Running Man Mural: Panels 1-4

In September 2013 I posted a view of the The Running Man at Heaton Chapel. The 16 panel mural was the work of the group Friends of Heaton Chapel Station and produced with support from the local community. It was unveiled in May 2012 and won 1st place in a competition for Community Art Schemes sponsored by ScotsRail.

I recently revisited the station and photographed the individual panels.

Panel 1 was sponsored by Easy Access Self Storage and informs us:

The designation Norrey or Norres came from the family name of the le Norreys in 1364. Heaton Norris was part of the Manchester barony of the Grelley family, but between 1162 and 1180 It belonged to William le Norreys. In the early 13th century Heaton Norris was a sub manor Manchester, encompassing what we know now as the Four Heatons. The area reverted back to the manor of Manchester around 1280.

The township stretched from Cringle Brook in the north to the river Mersey in the south which is a distance of approximately two miles. The south east part has long been a part of Stockport since 1832 when it was included in the Parliamentary borough and in the municipal borough in 1835 when a district ward was formed.

Panel 2 was sponsored by Sustainable Living In The Heatons.

Panel 3 was sponsored by SAS Daniels LLP (formerly TWP Solicitors) and informs us:

For several centuries Heaton Chapel was part of the Heaton Norris township. In 1758 the first Chapel in the Heatons, St Thomas' Church was built on the principal Manchester to Stockport road on a field known as Yarn Croft, through money raised by public subscription. The place name then became Heaton Chapel in its own right.

Almost a century later The London and North Western Railway company completed the Crewe to Manchester line and Rev. Jackson used personal influence, to have a station built in 1851, close to the rectory in Heaton Moor Road with the new station being named Heaton Chapel

Panel 4 was sponsored by Heaton Moor Evangelical Church and designed with pupils at St Thomas' CE Primary School. It features Sir John Alcock.

Sir John William Alcock, who grew up in Heaton Moor and attended St Thomas' Primary School, took up the challenge of attempting to be the first to fly directly across the Atlantic and successfully piloted the first transatlantic flight between Newfoundland and Ireland in June 1919.

The epic flight which John Alcock made with Arthur Brown covered 1,980 miles over mainly water, and took 16 hours and 12 minutes. The flight had been much affected by bad weather, making accurate navigation difficult and the intrepid duo also had to cope with turbulence, instrument failure and ice on the wings.

The flight was made in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber, and secured a £10,000. prize offered by London's Daily Mail newspaper for the first transatlantic flight.

A few days after the flight, King George V knighted Alcock and Brown and invested them with their insignia as Knight Commanders of the Order of the British Empire for their remarkable act of courage and bravery as pioneering aviators.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

I'll bring you more next week.