Our Local Heritage
A fascinating collection of stories and articles covering the diverse local heritage of Marple and District.
Alphabetical List
Have you ever thought about how our ancestors moved around Marple and Mellor in the days before motor cars and public transport? Of course the rich would be alright. The Isherwoods or the Hudsons had their own coaches and, slightly down the social scale, the wealthy businessmen returning by train from Manchester each day would take a horse-drawn cab.
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The ‘mystery picture’ in the MLHS August newsletter was an aerial view of the Fiveways Pub on the corner of the A523 Macclesfield Road and Dean Lane in the Norbury area of Hazel Grove. Picture 1 The Fiveways The pub was built in the late 1930s, the architectural style corroborates that period. However, Norbury goes back much further. From Medieval times scattered groups of settlers survived by subsistence farming. People would have been travelling through the area from Roman Times as the Roma road from London to Carlisle, forms part of the A6. It is easy to imagine businesses setting up along the way to attend to the needs of travellers: inns, blacksmiths and a variety of shops.
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There are three main elements in the project for Revealing Oldknow’s Legacy - Marple Aqueduct, Mellor Mill and the Lime Kilns. The aqueduct is well-known and has just been repaired; excavations at Mellor Mill are well under way; but what about the Lime Kilns? Do they deserve more prominence and is anything happening to make them more accessible? Who better than the County Archaeologist for Greater Manchester, Norman Redhead to explain ...
Photo: The Strines Road arm of the canal, now filled in, which used to run from Possett Bridge to the Lime Kilns.
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Oldknow’s Seat is locally the stuff of legend, but it’s not a myth - it does still exist. Many of us will have heard of it, it is marked on old maps and over the years lots of locals have had their photo taken sat on it. Those that were children in the fifties and sixties remember it as the ‘Giants Chair’. Though it is now not easy to locate, some recent ‘intrepid explorers’ have managed to find their way to it.
It’s located on private land with no general public access, less than a kilometre to the south east of Mellor Mill on the side of the Goyt valley just below Mellor & Townscliffe Golf Club’s most westerly hole, the 14th which is appropriately named Oldknow’s Seat.
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I often think it’s comical – Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!
So sang Private Willis at the opening of Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre in 1882. The comic opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society but, like most satires, it was based on actuality. Parliament had a strong two party system with Liberals and Conservatives and politics was becoming much more part of everyday life.
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After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, attempts to impose uniformity of religious practices met with opposition and led to break away groups of ‘non-conformists’. Their ideas of independence and self-help appealed to workers and industrialists alike and grew in popularity as the Industrial Revolution gained pace. Methodism seems to have had the greatest presence in the Marple/Mellor area, possibly because John Wesley had visited and preached in Mellor several times in the early days of the movement in the mid 1700s. It was by no means just one religious idea, but had many factions; today it is a little difficult to fathom out the differences which were so important at the time.
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The rough moorland of the Pennine foothills is criss-crossed by tracks which were the main roads of early times when most people had to travel everywhere on foot, or if they were lucky, on horseback. These have become our public bridleways and let us walk and ride freely in the countryside, which has been doubly appreciated during these last few months. Nowadays junctions on these tracks are indicated by official signposts, but long ago most people couldn’t read so there had to be other kinds of markers.
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The clue is in the name - Fold. It means an enclosure from waste land or moor land, either for people or for animals. It still survives in the word ‘sheepfold’ but originally it had a much wider application.
Next time you are going through Romiley, take a small detour and visit these two Folds - you won’t regret it.
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It can be hard to imagine that Mellor was once in the midst of a forest. Or perhaps not. It wasn’t ‘in the midst’ but right on the edge. And it wasn’t much of a forest anyway, even though it was called the Royal Forest of the High Peak. Yes, there were more trees than there are today but not many more.
At its height in the thirteenth century, an estimated one-fourth of the land area of England and its riches came under the special jurisdiction of forest law.
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‘Heritage’ is a broad term and can cover a wide range of dates. Recent articles about Our Local Heritage have ranged from fifteenth century cruck barns to twentieth century swimming baths, but most of them centre around the period of the Industrial Revolution when Marple and Mellor began to change from rural to urban communities. However, our heritage goes back much further; much, much further. The first indications of human activity in this area date back to the late Mesolithic Period.
Stockport has six Scheduled Monuments and five of those are in Marple and Mellor - two prehistoric, one medieval and two from the industrial revolution. With the discoveries at Shaw Cairn this number could (and perhaps should) be raised to six.
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Take a walk along Town Street, Marple Bridge, cross the end of Hollins Lane, pass the little pay and display car park, and below the bridge, at the beginning of Longhurst Lane, lies one of the oldest industrial buildings in the area, Spade Forge, formally known as Forge Bank Mill. Its earliest record dates from 1776, but was probably operating before that. Although it has now been converted into a house, its past remains for all to see. The waterwheel which drove its machinery is still in situ, with the millpond dam, 40’ wide and 20’ high, sluice gate seating and head race adjacent.
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For over a century, Strines was home to the Strines Calico Printing company, which became one of the leading companies printing not merely calico, but any and every sort of fabric. In the 19th century the Company owned much of the land and employed many of the inhabitants of Strines and the neighbouring villages. Now, in 2021, the works has been closed, demolished and replaced by a housing estate. The village has turned into a dormitory suburb, but it still has its church which continued to serve the neighbourhood and the adjoining areas of Marple and New Mills.
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We don’t have floods like they used to!
"The river Goyt, which separates the counties of Derby and Chester, swelled to that degree at the confluence of three brooks, that it covered the highest battlements of Marple bridge, upwards of 22 feet from the surface of the water when at a common height. It washed away every thing on the Derbyshire side of the bridge, except the bare arch stones, which tho’ founded on a rock at each end, ’twas surprizing they were left, as much bigger were torn away ...."
Gentleman’s Magazine 18 August 1748
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