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Sharing our memories of Heald Green
Last Updated 13th Mar 2025
The corner of Finney Lane and Wilmslow Road
By Helen Morgan
First Published on Facebook 25/09/2024
Last Updated 09/03/2025
The Anvil corner shop and The Courtyard businesses
Fig. 1 Wilmslow Road view 31.8.2024
© H Morgan
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Fig. 2 Finney Lane view 31.8.2024
© H Morgan
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James Warburton Finney owned and occupied the land on this corner plot. Plot 333 on the Cheshire Tithe Map of 1839 was a meadow of 2 acres, 2 rods and 26 perches.
On the other side of the road, it would be his farm buildings that would be used for the Griffin Inn, when it moved from Griffin farm further down Wilmslow Road. Joseph Finney’s land, around James’ field, would be bought to build the Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum (Cheadle Royal) on.
Fig. 3 Tithe map 1841
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On the Tithe Map for Heald Green of 1841, no buildings are on this corner. However, plot 410 on the opposite side of the junction had two cottages with gardens there, next to the smithy. One was on Long Lane and one was behind it. I think one could be the smaller cottage, at the traffic light junction, now stuck between later rows of cottages. Sarah Burgess and Samuel Newton were the occupiers. On the census of 1841 the house was classed as “near Long Lane smithy.” Here Thomas born 1816, lived with his 55 year old mother Sarah and an 8 year old William. Thomas and Sarah were cotton weavers. Also living with them was Nancy Faulkner, aged 45, also a cotton weaver and also an 11 year old James.
By 1851 they had set up a shop trading from their house. Unfortunately, the census is very vague stating only “Long Lane”. If they were still in the cottage, it would have been very cramped. Thomas now married to Hannah was a provision dealer and his wife helped. William Burgess, now 18, is noted as his son and is a labourer at a print works. He also had three more sons. Thomas was 12, but was not on the last census, James aged 6 and Samuel aged 3. Mum Sarah was now recorded as an unmarried relation aged 65 and was a house servant.
Having seen deeds, I can now say that Thomas Burgess bought land on the corner of Finney Lane from Thomas Jackson in 1860. It was here that a six roomed house was built for the family of seven, that still stands today. Sadly by 1861 Thomas was a widower aged 49 and his occupation was a shopkeeper. His mother Sarah now 75, was the housekeeper and her marital status was a widow. Sons William, Thomas, James and Samuel were all still living there. There was a daughter on this census, Martha aged 25 and unmarried.
In 1862 Thomas also bought some land back from the Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum. They had bought it from Joseph Finney in 1846. This now meant that the Burgess family owned land as far down Finney Lane as where the house Greenbank stands, along with land to the north up Wilmslow Road.
By 1871 Thomas had taken another wife, Mary, 10 years younger than himself. His occupation was a grocer and provision dealer. Only five were at the house and his three sons Thomas, James and Samuel were all grocer assistants. According to the census the house was situated on the Turnpike Road Manchester and Wilmslow.
By the census of 1881 Thomas senior had died, leaving the land he owned to his widow, 62 year old Mary, as her dower. She still lived at the house. His youngest son Samuel Burgess aged 33 lived here with his wife Jane aged 30 and 1 year old daughter, Jessie. The address was still just given as Long Lane. In August 1880, Samuel had applied for a licence to retail beer, to be consumed off the premises away from the house and shop. However, in 1881 Samuel’s occupation was a corn dealer. A map from 1882 confirmed that all the mill buildings were now there along with the house.
This photo c.1930, from Joan Heinekey’s wonderful book, is the best side on view to see what buildings were there. Greenbank house can be seen behind the mill.
Fig. 4 c.1930
© Joan Heinekey
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On the census of 1891 the house on the corner, now numbered 122 Wilmslow Road, still had the Burgess family living there, and along with Jessie now aged 11, they had another daughter 7 year old Janet May. Next door behind the house on Finney Lane the census noted Finney Lane Corn Mill.
Along Finney Lane, on the same side as the mill, in the house still called “Green Bank” lived another Burgess family. James aged 46 was also a corn miller and he was Samuel’s older brother. He lived there with 35 year old Frances his wife and their two young sons. Thomas aged 10 and James Frederick aged 5. In 1879 James’ stepmother, widow Mary, released her dower to him in the form of land. I believe he had the house built then. The wall engraving says 1880 still today. There were five rooms at the property. Next door in the other side of “Green Bank” the Scragg family of three lived. The sad story of both Burgess families will be returned to later.
