Now, when you are a stranger and unfamiliar with the history of a place you can be forgiven for stating the obvious and even more so if you discover something which everyone else knew about.
So, I had no idea that Stockport had its own cattle market which was sandwiched between Great Portwood Street and the River Goyt in a pocket of land which backed on to the Gas Works.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given that during the 19th century it was still the practice to bring live animals into our towns and cities, to be butchered by family businesses and sold on to their customers.
In the 1950s, I spent great chunks of time while on holiday with my grandparents at the Derby Cattle Market, which I suppose was what passed for a special treat.
So, with this in mind I went looking for references to the Stockport Cattle market.
It appears on the 1906 OS map, but not on the 1870 version, and so far I can’t find mention of it in the directories.
Today the site is occupied by the retail park which include, Matalan, Next, Boots and Argos, and so I am confident that there will be people who remember the area before the recent development.
And in turn will be able to point me in the direction of pictures, maps and descriptions of the market and its final demise.
Location; Borough Cattle Market, Stockport
Picture; Borough Cattle Market, Stockport, from the OS for Cheshire, 1906, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given that during the 19th century it was still the practice to bring live animals into our towns and cities, to be butchered by family businesses and sold on to their customers.
In the 1950s, I spent great chunks of time while on holiday with my grandparents at the Derby Cattle Market, which I suppose was what passed for a special treat.
So, with this in mind I went looking for references to the Stockport Cattle market.
It appears on the 1906 OS map, but not on the 1870 version, and so far I can’t find mention of it in the directories.
Today the site is occupied by the retail park which include, Matalan, Next, Boots and Argos, and so I am confident that there will be people who remember the area before the recent development.
And in turn will be able to point me in the direction of pictures, maps and descriptions of the market and its final demise.
Location; Borough Cattle Market, Stockport
Picture; Borough Cattle Market, Stockport, from the OS for Cheshire, 1906, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
I worked for Northwest Gas at the Portwood site from 1975 till the late 80s when the new development took place. The site of the cattle market had up until the early 80s been occupied by Norweb, the electricity supply company. I have always known it was the site of an earlier cattle market as I recall there being a sign on one of the gates into the site identifying that it had been the site of a cattle market.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave.
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