Welcome to Marple Local History Society website
Quick links to the Society's Online Archives & many of the Society's images
The Iron Bridge is one of a very few cast iron bridges surviving from the period when it was built, in 1813, for the then owner of the Brabyns Estate, Nathaniel Wright. Its purpose was as a carriage bridge across the River Goyt, creating access to Wright's estate from the village of Compstall. The bridge was one of the world's first cast iron bridges and is one of the few remaining from the period.
The Iron Bridge was deemed to be dangerous in 1991 and a temporary "Bailey" type footbridge was installed to carry pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists over the River Goyt. The restoration project started in 2003 and works to restore the bridge started in September 2007. The restored bridge was opened on the 22nd June 2008.
Next Meeting: 11th December:
Claire Moores - 'Chimney Stacks and Climbing Boys: the art and mystery of Chimney Sweeping'
A full list of this season's meetings is here.
Featured Article:
October 2023: 'Restoration of the Danny Steam Boat'
Bob Cannell and Les Green
“How to increase productivity.” This is one of the pressing economic questions of our current age but it was also a pressing question in 1900 when the Shropshire Union Canal and Railway Company (SUC&R) commissioned a tug boat from the Tranmere Bay Development Co. It was delivered three years later in 1903 and it was designed to tow up to ten barges from Ellesmere Port to Liverpool. We were expecting Sheila Leonard to tell us about the history of this boat and the story of its restoration but in the event Bob Cannell and Les Green came. We thought at first it was confirmation of the old adage that it takes two men to do the work of one woman but it turned out that Bob and Les had always intended to come to Marple. Indeed they had practiced giving this talk on almost two hundred occasions before they felt confident enough to make a presentation to Marple Local History Society.
Read more: October 2023: 'Restoration of the Danny Steam Boat'
