User:Skinsmoke/Sandbox/Bredbury

Bredbury
Goyt Hall
Bredbury Location within Greater Manchester
OS grid reference	SJ925915
• London	157 miles (253 km) SSE
Metropolitan borough	Stockport
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STOCKPORT
Postcode district	SK6
Dialling code	0161
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Hazel Grove

Bredbury is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, part of the English county of Greater Manchester, located 7.9 miles (12.7 km) south east of Manchester, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Stockport and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) south west of Hyde. Until 1974 it formed part of Bredbury and Romiley Urban District, which is now an unparished area of 28,829 people.

The village reaches to the lower southern slopes of Werneth Low, an outlier of the Peak District between the valleys of the River Tame and River Goyt, head-waters of the River Mersey.

Originally an agricultural community, Bredbury was transformed into an industrial village by the building of canals and railways. In the 19th and 20th centuries, cotton manufacturing, coal mining and steel making all brought increased prosperity to the village. More recently, the construction of the M60 motorway has led to an influx of light industry and offices, and the development of the village as a dormitory suburb for Manchester and Stockport.

History

The Domesday Book records the occupants of Bredbury as a duck and a sheep.

Although the names of most hills, rivers and other natural features around Bredbury are of Celtic origin, Bredbury is thought to be an Anglo-Saxon name meaning Stronghold Built of Planks. The village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as being several hundred acres of land valued at £3, although the only occupants listed were a duck and a sheep. It consisted of farmland bought by Lord Danton in 1014; the Lord of Bredbury was Wulfric, an Anglo-Saxon thegn. The village appears to have escaped the fate of most of Cheshire, which was described as wasteland; a result of William the Conqueror's brutal suppression of Mercian resistance to the Norman conquest, during which whole swathes of land were destroyed, villages razed, crops burnt and livestock slaughtered.

At some stage the manor came into the hands of the Vernons, an influential family who owned lands around Gawsworth in Cheshire East. The Vernon family had accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy; Richard de Vernon was married to Adeliza, the daughter of William Peverel of Nottingham, who was alleged to be William the Conqueror's illegitimate son.

Bredbury then passed to the Mascis of Dunham, under whom it was held by the Fitz-Waltheofs of Stockport. A charter granted by the third Hamon de Masci, Lord of Dunham, who died about the end of the reign of King John in 1216, confirms the ownership of lands in Bredbury to the Fitz-Waltheofs, and gives an insight into the working of the feudal system of the period. The conditions laid down in this charter were usual under the feudal system, when military expeditions into Wales were common tasks for the Earl of Chester and his underlords:-

And I, Hamo, regrant to Robert, the son of Waltheof, Bredbury and Brinnington, with their appurtenances, as his inheritance, to him and his heirs, to hold of me and my heirs, by the service of carrying my bed, my arms or my clothing, whenever the Earl of Chester in his own proper person shall go to Wales. And I, Hamo, will fully furnish Robert, the sone of Waltheof, and his heirs, with a sumpter beast and a man and a sack, and we will find estovers (sufficient food) whilst he is with us in the field, until he shall be returned, to the said Robert or his heirs. And Robert, the son of Waltheof, shall pay to ransom my body from captivity and detention, and to make my eldest son a knight, and to give my eldest daughter a marriage portion, in consideration of which Robert has given me a gold ring.

By Tudor times, continental trade had been ruined by the Dutch War of Independence and home production of cloth was encouraged: great flocks of sheep grazed on the moors and hillsides of the district, sheep farmers and weavers prospered, and established families such as the Ardernes of Arden Hall became wealthy and influential. A schedule of land ownership in 1661 showed that there were two lords of the manor: Sir Fulke Lucy of Henbury, who owned Goyt Hall, and John Arderne of Bredbury, who owned Arden Hall. Shortly after this Sir John Arderne acquired the whole manor.

The days of the great local landowners ended in the early 19th century. William Arden, 2nd Lord Alvanley, succeeded to the Arden estates on the death of his uncle in July 1823. He was a bachelor who had spent his life in the circle of the Prince Regent, building up heavy debts in expectation of his inheritance. Within a month of getting the estates he had sold Underbank Hall in Stockport, and in 1825 most of the Bredbury lands were sold in lots, realising in three days nearly £154,000. There was a final sale, including the mansion of Arden Hall in 1833. For the next century most of the old manor lands were held by a small number of families, including the Horsfields, Hudsons and Vaudreys, until it became profitable to sell to building developers.

