If you go down to the woods today* …….or Wednesday in Stockport

So, yes, I know Jimmy Kennedy’s line on going down to the woods is a lyric too far for Stockport Interchange, but there are trees, and bushes as well as a roof top garden all slowing maturing after a year.

And it is a popular place, and not just with people catching buses.

When I was there this week there were people using it as a meeting place, with some just sitting outside taking in the sun and more than a few just pausing between arriving and moving off into the town centre.

And there was even a couple with a picnic, or to be very accurate, a flask, some sandwiches and two cream cakes.  Still not sure if the hamper was meant to be eaten at the end of the destination or a sort of elevenses between breakfast and dinner.

Or perhaps it was destined for the roof garden with the an afternoon taking in views of the trains crossing the viaduct.

Now over the years I have stood in a heap of bus stations, some more desolate than others, and a few quite threatening, none compare with Stockport’s which has been designed with flair, imagination and style.

It replaces the old one which did the biz for 40 years and has that advantage that you can keep dry while waiting and is light and welcoming.

And according to my wikipedia so pleased was everyone with the Interchange that the public  were allowed access weeks before the official completion in the Sping of  2024, and mighty happy they were.

I leave others to add detailed comments on the walking and cycling links, the rooftop park, the 18 bus stands with the capacity to accommodate 164 bus departures per hour, cycle storage facilities and the travel shop which I used to talk to a very helpful member of staff who confirmed that the railway station was closed.

But that is another story.

Location; Stockport Interchange

Pictures; buses people and architecture, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*If you go down in the woods today,

You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go down in the woods today,

You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain because

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic. Teddy Bears' Picnic, melody written 1907, John Walter Bratton, , lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy, 1932

**Stockport Interchange, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Interchange

In Stockport with a bit of history ……

 Well, less the history and more the successor to Stockport’s bus station which after 40 years of receiving and sending buses out across Greater Manchester shut up shop at 3.15 am on August 29th, 2021.

Information Centre, 2025

I would like to say I was there with a tear in my eye and an old unused bus ticket, but I wasn’t.

Busy morning, 2025

Nor was I there when its reincarnation welcomed travellers in March 2024.

My Wikipedia tells me that “Stockport Interchange is a transport hub in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. As well as a bus station, it includes walking and cycling links, a rooftop park, and a mixed use residential and commercial building.

The interchange includes an accessible, covered passenger concourse with seated waiting areas, 18 bus stands with the capacity to accommodate 164 bus departures per hour, cycle storage facilities and a travel shop.

The development also includes a 2-acre landscaped park on its roof, located above the bus station. Following a public vote, it was named Viaduct Park. 

A brace of buses, 2025

A waterside walking and cycling route with a spiral ramp provides access from the River Mersey and the Trans Pennine Trail to the park and onward to the town centre.”*

All of which shows I missed a lot by not being there and indeed not actually going till this morning.

And there’s the rub, because I quite forgot to explore the garden, and missed making the interchange with the railway station.

If I am honest the bus station was always an after thought which just fitted into the big adventure which had been to travel into Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station from the nearest destination.

I know there are other contenders of which Ardwick and Ashburys are closer, and in the case of Ashburys there would be a sentimental link back to the days over fifty years ago when we lived off Grey Mare Lane and used the station.

Waiting, 2025

But I reasoned going to Stockport would allow me to visit the Interchange, and then take the train into the city to check out how much the skyline had changed since the 1970s.

Alas it failed to happen.

Stockport Railway Station had been closed for three weeks and wouldn’t reopen till Saturday.

And if that wasn’t enough, I discovered you had to pay 20p to use the Interchanges’ lavatory.  Now in this age of contactless payment I had long ago stopped carrying cash and was only saved by the intervention of a kindly old man who offered me the money as he left the lavatory.

So full marks Stockport’s Interchange for a magnificent bus station with its garden and fine views of the river, but perhaps it needs to revisit its policy of spending a penny and if abandoning the charge is not going to happen at least find an alternative way of paying.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; of the Interchange, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Wildflowers amongst the relics of Stockport’s past

If I wanted to pose a challenge, I could just ask where I was in Stockport, when I took this picture.

