Whaley Bridge
| Whaley Bridge | |
| Cheshire, Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
 Whaley Bridge town centre | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK0181 |
| Location: | 53°19’49"N, 1°59’2"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 6,226 |
| Post town: | High Peak |
| Postcode: | SK23 |
| Dialling code: | 01663 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | High Peak |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
High Peak |
Whaley Bridge is a small town in Cheshire, standing on the River Goyt, and trespassing over it so that parts of Whaley Bridge are in Derbyshire. Whaley Bridge is approximately seven miles north of Buxton, nine miles east of Macclesfield and 16 miles south of Manchester. Nearby is Furness Vale, in the same civil parish. Other hamlets of Whaley include Horwich End (SK006806), Bridgemont (SK011825), Fernilee (SK017784) Stoneheads and Taxal.
Churches
The parish of Whaley Bridge has two churches. St James, Taxal, stands on a site a mile from the town centre and was established in the 12th century, and parts of the tower may date back to that time, although much of the church was rebuilt in the 17th and 19th centuries.[1] Holy Trinity, Fernilee was established near the town centre in 1905.[2] Parts of the town are included in the Cheshire parish of St John, Disley, and are served by the Church of St John the Divine, Furness Vale.
The Methodists and United Reformed Church formed the Whaley Bridge Uniting Partnershipin 1983, later joined by the Baptists, and they have three churches between them.[3]
- Church of England:
- St James, in Taxal
- Holy Trinity, in Fernlee
- St John the Divine, in Furness Vale
- Baptist: Kettleshulme Chapel
- Independent evangelical: Good News Church
- Methodist: Fernilee Methodist Church
- United Reformed Church: Whaley Bridge Uniting Church
- Roman Catholic: Church of the Sacred Heart
Whaley Hall is a large detached Victorian house near Toddbrook Reservoir. Since 1979 it has been a retreat house and conference centre run by the "Community of the King of Love": an ecumenical community of men and women.[4]
History
There is evidence of prehistoric activity in the area, including early Bronze Age standing stones,[5] burial sites[6] and the remains of a stone circle.[7] A bronze-age axe head was discovered in 2005.[8] There has long been speculation that the 'Roosdyche', a complex of banks and ditches on the eastern side of the town, is of prehistoric human origin, but investigations in 1962 concluded that it was formed by glacial meltwater.[9]
The name of Weyley or Weylegh appears in many 13th century documents and is derived from the Old English weg leah meaning a clearing by the road.[10] In 1351 the lands of Weyley and Yeardsley were granted to William Joddrell for his faithful service to Edward, the Black Prince. In the 14th century, it housed the residence of William Jauderell and his descendants (the name also spelt Jodrell). The Jodrells continued to call their lands Yeardsley Whaley for centuries and when the first local government board was formed in 1863 the town adopted its popular name of Whaley Bridge and the town has been called so ever since.
The River Goyt forms the boundary between Derbyshire and Cheshire and parts of the town are in each. Historical records show that in 1316 on the Cheshire side there were Taxal, Yeardsley and Whaley with the last two being combined into one district of 'Yeardsley-cum-Whaley'. The Derbyshire side consisted only of Fernilee which included the villages of Shallcross and Horwich. This side was in the parish of Hope and was part of the Forest of High Peak, while the Cheshire side was part of the Forest of Macclesfield. From 1796 Taxal and Yeardsley were effectively joined in that the Jodrell family was the main landowner in both towns, although the administration of these remained separate until 1936.[2]
Up until the late 19th century the population of the area grew slowly. For example, in the diocesan census in 1563, Taxal is recorded as having 26 households, and by the mid-18th century Taxal and Yeardsley together only reached 55 households. In 1791 land at Whaley Bridge was advertised for sale, the owner believing that its waterpower would be useful in the textile industry, but the two townships remained very small and only had a population of 853 between them by 1841. Up to this time agriculture and coalmining had been the main occupations.