Industrial Revolution

In 1754, the population of Bredbury was 597. The district was little more than a group of hamlets, including Barrack Hill, Harrytown and Hatherlow, but the Industrial Revolution brought a number of cotton mills, some of which depended on the water power provided by the rivers and the Peak Forest Canal.

The weir at Otterspool was intended to provide water power for an industrial estate along the banks of the River Goyt.

At the sale of the Bredbury estate, an area lying along the River Goyt was purchased by a Mr Marsden, who built a weir at Otterspool and planned to use water power to develop the valley as an industrial estate. However, he failed to secure the water rights. and by the time the lengthy legal proceedings were completed water power had been superseded by steam.

The construction of the Peak Forest Canal by Samuel Oldknow, opened in sections in the 1790s and 1800s, had a striking effect on the village. It provided a water supply and transport for raw materials, fuel and finished products for the new mills; and made it possible to import lime from Derbyshire for agricultural improvement. The green fields and rich crops of the local farms were remarked upon by visitors, and with easy transport to the growing markets of Manchester and Stockport local farming was prosperous in the period following the Napoleonic Wars, when elsewhere in the country there was rural depression.

Such improvement was not without opposition. A gang of Luddites attacked Arden Corn Mill in 1812: the miller was threatened, and flour removed to be sold cheaply to local families. A collier from Bredbury and three hatters from Denton were found guilty at Chester: each was fined a shilling and sentenced to seven years transportation to a penal colony.

Bredbury Railway Station opened in 1875.

The coming of the railways led to further industrial development; a steady growth of population; and the fusing of the separate settlements into the village of Bredbury. The first line was the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway branch from Hyde Junction, which was opened in 1862. The Stockport and Woodley Junction line opened in 1863; and the lines from Romiley Junction to Bredbury Junction and Ashburys were opened in 1875. On 1 February 1867, Midland Railway trains began to run through the village, as part of the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee, to Manchester London Road, at first on the Hyde line, and later through Reddish. The terminus was transferred to Manchester Central in 1880, with trains running through Stockport. In 1901 a tramway was opened along the A560 from Stockport to Hyde.

Coal mining became an important local industry, with as many as nine local pits; brick-making was carried on, Jacksons Brickworks surviving into the 1970s; and there were several large hat works, the last of which closed in 1958. Steel making grew from a small enterprise until Bredbury Steelworks employed over 2,000 people; and companies relocated out of the congested centres of Manchester and Salford. Arden Mill was requisitioned by the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 as His Majesty's Cotton Waste Mill, although it appears to have been destroyed by a large explosion before production started.

In the 1930s, and after World War II, the growth rate accelerated with the coming of new industries, including engineering, chemicals, clothing, and textiles, whilst the village became an important residential area on the periphery of the Greater Manchester Urban Area. A large bakery opened in 1951; comprehensive sewerage and sewage disposal services were put into operation in 1938; Highfield Cemetery opened in 1929; and after considerable pressure by the Government and the Mersey River Board, in 1966 a joint sewage treatment scheme with Stockport was agreed to provide for the rapidly growing population and additional industry.

Governance

Bredbury was a township in Stockport parish in the Macclesfield hundred of Cheshire. It became a separate civil parish in 1866; at the same time Bredbury and Romiley Urban Sanitary District was formed covering the new parishes of Bredbury and Romiley. The area became an urban district in 1894, and was extended in 1902 to include Brinnington parish. A further expansion occurred when Compstall Urban District was absorbed under the County of Chester Review Order 1936; although Brinnington township was transferred to the County Borough of Stockport by the Stockport (Extension) Order 1952, to enable a large residential overspill estate to be built. The urban district was abolished in 1974 and incorporated into the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and the new county of Greater Manchester.

Bredbury now forms part of two wards of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council: Bredbury and Woodley, and Bredbury Green and Romiley. Each ward is represented by three councillors; five seats are held by the Liberal Democrats; the Conservative Party holds one of the seats in Bredbury Green and Romiley.

