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Further, a field
Prior to the existing premises along Bury New Road being built, between Church Lane and what is now St Mary's Flower Park ... "it was all fields". With the opening of Bury New Road in 1828, all that was about to change.
The tithe returns for 1838 show that the land between Church Lane and what is now St Mary's Flower Park, was owned by James Leach. The top field was called "Further field", containing a lodge/cesspool fed from Church Lane properties and by a stream that came across from another cesspool on Clarks Hill. The output of this pool then ran down into the Clough, which took just nearly all of Prestwich's waste. The lower field, called Old Meadow, had on its southern boundary the ancient pathway which led between St Mary's Church and the old Deyne Hall/Rectory.
A rare Elm tree, a last token of the terraced gardens, has stood in the middle of the upper car park of the Conservative Club but now appears to be dead.
Between the church site and ‘Spring Bank’ was a group of brick buildings, among which was a coach house and stables built for Dame Katharine Egerton in 1757. Katherine was the widow of Thomas the 6th Baronet of Egerton who had died in 1756 at Heaton House. That same year Thomas had had a gallery added above the north chapel of St Mary's church, previously known as the Hilton Chapel, later known as the Wilton Chapel, and they are both buried under the chapel. Their son Thomas inherited the family's estate when he was just 7, and was to become the 1st Earl of Wilton.
In 1841, James Leach also had a wine merchant by the name of Henry Jaquet resident in the house (we was originally from the Channel Islands, but his family lived in Peckham), and a 15 year old girl called Mary Mather - who was probably providing domestic service for the family.
Spring Bank appears under the name of Church Bank in the census of 1851. With a paper dealer called James Hodgson living there with his wife, three sons and two servants. By 1861 James B Bindloss was at Spring Bank. A member of Royal College of Surgeons, he had studied at Manchester Royal School of Medicine and King's College London and worked in general practice in Pendleton. He lived with his wife, one daughter and three servants.
John Whittaker a retired farmer from Bolton by Bowland was living at Spring Bank in 1871, with his wife, two daughters, a cook and a housemaid. John died in 1883 and Ann his wife followed in 1886, both are buried in St Mary's churchyard. Spring Bank in 1885 was the home of James Mottram.
Sometime around 1890 the distinctive curved two storey building that still stands on the corner of Church Lane was built. This re-provided properties 1 and 3 of Church Lane, along with providing the new 1,3 and 5 of Bury New Road. What is now known as Cuckoo was to be allocated number 1 on Bury New road.
Two other properties had been constructed further along Bury New Road. Deyne View, a 3 storey townhouse (now a Hair & Beauty shop opposite Aldi) which was occupied by Sidney Hilton and his wife and daughter. Sidney was a plumber. Two plots up from Deyne View was another new property called "The Studio". This property also still stands today and was the home and studio of William Martin (transcribed as Marten in 1901), he was a photographic artist and lived with his wife Mary and his son Harold, who at age 14 was listed as a Clerk in a Shipping Office. William Martin operated a second studio on Whittaker Lane which has been demolished, but The Studio on Bury New Road still stands on the Hacking Street corner of Bury New Road.
Still present at Deyne View in 1911 was Sidney Hilton, plumber, and heading up towards Church Lane the shops/residents were as follows:
At number 391 (todays Nonna's) Mary Buist from Scotland, and her four year old daughter Alice were being visited by Mary's sister Hannah Anderson from Dundee, no occupation was given except Hannah was a dressmaker.
The furthest southern extent of development of the Spring Bank fields occurred, and the big screen came to Prestwich when the Picturedome opened in 1913 (renamed Plaza ~1930).
The building was designed by Charles Swain, not the poet, but an architect by the same name.
The Prestwich Picturedome was opened on 7th September 1913. By 1927 it was operated by Jacksons' Amusements, Ltd. Around 1930 it was equipped with a Western Electric(WE) sound system and renamed the Plaza. It was listed as Closed in 1944, but re-opened later that year as the New Plaza Cinema, operated by the Jackson & Newport Ltd. chain.
The original Con Club was designed by William Dawes and originally had a pitched roof on it's tower.
The Con Club moved out of their original building and into Spring Bank in 1958.
