The Inns And Outs Of Griffin Farm
 

The Griffin farmhouse on Long Lane was built before 1750. It became a licensed premises in 1786, The Black Griffin Inn, renamed to just the Griffin Inn, before it moved north to its site on the corner of Finney Lane and Wilmslow Road   . At this time it was not unusual for farms to be inns as well. Indeed, the Waggon and Horses just up the road was also an inn, farm and smithy   .

Prior to new farms being built on Long Lane, the main manorial buildings and farms were Bradshaw Hall and Windy Arbour (where Bruntwood Park is now). Most land around Long Lane was classed as waste land   . Griffin Farm was well established by 1750 because some land had been enclosed with hedges and fences to enable mixed farming of both crops and animals   . The hedge that borders the fields along Wilmslow Road will be from this time. The farm stretched all the way to where Bradshaw Hall Lane is now.

A new system of leaseholds began, with wealthy landowners renting out their land to cash-paying tenant farmers   .   In the Long Lane area, important landowning families included the Prescotts and important tenant farming families included the Hankinsons   . Both these families were connected to Griffin Farm.

In 1786, Smith Kelsall of Bradshaw Hall owned the land, passing it on to Oldfield Kelsall. He died with no children and so it went to a niece. She married the Reverend Charles Prescott and her wealth reverted to him.

The Napoleonic wars raged from 1803-1815. Afterwards, there was a slump in agriculture due to a heavy taxation burden on both owner occupiers and tenants. From the 1820s, new innovations changed farming with better drainage systems and the use of fertilizers   .