Economy

Coal mining at Bredbury had been recorded in the Stockport parish records of 1598, but after the sale of the Bredbury estates, a number of new mines were sunk. Clegg Gate and Redhouse Lane pits opened in 1825; Brinnington Moor in 1836; Alvanley, Bents Lane, Berrycroft and Rising Sun pits by 1841; and Black Mine Colliery in 1850. Bredbury Colliery opened in 1889, and within seven years employed 336 workers; three seams were being worked producing three types of coal. In 1899 the Bredbury Colliery Company was formed, although it was often run with inadequate capital: the men sometimes had to wait for their wages until customers had paid their bills. By 1918 there were still 212 men employed. Production was halted by the General Strike of 1926, and it was another three years until it reopened under new ownership; the colliery officially closed in 1936 for economic reasons, and due to flooding. The remaining structures were demolished in 1961 using explosives.

Steel production grew from a small building employing two men to the large Bredbury Steelworks which, at its height, employed over 2,000 people. Owned by Exors of James Mills, it existed for over 100 years. In the early part of the 20th century, the company began to roll steel and became the largest producer of bright steel outside the United States. Other products were added from time to time, including cotters for locomotives; engineer's keys; taper pins; grooved fastenings for securing all kinds of assemblies; railway permanent way fastenings; rail lubricators; and hot pressings of various types. In 1938 the company introduced lead-bearing steels to the United Kingdom, and in the 1960s developed free machining steels containing tellurium and an alloy replacement steel. The business finally closed in 1983, with the loss of 404 jobs.

Pear New Mill was one of the last cotton spinning mills built in England.

Pear New Mill was built in 1912 for the Pear Spinning Company as a cotton spinning mill, one of the last built in England. The company were spinners of superfine white hosiery yarn, and the mill had 137,312 spindles; one of the widest flywheels installed in the United Kingdom; and employed over 400 people.

The firm of Lightbown Aspinall started making wallpaper in Pendleton and, in 1899, became part of the newly formed Wall Paper Manufacturers. In 1929, the plant was transferred to the newly built Hayfield Mills in Bredbury, where the company produced Crown and Scene wallpapers and Crown Vinyl wall covering, employing 450 people. The parent company controlled 80 per cent of the British wallpaper market by 1961.

William Crosland, an engineer and ironfounder, started business in 1855 in an upstairs room in Manchester. The founder was later joined by his four sons, and the company moved to Bank Foundry in Bredbury in 1894, manufacturing machines and cutting tools for the packaging industry and specialised tooling for the sheet metal trade.

At the 2001 census 55.1 per cent of the population were in employment, and 8.5 per cent were self employed; the unemployment rate was 2.5 per cent; and 15.5 per cent were retired. Of those employed, 18.6 per cent worked in the wholesale and retail trades; 17.8 per cent in manufacturing; 11.8 per cent in real estate, renting and business activities; and 10.0 per cent in health and social work. Those working from home amounted to 8.6 per cent; 62.1 per cent travelled less than 6.2 miles (10 km) to their place of work; and 3.0 per cent travelled more than 25 miles (40 km).

Transport

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Bus

Route Number	Route	Serving	Operator
20	Debden Broadway to Walthamstow Central via Loughton	High Road	Arriva London
167	Debden Broadway to Ilford Hainault Street via Barkingside	Loughton Way, Buckhurst Hill Station, Roding Lane	Docklands Buses
397	Debden Broadway to Crooked Billet Sainsburys via Chingford	High Road	Arriva London
549	Loughton Station to South Woodford Station via Woodford	Buckhurst Way, Buckhurst Hill Station, Palmerston Road, High Road	Docklands Buses
804	Debden Broadway to Chigwell West Hatch High School via Loughton (School service)	Roding Lane, Buckhurst Hill Station, Palmerston Road, High Road	Blue Triangle

Sport

Iron Age

The area must have been unattractive to the Brigantes settlers in pre-Roman Britain, with its bleak hilltop, the heavy clay soil of the intermediate land probably covered by trees and becoming marshy where the slopes flattened out, and the swampy valley floors. The rivers flowed more fully before their waters were dammed in the 19th century to supply Manchester, Stockport and other towns. However, where the valley of the River Goyt narrows at New Bridge, passage was possible, and here an ancient highway entered the village to proceed along the higher land to the north east.

