Scholes's Factory

This was the first factory to be erected on the Wythenshawe estate. Cruickshank & Seward designed it for the manufacture of electrical equipment. Residential development at Wythenshawe, informed by the garden city movement, had been underway since the late 1920s. The Corporation actively sought new light industries to populate the edges of their new residential estate and provide much needed employment. They were even willing to advance loans towards the costs of new buildings. George H. Scholes had been in business since 1897 and was sufficiently buoyant to not require any municipal funding. In order to house new plant equipment a simple single storey structure with a two-storey office bock to the Sharston Road elevation was all that was required. The office block was not overly expressive in terms of its styling and the entrance, as built, was simplified from the original proposal. Nonetheless, the contrasting stone and rustic red brick carry art-deco notes, synonymous with the time. The block, reglazed and reclad in places, remains standing where newer buildings have since been replaced.