Whitevale,” Ford Bank Estate, Didsbury

WHITEVALE, DIDSBURY, NEAR MANCHESTER - This residence is situate upon the Ford Bank Estate, five miles south of Manchester. Whilst the situation of the site on the one hand demanded that the entrance should be from the north, the owner's requirements on the other, led to the whole of the entertaining rooms being placed on the south side, affording them a bright sunny aspect, as well as an excellent view of the tennis lawn and garden. Our illustration represents the garden front. The external walls are faced with pressed stock bricks from Ruabon, relieved with terra cotta and stone dressings. The roofs are covered with selected dark coloured Broseley tiles. Throughout the house is heated with hot water. The electric lighting of the house has been intrusted to Messrs Holmes and Co., of Newcastle-upon Tyne. The general contractors are Messrs Burgess and Galt, of Manchester. The work has been executed under the personal supervision of the architect, Mr Joseph Swarbrick, of Manchester. [Building News 8 September 1899 Page 299]

This house is situated at the corner of Holme Road and Spath Road in Didsbury, and was built for Edward George Brockbank, a Manchester metal merchant. By 1956 it had been renamed "St Michael's", and sometime after 1974 it was renamed "Cairncroft". It was threatened with demolition in 2005, but was saved after the intervention of the Civic Society, and has now been converted into apartments with an extra block added. However, all the pargeting on the gables and between the ground and first floors has been removed.Hartwell, Hyde and Pevsner say that it was built in 1898/9 rather than 1896, by John Swarbrick rather than Joseph Swarbrick, and for John Brockbank rather than Edward Brockbank. However, the illustration is dated 1896, the title says it was built for E G Brockbank Esq, and the date is too early for John Swarbrick – he was only 17 at the time. John Thomas Brockbank was living at Lynwood in 1901, the next house to the north east along Holme Road, which is how the confusion may have arisen. - Richard Fletcher

Reference           Building News 8 September 1899 Page 299 and illustration