Roman Occupation

The Romans surveyed and constructed a road between the forts of Mamucium (Manchester) and Ardotalia (Melandra Castle at Gamesley) over this ancient track and this in turn became an 18th-century turnpike road and the Liverpool to Skegness trunk road, the A560.

Some years ago a Roman coin was dug up on the edge of the road between Bredbury Station and St Mark's Church. The coin long antedates any Roman occupation of this part of the country, and may either have been lost when held as a souvenir or have been brought over from the continent in the course of trade.

Middle Ages

By a general inquisition of tenures, taken 10 May 1288, to determine the services due to Edward I in the Welsh Wars, it was found that "Richard de Stokeport holds Bredbury of Hamo de Masci" and "makes service to our Lord the King with one uncaparisoned horse".

Some time during the 14th century the manor of Bredbury was sub-divided into two portions, the larger of which was held by the Bredburys, and passed from them, by marriage with an heiress, to the Ardernes. The remaining portion ultimately came into the possession of the Davenports of Henbury.

It would appear, however, that the manor of Bredbury was still held by the Stokeports, for in the inquisition post mortem of Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard de Stokeport, taken in 1370, it was found that the manor of Bredbury, with its appurtenances, was held from Roger Lestrange, lord of Dunham Massey, by knight's service, and that it was worth 100 shillings per annum.

In the same year, another inquisition was taken on the death of Hugh de Davenport, which records that he died "seised of two parts of the manor of Bredbury, and of land in Romiley and Werneth" and that Thomas de Davenport was his son and heir, aged 12 years. These lands remained in the possession of the Davenports for several generations The manor house of the Davenports in Bredbury was Goyt Hall on the banks of the River Goyt.

Modern Era

Until the beginning of the 19th century, a Court Baron was held for the lordship under the title of the Court of the Manor of Bredbury cum Goyt.

The main road continued to be of importance, particularly for the transport of salt from Cheshire, throughout medieval times. In the 17th century there were as many as twelve smithies in Bredbury. Since one blacksmith usually satisfied the needs of any one township, it would appear that so many craftsmen were needed to shoe the packhorses which moved in long processions through the village.

Industrial Revolution

Population (including Woodley village)

year	population
1754	597
1851	2,990
1881	3,733
1911	5,876
1931	7,154
1951	12,020
1961	13,921
1966	17,700

20th Century

In 1948, the tramway along the A560 from Stockport to Hyde and beyond was abandoned after less than 50 years use.

Bredbury has since thrown the shackles of the industrial mill into the River Goyt, and moved into the 21st Century. 12% of the local businesses are now powered by green fuel, a scheme developed by the local council to clean the air of Bredbury.

Governance

The council offices were in Bredbury Old School on School Brow until 1919, when Bank House on George Lane was acquired. The site has since been redeveloped for housing.

The council's first acquisition of houses was a terrace at Vernon View in 1922. Construction of the houses had been delayed by the First World War. In the same year the first council estate was commenced at George Lane.

The council subsequently owned over 2,000 homes, including several schemes for old people's accommodation incorporating welfare features.

In 1959, the urban district council intervened over an application by Manchester City Council for a compulsory purchase order to build an overspill estate on 60 acres (240,000 m²) of land at Bredbury Green, offering two other sites instead. The confirmed area was reduced to 24 acres (97,000 m²). The City Council subsequently completed several relatively small overspill estates, which resulted in more successful integration than in some nearby areas.

The council was for many years in the forefront of a campaign for the preservation and restoration of the Lower Peak Forest Canal and the connecting waterways of the Cheshire Ring. The canal reopened in 1974.

Landmarks

The village has extensive areas of attractive countryside, both in the river valleys and on the slopes of Werneth Low.

Arden Hall

Arden Hall, (Aiken, 1795)

The most famous of the halls of Bredbury, Arden Hall, erected in 1597, is now a ruin standing in a commanding position above the valley of the River Tame. For over two centuries it was owned by the Ardernes, who had other possessions in Cheshire and were a junior branch of the Arden family of Warwickshire, of whom William Shakespeare's mother was a member.

