SPRING HERITAGE MAGAZINE - OUT NOW

The spring 2011 issue of the Stockport Heritage Magazine, is in the shops this week.

Read about -
The Staircase Stitchers
St. Joseph's & Bishop Brown's School
The earliest Dissenter's Chapel
A Ghostly house in Underbank
A famous Stockport Admiral
Growing up in Reddish
Filming in Stockport
Rebel or reformer
What's happening in Marple
Visiting Romiley

Including letters and book reviews.

Get your copy soon.

Heritage Centre Shop

Stockport Heritage Centre, in St. Mary's Church, have the biggest array of local history books in the borough. Open market days 11am to 3pm.

Stockport Market - A Walk Through History - £7
Stockport Train Crash - 1948 in the fog - £6
Memories of an Offerton Lad - £8
Stockport Sport - £9.99
Tin Brook - £8.99
The Legacy of Richard de Vernon - £5
Reddish Remembered - £4
Reddish Newtown - £6.50
Cheadle - £8
Stockport a History & Guide - £14.99
Marple Through Time - £12.99
70's Teenager - £7.99
Rivers under Your Feet - £5
Shadows - £9.95
Derbyshire Cavemen - £14.99
These are not all, we also have 17 Heritage Walks around the Borough £2 each

Old Pictures of Stockport

Stockport is fortunate enough to have many old black and white photographs taken of its development over 130 years and many of them were made into postcards.


Stockport Heritage Centre has a huge collection of these photographs as well as class pictures from many of its schools, dating back to 1932.

Have we got the road where you grew up?

Come and have a look through our books, we are based in St. Mary's Church, Market Place and open Tuesday, Friday and Saturday 11am - 3 pm.

Willow Grove Cemetery

The Friends of Stockport Cemeteries, is a very active group, who have been working hard on Willow Grove Cemetery in Reddish to make it more accessible to the public.


With the aid of grants and volunteers, they have laid paths, planed flower beds, put gravestones back up and produced two walks leaflets.


click the image to enlarge

Memories of an Offerton lad

This book will have you splitting your sides.

Jim Clare was brought up in a family of eight children, around Offerton, Hall Street and Newbridge Lane. He went to St. Mary's State School and has spent many years collection class pictures from that school.

The book is full of anecdotes and funny stories, as is Jim himself, and anyone knowing him will understand how this book could not fail to be a big hit.

It is selling in the Heritage Centre and the Tourist Information Centre, in the Market Place, for £8.

Macclesfield trip

First trip of the new year was to visit St. Micheal's Church in Macclesfield, where an amazing transformation has taken place in the last few years.

With the help of a steel and glass frame three internal rooms have been built one on top of the other.

The effect is stunning and in no way compromises the church and it's space.

Could this be done at St. Mary's? Thank you Jim Clare for organising the trip.

Hydro Power at Otterspool

A presentation was given on Saturday 5th February at the Hare & Hounds pub, showing the proposal for producing hydro-electricity by making use of the weir at Otterspool Bridge on Dooley Lane.

In spite of the weather, there was a good turn out, including Councilor's Ben and Shan Alexander and Andrew Stunnell, MP for Stockport South.

Shares in this project are being sold at £1 each, with a minimum of 250.

Anyone wishing more information contact Ben Alexander.

New Books

There are four new books on our shelves,

Water Under the Bridge - the story of Lancashire Bridge by Daphne Breen

Stockport Castle - a history of a 'defensive out crop' for 2,000 years - by Kevin Dranfield

A History Walk Around Brinnington - by Phil Rowbotham

A History Walk from Cheadle Heath to Mersey Square - by Pat Taylor

All are £2 and can be bought from the Stockport Heritage Centre St. Mary's Church, Market Place.

Pool Closure Campaign

Norris Bank Swimming Club are fighting to save their poll during this time of cuts.

A petition with 10,000 signatures has been collected to fight the closure of the Stockport School swimming pool.

Anyone wishing to help this group with their campaign can do so through their web site -

www.nbswim-club.co.uk

Dan Bank- Last Phase

The last phase of the Dan Bank work is about to be carried out.







click on image to enlarge

REDDISH VALE TREE WORK

During Jan and Feb. 2011, Stockport Council will be carrying out woodland management work in Reddish Vale Country Park.

The work, which includes felling trees and thinning, is necessary to keep the woodland safe and also promote a better habitat for wildlife. At certain times it may be necessary for footpaths to be temporarily closed for safety reasons while work is carried out.

Due to slope stabilization work on the adjoining bank, Tiviot Dale car park on Tiviot Way will be closed to enable the work to be carried out safely.
As part of the improvements, it will be necessary to fell the existing trees on the bank. Following the work, the bank will be replanted with native tree species including Oak, Hazel, Holly, Rowan, Birch and Alder.

