In 1926 Sir Ernest Simon and his wife Shena bought Wythenshawe Hall and 250 acres of the surrounding estate and gave it to the people of Manchester 'to be kept forever as an open space'. At the time the wealthy social reformers were one of the driving forces behind ambitious plans to build what would become Europe's largest council estate on nearby countryside.
Their remarkable gift - which cost £1.7m in today's money - would become Wythenshawe Park. It would be the icing on the cake of the soon-to-be built Wythenshawe estate, providing much-needed open space for the thousands of tenants who would move there from the cramped slums of inner-city Manchester.
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