1852 Info 2b John Harper Crompton |
Crompton Brothers
On the retirement of John Harper, Whyrill and Henry John took over the building business and reputation, renaming it Crompton Brothers, builders and contractors.
At some unknown date the company moved from 18 Thornley Street to Silver Hill Road, just off the Stockport Road.
| Access to the yard was up a sloping road from Osborne Road. This is now overgrown and
limited to a footpath. There appears to have been a second access along the side of 46
Stockport Road - see aerial view.
Right: Map locating Silver Hill Road, Hyde |
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| Above: An aerial view of Silver Hill, showing the approximate position of the Crompton Bros' yard, marked yellow. A second builder's yard abutted to the south. |
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| Above: The, perhaps original, enamelled Silver Hill Road sign
attached to the magnolia painted wall on the right, which is 1 Osborne Road. Right: The original entrance to Crompton's builder's yard from Osborne Road. The entrance was set at about 45°. Brown-field social in-fill housing can be seen on the left. |
The top of the road, from Osborne Road to Silver Hill Road, was never made up. It was a rough, stony clay which the lorries would churn up in wet weather. Then they would use the Stockport Road entrance although this was sometimes a difficult turn off the main road. The gates were strong wooden palisades with the Company sign above the wall to the left. As you went into the yard the site office (below) was to the right. The sand and gravel bays were straight ahead and timber was in covered racks around the yard according to type. Keith Dalby-Oldham described Crompton and Sons as 'A friendly and helpful business but not the cheapest!'
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Left: The heavily built and creosoted office which was once the Crompton Bros' office, and later the headquarters of 2nd Hyde Guides and Brownies and is now a garage. Keith Dalby-Oldham's father had his garage on the site of the modern garage with the brown door. |
| Right: Looking towards the yard from Silver Hill Road, showing the old office on the left and the in-fill social housing of Ashley Mews. |  |
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Left: Ashley Gardens in-fill housing in the southern part of the old yard |
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| Above: The name plate for Silverhill, 46 Stockport Road, Hyde
Right: The front view of Silverhill, 46 Stockport Road, Hyde It looks as though the basement floor has been modernised to accommodate large and light French windows. A balcony has been constructed in front of the 'ground-floor' parlour windows. Through access to the builders yard was to the right of the building. |
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Left: The impressive entrance steps to Silverhill, with a modern canopy and
wood and glass door.
Below: An extract from the London Gazette of 17 August 1934, Issue 34079, page 5292 giving notice of that Crompton Bros was closing its stone merchant's business at Edge Hill Quarry |
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Left: Aerial photograph locating Edge Hill Quarry |
And finally
| Right: An extract from the
London Gazette
of 17 April 1962, Issue 42651, page 3229 giving notice of that Walter CROMPTON and Henry
John CROMPTON Jnr. closed Crompton Brothers on 31 March 1962.
The company was dissolved by the sons of Henry John CROMPTON Snr, suggesting that the children of Whyrill were no longer involved in the building industry. |
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| Walter was 48 years old and Henry John Jnr. 46.
In August 2009, whilst photographing Silver Hill I met a 92 year old resident of the area. He told me that his garage had been the yard office and mentioned that when the company closed its name and reputation was sold-on. The new company, using the Silver Hill yard was Howcroft and Crompton. John Harper's company started when he moved to Hyde in 1887/8, carried on beyond its closure in 1962. |
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End notes
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| This page was created by Richard Crompton and maintained by Chris Glass |
Version A4 Updated 07 July 2020 |
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