www.cheadlecivicsociety.org

The Cheadle Civic Society has launched a major new web site to coincide with the bicentenary of Cheadle Green in 2010, as well as celebrate the history of Cheadle over the past 1000 years.

The new site features an assortment of rare archive photographs of Cheadle Green and the surrounding area and reveals many different aspects of Cheadle life from the past.

Cheadle Green is the only official village green in the borough of Stockport and came into being following a special Act of Parliament in 1810. This stipulated that no housing or commercial activity could take place on the land which ad­joined the junction of the main roads between Cheadle and Manchester and Cheadle and Stockport, and ever since, this area has remained a greatly appreci­ated and unspoilt oasis for Cheadle’s many residents and workers.

Over the years, the Green has barely changed, apart from a series of wooden stumps being placed in the ground in 1874 to act as a boundary and stop “undesirables” having any access to the area. The only other major change took place in the late 1950s, when Cheadle Hall, built at the back of the Green in 1756, was knocked down, and a pond was built over the land which remained.

As one of the most important village greens in the North-West, plans are already in place to improve and renovate the Green during 2010 and also to hold a cele­bratory festival during the summer.

A history of the Green is just one of the many aspects of Cheadle life which is featured in the Cheadle Civic Society’s new web site, which effectively chroni­cles the evolution of Cheadle from 1000AD onwards. Other notable features in­clude a multimedia story of the famous Premier Cafe, a very stylish and ex­tremely popular art deco cafe and bakery which was located on Cheadle High Street during the middle years of the 20th Century. There’s also an illustrated history of Cheadle’s many listed buildings, as well as a revealing gallery of both amateur and professionally taken photographs of Cheadle life from the time of toll roads and horse-drawn buses of the 1890s to the hustle and bustle and mod­ern architecture of the present day.

“We believe that by putting so much of our extensive archive onto the Internet, we are enabling many local people to learn much more about the history of Cheadle and how it has evolved,” says Andrew Taylor, Chairman of the Cheadle Civic Society.

The Society now plan to significantly develop the web site in the future by add­ing more archive photographs, ephemera, film and video footage and invite any­one who has their own relevant archive material to donate them to the project. To contact the society, send an e-mail to info@cheadlecivicsociety.org