By 1901 the census showed the Ambrose family of seven had moved in. Again it must have been a tight squeeze in a six roomed house. John aged 41 was a grain merchant and was married to Kate who was also 41. They had five children. Harry Godfrey 13, Kate Booth 8, John 7, Alfred Cheetham 5 and Charlotte who was 4.
Here is a composite photo of 1902 showing Mr John Ambrose on his way to market in Bollington. He is passing his house and shop, with Fry’s chocolate advertised in the window, and a front garden. The little boy in the shop door could be either of his younger sons. John junior was born in 1894 so would be 8 in 1902, or it could be Alfred who was 2 years younger.
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Fig. 5 Horse and Cart Finney Lane and Wilmslow Road (Long Lane) 1902
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The 1911 census continued the Ambrose family story and they now had another daughter, 9 year old Rachel. John senior stated his occupation as grocer and corn dealer with his wife, son Harry and daughter Kate, all assisting in the business.
John junior was a warehouse apprentice. Charlotte had left school at 14. 15 year old Alfred and 9 year old Rachel were still at school. Before WW1 broke out, John junior worked in his father’s corn milling business.
Great sadness was to fall on this family with the outbreak of the Great War. I have Hazel and Paul Crofton to thank for their excellent research into our village’s war memorial. All of which can be found via St Catherine’s website. Two of their sons were killed in 1918, so near and yet so far from Armistice Day on 11th November 1918.
John enlisted in Stockport in March 1915 and joined the 122nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery. He was wounded during the prolonged Somme offensive and had to have his leg amputated. That would have been a trauma in itself, probably done in a field hospital with little anaesthesia. He died on the 21st August 1918 and is buried at Bagneux cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France.
Alfred joined the 1/6th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders in April 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1918 for gallantry and devotion during an enemy attack when his section leader was hit. On July 20th 1918, aged just 22, Alfred was one of 9 killed, probably by shellfire. With his unit moving forward quickly he was buried in a hurry by his comrades. With no proper knowledge of this precise location, Alfred is commemorated on a Memorial to the Missing in Aisne, France. Within one month the family had lost two sons. You can only imagine the grief and sense of loss upon receiving the news.
The brothers are the top two on our war memorial. When you think it was originally sited very close to their house, on Cheadle Royal land, off Wilmslow Road. (Roughly just past where the bus stop is now opposite Etchells Road). How many times would the lad’s family members have gone past it? The names etched on there are not faceless people. They were real people. Someone’s husband, son, brother, uncle, cousin or friend who had short, hard lives and were loved. Their deaths left behind family to mourn them and the never knowing how they really died or sometimes where they were even buried.
Today, Ambrose Road, on the Bloor Estate off Wilmslow Road remembers them.
Fig. 6 War memorial 4.9.2024
© H Morgan
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On the 1921 census, John still a corn merchant and his wife Kate, still lived there with his married son Harry and single daughters Rachel and Cisey (who I am assuming is Charlotte as she was born in Gorton in 1896 too). The ladies did home duties and Harry assisted his father. The Kelly’s directory of 1929 has Edward A Richardson and Co., as corn millers there.
By 1939 the mill was no longer recognised on a census. The house and shop now numbered 122 and 120, were lived in by Mr and Mrs Sanders. 37 year old Walter was a grocer and off licensee and his wife Marion, 33, did unpaid domestic duties. Also living there was 70 year old widow Mary Kinna and George Kinna aged 30. His occupation was a Celanese salesman. I was intrigued, so I looked it up on wiki. Apparently, an American company in WW1 produced a cheaper fabric for aeroplane manufacturing as an alternative to silk. In 1925 the word Celanese was introduced to combine the words cellulose acetate and ease. Their product was easier to clean than silk. As an alternative to silk, it was also used for ladies’ underwear. George was either something to do with planes or he sold knickers!!
Although the mill buildings were no longer in use, the “corner shop” would continue to around 1989. Many residents could remember the Wright family owning the shop for many years. Prior to them another family’s name was recalled.
