and as you went along the lane towards the railway, in front of Barnes' Hospital there was a bridge. Over the bridge was the convalescent hospital and alongside it was a large windmill which powered a water pump used to make the bricks.

On the other side of the railway was a large field full of apple trees and raspberry canes. We used to go and pick raspberries and get 1/2p a pound. This was under the arches of the LMS railway from Manchester to Wilmslow. A jam factory should have been built by Deakins but they couldn't get permission because of Barnes' Hospital. Everything was ready, even the bricks, but it didn't get any further.

Opposite Barnes' was the Fever Hospital. This was only a corrugated hut with one or two beds in it and washbasins. People with Diphtheria and things like that went there. The only other place was Monsall Hospital in Manchester. This hospital was never used as far as I can remember, but the council had to provide one just in case.

As you walked in front of the hospital along the footpath there was Moselys Mill and Bleach works. They used to employ labour from Cheadle and Gatley. Further on you came to Cheadle village past the Drill Hall and out of the back of Cheadle Church. If you went a different way you would come out on Manchester Rd. past where the Alexander Hospital is now.

These walks were nice on a Sunday afternoon but the motorway has put a stop to it all now.