IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wilton Drive, ALTRINCHAM, WA15 0JF

Work in progress on a detached house in Hale Barns.

Approaching the village from Ringway. The tower of Holy Angels church glimpsed above the rooftops.

Unlike many parts of the North West, Hale Barns shows few signs that times are hard. Here, on Hale Road - in a 200 yard stretch - four different houses have builder's vehicles outside: two are being refurbished and two are being fully reconstructed. The southern side has become a parking lot during the day, causing continued traffic disruption on Hale Road.

This was still an active farm in the 50s and 60s, but, like many others, was sold for building development. The house was retained but its outbuildings were pulled down for housing plots. During the 20th century, at least six farms, on this side of Hale Road, disappeared - Oaklands, Halemount, Dial, Elm, Easter and Buck Hall (now an hotel).

The white building is the former farmhouse of Elm Farm which was still a working farm into the 1960s, although much reduced: farmland having been consumed in the construction of adjacent Ringway Golf Course, from 1909. In fact, the club had started by renting land from another adjacent farm - Oaklands - whose farmhouse eventually became the old clubhouse (which later burned down). Elm Farm probably gave its name to nearby Elmridge Drive, developed after the War. (Ringway is the neighbouring parish to Hale Barns and was, in a sense, isolated from it by the construction of the M56 motorway. Until it became 'International', Manchester Airport was called 'Ringway'.)

Recently, Hale Barns Garage has lost all its petrol pumping equipment and must come as an unwelcome shock to passing motorists who are used to filling up there. The next nearest fuel would be Altrincham or Morley Green.

Near to the former yard of Elm Farm. This crescent, off the main thoroughfare in Hale Barns, was created when the farm land was sold off for building.

Looking along the A538.