However, from the 1950s to the 1980s the Wright family ran the shop. It was during this time that the name “Anvil” was born. The shop sold Hydes brewery ales and Anvil was their trademark.
“In 1946, before the Wrights, it was a family called Arberlester. The 2 daughters ran the shop.”
- Shirley Slack, Facebook 2024
“Mrs Wright was from Heyhead, or at least her family (the Lambs) were. She went to Shadow Moss School. Her family were market gardeners on “Muddy Lane” off Woodhouse Lane. During WW11 she had a clerical job at Kendal Milne’s in Manchester.”
- Kathy Simpson, Facebook 2024
Fig. 7 Hydes trademark
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Alongside the Griffin pub is the old farm building that was used by the Rowlinsons as a smithy.
Fig. 8 The Griffin 1960s (pre-1967)
© Graham Gill
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This is the best photo we have of the Anvil, although it is in the distance. What can also be seen is the semi-detached house further along numbered 118 and 116 Wilmslow Road and the fact that they had front gardens. That was all to change in the later 1960s, when the junction was widened, although the dog leg still remains today.
In March 1966 there were ideas put forward for a footbridge to go over the junction to help pedestrians. A whole year went by with no further progress made on any improvements. The scheme submitted to the Ministry of Transport by the council surveyor had been verbally turned down, due to the current financial climate. An urgent meeting was sought between the Divisional Road Engineer and the council. By June 1967 tenders were being invited for the work. In December 1967, the Ratepayers Committee, having looked at the plans for the junction, went back to the Divisional Road Engineer with more ideas to consider. A right hand turn in a separate lane from Finney Lane onto Wilmslow Road and keep clear boxes were requested.
The Ministry of Transport granted Cheshire County Council £42,615 towards the total cost of £56,820 and work began in the Spring of 1968. It was estimated that 25,000 vehicles passed here every day! The approach to the junctions along Wilmslow Road were widened and the bus stop layby was put in opposite Etchells Road there. The existing signals were to be modified. The work was expected to last nine months. When you think that the new Styal Road was being built at the other end of Finney Lane at this time too, the commute to work must have been murder!
Here are some memories, via our Facebook page, of a different era and misspent youth!
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“I was using the Anvil around 1979 to 1981 and drinking in the grounds of Cheadle Royal.”
- Danny McCarthy, Facebook 2024
“Let’s not forget they sold single cigarettes too.”
- Beverley Kipling, Facebook 2024
“I can remember as an underage drinker buying scrumpy cider from two old ladies who ran the shop. It was 22p a litre and you had to bring your own bottles to be filled. That stuff was rocket fuel.”
- Danny McCarthy, Facebook 2024
“Think it may have been open on Christmas Day. Sure I remember going for butter with my dad.”
- Rebecca Blu, Facebook 2024
“I remember from about aged 14 buying the scrumpy cider from there and going into either East Avenue Park or the grounds of Cheadle Royal to drink it. It was pretty potent. I remember loads of us. I’m sure we used to get 3 bottles for a quid and drank it through a straw to get you more drunk.”
- Ian Sykes, Facebook 2024
“I was tall like you Ian. It was always us who were sent in to buy the scrumpy then go to East Ave or Cheadle Royal!”
- Michelle Tyrrell, Facebook 2024
“I don’t think I’ve drank cider since. Good job us shorties had tall friends. Great memories!!”
- Sandra Carter, Facebook 2024
“We used to call in there on the way home to get sweets, having walked across the fields (where John Lewis is now) from Moseley Hall School (say 1974-81). We used to save our school bus money and spend it either at the Anvil or the newsagents further up Finney Lane.”
- Andrew Lee, Facebook 2024
“I remember my mother in law used to call in for a bottle of sherry for her and her husband after evening mass on a Sunday at Christ Church. That’d be the early 1970s.”
- Lynda Heyes, Facebook 2024
“My sister and I used to love shopping at the Anvil usually for sweets and pop, then would return the bottles for cash back! Happy days.”
- Julie Talbot, Facebook 2024
“You could take empty pop bottles and they’d fill them up with cider.”
- Darren Murray, Facebook 2021
“I went to Kingsway and rather than get the bus home, I used to walk and go in the Anvil to spend my bus fare on refresher chews, served by the lady with the rosy cheeks!”