The sun was shiny, and the expanse of wildflowers might offer up a range of possible sites on the edges of rural Stockport.

But no, I was on that stretch of footpath looking down on Travis Brow, with Decathlon behind me.

It runs from Georges Road to Wellington Road North and goes under the giant viaduct carrying the railway line from Manchester into Stockport.

Now the busy A5145, the viaduct and Decathlon are all visible in part from the footpath but choose the angle correctly and you can create a shot of the wildflowers which suggest you are miles away from built up Stockport. 

And by extension the small, wooded area at the start of the footpath where it begins on Georges Road can also offer a deceptive rural scene.

But honesty is the name of the game, and so rather than deceive, here in the corner of the wooded area is one of those motorway signs that hint at just how close we are to the busy side of Stockport.

And which is confirmed by a group of wildflowers framed at the top by the wire fence of Decathlon.

And for those who want to pinpoint the relic, we are on Georges Road, and here is what it looked like in 1894.

Location; Stockport

Picture; Walking by Stockport’s relics; 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area in 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives, Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

So ....... what else can you use a railway viaduct for?

Now, the obvious use for a viaduct is to carry a railway line.

And my Wikipedia offers up that the “Stockport Viaduct carries the West Coast Main Line across the valley of the River Mersey.

It is one of the largest brick structures in the United Kingdom and a major structure of the early railway age…. was designed by George Watson Buck in consultation with the architect John Lowe for the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. 

Work began in March 1839 and despite its scale and flooding from the Mersey, the viaduct was completed in December 1840 and services commenced the same month. 

Roughly 11 million bricks were used in its construction; at the time of its completion, it was the world's largest viaduct and a major feat of engineering. The viaduct is 33.85 metres high. 

Since March 1975, Stockport Viaduct has been a Grade II* listed structure; it remains one of the world's biggest brick structures”.*

All well and good, but like so many big structures it has attracted other uses, from graffiti artist to a place to place interesting and mystery “electrical things”.

The electrical things will no doubt be instantly recognizable to some, who I hope will come forward with an explanation.

We shall see.

Location; Stockport, 

Pictures; The Stockport Viaduct, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Stockport Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Viaduct

The vanished railway sidings in Stockport

 Now this will be the last for a while on the short series on Stockport’s industrial relics.

2021

There are plenty more stories and images of the area’s working heritage, but the series focused on what was Georges Road Sidings, which originally was part of the Cheshire Lines Railway.

Today part of that land is the new industrial site which is home to Decathlon.

And so, I thought I would close the set of stories with a picture which captures both the new redesigned plot, with the Decathlon sign, the landscaped embankment, and the new road, with the of the area’s past.

1950s

The site is still impressively large, and according to Eddie Johnson, "the sidings were almost half a mile in length. [they] had been opened in 1866, together with the adjacent Wellington Road Depot and were the focus of the Cheshire Lines Railway goods operations in the central Stockport area. 

1922

Through the smokey haze, parallel to the railway line, are rows of terraced houses fronting Travis Brow and Brinksway Road.  A study of the Ordinance Survey map of Stockport for 1896 shows the area around the goods yard to be a hive of activity, with cotton mills, tin, iron and brass foundries, not forgetting hat factories”.*

Location; Stockport

Pictures; the former George Roads Sidings, 2021, and circa 1950s, from Railways In And Around Manchester Suburbs, and the area in 1922, from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1922, courtesy of the Royal Bank of Scotland

* Railways In And Around Manchester Suburbs, A Selective Pictorial Review, E.M. Johnson, 1989

Walking by Stockport’s relics

The wall.

And for those who want to pinpoint the relic, we are on Georges Road, and here is what it looked like in 1894.

Location; Stockport

Picture; Walking by Stockport’s relics; 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the area in 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives, Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Walking by Stockport’s relics

The wall.

Location; Stockport

Picture; Walking by Stockport’s relics; 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Walking by Stockport’s relics

The one that carried the railway line.

To which Tony Petrie has added, "I pass this quite regularly and find it odd that they haven't removed it for scrap. 

The bridge was still in situ when I worked on Wellington Rd in 1995".

