Belmont House
We’re returning to Belmont House today to take a closer look at the building we owned for sixty years of our existence between 1920 and 1981. Today the building resides as a care home for the elderly.
When the charity decided to move out of the slum areas of Manchester into the countryside they visited various areas looking for a suitable location to build the Children’s Garden Village. Negotiations for some land on Bean Leach Road in Hazel Grove were carried out before they settled on Cheadle.
Belmont was bought for £5,700 and included the house and 22 ½ acres of land. A description of the house still resides within the Together Trust archive showing the extent of the house and grounds in 1918:
Outside the land comprised of two tennis and croquet lawns, kitchen garden, a vinery, peach house, tomato house and fernery. There was also stabling for five horses and two coach houses as well as a coachman’s cottage and harness room. This was of course besides the farmland which had a further bailiff’s cottage (sitting room, kitchen and three bedrooms), shippons for four cows and six pigsties.
The house, of course, was adapted in order to accommodate the 40 girls who transferred over to Cheadle from Manchester. Many of the outside features were removed although the kitchen garden was kept. The bailiffs' cottage was used to house the gardener who maintained the 22 1/2 acres of land the charity held until the 1980s.
Over the years Belmont House was extended and changed in order to fit the purpose of the varying children who slept and played in its rooms. Although no longer the property of the Together Trust, having being sold in 1983, the building remains, looking much as it did when we first bought it. Occasionally former residents of Belmont come back to Cheadle. Along with our other four houses, which are now schools on the site, it allows those who lived there to see the homes again.
Missed
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Belmont House today
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When the charity decided to move out of the slum areas of Manchester into the countryside they visited various areas looking for a suitable location to build the Children’s Garden Village. Negotiations for some land on Bean Leach Road in Hazel Grove were carried out before they settled on Cheadle.
Belmont was bought for £5,700 and included the house and 22 ½ acres of land. A description of the house still resides within the Together Trust archive showing the extent of the house and grounds in 1918:
“Belmont is a compact family home situated in nicely laid out grounds approached by a carriage drive and entrance lodge, from the main road, from Cheadle to Wilmslow.”The house itself contained an entrance hall, morning room, drawing room, dining room, billiard room, kitchen, scullery, cellars, 11 bedrooms, 2 dressing rooms and two bathrooms. Heating was installed throughout.
Outside the land comprised of two tennis and croquet lawns, kitchen garden, a vinery, peach house, tomato house and fernery. There was also stabling for five horses and two coach houses as well as a coachman’s cottage and harness room. This was of course besides the farmland which had a further bailiff’s cottage (sitting room, kitchen and three bedrooms), shippons for four cows and six pigsties.
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The Billiard room in Belmont
House, 1918
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Over the years Belmont House was extended and changed in order to fit the purpose of the varying children who slept and played in its rooms. Although no longer the property of the Together Trust, having being sold in 1983, the building remains, looking much as it did when we first bought it. Occasionally former residents of Belmont come back to Cheadle. Along with our other four houses, which are now schools on the site, it allows those who lived there to see the homes again.
Missed
I would love to learn to learn more about Belmont children's home the house I lived in from 1968-74 When I lived there I was the only girl with 14 boys for a few years.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. If you would like to contact us at our enquiries email address; enquiries@togethertrust.org.uk we may be able to provide you with more information about your time at Belmont House if it is of interest to you. We will be posting more stories about the house soon.
Thanks