- Cath Dunn, Facebook 2024
“Great place to buy scrumpy and white lightening cider underage in the early 80s and go drink it at Cheadle Royal cricket pavilion.”
- Jane Downs, Facebook 2024
“Pretty sure I bought my first and last Party 7 from the Anvil.”
- Keith Broadhurst, Facebook 2024
“I used to send my dad with an empty bottle to get scrumpy by the pints for me and my friends. I told him it was just fizzy pop....We used to have a blast at the youth club on Outwood Road.”
- Gail Tansey, Facebook 2021
“I used to get 1d Arrow (banana and toffee flavour) on my way back from school.”
- Chris Hudson, Facebook 2021
“It used to be the only shop open on a Sunday in Heald Green.”
- Nick Jackson, Facebook 2023
“I remember the Anvil. You could take your own bottle eg.sherry and have it filled up for half price.”
- Joyce Gill, Facebook 2021
“I remember you could call in with your own bottles and buy various types of alcohol from big white plastic vats. I don’t remember the gin/brandy/vodka/sherry being branded. I’m certain I was underage and was able to buy what I wanted. So I did! This was early 80s.”
- Philip Bradley, Facebook 2024
“We used to buy scrumpy cider and cigarettes from the lady with rosy cheeks and then go into the cricket ground and have a party.”
- Dawn Barratt, Facebook 2024
“I remember the couple who ran it and his wife had lots of rosy blusher on. I used to nip there before they closed when I forgot my cooking ingredients for school.”
“I remember mum buying baby food in there. It was a shop that sold everything. Hardware, food and had a huge counter across and it was always busy and open late.”
- Shirley Awan, Facebook 2021 and 2024
“People used to take a jug and he would sell them ale.”
- Rachel Newsome, Facebook 2022
“I remember the days in the 1950s when the Anvil was the only shop open on a Sunday and we used to walk down to buy sweets.”
- Marilyn Connolly, Facebook 2021
“In the early 70s the shop door was still on the corner and they moved it shortly after.”
- Joelle Jackson, Facebook 2023
“The scrumpy they sold around that time you took your own bottles. Twigs, pips and leaves it was potent.”
“Opened Christmas Day evening in an era where nowt opened.”
- Carl Roe, Facebook 2023/4
“John Wright used to deliver groceries to our house every week in the 1950s.”
- Mick Hankinson, Facebook 2024
“My mum cleaned at the Anvil corner shop. Mary and John Wright owned it.”
- Anne Rostron, Facebook 2021
“The scrumpy cider was in demijohns and being sent to buy cigs with a note from mum to say I could buy them.”
- Daz Price, Facebook 2023
“5 pence for a pint of cloudy scrumpy cider and the owner would sing “5 pints of scrumpy cider for the under age drinkers” and off we’d go to Bruntwood Park.”
- Paul Howarth, Facebook 2023
“Those were the days and no ID asked for, any old bottle would do.”
- Alison Bushell, Facebook 2024
“I remember the lovely rosy cheeked lady serving me and my friend Tina. Remember buying 5 Park Drive and a book of matches 6d., sixpence in old money. Then off to Etchells Park to smoke them.”
- Gillian Hollingworth, Facebook 2023
“Me and my chums used to buy scrumpy from the Anvil from a lady with bright red hair and go and drink it in the cricket pavilion of Cheadle Royal.”
- Ian McNeil, Facebook 2021
“Walked to school from 1974 to 1979 rather than get the bus (I think it was 2p on the SELNEC 368 double decker or 369 single decker) so I could spend the fare on sweets. Crossed the road with my bounty and walked over fields where John Lewis now stands, through Bruntwood Park to Moseley Hall. Sadly, the day went downhill after that.”
- Phil Dean, Facebook 2024
The shop also rented out video tapes long before anywhere else in the village. Mr Wright was also a driving instructor.
“I remember it best for being the first local shop to stock rental videos (long before the likes of Blockbuster were even dreamed of.)”
- Dave Jones, Facebook 2021
“I remember the shop being one of the first places to rent videos with early video recorders (I’m sure they had VHS and Betamax!) and long before the video shop in the village. My mum and I used to trek all the way from St Austell Drive, down to the corner of Finney Lane, just for one video, then wander all the way back! And to think Netflix is just the touch of a button nowadays!!”