Location; Stockport

Picture; Walking by Stockport’s relics; 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Snaps of Stockport no 5 looking down into Stockport

This is another of those wonderful snaps of Stockport taken sometime in the 1950s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them.*

Now I never knew Stockport in the 1950s but the image reminds me of where I grew up and I bet for those who did live here the memories will be flooding back.

Picture; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

*Stockport in the 1950s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Stockport%20in%20the%201950s

Snaps of Stockport no 4 looking down into Stockport

This is another of those wonderful snaps of Stockport taken sometime in the 1950s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them.*

And it pretty much speaks for itself so I will leave it at that.

Picture;  from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

*Stockport in the 1950s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Stockport%20in%20the%201950s

Snaps of Stockport no 3 looking down into Stockport

Now I just wonder from what window this picture was taken.

We are staring down into the town and bits of it are still recognisable today.

It was taken sometime in the 1950s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them.

The dome of the library to our right and the chimney stack and mill to our left are still there although the mill has long ceased making anything.

And of course the plumes of industrial and domestic smoke have also long gone.

I could go on but that would be just to state the obvious and deny you the pleasure of working out what has gone and what has been retained.

Pictures; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

Snaps of Stockport no 2 buying a bargain sometime in the 1950s

This is the second in the series of images of Stockport from the 1950s.  

They were all taken sometime in the 1940s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them.

Some have almost passed out of living memory but this one is recognisably little different today.

The Boar’s Head on the corner of Vernon Street and Market place is still there as are the stalls.

Of course the traders have changed and the clothes belong to a very different time but otherwise there is much that Mr Edmondson would be familiar with.

Pictures; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

Snaps of Stockport no 1 outside the Plaza

Now I always think the snap often outweighs the carefully prepared photograph.

Snaps have a freshness and directness that is often missing from  the ones taken by professional and commercial photographers.

These “superior” images may have a lot going for them but the snapper captures the moment.

Added to this we know that behind that snap is a picture which was special to the person who took it.

So here over the next few weeks are a series of snaps taken by William Ernest Edmondson who along with his wife worked in the Town Hall at Stockport.

They date from the 1950s and some reveal a Stockport that has all but been lost to living memory.
And that on its own makes them special.

They were first posted on facebook by his son Ian who has kindly granted me permission to republish them on the blog.

Pictures; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

Reclaiming Stockport’s Cattle Market ………… with lots of help from Bill Sumner

Now yesterday I explored the story of Stockport’s Cattle Market, which I found quite by chance on the 1906 OS map of Cheshire.*

1906

It stood in a pocket of land bordered on one side by Great Portwood Street, and the River Goyt and backed on to the Gas Works.

Today it is the retail park, which includes Matalan, Boots, Next and plenty of other High Street names.

But as for the cattle market I found nothing to tell me when it was opened, and when it closed.

Leaving me just to make the appeal, and within hours Bill Sumner came up with the deal.

The area according to one source had been a reservoir with the original cattle market had been sited on Castle Yard which had attracted the interest of the both the Romans and the Normans, both of whom added fortifications to the site.

In the 18th century Sir George Warren as lord of the manor levelled the land and built a circular brick turret, which was later demolished when the land was lowered in 1853 for the cattle market.**

This when it became unfit for purpose led to the move in 1879 to the Portwood site.

Bill also sent over four aerial pictures dating from the 1920s, into the 1940s, which add to the story.

And never one to lift other people’s research, here are the images along with what Bill wrote.***

1927

"This first one shows a mill to the right of St Mary's Church with its chimney hiding Millgate Bridge, the Cattle Market is the open ground on the other side of the river marked with a pink flag, there is a suggestion of some low buildings but the photo fades out. 

This is a blow up from Britain from Above -1927 St Mary's Church and the Unicorn Brewery Stockport 1927 EPW 019110.  

1931

This one shows St Mary's Church with the Stockport Electric Works (four chimneys) and the now enlarged Mill (1931) looking over the Cattle Market (flagged Pink) to the Gas Works. 

Image the Stockport Viaduct and the Town Stockport 1931 EPW036820 England(1931).  