In 1939 it was home to an incapacitated lady Cecilia McMullin (aged 50) & Eva (43) a tape warper. In 1911 it was occupied by Charles Harrop a council worker, and his Wife May who was a card tagger for boot laces. Surprisingly it was listed as having 4 rooms, as did the Con Club... but there rooms were a bit bigger! In 1901 a charwoman called Rose Stanley from Ireland had taken over from a charwoman called Sarah Smith who had lived there in 1891.
Each of the two fields was just over 2 acres and James also owned some land to the North of Church lane, from Wine & Wallop up to and including where the Old Jewish Cemetery is now. He used this field for a crop of potatoes.
In the census of 1841, James Leach is shown living on his own means at the 12th property along Church Lane, with his wife Mary and his four children. It's difficult to confirm which property this was as there was no numbering of houses like we have for the postal service today, but as he was a land owner it's probable that he lived at Spring Bank, what we know as the conservative Club today. The property of Spring Bank dates from around 1810 and had considerable terraced gardens behind it, which are now terraced car parks.
At the northern corner of Church Lane and Bury New Road(Wine and Wallop today) John Clough ran a butchers with his wife and four children.
The map of 1845 shows a substantial property had been built on the southern corner of Church Lane and Bury New Road, opposite the Red Lion. The map of 1848 also shows the rest of the land down towards the Clough was still fields.The census returns of 1851-1881 do not listing any inhabitants between Church Lane and Clough view (on the corner of at St Ann's Rd).
In the census of 1861, the second property listed on Church Lane, possibly the large corner property that appeared on the 1845 map above, was home to an animal painter Edward Keeling. Edward was the son of William K Keeling who was a British (Victorian) artist, an illustrator of Walter Scott's novels and Shakespeare's plays, and a founder member and the third President of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. Edward himself is said to have been active as an artist between 1856–1885, however in the census of 1851, he was already describing himself as an animal painter, when he was living in Cheetham Hill with his widowed father. Edward had married his first wife Albina in April 1853, then buried her at St Mary's Church in December that same year.
You can see a selection of Edward's works here
and here.
By 1881 Anne Clough was running her late husbands butchers at Number 2 Church Lane (401 Bury New Road), Wine & Wallop today. This is a much altered Georgian residence fronting Bury New Road with the slaughter yard and house to it's rear, it still retains some features from the early 19th century. One of her sons had set up his own butcher shop further along Bury New Road, before 1871.
By 1891 Robert Bell, a widowed wool Merchant from Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland was living at Spring Bank with his son. Also in the house was William Kettle, a Wool Salesman, with his wife and son and one servant.
The OS map of 1891 shows the new corner building and the census of 1891 records that at number 1 Church Lane, an impressive double breasted shop front, currently used by Grape to Grain, was a Grocers Shop operated by Henry Pleasance. Henry was originally from Derbyshire. Next door at the much smaller number 3 Church Lane, was milliner Harriet Wood, from Staffordshire. Harriet is also found in the census of 1881 and as a dressmaker nearby in 1871.
Heading down Bury New Rd there were just three properties listed in the census of 1891. Numbers 3 & 5 Bury New Road were uninhabited, Number 1 (present day Cuckoo) was occupied by William and Mary Garner, a coach proprietor from Leicestershire.
Ten years later, in 1901, 1 Church Lane was still a grocers shop, now occupied by George Leicester, and number 3 was still occupied by Harriet Wood, now aged 70. Along Bury New Road, numbers 3 & 5 were still empty and number 1 was now occupied by Samuel Lever, who was a coach proprietor as had been his predecessor. The census also indicates that the property had a stable attached and Samuel employed one of his sons at the stable, which would explain why the occupation of the occupier remained the same between censuses.
W.H.Martin served in France & Palestine during WWI, and was a noted ‘Artist and Military Photographer’, who counted amongst his Patrons Earl Roberts, V.C., K.C.B., Sir H. De Trafford, Earl of Sefton, and F. Cawley, Esq., M.P. The Imperial War Museum has a collection of his negatives taken in Palestine and he also photographed local people, bands and buildings.
He also advertised as being ‘Under the distinguished Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’.
In 1901 the Spring Bank estate was put up for sale as two lots. Spring Bank itself was unoccupied. Lot1 covered the 4 acres including Spring Bank, coach house, stable, shippon (a bank barn for cattle), poultry house, vineries, and fronted 50 yards of Church Lane and 150 yards of Bury New Road.
