Walking through the old gates to Belmont

This week we’re moving away from our young roots project and heading back home to Cheadle. 

Last week we had a visit from a gentleman who used to live at Belmont House, back in the 1950s. This was his first visit to his old home since he left at the age of 7. Consequently we went on a walk of the grounds, both to Belmont House, which is next door to our current offices, and to the buildings onsite, once children’s homes and now schools. Visuals prompt memories and help to reconstruct the landscape as it used to be. Although the charity still resides on the same site it purchased 96 years ago, much as changed.

Entrance to the Belmont Estate, 1950s

The photograph above for example, shows a prominent part of the old site, remembered by our visitor, but sadly gone today. The old entrance on Schools Hill, which led up to Belmont House, wound through part of the 22 acres of land that used to be owned by the charity. Many of those who walked through its gates recalled the splendour of the grounds. 

It must have been a good five minutes drive up the driveway to get to this home. And there were all these rhododendrons on each side. It was absolutely beautiful.

- Resident at Belmont House, 1937-1944

The area where the gate resided has an interesting history in itself. This was where the old toll lodge and gate used to be located in the 1880s, to collect tolls from travellers using the roads.

View from the entrance looking towards Cheadle, 1950s

When the charity sold part of its land in the 1980s, it lost the entrance where so many of the children it had cared for had entered. Today the grounds leading from Wilmslow Road up to Belmont House are part of a residential estate and no longer field animals and flora as of old. These kinds of memories exist only with those who were here at the time or through the few photographs that remain of the site. 

We love hearing from those people who remember the Together Trust grounds and homes as they used to be. Do you have a story to tell? Why not come and see us and become part of our collection of oral history. They allow future generations to understand the local history of Cheadle and how things have changed.