I know this area now as the multi-unit shopping area next to Stockport's Asda.

1946

It is now 1946 and the Portwood Gas Works has spread over the entire site with a cooling tower where the Cattle Market used to be and a much-enlarged power station with huge single chimney obscuring St Mary's Church.

 Image EAW002109 England(1946) Portwood Gas Works and Environs Stockport 1946.

1946

This view shows St Mary's bottom right with the famous steps (Lowry?) leading down to the Power Station which has taken over that mill completely. 

The black objects next to the grey concrete cooling tower are wooden cooling towers with the gas works behind.  

Image EAW 002115 ENGLAND (1946) Portwood Gas Works and environs Stockport 1946".

To which, Dave from Marple has added, "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".

Research; Bill Sumner, with a contribution from Dave from Marple.

Pictures; The Cattle Market site, 1927,-1946, 1927 EPW 019110, 1931 EPW036820. 1946 EAW002109, 1946, EAW 002115, and in 1906, from the OS map of Cheshire, 1906, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*On discovering Stockport’s own Cattle Market, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/on-discovering-stockports-own-cattle.html

**Stockport A Pictorial History, Roy West, 2009, & 2013

***Britain From Above, https://britainfromabove.org.uk/

On discovering Stockport’s own Cattle Market …………….

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/

That iconic viaduct at Stockport ………

The railway viaduct over the Mersey at Stockport is an impressive structure and despite travelling over it and under it for over 56 years I never tire of looking at it.

That viaduct in 1979

My Wikipedia tells me that the “Stockport Viaduct carries the West Coast Main Line across the valley of the River Mersey in Stockport …. It is one of the largest brick structures in the United Kingdom and a major structure of the early railway age. It is immediately north of Stockport railway station.

That viaduct, 2023

The viaduct was designed by George Watson Buck in consultation with the architect John Lowe for the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. 

Work began in March 1839 and despite its scale and flooding from the Mersey, the viaduct was completed in December 1840 and services commenced the same month. 

Roughly 11 million bricks were used in its construction; at the time of its completion, it was the world's largest viaduct and a major feat of engineering. 

The viaduct is 33.85 metres (111.1 ft) high.

Since March 1975, Stockport Viaduct has been a Grade II* listed structure ; it remains one of the world's biggest brick structures”.*

2021

I first travelled over it in September 1969 when I came to Manchester as a student.

It would be a full decade later that I took my first pictures of the viaduct, and I have been drawn back heaps of times.

Of course for any one from Greater Manchester this great sweep of brick will be very familiar but given that the blog is read on every continent save the one where the penguins live, I think it’s fair to show it off.

1979

Stockport Railway Station, 1979

And for those who are curious ..... if you travel across it from Manchester and after crossing the valley the train pulls into Stockport Railway Station, which is just as  it should be.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; the Viaduct, 1979, 2021,&  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Andy Robertson, 2021

*Stockport Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Viaduct

Snaps of Stockport no 7 out on the streets

This is another of those wonderful snaps of Stockport taken sometime in the 1950s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them*and it will be the last for a while.

It is one my favourites from the collection because it perfectly captures a busy day in the town over sixty years ago and reminds me of the value of the “snap.”

Most were taken in an instant and record everyday life.

Few I suspect were ever destined to be be seen by a wide audience and yet like this one they deserve to be.

This is how we went about our business in the early 1950s, with men in old fashioned rain coats, creaky prams and women in head scarves.

It is a priceless image of a moment in time.






Pictures; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

*Stockport in the 1950s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Stockport%20in%20the%201950s

Snaps of Stockport no 6 of trams and factory chimneys

This is another of those wonderful snaps of Stockport taken sometime in the 1950s by William Ernest Edmondson whose son has kindly given me permission to publish them.*

I say 1950s but it can be no later than 1951 when the last tram clanked along a Stockport Road.

According to the Greater Manchester Transport Society, “hardly any of the network was abandoned until Manchester replaced the trams between Manchester and Hazel Grove with buses in January 1949. 