The building was at one time "a tall building, narrow in proportion to its height and length, built of flat stones or parpoints, and having a sturdy watchtower at the back, looking over the valley of the River Tame. It was surrounded by a wide and deep moat. On the front were three gables, two of them projecting from the face of the hall, the third being flush with it. The entrance doorway was in the side of the central gable, and was approached from the courtyard by a flight of steps. Passing through the doorway a heavy oak door on the right side opened at once into the Great Hall, and in the tower exactly opposite was a wide oak staircase, which led to the upper part of the house. The Great Hall occupied the whole of the ground floor of this portion of the building, and was about 33 feet (10 m) long by 24 feet (7.3 m) wide. At the end was a raised platform where the high table was situated, lighted by two loft bay windows, one at each end. The year in which some portion of the hall, if indeed not the whole of it, was erected, is fixed from the date 1597 on the spout above the entrance, and the initials and date R A 1597 on the right hand gable."

The remains of Arden Hall, built in 1597, stand in a commanding position above the River Tame.

In the particulars of sale of 1825, it states that "the ancient mansion house of Arden Hall has been in part converted into a commodious farm house, with every requisite convenience", and it had already been let as such.

There is a tradition that Oliver Cromwell stayed at the hall and that there was a skirmish nearby between Cavaliers and Roundheads, but there is no firm evidence, although the access to the hall is called Battle Lane. However, Ralph Arderne, like most other local gentry, espoused the Parliamentarian cause, and saw action in several engagements.

Bredbury Hall

Bredbury Hall, approached from Dark Lane, has been so altered as to have lost every vestige of its former appearance. it was probably built upon the site of a former homestead, as some branch of the Bredburys is supposed to have settled here in early times.

The great barn of Bredbury Hall, of cruck framed construction, is medieval in origin although the original framing timbers have been overlaid by brick.

In 1638, the hall was occupied by a branch of the Davenports, a connection of the Bredburys. In later times, the venerable building degenerated into an ordinary farmstead.

In the 19th century, it was rebuilt, and converted into a fine family residence in the Georgian style.

For some years prior to the erection of St Barnabas Church, services were held here. The hall, outbuildings and grounds are now used as a hotel and country club, and the buildings have been much modified to suit that purpose.

The great barn, 42 yards (38 m) long of cruck framed construction, is medieval in origin although the original framing timbers have been overlaid by brick.

Now owned by the Flood family, Bredbury Hall is now a recognised Hotel and Country Club with an array of famous faces entering the doors every week from Worldwide darts personalities to the elite from the snooker world.

The great barn is now renovated into a large nightclub which has 6 bars, 2 floors, pool, darts and a large dance floor.

Bredbury Hall is now known as a popular hotel, and many of its stories are now lost or just unknown. It is however said that the ghosts of the old manor that stood here previously still roam the hallways at night, and there have been many sightings and hearings of this.

Bredbury Library

The original library on George Lane opened in 1937, and the capacity was doubled by extensions in 1962, comprising a children's room and reference room. The latter, now used as a Council information point, is a dodecahedral annexe, erected mainly out of funds collected locally, as a War Memorial for World War II, and contains memorial windows designed by a local artist and a Book of Remembrance for the dead in both World Wars. Further substantial extensions and alterations, including the conversion of the War Memorial room into an exhibition and lecture room, were completed in 1970.

In 1950, the Centenary Year of the Public Library Movement, plaques were unveiled at the Library in honour of Sir Ernest Barker, the Woodley-born writer on political and historic subjects, and Thomas Greenwood, the Woodley-born writer and advocate of free public libraries.

Bredbury Old School

Erected at School Brow in 1780 by John Arden, Lord of the Manor, and the freeholders of the township of Bredbury, on land enclosed from the Common of Barrack Hill, Bredbury Old School was vested in trustees who were to "appoint a proper and sufficient person to be Schoolmaster". The appointee was to enter into a bond with the trustees "in the penal sum of £200 at the least conditioned for the due observance of the several rules and conditions" set out in the trust deed, including that he "shall duly and properly teach and instruct children to read, write and cast accompts and that his wife or some sufficient person to be by him provided shall teach girls to knit and sew".

