Ford Bank House

Ford Bank House

The earliest mention of the estate was this item published in the Stockport Advertiser for 6th June 1823:

FORD BANK ESTATE IN DIDSBURY

TO BE SOLD BY PRIVATE CONTRACT

THE Inheritance in Fee Simple of and in all that VALUABLE ESTATE, situate in Didsbury, in the county of Lancaster, called FORD BANK, containing 18a. 2r. 2p. [acres, rods and perches] of rich Meadow and Pasture Land, of the Lancashire measure, or thereabouts.

The Ford Bank Estate lies in a Ring Fence and adjoins the Turnpike Road, leading from Didsbury to Manchester. There is a considerable quantity of fine ornamental Timber growing upon it, and the soil is dry and fruitful. The situation is very elevated, but with a mild southern aspect, and commands an extensive view over the Mersey and the adjoining county. As a situation for a gentleman’s seat, this estate perhaps contains capabilities not to be found elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

Mr. William Bethell, of Didsbury, will show the premises; and for further particulars apply to Mr. GEORGE WALKER, at the Office of Mr. WILLIAM VAUGHAN, Solicitor, Stockport – 23rd May 1823. 

Joseph Birley, a cotton manufacturer, purchased the large estate in the vicinity of Dene Road and built on it, in or around 1823, a mansion house known as Ford Bank, which stood approximately where the cul-de-sac in Whitehaven Gardens is today. He acted as his own architect. The Withington & Didsbury Observer of May 1914 wrote: “Ford Bank House stands on the grounds where the Barlow Moor races were held in the long ago. It was built in 1825, by Mr Joseph Birley – father of the late Hugh Birley, many years M.P. for Manchester.” Joseph Birley was the father of seventeen children: eleven sons and six daughters.

The census return for 1841 shows that the Birleys employed one male servant and seven female servants, all living in. In addition, there must have been gardeners and coachmen who lived in the village but did not appear in the Ford Bank census returns.

In 1858, the house was sold to Thomas Ashton, also a cotton manufacturer, whose mills were at Hyde. His son, Thomas Gair Ashton, later Lord Ashton of Hyde, was Liberal MP for Hyde and entertained no less a person than William Ewart Gladstone in the house.

Mr Ashton died in 1898 and his son, Thomas Gair Ashton, gave up the house. Bits of the estate were sold off in single plots. The Ashton family leased Ford Bank House and its large gardens to John Gledhill, a mechanical engineer, and his family. They weren’t interested in farming so Ford Bank Farm and the two-bedroomed farmhouse were leased in 1902 to widowed Mrs Agnes Heald, who moved to live there with her three young children and six cows. With the help of her sons, Edgar and Charles, she began the task of building up a successful milk and dairy business. In 1905, Mrs Edith Gledhill died and her husband gave an angel lectern to St James’ Church in her memory.

After the Gledhills, the remainder of the estate, including the house, was sold in 1919 to Herbert Levinstein, a Doctor of Chemistry and well known for his work in the development of mustard gas in the First World War.

In 1934, the estate was sold to Ford Bank Estates Ltd. The old mansion house, once one of the largest of all Didsbury’s great houses, was eventually demolished and the present housing estate known as Ford Bank was developed.

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