Cheadle, Greater Manchester
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Cheadle is a small town in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, and Gatley.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history
Cheadle is believed to date back approximately 1,500 to 2,000 years and appears in the Domesday Book under the name "Cedde" which means "Clearing in a wood".[citation needed] The village was then surrounded mainly by woodland (consisting largely of Common Oak). This is the antithesis of modern Cheadle which is a suburb of Greater Manchester.
The Domesday Book records there being only around 10 individuals or households in the area, and was valued at around 10 Shillings.
St Mary's Church on Cheadle High Street was originally built in the 1200s, but was then rebuilt in 1523 under Henry VIII (completed 1550). It is home to the Cheadle Cross, which is the unofficial symbol of the town.
Moseley Old Hall, an early Stuart mansion dating from 1666 is still standing and is owned privately. It is situated at the end of a blocked-off public road, making hard to find and therefore quite unheard of.
Abney Hall is a late victorian hall from 1847 and is the old Cheadle town hall, though is now used for offices. It is surrounded by parkland which is open to the public all year round and features some of the only wetlands left in Stockport.
Cheadle grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution when it was used as a stopping point for travellers and merchants on their way to Central Manchester.
[edit] Recent history
Moseley Hall Grammar School was located in Cheadle and was the first state grammar school founded under the Education Act 1944. The original site of the school was opposite the foot of School's Hill and bordered a small river, Micker Brook, (also known as Ladybrook, a tributary of the River Mersey when flowing through nearby Bramhall). The school 3.3 mile cross-country run included a fording of the river near the Seven Arches viaduct landmark close to Cheadle Hulme. The school's Christmas service was always held in St. Mary's church in the village. The school was co-educational until 1956 when the girls moved to the newly built Cheadle County Grammar school for Girls. The girls situated in the 6th form remained on the Moseley Hall site so as to not interrupt their final year's education.
In the early 1970s the school moved to a newly constructed building in Cheadle Hulme adjacent to the Cheadle County Grammar School for Girls. In the grounds of the school was a narrow gauge railway track and a diesel engine from a disused quarry, renovated by the boys and masters of the school. It was thought to be the only school with its own railway track in the UK. Later the school was renamed The Manor School, this joined with the Cheadle County Grammar School for Girls to become Margaret Danyers college. The building that was formerly the Moseley Hall Grammar School became the Moseley Building, and the Cheadle County Grammar School for Girls became the Bulkley Building. In 1995 this became a sixth form college and combined with the Marple Ridge college to become Ridge Danyers college. Overseen by the then president of the college Ian Wheeler (student side). The site of the original school in Cheadle became the "Village" hotel and leisure complex during the 1990s. Part of the Moseley building was declared unsafe in the early 1990s due to the decay of the reinforced concrete with which it was constructed and it was eventually demolished in August 2001. In October 2004 the college changed its name to CAMSFC (Cheadle And Marple Sixth Form College).
[edit] The Cheadle Blitz
Cheadle suffered at the hands of the German Luftwaffe with civilian casualties. The first raid take took place on the night of 24th December 1940. The planes are believed to have been twin-engined Heinkel bombers coming under local fire from mobile anti-aircraft battery at the junction of Kingsway and Broadway. A 1000 pound landmine was released on a target thought to be a factory manufacturing aircraft wings. However the bomb missed the factory altogether landing directly on a house in Bulkeley Road Cheadle. The second air raid took place on the night of 4th February 1941 where a lone bomber dropped its bomb with a direct hit on a house in Stockport Road. Both occupants, mother and daughter were killed outright as was local fire watcher, Robert Campbell. The last victim, also a fire watcher received wounds which took his life the next day. Those who lost their lives: Ronald Frederick Harrison Miss Nora Jackson John Thomas Lydiatt Agnes Mary Roughton Bennison Kathleen Mary Bennison Robert Campbell The above named are buried in Cheadle & Gatley Cemetery. Maria Brookes is buried in Hayhead and Fred Miller buried in Denton
All eight casualties are named on the war memorial located in Cheadle Village. Unusually, “Cheadle is one of the few villages which named its air raid victims on the War Memorial located in Cheadle Village."
Information taken from “Two Fatal Air Raids in Cheadle”, by John H Simmonds, 1992. Copy at Cheadle Library.
[edit] Transport
Cheadle's public transport is now confined to buses operated by several firms. However from 1866 until 1964 it was served by a Cheshire Lines Committee railway station (initially called Cheadle, from 1950 Cheadle North) situated 600 yards (550 m) north of the village on the west side of Manchester Road and from 1866 until 1917 by a London & North Western Railway station located at the overbridge in the centre of the village. Both stations were on lines leading from Altrincham to Stockport.
[edit] Present day
Cheadle has continued to thrive primarily due to its location at the tip of South Manchester and gateway to Cheshire. Modern Cheadle benefits from excellent commuter links, with easy access to both the M60 Manchester orbital and M56 motorways. It is approximately 15 minutes drive from Manchester City Centre (7 miles) It is also near to Manchester Airport (10 mins). The town itself is popular with young professionals who see Cheadle as a good safe place to gain a foot on the property ladder. It is fair to say that the town also benefits from its proximity to Didsbury, a very affluent part of South Manchester and has such established an 'overspill' of people priced out of the Didsbury housing market but still keen to live in an up and coming area with an abundance of local amenities - i.e. pubs, restaurants and the nearby Parr's Wood bowling/cinema/restaurants complex on the Cheadle/Didsbury border.
A number of houses in Cheadle that were built in the 1800s still stand today. The houses in the conservation area in the centre of the village, near the railway bridge by the Ashlea pub, and both Frances Street and Brook Street have an abundance of old world character and charm rarely seen in South Manchester urban sprawl.
Cheadle is home to the HQ of sportswear giants Umbro and also has a large John Lewis department store.
[edit] See also
- Cheadle - The Cheadle constituency.
- Cheadle Town Football Club
- Cheadle, Alberta, Canada - A Canadian town, also called Cheadle
[edit] External links
- St Mary's, Cheadle
- All Hallows Church, Cheadle
- St.Philips Church, Cheadle
- Cheadle Online - Cheadle Community Website
