C is for Curious Cows

I found these strange looking cows outside Seven Miles Out in the Market Place. Shortly afterwards they were taken inside and I heard some mention of them being used in a video.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Marketplace Studios

The latest occupant of this mock-tudor faced building is Marketplace Studios. It has been set up by the Manchester School of Art as an initiative providing start-up business support to creative graduates. It has two floors of incubation studio space for graduate practitioners, who receive business support tailored towards the Creative Industries to help them succeed in their new enterprises. On the ground floor are shop/gallery/exhibition space and project spaces to run courses for the general public.

More information can be found on their website.

The original photograph can be viewed on Geograph.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

The Artism Gallery

8 Market Place is a late 18th or early 19th century house incorporating a 19th century shop front and reusing timbers of medieval or 17th century origin. The second-storey wall has ghost advertising (partially obscured) which relates to its past use as Ladies and Gents Tailors.

In 2010 it was a coffee shop after which it became the "Vintage Style Agency" and then the "Teenage Market". In March 2015 it was home to the vintage clothes shop "Loyal Retro".

The latest occupant is The Artism Gallery run by Brin Morris who creates sellotape sculptures some of which can be seen sitting in the window looking out at the Market Hall (aka the Glass Umbrella).

The gallery displays artwork from local artists and runs interactive workshops. More information can be found on their Facebook page.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Banner of the Industrial Revolution

Castle Yard was the "Motte" of a Norman castle and the castle "Bailey" the area which is now the Market Place. The castle walls were demolished in the 1770s when Castle Mill, the first water powered cotton mill in Stockport was constructed. The Mill was demolished in 1841 and from 1853 the area was used as a cattle market. Today Castle Yard forms a link between the outside market and the Courts shopping development created from the conversion of the adjacent former Magistrates Courts building.

21st century excavations revealed the wheelpit. In 2005 artist Mike Woods created a piece of public art designed on the water wheel which once powered Castle Mill. It consists of a banner that depicts workers caught up in a "mad whirl of machines and knotted tangled threads coupled with frenzied activity as they strive to adapt new technologies and the need to keep pace with the constantly changing new industrial age".

"The Banner of the Industrial Revolution" is wrapped around the outside of the ladies public convenience. Although the ironwork is still there the explanatory board has since been removed.

Visit other contributions to the Revolution theme at City Daily Photo.

The fountain outside St Mary's

Some weeks ago I posted a view of the Gateway to St Mary's.

The ashlar wall to Millgate incorporates a drinking fountain in granite dated 1858, with 2 moulded stone steps below.

It is Grade II* listed.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

A working dog

The City Daily Photo theme for 1st December is workers.

It says on this dog's yellow harness "Please do not distract me I am a working guide dog".

Visit other contributions to the Workers theme at City Daily Photo.

A contribution also to
Camera Critters;
Monday Mellow Yellows;
Blue Monday.

In and out of St Mary's in the Marketplace

Stockport Parish Church is known as St Mary's in the Marketplace. It is a Grade I listed building.

Inside it has stained glass by several different makers, including the East window by O'Connor, 1849.

Outside it has a gateway built of ashlar stone by Lewis Wyatt in the shape of an elaborate Gothic screen forming three pointed archways with crocketed finials above the centre arch. The gateway is Grade II* listed.

The exit from the church leads directly into the Market Hall.

A contribution to
Inspired Sundays;
Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

Flowers for sale on Stockport Market

One of the street stalls in the Market Place outside the Market Hall.

A contribution to Floral Fridays.

Marketplace on a lampost

This artwork can be found on a lampost on Castle Street in Edgeley. The text reads:

"On Saturday nights my dad used to take us Stockport Market in those days it stayed open till 9pm.

It was a great event everyone from round here would go. And we'd always go to Woolworths on the way home to buy sweets."

As part of the Stockport Arts Trail, an independent group of young people, working towards an Arts Award Qualification at Stockport Central Library, created the images for one face of the artworks, located on lampposts in and around Edgeley.

