Cheadle Civic Society Was Formed in 1964 to Contentsb Protect the Village
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Foreword b Cheadle Civic Society was formed in 1964 to Contents b protect the village. Plans were monitored, litter Introduction ............................................. 2 picked, bulbs planted, paths cleared. Larger Early Origins ............................................4 projects were undertaken, including those on The Roman Period ..................................6 the White Hart Gardens, High Street fl ower Early Medieval Cheadle ...........................8 displays, Makers’ Markets, and the Diamond The Medieval Manor ............................. 10 Jubilee Celebrations. The Society’s 50th Post-medieval Cheadle .......................... 16 anniversary project to renovate Cheadle Village The Later Corn Mills ..............................36 Green gave us the opportunity to explore the Cheadle and the Textile Industry ..........42 history beneath the surface of the grounds of Planning Background ............................48 Cheadle Hall. Cheadle Timeline ...................................50 Glossary ..................................................51 The Society had previously funded an excavation of the remains of Cheadle Hall, Further Reading .................................... 52 which had stood in the grounds immediately Acknowledgements ................................ 53 behind the Green. This proved to be of great public interest, with a large attendance and providing the opportunity actually to participate in the digging. Cheadle residents have shown that they are very interested in their village history, and with that in mind, the Society funded further archaeological investigations at the Green, on the site of the Cheadle Hall cottages and stable area, making very interesting discoveries. Cheadle and Gatley Urban District Council Coat of Arms I hope that you will enjoy reading about what The central red ‘W’ is derived from the arms of the de was found and other projects that have been Chedle family, and the central wheatsheaf refers to the Earls of Chester. The two gold lozenges are from undertaken around Cheadle, together with an the arms of the Stopford or Stokeport family, whilst account of the village’s most important early the white bulls represent the Bulkeley family, and the historic buildings. ermine eagle crest symbolises the Moseleys Phillip Gould-Bourn, Chairman, Cheadle Civic Society .1. Introduction Cheadle is an ancient manor, formerly in north Cheshire, that has its historical origins in Anglo- Saxon times. This booklet will show how evidence of human settlement extends back much earlier though, with stone tools and weapons, and burial remains from the prehistoric period, as well as a number of Roman fi nds. The fi rst archaeological investigations in the village took place as recently as 2005, and since then there have been several important archaeological projects. This booklet provides an opportunity to present the results of this important work, which is transforming our knowledge of early Cheadle. Since its inception 50 years ago, Cheadle Civic Society has championed the cause of heritage, striving to understand, share and protect the village’s rich legacy of history and buildings that make it such a distinctive place in which to live and work. This booklet has been funded by the Society as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. It provides a wonderful and timely opportunity to present current knowledge of early Cheadle through its historic buildings, fi nds and recent archaeological discoveries. View along Cheadle High Street from the tower of St Mary’s Church, looking towards Cheadle Green .2. The Setting Cheadle is situated on the western edge of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, some 6km to the south-west of Stockport town centre, and 15km south of Manchester. Topographically, Cheadle lies on the north-eastern edge of the Cheshire Plain, in the shadow of the Pennine hills that rise steeply to the east of Stockport. The historic core of the village occupies slightly higher ground overlooking the shallow valley of the River Mersey. The village centre retains its strong historical character, refl ected in the large number of listed buildings, whilst post-War housing developments on the periphery have wrought a signifi cant expansion of the urban area. This has been coupled with a growth in the modern road network, and particularly the M60 motorway, which takes a route between the village and the River Mersey. Location of principal historic buildings and sites of archaeological interest in Cheadle. