Houses of Hale Barns (30)
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Houses of Hale Barns (30) by Anthony O'Neil as part of the Geograph project.
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Houses of Hale Barns (30)
Image: © Anthony O'Neil Taken: 31 Mar 2020
This notice, at the Hale Road entrance to Brooks Drive, may not be the most welcoming for visitors to Hale Barns, but it marks what would have been a grandiose Victorian development initiated by self-made millionaire Samuel Brooks, whose country home - 'Prospect House' - stood nearby. He had made his fortune as a Calico Printer and Banker and became one of the richest men in the North West, with land holdings in Manchester, and 800 acres in Hale and Hale Barns. Samuel and his son - Sir William Cunliffe Brooks (later MP for Altrincham) - intended to develop an ornamental carriageway northwards from Hale Barns to the Manchester suburb of Whalley Range (named after Samuel's home town in Lancashire) via what is now Brooklands Road. This included the construction of a new railway station on the Altrincham line at Brooklands. Only the portion at Hale Barns was completed by the time of Samuel's death (1864). William extended it further, beyond Davenport Green, but the intermediate sections became little more than a bridleway (remnants of which are still extant). True to Brooks's intentions, his Drive eventually became a haven for the wealthy residents of a new era.
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Image Location
Latitude
53.365891
Longitude
-2.303822