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STAPELEY
MANOR is still standing at the time of writing (2007) but is in imminent
danger of demolition despite efforts to save it.
The house was built between
1916 and 1918 for Benjamin Baxter, the Managing Director of a Nantwich
clothing factory which at the time was producing army uniforms, giving
rise to the nickname of the house as Khaki Manor. On Mr Baxter’s death
in 1937, he was succeeded by his son Jim who carried on running the
business into the 1960s.
It is known that the house was sold to
two Nantwich businessmen, a local solicitor, Mr Norman Afford and a Mr
Birchall who divided the house into two separate halves. In 1957, Mr
Birchall sold his half to Mr and Mrs White and part of this was sub-let
to Mr and Mrs Harrison who stayed until the 1960s.
Mr Afford later sold his half to t wo
spinsters, Dora and Ilma Evans, and their cousin, Sydney Thomas.
When the last remaining survivor had died in 1980, their nieces sold the
half to the White Family and it therefore again became one single
property. The White family moved out in 1981 when they sold the manor to
Raymond and Nigel Davies who were developing Stapeley Water Gardens on
an adjacent site.
Nigel lived at the manor until his sudden
death in America in 1988 and then Raymond moved in and stayed there
until around 1998. It was then rented out and the last family left
around 2003. It remained empty and was subsequently vandalised. |
