With Hilary Atkinson's 'A Picture Tour of Marple in Days Gone By'
The curtain falls down once more on a season at Marple Methodist Church that spans over eight months and eight meetings, from one year to the next. With evenings of discovery and entertainment on the way. Hilary Atkinson, our ex-chair, brought the season’s proceedings to a close, with aplomb. But first the management of the Society in the shape of an AGM has to take place.
Goyt Mill during construction [click the imge to see an aerial shot of another local mill, Hollins Mill]
During these proceedings we learnt that, via the Chairman's report:
| “In the course of the year we have carried out our regular programme of eight talks, three organised walks, and three visits. Only one small exhibition was displayed at the Compstall Cricket Club during a summer street party showing the history of Marple Bridge, Compstall and the cricket club. Throughout the year the work of the society was supported and promulgated by both the website and the newsletter. The Society now has 154 members and an average attendance at meetings of 87 people. The chairman thanked all the people who have contributed for this success.” |
From the Treasurer's report came the information that:
| “….at the end of the year there was a balance of just over £7289” |
Following various elections of officers, Independent Examiner, etc the AGM section of the evening drew to a close.
Cricket on Hawk Green, the Green itself! [click image for Compstall Cricket Club, in much the same era]
In doing so we moved onto Hilary’s presentation ‘A Picture Tour of Marple in Days Gone By’. Hilary began by showing the development of the Hibbert Lane extension, a selection of before and after images, that showed the old world and the new. Your correspondent, as an incomer of 1992 learnt much. The Tour then proceeded up and down the hills of Marple, stopping for a breather at the Goyt Mill, at a shop in Hawk Green to see Heather Plevin behind the counter, a Hawk Green cricket match on the Green itself, the generations of All Saints Church, complete with fireplaces for those high on Marple’s social ladder. Hilary drew the evening to a close with images of Hollins Mill that dominated Marple’s centre for many a year, emphasizing the challenging lives of the mill workers. The members filed out for refreshments, and a plan to look at Marple in a different light.
W. B. Hodgkinson retirement February 1920 - the staff at Hollins Mill
After all it is written thus:
| “For many of its residents, Marple is the centre of the universe, and somewhere you don’t need to leave – which is just as well as there’s only one road in and one road out. That’s a massive part of the charm of the great escape that is Marple, a rural town within the metropolitan borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, which historically adjoins the Cheshire boundary and includes the villages of Marple, Mellor, Hawk Green, High Lane, Marple Bridge, Moor End, Strines and the hamlet of Mill Brow, all of which have some excellent views of Manchester.” |