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2014 .3. EARLY Origins The earliest fi rm evidence for human activity around Cheadle is represented by a few chance fi nds that date from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (c 10,000 to c 2300 BC). These include two polished stone axes, one found in Cheadle and the second at nearby Gatley, and a small fragment of worked fl int that was discovered during an archaeological excavation at Cheadle Bleach Works in 2009. These artefacts are all likely to have been lost by transient hunter-gatherers who passed through this part of the Mersey Valley. Tiny fragment of worked fl int that was discovered during archaeological work carried out at Cheadle Bleach Works A local example of a large prehistoric stone axe hammer. This was found in Woodbank Park, Stockport (Stockport Museums) The earliest indication of more permanent settlement in the region dates to the Bronze Age (c 2300 to c 700 BC), when small farming communities evolved across north-west England. The strategic position of Cheadle, occupying an elevated situation overlooking the confl uence of the River Mersey with the Micker Brook, may have been recognised as a favourable location for prehistoric settlement. Firm evidence for a Bronze-Age community in Cheadle is provided by the discovery of three ceramic urns, each containing cremated human bones, which were unearthed during building work in 1872 at Brooklyn Crescent off Massie Street. The most visible remains of the Bronze Age in the region are funerary monuments known as round barrows, a good example being Brown Low barrow near Mellor. The urns found at Cheadle may have originally been contained in a similar mound .4. Iron-Age roundhouses being excavated at the Mellor hilltop site, showing a reconstructed roundhouse (one-third scale) It is quite possible that there was a small settlement in Cheadle during the Iron Age, which spanned the years from c 700 BC until the arrival of the Romans, but physical evidence is lacking. The nearest known Iron-Age settlement in the area is at Mellor, where a major programme of archaeological excavation, since 2000, facilitated by the Mellor Archaeological Trust has revealed remarkable remains of a hilltop settlement. Other known Iron-Age settlements in the region include those at Castlesteads in Bury, and Great Woolden Hall near Cadishead in Salford, both of which have topographical characteristics comparable to Cheadle, and were only confi rmed as ancient settlement sites as a result of archaeological excavation. These were small- scale settlements sited on promontories overlooking a river and defended by ditches. Occupation of them continued into the Roman period, and it is possible that a similar settlement may have existed in Cheadle. Aerial view of Castlesteads promontory site near Bury .5. THe Roman Period The Roman army arrived in the North West in the early AD 70s, and built a series of forts across the region, connected by a network of well-built roads. One of these roads, linking the Roman fort at Manchester with Buxton, may have passed through Cheadle. The existence of this road was inferred by antiquarians in the nineteenth century from the name ‘Street Lane’, which is now Cheadle Road. Physical evidence for the course of the road was drawn from the discovery in the 1880s of a surface composed of compacted gravel on Ack Lane East in Location of Roman fi ndspots in Cheadle, and the projected routes of the Bramhall, which is on a parallel Roman roads, with an inset showing the main Roman settlements in the alignment to Cheadle Road. North West and the associated roads. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2014 Further to the south-east, an excavation at Walnut Tree Farm in Woodford by the former University of Manchester Archaeological Unit (UMAU) revealed another section of a gravel road, which had a width of 7.5m and a cambered surface, typical of Roman construction. There are also nineteenth-century accounts of an ‘old paved road’ beneath the modern road across Cheadle Heath, which may have been part of the Roman road between the forts at Chester and Melandra, near Glossop. In addition to the position of the village on the line of these roads, there are tantalising indications of there having been some form of Roman settlement at Cheadle. Three Roman coins were found on a building site in 1939 at the corner of Massie Street and High Street, close to the presumed junction of the Roman roads, and two sherds of pottery, recovered from an archaeological evaluation to the rear of the White Hart hotel in 2005, were identifi ed provisionally as Roman. .6. Another possible Roman object was discovered at a meander of the Micker Brook near to Downs Bridge. This coarse ceramic vessel with a very unusual long, cylindrical neck is of uncertain provenance, although experts agree that it could be Roman. A collection of Roman fi ndspots lies to the north of the village centre, including a coin dated to the reign of Galerius (AD 305-11) that was discovered in the grounds of the Barnes Convalescent Hospital in 1948. Two more coins, thought to have been issues of Constantius II (AD 324-37), were found on the west bank of the Micker Brook at Red Rocks in 1972. Another two coins were discovered a short distance to the north-east in 1981, together with a fourth-century issue that was found near Cheadlewood Farm on Manchester Road. This cluster of coins lay close to a shallow point on the Micker Brook, raising the possibility that this had been an Possible Roman pot found near Downs Bridge (Pat Seddon) ancient ford or crossing point.