Oak Bank Drive

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Oak Bank Drive SK10 5RJA small group of houses built on the site of Oak Bank House. The Coach House is the original building for that purpose dating from the 1850s and restored to domestic use in the early 1980s. Four detached houses were built in 1983-5 on the site of the original house. A further property was built a few years later and another is presently under construction.

Approach off Shrigley Road.

Nearest shops - Palmerston Street.

Nearest pubs - Cotton Tree, New Con Club, Church House, Poachers.


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The original Oak Bank House was built in a redundant quarry by John Briar in 1854, a very large and imposing house. He established a delightful landscape of fine trees around the house which is his legacy to us today. The house was damaged by fire in 1905 and never fully repaired. It ceased to be occupied by 1935 and in the early part of WWII it was demolished and the stone carted away to build runways at Burtonwood airfield, just by where M&S and IKEA are today at Warrington. A number of Bollington's redundant and derelict buildings finished up there including the windmill from Kerridge. The Oak Bank site was then used to store Bollington's coal supplies for the duration of the war and beyond. After that the site was locked up and forgotten until 1983 by which time it had gone completely wild.

Staff at Oak Bank HouseStaff and their family at the front door of the house (left). The elderly gentleman to the left was the gardener. One would expect that his wife was the housekeeper. They lived in the Lodge cottage at the bottom of the drive. Notice the fine carved stonework in the door frame - there is a suggestion in one paper I have seen that this was the work of Alfred Gatley, the famous Kerridge sculptor.

Oak Bank Lodge CottageJB monogram20A Shrigley Road is the original Lodge cottage (left) at the end of what was then a private drive to Oak Bank House. John Briar's JB monogram can be seen on the gable end (above). The leftmost section of the cottage was added in the 1980s very much in keeping with the original structure.

Oak Bank Lodge familyThe family living at Oak Bank Lodge cottage (left), probably in the early 20thC. Notice the curved door to the right - it is still there today visible in the picture above left, albeit rebuilt in recent times.