Heritage Magazine - fault

Anyone finding themselves with a Heritage Magazine that has a page missing, please return to the Editor, Steve Cliffe, and he will replace it for you.

Spirit of Christmas

Another stall, another cold day.
Mr. Pickwick was out in person to promote his Heritage Emporium, at the Spirit of Christmas on Sat 27th Nov. The cold weather did not deter visitors from all over the region, and Heritage Calendars were selling like 'hot cakes', so was the mulled wine.
If you have not yet got your calender for 2011, the Heritage Centre and Tourist Information Centre still have a few left.

Heritage Magazine Winter 2010

The latest Heritage Magazine will be in the shops this week with more interesting stories of Stockport.

From manor to metropolis
Market history exhibition
Evacuees return to Stockport
Cheadle Green archaeological dig
Come to the fair
Forgotten tracks
Dressing up the bride
Green and pleasant Roman Lakes
Stockport's miracle
The ruined chapel
Cycling up the Clarion
Greave Fold

and more ...................

GET YOUR COPY NOW !

BBC's 'Turn Back Time' to Visit Stockport

The BBC's 'Turn Back Time' program, which follows a group of traders trying to manage life as shopkeepers at various points in time, will visit Stockport Market on Friday 12th November - Sunday 14th November.

Details taken from the BBC website:

Event: Turn Back Time Pop-Up Shop, Stockport. Open 10am - 5pm, 12th - 14th Nov.
As well as taking you back in time through the 1930s grocer's shop, there will be advice on researching your own high street history, local artefacts to get 'hands on' with, and a chance for your old photos of the area to become part of a high street memory line.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/map-explanation.s

To compliment the 1930's theme, the 'dungeon' window (top of Mealhouse Brow) has been converted into a 1930's Sewing Machine Shop Window, for a very limited time only.

St. Wilfrid's Fair

What an amazing weekend, Stockport has not seen the like for many a year.

The St. Wilfrid's medieval fair was put on to celebrate 750 years of a market charter and what a fair it was. Words cannot describe the atmosphere created by medieval cooking, music, apothecaries, basket weaving, wattle and daub, a torture master and even a dragon.

The grand finale was a most spectacular fire show and fireworks to music.

The crowds flocked in their thousands and the market buzzed as it has not done for a very long time.

Thank you Stockport for a fair that will be long remembered.

'Market in Bloom' Flower Festival

The 'MARKET IN BLOOM' Flower Festival at St Mary's Parish Church, Stockport Market Place, officially opened tonight (Thursday) and has proved it's worth waiting for!

Beautiful and imaginative floral displays reflect the variety of stalls on the Market, whilst emphasising the focal areas of the church. The 'River of Roses' also provides visitors a chance to remember those who are no longer with us.

New Market Book

A new book is being launched this week by Stockport Heritage Trust.

It is the history of 750 years of Stockport Market and the surrounding area. It tells of the people, buildings and customs in a most well researched and easy to read way by Maureen Fahey, one of our members.

Very good value at £7 , it is A4 size, with 64 pages and 60 photographs, illustrations and maps.

You can get it from St. Mary's Heritage Centre on any Market Day 11am - 3pm, or Sat. Oct. 23rd we will be selling it in the market on our St. Wilfrid's Fair medieval stall.

Mushroom Hunt 2010

This year's mushroom hunt was on Wed. 13th October at Etherow Country Park.

After meeting for coffee the intrepid explorers set off through the wilds of Etherow Park, armed only with cameras and a small pocket sized guide on wild fungi.

The sun shone and the wind was light. There was much to see and photograph, but sadly no one had told the mushrooms we were coming, or had they?

Still a good day was had by all, and many thanks to Steve Cliffe for leading the expedition.

Stockport Train Crash

This A4 book covers a catalogue of human errors leading up to Stockport's only fatal rail disaster, in thick fog, on the viaduct, in 1948.

It includes an eye witness account, from a passenger who still remembers that fateful night.

It can be bought from the St. Mary's Heritage Centre, open on market days, for £6.

Market 750

6th Sep 1260 was the date of Stockport's Market Charter and Saturday's celebrations took the form of the Market through time.

Dan Bank Finished

Dan Bank in Marple is finished on time, and with the least possible disruption to residents.

And thanks mainly to Ray Peston our Offerton Historian the very old Oldknow boundary stones have been saved and put back as a feature of the roadside.

I must congratulate the contractors on this excellent piece of work.

Blue Plaque for County

At last the Stockport County Blue Plaque is in it's rightful place and was unveiled, by the Chairman Alwyn Thompson, last evening.

It is four years since the public voted it the most popular venue for a new Blue Plaque.