Woodley Station

This is a black and white view of Woodley Station in 2013. It was opened on 5 August 1862 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and later became a junction when a line from Stockport Tiviot Dale opened in 1865. The station subsequently became jointly owned and operated by the MS&L, Great Northern Railway and Midland Railway as part of the Cheshire Lines Committee system. The Stockport route closed to passengers in January 1967, although a short section at the eastern end remains in use for goods traffic (serving a Tarmac stone terminal and the waste recycling plant at Bredbury - the one that caught fire ten days ago! - see Fire behind McDonald's).

It was once a busy line that ran to Macclesfield and beyond but now there is just an half-hourly service from Manchester Piccadilly to Rosehill (Marple).

Compare it with scene below taken in 1989.

The old station buildings have been sold off and are private houses. Note how the windows on the station side have been blocked off. The train running today, a two coach diesel unit, is much the same as the one in 1989.

  © Copyright Peter Whatley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White and Scenic Weekends.

View from Heaton Norris Park

Looking across the town from Heaton Norris Park.

The land for this park was acquired by public subscription and as a gift from Lord Egerton. Work on laying out the site as a public park began in May 1873, and it was formally opened on June 5th 1875. The total area of the park at the time was 16 acres, 2 rods & 38 poles. During the Munich crisis of 1938 large trenches were dug in the park in preparation for possible air raids. Construction of the motorway in the 1970s took several acres away from the park. More recently the park has become the venue for the annual Stockport Civic Bonfire. Information from Stockport MBC.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Fire behind McDonald's

On 20th August 2013 a large fire broke out at a waste recycling plant on Bredbury Industrial Estate. The fire could be seen from miles around and thick acrid smoke spread as far as Leeds. There were, however, no reports of any casualties.

This was the scene four days later; the fire is contained but still burning. The roads are all now open and there is access to all the businesses in the area which are mostly carrying on as normal.

This photograph was taken by the entrance to McDonald's on Whitefield Road.

For a news report see BBC News.

For a real inside view see the Manchester Evening News.

Readers should note that this place is NOT the Bredbury Park Household Recycling Centre although it isn't far away from there.

A contribution to signs, signs.

G is for Garrick Theatre

The Stockport Garrick is the oldest Little Theatre in the country and has staged plays continuously since it was formed in 1901.

The Stockport Garrick Theatre was founded on 24th of October, 1901, by engineer Edwin Heys and his fellow actors: fugitives from the disbanded dramatic society of Stockport Unitarian Church, They met in what was then The Church Coffee Tavern on St Petersgate, Heys and his friends resolved to found a new society "to perform the best plays by the most capable amateur actors and with the finest scenic effects". The new society was named after the great actor David Garrick and has remained in the centre of Stockport ever since.

The theatre kept its doors and its curtains open throughout both World Wars, and attracted the admiration and support of numerous luminaries in the world of professional theatre. Garrick productions have been performed in venues around the country and The Garrick's first production, The Merchant of Venice, in 1901, internationally over the decades.

(The former NatWest bank on the site of the Church Coffee Tavern)
The society purchased its current building, an old mill occupied by an assortment of small businesses, in 1920. Since then, the building's labyrinthine interior has undergone various refurbishments to enhance the society's ability to produce theatre to the highest standards possible.

It is the Garrick's early ownership of its own theatre space that qualifies it as England's oldest Little Theatre, a status that was celebrated in 2008 by the unveiling of a plaque by President of the Little Theatre Guild, Sir Ian McKellen. This plaque can be seen on St Petersgate, at the site of the coffee house in which the society was founded, within sight of the building where the ambitions of Edwin Heys and his co-founders continue to inspire a full season of high quality drama every year.

The society has also run a thriving Youth Theatre for over half its life, which currently produces a full show each winter. Visit the Theatre website for more information.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Pegasus crossing Lancashire Hill

Next to the pedestrian crossing on Lancashire Hill there is a light controlled crossing specifically for horses. A section of the Trans Pennine Trail crosses the B6167 just above Nicholson Street. This type of crossing is known as a Pegasus crossing

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Mural on Lower Hillgate

The Enterprise Mural on the gable wall of 89 Lower Hillgate which offers a pictorial reflection of Stockport's industrial history was designed and painted by artist Keith Ormondroyd in 1983.

The first Society of Friends (Quakers) Meeting House was built in 1705 on this site. The present building dates from 1910. No 91 is the taller 2-storey building, with upper floor occupied by a large hall, and partly occupies the site of a former burial ground. It ceased to be a place of worship in 1960. No 89, an integral part of this building, is a lower build which occupies the site of the original meeting house. The building has been used as a commercial premises since 1982 and No 91 was converted to a restaurant in 1993-4.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

The end of the river Tame

This is the view downstream from the last footbridge over the river Tame. It is crossed by a pipework bridge and then flows under the M60 motorway to join the river Goyt and form the river Mersey.

This is the view looking back from under the motorway. The footpath alongside is part of the Trans Pennine Trail.

Before the motorway was built the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) railway line through Stockport (Tiviot Dale) crossed the river Tame between these two crossing points. Now only the buttresses remain. It has been reported that these precarious perches have been used as sleeping quarters by homeless people.

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

Power pylon past Portwood

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

F is for Foresters

The Foresters Arms is a traditional pub in the hamlet of Greave between Romiley and Hyde.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday and signs, signs..

A marriage of weeds

In the wasteland between Brewery Street and the M60 motorway at Portwood the weeds have taken over. Evening primroses and buddleia are entwined together in an unholy marriage.

