Description:Samuel Philips (died 1824) bought Heybridge in about 1813 and greatly extended an existing stone built farmhouse. Samuel was part of the J. & N. Phillips textile business who owned nearby Tean Hall Mills. Samuel's brother John lived at Heath House at Upper Tean. The house was further extended during the later 19th and early 20th centuries and remained in the Phillips family until the death of Humphrey Burgoyne Phillips in 1951. It was then put up for sale. The National Health Service bought it but was unable to convert the building into a maternity hospital, so it was sold to a scrap dealer who stripped the house of its fittings. It was demolished during the 1950s with the exception of the servants' quarters which has been converted into a dwelling. Nightingale Close now stands on the site of the house and its gardens (Florence Nightingale had been a guest at the house in 1840).
Photograph by William Blake of Longton.