- Richard Groom, Facebook 2024
“I even remember that the first film we rented was Firefox with Clint Eastwood (1982).”
- Stephen Groom, Facebook 2024
“Mr Wright taught me to drive. He was a driving instructor as well as a shop owner. We bought scrumpy too and then we hopped over the wall just behind the shop onto Cheadle Royal to drink it.”
- Kevin Trow, Facebook 2023
“I remember Mr and Mrs Wright running the Anvil, very friendly people. I made use of the Anvil a lot when they did their short trial as a video rental service. I rented a Van Halen concert video that often, that when they decided not to continue with video rentals, Mr Wright actually gave the video to me for nothing. He also taught me how to drive back in 1988 after retiring from the business.”
- Tony Shaw, Facebook 2024
Fig. 9 J W Wright advert
St Catherine's Parish News
December 1962
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Fig. 10 J W Wright advert
St Catherine's Outlook Magazine
December 1965
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Fig. 11 J W Wright
Heald Green Herald advert May 1969
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“The Anvil was there when I moved in in 1971 and I worked there until 1984.I used to work there Tuesday and Friday evenings.”
“After the Wrights, a younger couple took over. I was 17 then and they finished me working there, as they served alcohol and said there had been complaints I was serving and I was not 18 (I’d been doing that for 2 years by then, so reckoned it was just an excuse.) So that was 39-40 years ago.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2021 and 2024
“The Anvil always referred to as “the corner shop” was owned by John Wright, his wife Mary plus her mother. There were 2 entrances, 1 for the grocery shop plus a 2nd for the off licence. The grocery entrance was nearest Wilmslow Road with the second on Finney Lane, facing the where the carpark entrance was for the Griffin. Licensing laws were a lot stricter then with only alcohol and fags being allowed on sale. When they retired, they moved to Cheadle Hulme and John became a self employed driving instructor in the 80s.”
- Phil Jones, Via Messenger 2024
After the Wrights retired the shop would continue for a few more years. I can remember renting videos from the off licence there in 1988 at least. Whether the shop was still called the Anvil, or the name just stuck, I do not know for certain.
Eventually the new owners sold the business to developers, who went on to add new buildings along both Finney Lane and Wilmslow Road, incorporating the semi-detached house that stood opposite Etchells Road.
Fig. 12 118 and 116 Wilmslow Road “Lyndhurst Long Lane”
© Graham Gill
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The story of this house takes us back to the two Burgess families. Samuel and his family were living at 122 Wilmslow Road in 1891 and his older brother James and his family lived at “Green Bank” on Finney Lane. What happened in the next ten years gives us a glimpse into the very hard times of that era. In 1892 James died aged 48, leaving a widow Frances with two young sons, Thomas and James Frederick. In 1896 Thomas died aged just 16. In 1897 Samuel died aged 50, leaving a widow Jane with daughters Jessie and Janet Mary.
In 1891 this house was not on the census. However, by 1901 “Lyndhurst” Long Lane appears and the two Burgess widows and their children are living side by side. The house on the left became 118 Wilmslow Road. In there Frances, now 44 and the head of the household, lived with her remaining son James Frederick aged 15. They had taken in a lodger, Samuel Collier aged 30 who was a mechanical engineer. The house on the right became 116 Wilmslow Road. In there Jane lived with her two daughters. Jessie was now 21 and Janet aged 17 was a dressmaker. According to the censuses the houses had five rooms each.
By 1911 in number 118, James Frederick had married Mary Gladys Shaw in 1909 and was living there with his widowed mother Frances. He was a joiner by trade. In number 116 Jane’s daughter Jessie had married Samuel Collier, the boarder from next door, and they had had a daughter also named Janet Mary who was 4. Samuel put his occupation as engineer for an institution, presumably Cheadle Royal next door.
Yet more sadness for the family in October 1915 with the death of James Frederick, no more than 30 years of age, after an operation. This left his widow Mary with their young son Norman James who was under 5 years of age.
By 1921 Mary, now head of the household at number 118, aged 36 had had to go back to work. She was a warehouse assistant for J&M Philips, 25 Church Street, Manchester. Her mother in law Frances, now 64 years old, lived with her and her 10 year old son Norman. “Father dead” is written bluntly alongside his entry.