The town expanded greatly in the Industrial Revolution and the population almost trebled to 2,322. Although there had been coal mines from earlier times, by 1871 cotton mills had become the dominant industry. Coalmining took place in the area from its very early days because of a large geographical fault which traverses the Whaley Bridge basin from east to west resulting in the coal outcropping in various places. Documentary evidence of 1587 indicates a well-established coal industry in the "Towneshepp of Weley" known today as Whaley Bridge. Today, there is less intensive agriculture labour and there is no coalmining in the area.
Whaley Bridge continues to expand as new housing is built, but it retains the character of a small town. As the self-styled 'Gateway to the Goyt' it attracts tourists, mainly walkers, but it has not become dominated by the tourist industry, unlike some other local towns and villages. With a good commuter railway service to Manchester many people travel to work in the Manchester area.
Rail and canal
Cromford and High Peak Railway
The Cromford and High Peak Railway was granted Parliamentary consent in 1825. It was fully opened for passenger and goods traffic on 6 July 1831. The railway linked the wharf at the head of the Whaley Bridge Branch of the Peak Forest Canal to the Cromford Canal at Cromford Wharf. It had seven inclined planes, the first being situated within the town of Whaley Bridge itself. Unlike the other six inclined planes, which were operated by stationary steam engines, this one was operated by a horse-driven gin, which remained operational until 9 April 1952. This plane was much shorter than the others, being only 180 yards long and rising at 1:13.5. Approach to the top of the plane was under a very low bridge and, because of this, waggons had to be hauled to and from the top of the plane by horses.
Horses also worked the bottom section of the line and the tracks ran onto a wharf and into two mills. Another notable feature on the bottom section is an iron bridge that carries the line across the River Goyt.
Peak Forest Canal
The Peak Forest Canal and basin were built in the 1790s and opened on 1 May 1800. An important building at the head of the Peak Forest Canal was the Transhipment Warehouse, built in 1832. In this building goods and minerals were transferred to and from the many working canal boats servicing local industry. The building straddles the head of the canal which is fed by the Combs and Toddbrook Reservoirs to the south.
The Canal splits just outside Whaley Bridge turning east to end at Buxworth basin and turning west to Marple, the Cheshire ring and Manchester.
A new joint project between British Waterways and several Whaley Bridge community groups to bring this important building back to life, and to serve as a centre of the Whaley Bridge community, was envisaged in 2007 and is the subject of a grant application to the East Midlands Development Agency under their Waterways Regeneration Funding offer in 2008.
Events
- Annual carnival month in June includes:
- Firework event, November
- Christmas tree lights outside the Jodrell Arms Hotel, accompanied by seasonable music from members of Whaley Bridge Brass Band, arrival of Father Christmas at the Transshipment Warehouse on the Whaley Wharf of the Peak Forest Canal on a canal boat.
Literary references
Whaley Bridge features in the novel The Manchester Man (1876) by Isabella Banks.
Outside links
References
- ↑ St James, Taxal - Open Churches Trust]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 F A Youngs Jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II: Northern England, London, 1991
- ↑ Whaley Bridge Uniting Partnership
- ↑ Whaley Hall - The Community of the King of Love
- ↑ "Extract from the UK Schedule of Ancient Monuments, National Monument No: 25701". Magic.gov.uk. http://www.magic.gov.uk/rsm/25701.pdf.
- ↑ "Extract from the UK Schedule of Ancient Monuments, National Monument No: 22572". Magic.gov.uk. http://www.magic.gov.uk/rsm/22572.pdf.
- ↑ The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map. "Report on site visit on www.megalithic.co.uk". Megalithic.co.uk. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=5484.
- ↑ "Copy of report originally in Buxton Advertiser". Stonepages.com. http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001132.html.
- ↑ "The Modern Antiquarian article on the Roosdyche". Themodernantiquarian.com. http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/5692/roosdyche.html.
- ↑ University of Nottingham - Institute of Name Studies School of English. "English Place Names Society Database at Nottingham University". Kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Derbyshire/Yeardsley%20Cum%20Whaley.
- ↑ Whaley Water Weekend
- ↑ Whaley Bridge Rose Queen Carnival