Macclesfield

Macclesfield
Macclesfield Town Hall
Macclesfield  Macclesfield shown within Cheshire
Population	50,688
OS grid reference	SJ9173
Unitary authority	Cheshire East
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MACCLESFIELD
Postcode district	SK10 SK11
Dialling code	01625
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Macclesfield
List of places: UK • England • Cheshire

Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, with a population of about 50,688 (2001 census for Macclesfield urban sub-area). A person from Macclesfield is sometimes referred to as a "Maxonian".

History

St. Michael's Church, Macclesfield

Churchill Way, Macclesfield

Situated in the ancient Domesday Hundred of Hamestan,^[1] the Domesday Book lists Macclesfield as "Maclesfeld", whilst in 1183 it was referred to as "Makeslesfeld".^[2] It is thought that Macclesfield got its name from "Michael's field" - referring to St. Michael, as in St. Michael's church. The English Place-Name Society gives it name as being derived from the Old English for Maccels' open country.^[3]

Later, Macclesfield was granted a borough charter by the Lord Edward, the future King Edward I, in 1261. There is evidence that the borough had originally been founded by Ranulf III, Earl of Chester, early in the thirteenth century. The parish church of St Michael was built in 1278, an extension of a chapel built in approximately 1220.^[4]

The borough had a weekly market, and two annual fairs: the Barnaby fair, was on St Barnabas day (11 June), the other on the feast of All Saints (1 November).

Macclesfield was the administrative centre of the later Hundred of Macclesfield, which occupied most of east Cheshire.^[1][5] The Earl of Chester's manor of Macclesfield was very large, and its boundary went as far as Disley. The manor house was situated on the edge of the deer-park, on the west of the town.

Macclesfield as viewed from the railway station

In addition, the Earls of Chester had established the forest of Macclesfield, which was much larger than its present-day namesake. It was used for hunting deer, as well as pasturing sheep and cattle. By the end of the thirteenth century, large areas of the forest had been ploughed up because of the pressure of population growth. In 1356, two trees from the forest were gifted to archer William Jauderell to repair his home.

The so-called 'Macclesfield Castle' was a fortified town house built by the dukes of Buckingham in the later Middle Ages.

In the uprising of 1745, Charles Stuart and his army marched through Macclesfield as they attempted to reach London. The Mayor was forced, reluctantly, to officially welcome the Prince, and this welcome is commemorated in one of the town's famous silk tapestries.^[6] At one point, Macclesfield was the world's biggest producer of finished silk; now, the four Macclesfield Silk Museums display a huge range of information and products from that period. At one time the silk manufacture was home-based but as machinery was introduced large sheds were built to accommodate it and the workers were expected to move into them. Paradise Mill is a working mill museum which demonstrates the art of silk weaving to the public.^[7]

Between 1826 and 1831 the Macclesfield Canal was constructed,^[8] linking Macclesfield to Marple to the north and Kidsgrove to the south.

Waters Green was once home to a nationally known horse market which features in the legend of the Wizard of Alderley Edge.

Macclesfield railway station opened on 1 July 1873.

Macclesfield is said to be the only Mill Town left unbombed in the Second World War.^[9]

Geography

Macclesfield Canal flows through the town.

Macclesfield is located in the east of Cheshire, on the River Bollin, a tributary of the River Mersey. It is close to the county borders of Greater Manchester, (to the north), Derbyshire, (to the east) and Staffordshire, (to the south). It is near the towns of Stockport, (to the north), Buxton, (to the east), and Congleton, (to the south). It is 30 miles, (45 km), to the east of Chester, the county town of Cheshire. To the west of the town lies the Cheshire Plain and to the east lie the hills of the Peak District. The town is most famous for its once thriving silk industry, commemorated in the local Silk Museum. Although "Silk Town" seems to be the preferred nickname these days, Macclesfield's traditional local nickname is "Treacle Town" — supposedly from an incident where a merchant spilt a load of treacle on Hibel Road, and the poor rushed out to scoop it off the cobbles. Another, less picturesque, reason has it that the mill-owners used to provide barrels of treacle to the unemployed weavers.

Landmarks and tourist attractions

It is the home to furniture store Arighi Bianchi, a local football club Macclesfield Town, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, and The King's School, Macclesfield which dates from the 16th century. The fine Georgian Town Hall was designed by Francis Goodwin in 1823. Present day industries include: pharmaceuticals, textiles, light engineering, paper and plastics.

Culture and sport

The Macclesfield Amateur Dramatic Society was founded in 1947. MADS performed their first play at the Little Theatre on Lord Street in 1954

Macclesfield has few cultural amenities; in 2004, research was published in The Times naming Macclesfield and its borough the most uncultured town in Britain, based on its lack of theatres, cinemas and other cultural facilities.^[10] However, Macclesfield does have a museum which concentrates on the history of the silk industry in the town.^[11] The town now boasts an Art gallery in York Chambers, Duke's Court.

