Lord and Lady Simon, Broomcroft Hall

Broomcroft Hall and Lord and Lady Simon

Broomcroft Hall (above) appears for the first time in census returns in 1851. In that year it was the home of William Hobbs, a merchant, his wife Elizabeth, a niece, a nephew, a cook and a house servant. It later became the family home of Lord and Lady Simon and was accessed from Ford Lane.

Born Ernest Darwin Simon in 1879 in Didsbury, Manchester, he was to become a celebrated industrialist and politician, and to be created in 1946 Lord Simon of Wythenshawe for his services in both. His father had emigrated from Germany in 1860 to settle in Manchester and to establish two successful businesses, Henry Simon of Cheadle Heath, Stockport, which specialised in flour mill construction, and Simon Carves Limited which made ovens and blast furnaces.

Ernest Simon was educated at Rugby Public School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied engineering. By the age of 20 he was already running his late father's businesses, and by gradual expansion and combining both firms, the Simon Engineering Group was formed. In 1912, he married Shena Potter, a well-educated and socially minded woman, and together they set about encouraging social reform – he in housing and in smoke abatement (at that time Manchester was the blackspot of the western world due to the large concentration of industry that existed), and she in education. Both were to serve as city councillors, and in 1921 he was appointed Lord Mayor of Manchester. He also served two terms in Parliament as a Liberal MP for Withington, Manchester, and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health. Gradually, however, his political viewpoint changed, and in 1946 he crossed over to the Labour Party benches.

In 1947, he was offered a peerage and served as Labour spokesman on housing in the House of Lords, by this time having become somewhat of a world authority on the subject. He is chiefly remembered in Manchester for his massive slum clearance schemes and for rebuilding houses which promoted healthy modern living. He also purchased Wythenshawe Hall and its 250-acre park and gave it to the city for housing development – Wythenshawe estate emerged as a result. His desire to improve the living conditions of ordinary Mancunians and his promotion of the new subject of "Civics" in schools, made him a popular and well-loved figure in Manchester politics. He also bequeathed the Simon Research Fellowships at Manchester University. He was chairman of the BBC until 1952, was made a Doctor of Laws by the University in 1944, and made a Freeman of Manchester in 1959.

Lady Simon’s special interest was education and for her work in this field she was made a Freeman of the City of Manchester. Shena Simon College would be later named in her honour.

In 1960, Broomcroft Hall was left in trust to be used by Manchester University.

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