Sanatorium: Children’s Garden Village, Belmont, Cheadle.

A charming sanatorium has been added to the Boys’ and Girls, Refuges of Manchester at Belmont, Cheadle, by the generosity of the Milne family, who originally owned the house which is in the centre of the colony. Sir Alfred Hopkinson MP, who is a nephew of John Dewhurst Milne, in whose memory the sanatorium has been given, opened it officially on Saturday afternoon. The new block is a one storey building of red brick, roofed with sand-faced Staffordshire tiles, and lightly dressed at the entrance with Portland stone, and is provided with a simple loggia in stone facing south-east, so that it will catch the mid-morning sun. The building is attractively simple in manner and well-furnished with windows. Its interior is equally fresh and simple in manner, decorated for the most part in plain oil colours with a contrasting band, and with fireplaces of unusual and pleasant design. The building has a ward at each end of the southeast front, with a nurses’ room and a day-room between. At the back of the building are the isolation rooms, kitchen, doctors’ room and operating theatre. [Manchester Guardian 30 May 1927 page 11].

In 1927 Dunkerley, Taylor and Young exhibited a drawing at the Royal Academy showing the committee’s original vision for the Belmont Estate. This consisted of 10 semi-detached homes, each accommodating 20 children, a Matron or Master and an Assistant. The centre block was to be built first with the remaining two homes constructed when further money had been raised. However, it soon became apparent that resources sufficient to build another six buildings were not forthcomong  and the Committee deemed the four homes (along with Belmont House) sufficient. Instead the sanatorium was built in 1927 and the William Stevenson Recreational Hall added in 1929 to give further services to the 120 children on the estate. While the estate remained small it still fulfilled the committee's desire to take children out of the city slums and be brought up in the Cheshire countryside.

Reference    Manchester Guardian 30 May 1927 page 11 – opening
Reference    Manchester Guardian 2 May 1927 page 11 – RA exhibitors