The building of larger schools and the passing of the Education Acts rendered the building obsolete, and by an order of the Charity Commissioners in 1889 the trustees were instructed to "apply the trust income either in making payments by way of rewards or prizes to children attending public elementary schools in the townships of Bredbury and Romiley for good conduct, regularity in attendance and proficiency during a period of three years next preceding the award, or in the payment of exhibitions tenable at places of higher education." Later changes to the grant system made the second power ineffectual but awards of cash continue to be made to local schoolchildren a few days before Christmas, together with a traditional form of certificate.

The building has, since its closing as a school, been used for a variety of purposes, including use as offices of Bredbury and Romiley Urban District Council. By the 1950s, it had fallen into serious disrepair. Its re-roofing with asbestos cement sheets and the rendering of the walls modified the external appearance very seriously, but inside the original floors and timbers were still visible. After the repairs it was leased to Romiley Little Theatre as their club-house, and the surrounding land was let as allotments.

Goyt Hall

The marriage of the last of the Davenports in 1664 brought Goyt Hall into the possession of Sir Fulke Lucy.

Goyt Hall, which stands in the valley of the River Goyt, midway between Otterspool Bridge and New Bridge, is a half-timbered building erected by Randal Davenport about the year 1570, although William Davenport of Goyt Hall, who appears as witnessing a mortgage, died in 1542.

The marriage of the last of the Davenports in 1664 brought the hall into the possession of Sir Fulke Lucy, a kinsman of Sir Thomas Lucy who features in the story of William Shakespeare's youth. This rather tenuous association was marked by the naming of the streets on the nearby Shakespeare Estate, an overspill development built by Manchester City Council.

Harrytown Hall

Formerly occupied by the Convent of the Nativity of the Sisters of Charity of Notre Dame d'Évron, who maintained Harrytown High School, Harrytown Hall dates from 1671, and is well-preserved in spite of being Gothicised during the Romantic Revival. The building was converted into apartments in the early 1980s.

Transport

The M60 motorway approaching Bredbury

Bredbury is served by Bredbury railway station on the Hope Valley Line from Sheffield to Manchester. Buses link the village with the neighbouring communities of Ashton under Lyne, Brinnington, Compstall, Denton, Dukinfield, Hyde, Marple, Marple Bridge, Romiley, Stalybridge, Stockport and Woodley.

Education

Bredbury is home to the National Library for the Blind and contains a public library and two secondary schools.

Religious sites

St Mark (Church of England)

The parish church of Bredbury is dedicated to St Mark.

Although the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, Bredbury was without a church until the middle of the 19th century. The first move towards the establishment of a local church and parish, as district from that of St Mary's in Stockport, was made in 1846, when an Order in Council marked out the boundaries of the "District of St Mark, Bredbury".

It was not long before a site for the church was secured through the generosity of John Sidebotham of Kingston in Hyde, and in 1847 the foundation stone of the new church was laid by the donor of the site. The church was consecrated on 17 January 1849, and the church school was opened in 1850.

Built of freestone in the Early English style, the church consists of a square tower having four pinnacles, a nave and aisles, and a chancel with a vestry on the north side. The tower is 70 feet (21 m) high, occupying a commanding position, a contains a clock and a peal of bells. The windows consist of two lights each, the chancel window of three lights being filled with painted glass illustrating the Crucifixion, erected by William Collier Vaudrey in 1875, to the memory of his wife and her sister.

The Church School (now rebuilt), is on the opposite side of Redhouse Lane.

St Barnabas (Church of England)

In 1942 Bredbury Hall, with its 11 acres (45,000 m²) of land, was purchased by the Diocese of Chester to be used as a mission church and social centre for Lower Bredbury. On 16 May 1943, the Lord Bishop of Chester dedicated an altar in one of the rooms of the hall.

Later the new church was erected nearby and was dedicated to St Barnabas by the Bishop of Chester on 27 March 1954.

Bredbury Hall was then sold off.

Our Lady and St Christopher (Roman Catholic)

The Roman Catholic faith is ministered to by the Church of Our Lady and St Christopher at Barrack Hill, which was erected in 1932. A presbytery was added in 1952, and the church was subsequently enlarged and a parish hall added. Roman Catholic services were previously held in the chapel at Harrytown Hall.