The auction also states that 168 yards was held by lease for 999 years from 1793. This suggests a date for the building of the existing properties along church Lane/Bury New Road, and maybe a date for the early Spring Bank itself. Lot 2 in the auction was for the rents of those leasehold properties. Including the properties of Mr Hilton and Mr Martin on Bury New Road.
The right of access mentioned in the auction was a pathway from Bury New Road, providing access to the rear of the properties along Church Lane. This was retained during subsequent developments.
A bowling green was constructed at the bottom of the sloping garden of Spring Bank by 1902.
In 1911 Maud Hewitt was living at Spring Bank, which the census tells us had eleven rooms. She lived there with three sisters, a cook and a housemaid. No occupation was given (she was aged 40) but the women were all the children of a Manchester Solicitor William Hewitt and his wife Anne Maria from Secunderabad, India.
The 1911 census records that 1 & 3 Church lane were empty, and that The Studio had been given the number 385 on Bury New Road. William and his family were still present. The new census also tells us that the property had 7 rooms, though it has since been extended to the rear. William buried his wife Maria at St Mary's in 1916, Martin retired to Cheadle but was buried with his wife in 1938.
At number 387, the north side of Hacking Street and keeping the (declining) horse related trade hanging over from the previous census, was John Henry Peat, a Horse Harness & Travelling bag Manufacturer. John and his wife Emma had sadly lost one child but in 1911 they had two kids at school, had taken in a lodger (who he employed) and they had 1 servant in a seven room property. All the other properties along Bury New Road generally had four or five rooms.
Continuing up towards the corner of Church Lane, at 389 (today's Vape shop - was Robbies Flowers) we have Lawrence Wilcock who, along with one of his sons was a decorator. His other son was a designer. Along with his wife Sarah, they had two relatives staying with them (probably Lawrence's sisters). One of the sisters was a smallwares weaver, probably working at one of the nearby Albion or Britannia Mills.
Number 393 had been named "Cheviot House" (today's Rose & Lee) and a master tailor by the name of Joseph Hardman from Whitefield lived there, with his wife Fannie and son Philip. They had lost 3 children, but along with Philip, who worked as a Railway Clerk, four more still lived.
A fish and game dealer from Middleton had moved in to number 395 (half of today's Cuckoo). He was called William Fletcher, and he employed his son and daughter in the business. The youngest child of William and his wife Alice was at School, their two other children already had moved out. I believe that during renovation of the property into it's present day use as Cuckoo, that a leg bone was found. The bone was found to belong to an animal, so could have been left behind by Mr Fletcher as concealing animal bones and shoes behind panelling and under floorboards was considered a way of warding off evil spirits or bringing good luck to a property.
Next door at number 397 (the serving hatch of Cuckoo), John Fitchet and his family were living. He was a gas worker. He and his wife Sarah had nine children but only two lived with them, one was a shopkeeper and one was a decorator, maybe working for Mr Wilcock at number 389.
Finally, resident at 399 Bury New Road, which was the Insurance lads place, now the latest extension of Cuckoo, were Alice & Helena Jackson sisters running a millinery & drapery shop.
Curiously what is Wine and Wollop today was still listed as number 9 on Bury New Road in 1911. This was still a butchers shop, with slaughter house to the rear, but it was now run by William Harrison and his wife. He was from Boston in Lincolnshire, and previously been living at Green Hill on the other side of Bury New Road. He he had married a Prestwich lass Laura Threadgold, in 1895 at St Mary's, and they had baptised four children at the church by 1911.
By 1957 it had been equipped with CinemaScope and had a 29ft wide proscenium (archway above the screen). In later years it was used as a bingo hall, warehouse then an antique shop. It was demolished in 1999.
The Conservative club who had moved into their purpose built club house on Church Lane in 1879, purchased Spring Bank as a home for their Tennis club in 1928.
Just along from the original Con Club was Lancashire's smallest house, Number 12 Church Lane also affectionately known as "Tom Thumbs House" or "The Castle". This was once just a ginnel between two cottages.
Watch a video of the area developing over the years.
Watch a mash up of Church Lane then & now.