Next door at 116, widow Jane now 70, is still living there with her son in law Samuel. He states his occupation as engineer for the Trustees of Cheadle Royal Asylum. His wife Jessie aged 42, and unable to work as a married woman, lives with him along with their daughter Janet aged 15. They also have a son aged 9 called Maurice. Janet was a typist for James Neville and sons in Manchester. The census stated that both Janet and Maurice were born at the house.
In August 1928, widow Jane Burgess died at home. In 1930, Mary Gladys the widow of James Frederick and Jessie Collier and Janet May Alcock, daughter and grand daughter of Samuel,sold some of their land back to the Asylum for £1000. That is about £80,000 today.
Fig. 13 Map conveyance 20.2.1930 Lyndhurst Burgess property deeds
© L Threadgold
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They owned 13,673 square yards and sold 10,164 of them. This left them the two semi detached houses, all the buildings on the corner, the two houses behind the old mill (now fast food shop) and the Green Bank House.
On the 1939 register, the two families were no longer together. In number 118 lived 57 year old Alfred Barker who was a journey joiner (back to wiki again! A journeyman is a skilled worker in a trade who has completed an official apprenticeship qualification) with his wife Emily who did unpaid domestic duties.
Next door the Collier family was still there. Samuel was now a retired hospital engineer and Jessie was doing unpaid dometic duties. Their son Maurice, now 27, was a radio engineer, fault finder tester and doing repairs. There were two more living there but their entries are redacted for privacy, they will be children who could possibly still be alive today.
I now have had help from our Facebook members to recall who lived in these houses after that.
“The house on the left, my parents told me, belonged to Cheadle Royal but I’ve no idea if the person living there owned it or had been gifted to live in it. It was a single lady and if I remember quite elderly. I’m pretty sure she was the wife of someone with a manager’s position at Cheadle Royal. No idea who though.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2024
“The Rothwells lived there at least from 1982 – 92 whilst I was in the pub, and they were there quite a few years after.”
- Diane Elkington, Facebook 2024
“Mrs Ellen Rothwell lived there on the left with her sons Michael, Stephen and Stuart. I knew them from Newbury Road.” - Denise Gleaves, Facebook 2024
“They had the steps up to the front door and I remember there was a bad smash there (pre staggered junction) where a car had ploughed into the steps and the front of the house on the right mainly, but also a bit on the left, were badly damaged. Seemed empty for months but may have been years and however long later The Courtyard development happened.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2024
This is a photo Karen Williams sent over. Her dad lived in the house on the right.
The Cheadle Royal treelined boundary is on the right. The length of the carpark, that was the house garden, shows how very long and narrow it was.
Fig. 14 From Karen Williams
© Google Maps
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“The one on the right was dad’s house. He owned it and sold it at the same time as the house next door. He lived in it for about 20 years. He moved in around 1980 and moved out sometime in the early 2000s when he was bought out. His name was Godfrey Norton.”
“I remember him finding the junction entertaining. It was a lovely house. He had a cooking range, in the fireplace in the back room, when he moved in. By the time he left the outside walls were beginning to bulge!”
“Chatting to my relatives in the south this weekend brought back some great memories of family gatherings at dad’s old house. It was a two bedroom, one bathroom large semi-detached with a cellar, outside buildings and a long narrow garden. Some can remember a pond. When dad bought it, it had a single storey extension at the back, which we think from the décor, had been built in the 1960s and this was a kitchen/diner. There was a step up to the lounge with the same finish as the front doorstep and next to it a door to the cellar which flooded occasionally. Someone said they thought a spring went under it?”
“When he moved in, there was a cooking range in the fireplace of the lounge which he removed and a door to the hall. From the lounge were very dark wood/glass doors into a large dining room (front) with a large fireplace and a door to the hall. The hall had an extremely steep staircase leading to a bathroom at the back and 2 large bedrooms. The one in the front had a leak by the time he sold it. Outside past the kitchen extension was a coal shed, an outside toilet and there was a garage at the end of the drive. The garden was long and narrow.”
