“Moss Meadow” Cholmondley Road Irlams o’th’ Height

STATELY HOMES OF SALFORD No 10 - Moss Meadow, another Pendleton architectural gem which stands off Cholmondley Road was built about 1894 to the personal designs of Colonel Bertram Charles Percival Heywood, an architect by profession, and a member of the well-known Heywood family. Colonel Heywood, who was in command of the 6th Manchester Regiment and served during the Boer War, lived at this picturesque house until 1901 when he left to take up residence at Wootton Lodge, Staffordshire. It then became the home of Mr Frederick W Markham, surveyor to the Claremont Estate and it did not change hands again until 1935 when it was purchased by the present owner, Mr J P Hill.

Situated in 2.5 acres of land, Moss Meadow provides a delightful combined air of the old and the new. It carries some black and white timbering at both the front and the rear of the house, but there are no cold corridors or gloomy passages to detract from its interior air of warmth and comfort, and Colonel Heywood has been aptly described as producing a house design well in advance of its period.

The first owner knew what he wanted - a good sound building without any embellishments, and complete with all the requisites for a comfortable living and it is because of this “futuristic” planning that the house as it stands today carries about it an air of modernity and compactness, more to be connected with a house of a much later date.

“Moss Meadow” faces away from the road and is therefore not seen to its full advantage by passers-by. Its strong Accrington brick provides the Victorian sturdiness and sets off the timbering. When first built it commanded an uninterrupted view across countryside stretching through to Lancaster Road, the Western Cricket Club and Swinton Fields. It stood on the old Moss Meadow boundary and the then route through to Lancaster Road was by stile and footpath.

Reference           Salford City Reporter 11 November 1949 Page 4 with illustration