Hatherlow (United Reformed Church)

Hatherlow Congregational Church opened in 1845, although the burial ground surrounding it goes back to 1793.

Hatherlow Church traces its history back to 1645, services then being held in Chadkirk Chapel, and it was the oldest Congregational body in Cheshire. The first independent minister at Chadkirk was Gamallel Jones, who settled there in 1688 or 1689. In the latter year the "Meeting Place" at Chadkirk was certified as a licensed place for religious worship shortly after the passing of the Toleration Act. When they were finally ejected in the reign of Queen Anne, a new building was erected in 1706 on the site now occupied by Hatherlow Sunday School.

It is recorded in a statistical table of the dissenting chapels in Cheshire, begun about 1715, that the congregation at Hatherlow numbered about 300 hearers, including 10 gentlemen, 39 tradesmen, 26 yeomen and 8 labourers. These would be drawn from a very wide area.

The present church was opened as Hatherlow Congregational Church in 1845, although the burial ground surrounding it goes back to 1793. A day school was established in 1780 at Bredbury Old School on School Brow, and the building known as Top School on Gorsey Brow, now partially demolished, was built in 1830 as an overflow. The day school continued until it was succeeded by the Council school at Barrack Hill in 1909.

Hatherlow Sunday School was established in May 1817, and was held first at School Brow and then at the Top School. The present Sunday School was built in 1911.

The church has always been the centre of cultural activity in the district, and was the home of the former Bredbury Amicable Subscription Library, founded in 1822, and later of Hatherlow Botanical Society.

Notable people

• Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley (1744 - 1804), Solicitor General, Attorney General and politician
• Lord Danton (1232-), peer of the United Kingdom
• Will Mellor (1976-), actor and amateur pop star
• Robert Robinson (1726 - 1791), clergyman
• Peter Charles Snape (1942-), politician
• Mike Yarwood (1941-), impressionist

John Agecroft

John Agecroft (1716 - 1804) lived in a cottage at Barrack Hill where, until the end of the 19th century, a crude bust stood in a niche on the outer wall. A canvass weaver, bookbinder and well known local eccentric, he is said to have conceived the idea of the bust from that of William Shakespeare at Stratford upon Avon, and to have made the matrix by pushing his face into the hardening mud of a ditch. The bust, or part of it, in the form of a death mask, was on display in the Council Chamber when Agecroft Road was named.

Edward McLellan

Born in Redhouse Lane, the son of the village clogger, Edward McLellan (1870 - 1967) attended St Mark's School. It speaks much for the quality of education there, under the headmaster Silas Whipp, that without further formal education he was able to enter Hartley College, the Primitive Methodist Ministers' Training college, from which he embarked on 47 years of active ministry. In 1931 he reached the highest point he could attain in his vocation when he was elected President of the Primitive Methodist Conference.

He published many articles and stories in magazines and wrote a number of books on religious subjects. He continued to preach to an advanced age, and conducted services after his 90th year at both Woodley and Greave.

Thomas Platt

Thomas Platt (1745 - 1824) of Dark Lane House was claimed to have established a Sunday school some years before Robert Raikes, the usually accredited founder of the system. In recruiting for Stockport Parish Church choir, he found that many of the boys and girls he gathered could not read, and so instructed them on Sunday evenings. When Raikes's system spread to Greater Manchester, Platt became the paid headmaster of one of the Stockport Sunday schools.

References

Further reading

• Aiken, John (1795). A Description of the County from 30 – 40 Miles Round Manchester
• Cocks, James (1895). Memorials of Hatherlow
• Cocks, James (1924). Annals of Bredbury Part 1
• Earwaker, J P (1880). East Cheshire
• Bredbury and Romiley Urban District : The Official Guide (1970)
• Biographical Notes on Sir Ernest Barker and Thomas Greenwood (1950)
• St Mark's Centenary Booklet (1949)

External links

• Bredbury Library
• Bredbury War Memorial
• Friends of Bredbury Rec
• Bredbury Hall to Otterspool Bridge
• Our Lady and St Christophers Roman Catholic Church