“Dad went through a period of being burgled on a regular basis and I think looking at an aerial view on google maps with all the trees in Cheadle Royal, it made a great getaway. My children tell me there was a gap in the fence by the garage, which they use for a quick runaround in the grounds. As far as I remember the garden was the length of the carpark shown on the map. From what I can tell, the new building has extended the original to the side of the house, as that wall had a pronounced bulge by the time dad left and the apex roof at the back is also an extension.”
- Karen Williams, Facebook 2024
The next part of the story is thanks to Lynn Spearing and her dad Gary. He worked from 1984 to 2019 for a company called Balluff UK Ltd., who traded as Multiswitch up to 2007.
This company bought “The old mill” back in 1982 and after some renovation it officially opened in 1983. He can still remember the old winch sticking out from the building. There may have been a company of solicitors that owned the building before that, that were called perhaps Stevenson or Stephenson?
“The office accommodation across the yard from the shop was a company called Ainsworth and Stephenson, which I think were structural engineer consultants.”
- Phil Jones, Via Messenger 2024
The company then bought the corner shop around 1989 and joined it to the Old Mill building. By now this had offices in it. Gary remembers a car crashing into the corner shop whilst the alterations were being made approximately 1990. Him and Lynn were actually there, just after it happened, as they had gone to the chippy next door luckily. Gary was also the callout person for the alarm.
The planning application J/43891 was sent to SMBC in February 1989, to change the use from a shop to offices and the erection of two and three storey extensions to existing offices with provision for parking. This would lead to the buildings on Finney Lane looking like they do now.
Fig. 15 Finney Lane 31.8.2024
© H Morgan
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Then around the year 2000 the company bought the semi-detached houses around the corner. One was owned by Eddie Rothwell. The carpark at the back was extended using their gardens and they attached the semis to the old corner shop building. This new building was rented out to St Ann’s Hospice Head Office for a while. When they moved out Balluff was growing and took it back over.
The planning application DC 000383 dated February 2000 was to change the use of 116-118 Wilmslow Road for offices and storage with the erection of a link storage building and provision for ancillary parking and servicing area. This would lead to the buildings on Wilmslow Road looking like they do now.
Fig. 16 Wilmslow Road 31.8.2024
© H Morgan
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Around 2007/8, Balluff (no longer Multiswitch) sold the building to somebody who wanted to divide it into smaller units and they moved their office onto Cheadle Royal Business Park. The whole complex would become known as The Courtyard.
By April 2009, with renovations completed, the "to let" signs went up. There have been many businesses there since then. Ask Legal Solicitors, Vision mobile, Vision Telecom Solutions, XYZ properties, Addison Lee and Blue Chillicars.com. have been in various buildings.
Fig. 18 Blue Chilli Cars March 2017
© Google Maps
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Fig. 17 Ask legal solicitors Oct 2012
© Google Maps
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The old corner shop building, since at least July 2015, has been I J Parkash Ltd.
This company is a wholesaler of textiles.
Fig. 19 I J Parkash July 2015
© Google Maps
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Over the years this company have changed windows and doors on the corner of the junction.
In 2022, they had not long since finished putting a new glass door and windows in, when there was a bad accident at the traffic lights. This ended with a car going through the large window and into the shop itself.
Fig. 20 I J Parkash Ltd after crash 21.6.2022
© H Morgan
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Fig. 21 I J Parkash after crash 1.7.2022
© H Morgan
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Fig. 22 The Courtyard
© Canning O'Neill
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The photo in Fig 22 is from the Canning O'Neill website showing the buildings from the back and the carpark. According to the website, number 4 The Courtyard is up for sale/to let and the companies in the other five units are Datamere Software Solutions, Blue Chilli Car Leasing, IJ Parkash Limited, VisionTelecom Solutions and Neighbourhood Lettings.
These buildings have come a long way from their humble beginnings.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me tell their stories.
Bibliography
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The Editor, March 1966, Heald Green Jottings, Contact Magazine, 4 (1),p.p.5
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The Editor, March 1967, Heald Green Jottings, Contact Magazine, 5(1),p.p.5
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The Editor, June 1967, Heald Green Jottings, Contact Magazine, 5(2),p.p.7
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The Editor, December 1967, Heald Green Jottings, Contact Magazine, 5(4),p.p.9
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The Editor, March 1968, Improvement of Junction on Wilmslow Road, (A34) Cheadle, Contact Magazine, 01,p.p.6
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