IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wicker Lane, ALTRINCHAM, WA15 0HQ

Alongside St Ambrose College grounds

When the home (built 1915) of the Waugh family was first sold to the Christian Brothers in 1945, this was an imposing tree-lined entrance drive with an ornamental woodland ahead, and a pond on the right (now a Prep School) separating the drive from the outbuildings of a Victorian Manor - the ruins of which stood where Holy Angels RC church now is.

This used to be the main approach to the Waugh residence - 'Woodeaves' (circa 1915) - and later became the drive by which pupils entered the house and grounds when it became a Catholic grammar school (1946). The building to the right is the back of the present boys' Prep. School, which was only established much later. In the 1950s, the land to the right was mixed woodland bordering the ruins of a Victorian mansion called "The Manor House", which had fallen victim to German bombs intended for nearby Ringway Airport. Earlier still, in the 18th Century, the "Bull's Head" pub stood to the left before it transferred across Wicker Lane to its present location.

Wicker Lane, Hale Barns

When the main college of St Ambrose was first founded, in 1946, local Catholic boys, entering Year 1, obtained their preparatory education at Loreto Convent, Altrincham. The Convent was principally a girls' school but, at that time, took boys from age five until they reached eight and transferred elsewhere.

Established after World War ll, the school and its resident Christian Brothers started here, in a former private mansion, and steadily expanded to other parts of the extensive grounds.

Over the fence to the left is St Ambrose Preparatory School; over the fence to the right is Hale Barns Vicarage.

The house is "Woodeaves", built in 1915, and currently the home of a community of the Irish Christian Brothers, who opened the College there in 1946, it having moved from temporary accommodation in nearby Bowdon. From 1929 to 1945, Woodeaves was the home of the Waugh family. (William) Leo Waugh was a prominent Manchester merchant and partner in a firm of textile importers - Burt, Myrtle & Co - active in Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). After he died in 1944, Mrs Waugh sold the house and land to the Catholic Church to establish a boys' Grammar School, run by the Christian Brothers. Part of the main house was converted to classrooms, the remainder becoming a chapel and quarters for the Brothers. The extensive grounds were once shared by a Victorian manor house and gardens which had become ruinous after being hit by a stray bomb during a German air raid. That part of the estate (22 acres) was donated by Mrs Waugh - in honour of her deceased daughter - to St Vincent's parish, Altrincham, for the building of a new Catholic church to serve Hale Barns. Eventually, the ruins were demolished to make way for Holy Angels, which was completed on the site in 1963. Until that time, Sunday mass - for the Brothers and local residents - had been held in Woodeaves' chapel (a priest being supplied from St Vincent's).

Wicker Lane, Hale Barns

The front elevation of the house, and the outbuildings to the right, are unchanged in appearance since WWII. The beech hedge used to surround a rose garden - still there when the house became a school. It was a quiet retreat for the early teachers at St Ambrose. The outbuildings were converted to a refectory and boot room for the boys. There was a Catholic chapel to the left of the front porch with a veranda, at the side, onto the sunken garden.