For a closer view of a bee on the buddleia see my photoblog sithenah.

A contribution to Monday Mellow Yellows.

The Last Bridge Over The Goyt

Howard Street bridge is the last bridge to cross the river Goyt before it flows over a weir, meets the river Tame and forms the river Mersey.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections and Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

Stockport Town Hall in Black & White

Based on a photograph I took in June 2009.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

Who wants to lease a loo?

A victim of "council cuts" are the public conveniences at Woodley.

They are available for lease! Any takers? Seeming not; they been like this for more than a year.

A contribution to signs, signs.

Edgeley Cottage

The house was constructed c.1889. It is built of red brick with applied timber-framing to the first floor. The gabled roof is tiled, with tall diagonally-set brick stacks. The 2-storey front elevation have 3 and 4-light timber casements with leaded glass, and coloured glass in the top-lights, the central projecting bay on Edgeley Road is gabled with barge boards. The Dale Street elevation has a C20 door in a lean-to open timber porch to the left, and a relief plaster panel with the name EDGELEY COTTAGE and the date 1889.

Front boundary walls are coursed stone.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

The Greek Street Annexe

Built in 1909 as a secondary school, it later became a Girls' Grammar School but now is an annexe of Stockport College.

The Grade II listing describes it as "Council secondary school, 1909-10 by Cheers & Smith of Blackburn and Twickenham. Red brick, stone dressings and banding, terracotta mouldings, Westmoorland graduated slate roofs, red terracotta ridge tiles. Tall brick stacks. Cast-iron railings."

In 1970 the school merged with the Technical School, situated to its immediate east, which subsequently became Stockport College of Further and Higher Education. The two buildings are linked by a modern corridor.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

St Mary's Reddish

St Mary's, Reddish Road, (Church of England) was Reddish's first church, built between 1862-1864 at a cost of £2500 in the "decorated English style" and consecrated on 23rd March 1865. The parish was created from Heaton Norris, and is still known as Heaton Reddish.

Church website.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

Looking through the lych gate

Looking through the lych gate of Cheadle Parish Church towards the High Street.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

A coloured version can be viewed on Geograph.

Dodge Hill

Dodge Hill was formerly Old Road. It still has much of its 16th century cobbled carriageway. It was part of the major north-south route for stage coaches through Stockport, prior to the opening of the Lancashire Hill turnpike road in 1794.

Now it is the centre of a conservation area.

For the letter D at ABC Wednesday.

George VI Postbox in Lower Bredbury

A few weeks ago I showed you a Victorian post box on Little Undercliff. That one was a "wall box".

Last week I showed you an Elizabethan post box at Carlton Crescent. That one was a small "lamp post box".

This one in Lower Bredbury is more common "cylinder pillar box" and carries the cypher of George VI. The design has been around since 1879 so examples can be found with the cyphers all the monarchs from Victoria to Elizabeth II. The small lamp boxes have been around since 1897.

In recent times (post 1980) the words POST OFFICE on boxes has been replaced by ROYAL MAIL. An interesting web site for more information about British post boxes is Paul's Unofficial Letterbox Pages.

For Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Wycliffe Congregational Church

Built in 1849 to a Gothic design, by Manchester architect Edward Walters, the Grade II listed Wycliffe Congregational Church is on the English Heritage list of buildings at risk.

More information can be seen on Stockport's Heritage.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays.

Reflections in the River Goyt

This section of the river is about half way between St Mary's Way Bridge and Park Bridge.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections.

Vernon Mill

Vernon Mill at Portwood, a listed building is a typical mill of the turn of the twentieth century, it was built before 1917 of red brick and terracotta with a flat roof and demonstrates the changes in architectural form as improved technology allowed larger and better-lit mills to be built.

EXTERIOR: 4 storeys, approx 15x8 bays, 3-bay projection left, Italianate tower in angle with lettered parapet:: 'VERNON', angle pilasters, tiled roof with wrought iron cresting and flag pole; tower at north west corner. Large paired and triple windows with metal frames, pilasters between, moulded sill bands, modillion eaves and parapet.

INTERIOR: Steel frame with cast iron columns, concrete floors; ground floor lateral segmental brick arches supported by tall cast-iron columns, flagstone floor.

West façade has added projecting covered loading bay centre, rope race tower right and lower attached engine house at SW corner with windows (reduced) in round-arched recesses and fine tall window (lower part now workshop entrance) on south side ; arches have imposts and keystones, low segmental gable pediment. Single and two storey preparation and loading warehouse range on the South side of the main block has inserted ground floor entrances, segmental arched windows, upper floor loading door, roof lights, water tower. At the entrance to the mill, the NW corner, the single storey office /reception block has stone detailing, round arched windows of 2 and 3-lights, corner pilasters carried up above parapet height, no finials. Subsidiary features: the main mill entrance detailing includes office railings with bulbous finials on low brick and stone boundary wall; stone gate pier approx. 2.5m high with square base, moulded capstone with domed finial, attached gate with close set rails and curved brace.

Originally a cotton spinning mill, it now houses various industrial units.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Romiley Station Streetlamp and Red Plaque

Underneath the streetlamp outside Romiley station is red plaque.

Romiley
Railway Station
celebrating
150 years
Opened 1862 by the Manchester,
Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway
(MS&LR)

Unveiled 8th September 2012
by Mayor Wendy Meikle &
Andrew Stunell OBE MP
A contribution to signs, signs and the Streetlamp theme at City Daily Photos