Hope

Hope Square Hope square was the name given to a group of cottages facing Scholes lane at it's junction with Bury New Road. The name itself originates from Mr John Hope, one of the main tennants in the Manor of Prestwich. Mr J. Hope purchased this land (and also that of Butt Hill where John built his house) in 1777 when the manor of Prestwich was divided up by Thomas William Coke, Industrialist the then lord of the Manor, who preferred to concentrate his efforts on his estate in Norfolk( Holkham Hall) - also . The houses were in fact built at angles to Scholes Lane and not, as the name suggests in a square, but a triangle. Hope Square 1915 In 1833, Charles Knott's, who owned a property in Hope Square, used his residence to hold Methodist meetings. The local Methodist movement then went on to use property in Longfield before the building of a church on Bury New Road in 1840. In 1847 the eastern most property in Hope square was licensed as a Tavern. The tavern was sold to Joseph Holt's Brewery in 1894, The Old Friendship Tavern was situated where the front carpark of the current public house (completed 1924) of the same name. Hope Square from the Tavern During the 1920-30's a game of "pitch and toss" behind the Tavern was common, and the service of a lookout employed. The local rat catcher aslo frequented the New Tavern and often entertained with his party trick of releasing a rat and catching it with his teeth ! The Old and the New Hope Park The above School actually replaced a Victorian Nursery on the same site in 1910, just North of Hope Square, and served as a Secondary Girls school to complement the Boys School on Heys Road, until the two merged on the Heys Road site to form the present day Prestwich Community High School. Hope Park has since been demolished to make way for Town Houses, but the bollards still mark the old entrance.

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