Children’s Garden Village, Belmont Estate, Cheadle
In 1920 the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges (now the Together Trust) purchased the Belmont Estate, comprising 23.5 acres of well-wooded parkland with a spacious house in Cheadle, with the intention of transferring the society’s children from the city homes Manchester into the healthier surroundings of the Cheshire countryside. The annual report of 1922 noted “It is our intention to build amid these lovely surroundings a children’s garden village. The Committee feel it is wise to await the fall in building costs before proceeding, but plans are being prepared, and as speedily as possible we desire to transfer our children from the city homes to this garden of happiness.” The scheme was entirely dependent on public support for its implementation and from the outset suffered frominadequate funding. The Rosen Halas Training Home for Girls was sold off with the proceeds given towards developing the Cheadle estate. In 1920 a Jubilee Appeal for £40,000 was launched. for eight cottage homes at an estimated cost of £24,000. Among the donors were William C Dunkerley (£50), F B Dunkerley (£21), and G Faulkner Armitage (£10).
By July 1922 it was proposed to provide accommodation for 200 boys and girls in addition to the 45 girls in the main house. There would be TEN homes in all each accommodating 20 children, a matron or master and an assistant, and containing a spacious well-lighted dayroom with cloakroom, kitchen, lavatories, bathroom and dormitories. The centre block was in course of erection but the completion of the scheme was entirely dependent on further public contributions
Belmont had been the residence of the Milne family, of Kendal Milne fame, was immediately adapted to form a Girls’ Home. By 1921 46 girls were in residence, attending local schools and churches in Cheadle. The home was formally opened in October 1920 by the Earl of Stamford. Belmont was sold by the Together Trust in 1983 and is now used as a Nursing Home.
The new site became known as the Children's Garden Village and over the course of the next ten years, the partnership of Dunkerley, Taylor and Young was employed to design and construct several new buildings. Dunkerley was closely associated with the Society as he had already designed a Children’s Shelter of 1910 on Chatham Street in Manchester, and both he and his brother William were members of the governing committee.The commissioned buildings were:
- Crossley Gaddum House, 1923
- Hayes Shaw House, 1925
- James Fildes Memorial Hall, 1926
- Milne Perrins Sanatorium, 1927
- William Stevenson Recreation Hall, 1929