Historic photographs from the libraries archives are on the other face, giving people an idea of how the area looked in times gone by.

There are eleven lampposts in total along the trail. More information is at Healthy Stockport.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday and signs, signs.

Angel Reflections

Reflected in the glass of the Market Hall is the façade of the former Angel Inn which featured in our post of 22nd March 2014.

A contribution to Weekend Reflections.

Bridge Street

Bridge Street leads up to the Market Place and was once part of the main north-south route through the town. Traffic from the north would have descended from Dodge Hill/Lancashire Hill down Tiviot Dale to Lancashire Bridge.

Lancashire bridge over the river Mersey is now underneath the foreground paving stones and has been so since the 1930s when the river was culverted beneath the Merseyway roadway and later by the Merseyway Shopping Centre which lies to the right.

The Laura Ashley shop on the corner of Warren Street is built on the site of the former Warren Bulkeley Arms.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Stockport Dungeon

1a Mealhouse Brow consists of a single-storey range towards the Market Place and the adjacent basement and lower basement of No. 8 Market Place.

The upper rooms of this part were used for meetings of the town's manorial court leet, and incorporates two small chambers used as lock-ups.

The lower basement incorporates two separate chambers used for confinement until 1790 when a new prison was built.

The dungeon is occasionally open for visits courtesy of the Stockport Heritage Trust.

A fuller streetscape view can be seen on Geograph.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

A shadow on Market Place

Passing Cheshire Used Furniture.

A contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Where Angels Fear To Tread

The Angel Inn dates from the 1790s and had a theatre where it was possible to have a drink and enjoy a night of thespian magic. Afterwards further "pleasures" were available with the ladies of the night in the inn's notorious Angel Yard behind. It was completely refronted in 1886 by the Stockport architect Thomas Allen. The façade has ornate plasterwork to the upper floor. The lower part is modelled to resemble masonry, with window surrounds with angel's heads, a frieze above and a panel which formerly had the name Angel Inn. Above is a triglyph frieze, and large cross patterns, a bracketed cornice and parapet.

In recent times it was the home of Chafe's solicitors until 2010. Now it is the home of Seven Miles Out a digital and visual arts centre.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White and Shadow Shot Sunday.

St Mary's East Window

At the beginning of the month I showed you a glimpse of the East Window through the entrance to St Mary's.

The church is Grade I listed and whilst the chancel dates from before 1334, the nave and tower were rebuilt in 1814 after the original tower was cracked due to excessive bell ringing in celebration of Nelson's victory at the battle of Trafalgar.

The tower has recently been renovated again and the interior of the church is still undergoing restoration.

More information can be found on the St Mary's in the Market Place website.

A contribution to Inspired Sundays and also Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.

C is for Castle Yard

The Castle Yard was the "Motte" of a Norman castle and the castle "Bailey" the area which is now the Market Place. Today it forms a link between the outside market and the Courts shopping development created from the conversion of the adjacent former Magistrates Courts building. Stalls line the sides on market days.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Ted's Cards

Greetings card stall in Stockport Market Hall.

The original photograph from which this was created can be seen on Geograph.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

X is for Xmas

On Xmas Eve, the Rev Roger Scoones, vicar of St Mary's in the Market Place, was touring the Market Place, ringing his bells and inviting people to the listen to the carols in the church.

A contribution to Outdoor Wednesday and ABC Wednesday.

St Petersgate Bridge Repairs Almost Finished

A month ago I posted photographs of the men repairing St Petersgate Bridge from the Market Place end.

I was back there recently and as I walked from the Market Place past the fence between the pathway and the roadway a workman was painting the parapet on the other side. By the time I'd reached the other end and poked my camera lens through a hole in the fence he'd gone.

I imagine the roadworks will have all been cleared away by now.

For a wider, coloured view see Geograph.

A contribution to Friday Fences, The Weekend in Black and White and Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

Boars Head

The Boars Head on the corner of Vernon Street and Market Place is a grade II listed building and one of brewer Sam Smith's two pubs in Stockport, the other being the Queens Head.

A contribution to signs, signs.