Our Local Heritage
A fascinating collection of stories and articles covering the diverse local heritage of Marple and District.
Alphabetical List
Just beyond Chadkirk the A627 climbs the long steep hill towards Bredbury and passes through Hatherlow, described by James Butterworth in his 1827 book History and Description of the Towns and Parishes of Stockport as ‘a small hamlet within the Parish of Bredbury’. It may be small but its mix of both old and elegant buildings gives it an aesthetic coherence to justify being designated as a conservation area by Stockport MBC.
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Hawk Green has a ‘Reading Room’. You will have seen it, on the right, as you reach the top of Upper Hibbert Lane, just before the Green comes into view. It is a simple dark red brick building and the plaque above the door tells us that this is Hawk Green Reading Room and Social Club and that it dates from 1906.
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Two bridges on the Macclesfield Canal in High Lane are “listed” by English Heritage. They are both interesting but not particularly noteworthy. Bridge Eleven carries the A6 over the canal so it is wide enough to almost be described as a tunnel. About 150 metres to the south Bridge Twelve curves gently as it carries the towpath over the entrance to High Lane wharf, a much more interesting feature. This is a particularly attractive bridge with a gentle curve taking the towpath over the entrance to the canal arm. The canal itself is important as one of the last narrow canals built.
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For most of the last millennium the basic units of local government were townships. These were divisions within the ecclesiastical parishes which gradually gained civic and administrative responsibilities as society became more sophisticated. Bredbury and Romiley were two separate townships in the Middle Ages but they were brought together in the nineteenth century in order to establish units of local government. First as a Local Board, then as a sanitary district and finally, after 1894, as an urban district council, it was a unified authority. In 1976 it lost its autonomy when it was brought under the control of Stockport MBC at the same time as Marple UDC.
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As a child Rod Thackray from Moor End Mellor was enthralled by stories told by his uncle Ivan Eccles about his exploits working at coal mines around Mellor after WW1. By the time Rod was a teenager he was an accomplished artist and had developed a passion for exploring old coalmine workings. He once fell down the shaft at Picky Wood Pit in Marple only to be saved from serious injury when his fall was broken by a dead cow that had previously fallen down.
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Our local heritage does not have to be old. Nor does it have to be architecturally distinguished. What it does have to do is to play or have played a significant part in the life and culture of the area at some time. One such building is Marple Baths. Right in the centre of Marple, it has been there longer than almost everybody living and it has played a significant part in the community for almost ninety years.
So why is it part of our local heritage? Architecturally it has been described as “a simple industrial building, built to a budget but modified and extended over the years."
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It was 1919. The War to End All Wars was over and demobilisation was beginning. Millions of men were returning, but not all men. Almost 900,000 British soldiers had been killed in Belgium, France and the other battlefields and virtually every community in the country had lost men and some women. There were a few communities where all their sons returned, but Marple was not one of them. One hundred and forty one soldiers and sailors would not be coming home.
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In the last three hundred years Marple has changed from a rural community to an industrial neighbourhood and now to a post-industrial commuter area. However, although gradual, these changes have not been mutually exclusive - there were early signs of industry well before Samuel Oldknow chose Mellor as the site of his new mill and even today, the Romiley Young Farmers Show demonstrates that the agricultural tradition lives on. Even so, it is difficult to believe that Marple had a regular weekly cattle market as recently as 1968.
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It is easy to forget that we have two bridges over the Goyt into Low Marple. It is the aqueduct that gets all the attention. This is the Grade 1 listed monument, the popular walking path to Romiley, the one that gets all the publicity and the heritage grants. However, alongside it and in some ways overshadowing it, is the railway viaduct. It might only be a Grade 2 listed monument but it is higher and longer and more massive than our favoured aqueduct.
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In the early days of the industrial revolution the roads around Marple and Mellor were atrocious - deeply rutted farm tracks that were difficult to use in summer and almost impossible in winter. No wonder the area was a rural backwater. However, in a period of little over ten years at the turn of the nineteenth century it suddenly had the use of three turnpikes and a canal.
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Though Marple may not have any street furniture that rivals the notoriety of a slightly nauseous but ingenious piece of Victorian engineering, the Farting lamp, on steep Carting Lane near the Savoy, London. Marple does possess, however, many examples of street furniture. Enough to start filling that I-Spy book that your aunt gave you at Christmas. Although many signs and markers have either disappeared or been superseded by newer versions, there are still many historic markers to find in our area, by those in the know.
But first you may well ask- What is meant by the phrase ‘Street furniture’? Wikipedia, as ever helpful, gives a litany of categories, "Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, etc “, whereas Historic England goes straight for a four category approach, (1) Beneficial Utility (2) Traffic Measures (3) Communication (4) Control Enforcement and Security.
This month’s Heritage article, then, will need you to keep your eyes peeled, as you venture out into the short lived light of a winter’s day. Wrapped up and dreaming of 40c in August 2023, as you seek-out milestones, direction posts, boundary markers.
MC
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Have you found Marple’s Hidden Gem yet? Maybe you have walked past it, or by it many times without realising it?
The gem is St. Martin’s Church, Low Marple on Brabyns Brow, next to Marple Station. This church, quite modest from the outside has many wonderful windows and artefacts designed and made by eminent artists and architects.
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Broadoak Moated House
On the edge of Stockport Golf Club, next to Broadoak Farm, is a squarish platform of land, surrounded by a moat on all sides. Although it is private property and well away from any roads it is adjacent to a public footpath running from Torkington Road to the Middlewood Way. It is quite a sizeable feature in the landscape but what exactly is it?
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