Briarcroft Hall, Howe Bridge, Atherton

Briarcroft Hall, the residence of Colonel Philip Fletcher (1846-1927), was built in the mid-1870s, about the same time as the mining village of Howe Bridge was developed. He gifted the house to the Atherton Collieries Joint Association in 1921 at which date he retired to Worthing. it was subsequently used as a Boys’ Club and for recreational purposes. An extension hall, part funded by the Miners’ Welfare Fund, was added in 1935 to the designs of Taylor and Young. This was the first grant assigned for leisure use in the Lancashire Coalfield by the Fund.  The hall was demolished in the late 1990s due to vandal damage and the site redeveloped for housing

Reference     Architects Journal 23 April 1936 Page 636-7
Reference    Alan Davies: Atherton Collieries. 2009, with illustration.