This forced the abandonment issue and a fleet of buses was purchased during 1950 and 1951. The last tram ran on 25th August 1951. Stockport was the last operator of conventional trams in Greater Manchester.”**

That said “Stockport Corporation was one of the early pioneers of trolleybuses in this country, placing 3 vehicles into service on the 10th March 1913 on a route that ran from the Market to Offerton along Hall Street. 

The service lasted until 8th October 1919, although by then only two of the three vehicles were in service.”**

Now I don’t have fond memories of the trolleybus which always made me feel ill whenever I travelled on one, so perhaps it is fitting that there isn’t one in sight.

Likewise our picture contains only one of those tall factory chimneys, and perhaps later I should set myself the task of finding out how many are left, but then I bet there will be someone who knows.

Picture; of Stockport, from the collection of William Ernest Edmondson, courtesy of Ian Edmondson

*Stockport in the 1950s, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Stockport%20in%20the%201950s

** Greater Manchester Transport Society,
http://www.gmts.co.uk/explore/history/stockport.html

Three pictures ..... one place ..... and another pub vanishes

I am not sure I believe that story that when another pub closes Eric Postlethwaite calls last orders and rings his bell somewhere in the vast licensing hall in the sky.

2020

But who am I to challenge the myth?

Instead I present three days in the life of the Farmer's Arms on Stockport Road  in Edgeley accompanied by Andy Robertson's observation on his pictures, "The Farmers Arms flattened on a flaming Friday in February.   Friday and February may or may not have been involved but I do like the liberal use of F words!"

On a May day in 2020 all seemed well, by November of the following year the place had gone dark and a week ago there was just a hole in the ground. 

2021

'nuff said.

2024

Location Stockport

Pictures; three days in the life of the Farmer's Arms, 2020, 2021, and 2024, from the collection of Andy Robertson

A bargain ……..the mystery machine …. and aunty Edna’s flying ducks

So, I am back at that emporium of forgotten things which graced my growing up. *

A snip at £35 and the headless mannequin, 2023

Some are instantly recognizable as the everyday items which were the backdrop to our houses in Eltham and Peckham.

A jug for every month and a bit more, 2023

Many were just the essentials of how we lived in the middle decades of the last century.  

The odd shaped glass container, Utility chairs, some battered spoons, an equally battered Hurricane lamp all of which competed with a clutch of dog-eared knitting patterns.

And amongst the array of toby jugs was the one mother acquired somewhere, although our Elizabeth has no memory of it and with the passage of time, I have no idea where it ended up.

That said I couldn’t find any flying ducks, well not the ones we had.  

Mother with a keen eye to all things modern picked up three stylish examples in green and gold which were an artistic and contemporary take on the conventional ones.  

Like many of the things we had they were chipped and looked tired but that just added to the sense that they were ours and despite the chips were treasured statements of taste.

I guess part of the attraction of wandering through the avenues of old stuff are the memories they evoke, and a reminder of just how different things were in the past, a landscape which our kids would just not recognise.

Like the hurricane lamps which on very cold nights dad would light and place in the roof space to keep the temperature from dropping below freezing and thereby protect the water pipes.

State of art, 2023

Or the ribbed metal wash boards which mum and Nana used to rub the clothes after soaking them before putting them in the top loading washing machine which was so basic it had to be filled and emptied manually couldn’t spin and just about heated the water up.

I was too young to use the wash board as a musical instrument, but I knew someone who did.

He, and I suspect my parents would be shocked at the prices these objects now command and would only vaguely comprehend how what was a utilitarian and essential item has been elevated to something displayed in a prominent place to be admired.

Having said that our old Singer sewing machine sits in the study performing the same function.

The mystery thing, 2023

Leaving me just to ponder on one highly priced instrument I came across.  It looks scientific but that is the extent of my knowledge, but someone will know.

And may also offer up a comment on the painting priced at £35 and the equally attractive Speedo mannequin which once would have sported a daring and fashionable swimsuit.

Comments should be sent on a vintage picture postcard, or made via a Bakelite telephone to the Cho exchange, taking care that on Sunday’s the party line is heaving use by our neighbour.

Location; Vintage Emporium, Pear Mill, Stockport

Pictures; History at treble the price ……. 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*History at treble the price …….https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/01/history-at-treble-price.html