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Hale Road, ALTRINCHAM, WA15 8XR

456, Hale Road, Hale Barns: characteristic of the newer properties which have been built in the vicinity in recent years.

Hale Road

All the large mansions along here - unseen to the left - are the result of the Urban District Council moving its boundaries further eastwards in 1936, allowing housing development on former Green Belt land. Hale Road itself, which was relatively rural in the 1950s, has become intensely busy due to the completion of the M56 junction (in 1972) and the continuing expansion of Manchester International Airport. There is a 1777 map of the area on which this road (towards Wilmslow) appears as "Yestow Lane". Later it became "Easter Lane" (leading to nearby Easter Farm, on the corner of Brooks' Drive). 'Yestow' is an unusual title and one wonders whether it became transformed - phonetically - into 'Easter' at some stage. 'Hale Road' is much less obscure.

Hale Road

Hale Road

Looking along the pavement along the north side of Hale Road.

Looking in the direction of Hale Barns village: the area in the distance was the site of Prospect House in the late 19th century. Opposite, at that time, was Easter Farm, and the road was then called Easter Road. In the 20th century, the original house was demolished and replaced by a more modest building (which stands today). Most of the estate was sold for house building in the 1950s at which time there was a great extension of suburban development to the south west of Hale Barns. Prospect House had been the country home of Sam Brooks - a banker and calico printer - who was said to be the richest man in the North West and left £6M in cash at his death (the modern day equivalent of around £1 billion). On the land to the right of the photo, he built the beginnings of an ornamental carriageway intended to link up with his land holdings in south Manchester. This is the latter-day Brooks Drive, where none of the properties are less than £1M.

Behind the trees, on the right, was the site of historic Easter Farm which was summarily demolished in the late 1930s after changes in UDC boundaries opened the way for housing development on adjacent Brooks' Drive. Hale Road - on 19th century, and earlier, maps - was called Easter Lane because it led to the farm from Hale and Altrincham.

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.

Not your average driveway, but gates like these are not uncommon in Hale and Bowdon. These belong to 'Brookdale' on Hale Road.