Local newspapers include the Macclesfield Express^[12] and the Community News.^[13]There is much,much more happening culturally than appears at first glance and people are kept up to date with events listings and more with the loop e guide e mailed by request & up dates at www.maccloop.blogspot.com.Macclesfield residents have access to Macclesfield Forum, an online message board, for informal discussion of local news and issues.^[14] The town is also served by two locally-based radio stations: Canalside Community Radio based at the Clarence Mill in Bollington,^[15] just north of Macclesfield, and Silk FM, a commercial independent radio station with studios in the town.^[16]

The last remaining commercial cinema in Macclesfield closed in 1997. Discussions have taken place regarding the possibility of building a multiplex cinema,^[17] but similar attempts to build a cinema have thus far been unsuccessful. In 2005 a small scale cinema was set up in the Heritage Centre, and Cinemac^[18] has since become well established; also based in the Heritage Centre is the Silk Screen arts cinema,^[19] which gives fortnightly screenings of art house films. Amateur dramatics is well represented in the town by Macclesfield Amateur Dramatic Society which has run since 1947 and has its own theatre in town. Macclesfield Majestic Theatre Group[5] has been producing musicals in the town since its inception in 1971, initially at the Majestic Theatre (hence the title) which was on the main street, but latterly at various other locations after the theatre was converted into a public house, by the new tenants. Most recently shows have been produced at the Heritage Centre, Evans theatre Wilmslow, and MADS theatre on Lord Street Macclesfield. Several members of the society have gone on to the professional stage , most famously Marshall Lancaster, and Jonathan Morris.

</Gawsworth Hall hosts an annual Shakespeare festival as well as many arts and music events throughout the year.However, during the recent outlining of plans for the new Macclesfield town centre, a large cinema has been given the go-ahead after many years of pressure from the residents.

Macclesfield has appeared in film: it was used as the location for Sir John Mills' film "So Well Remembered" in 1947.^[20] Some of the locations are still recognisable, such as Hibel Road. A fictionalised version of Macclesfield's railway station appeared in the 2005 football hooliganism film Green Street.^[21] It was also the location of the 2007 film Control, a biopic film about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division who grew up in Macclesfield.

Musically, Macclesfield is best known as the home town of bluesman John Mayall as well as Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris of Joy Division, and Gillian Gilbert who along with Stephen Morris were members of New Order. A memorial to Curtis is located in Macclesfield Crematorium.^[22] Other Macclesfield acts to have gained recognition include The Macc Lads and Marion. The Macclesfield band Silk Brass have also gone on to receive a National Champion title in the brass band movement in 2003.

In literature, Macclesfield is the second principal location of the fantasy novels The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner.

Macclesfield's professional football club, Macclesfield Town, first gained league status in 1997 as Football Conference champions (they won that title two years earlier but were denied promotion as they failed to meet stadium capacity requirements), and currently play in League Two. The club play their home games at the Moss Rose in the south of the town. Youth football teams include Macclesfield Juniors FC, Macclesfield Saints JFC and Tytherington Juniors. Macclesfield RUFC, the town's rugby union club, play in National Division Two (North), the fourth tier of rugby union in England.

Macclesfield's cycling club Macclesfield Wheelers^[23] is a local club for all cycling activities - from pleasure riding to racing. World famous cyclist Reg Harris produced "Reg Harris" bikes in Macclesfield for 3 years during the 1960s. The local cycling campaign group is known as MaccBUG (Macclesfield Borough Bicycle Users Group).^[24] Formed in 1999 they campaign for better cycling provision for leisure and utility cyclists.

Macclesfield Chess Club is one of the oldest chess clubs in the country having been founded in 1886.^[25]

Barracks Square was the home of the Cheshire Militia from the 1830's. It is now a Grade 2 listed residential area.

In December 2006, Sport England published a survey which revealed that residents of Macclesfield were the 3rd most active in England in sports and other fitness activities. 29.3% of the population participate at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes.^[26]

In 2008, the borough was named as the fifth happiest of 273 districts in Britain by researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, who used information on self-reported personal well-being from the British Household Panel Survey.^[27][28]

Education

Macclesfield is served by four state high schools; Macclesfield High School, Fallibroome High School, Tytherington High School and All Hallows Catholic College.

There are also two independent schools, The King's School and Beech Hall School.

Macclesfield High School is made up of students from the former school Henbury High School, and also took in the students left over when the secondary school Ryles Park closed 2004. It is on the site as Macclesfield College and Park Lane Special School as part of the Macclesfield 'Learning Zone', which was opened in 2007.

Rail services

Macclesfield railway station has frequent services to Manchester Piccadilly (25 minutes away), Stoke and London Euston (1 hour 47 minutes) by Virgin Trains, and to Birmingham New Street and beyond provided by CrossCountry. Northern Rail's stopping service between Manchester and Stoke calls at Macclesfield.

Notable people

• Marshall Lancaster - Actor most notably known for playing DC Chris Skelton in the BBC dramas Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Born in Macclesfield, 1974.
• David Shrigley - The Glasgow based artist was born in the town in 1968, and lived there until 1970.^[29]
• Peter Moores - former England Cricket Coach was born and went to school in Macclesfield.^[30]
• Ben Ainslie - Olympic gold medal winning yachtsman: born in 1977.^[31]
• Peter Crouch - Tottenham Hotspur and England international football player.^[32]
• Nick Robinson - Political editor for the BBC was born in Macclesfield and attended nearby Cheadle Hulme School.^[33]
• Ian Curtis - Lead singer of English band Joy Division: died there in 1980.^[34]
• Mr Scruff - Stockport based DJ was born in Macclesfield in 1972.^[35]
• Jonathan Agnew - Cricketer.
• John Mayall - The father of British Blues and a legendary Blues bandleader was born in Macclesfield in 1933.^[36]
• Mr Methane - The world's only performing flatulist was born in Macclesfield .^[37]
• David Dickinson - Born David Gulessarian is an antiques expert and television presenter.^[38]
• Noddy Holder - Slade frontman Born Walsall West Midlands
• Stephen Morris - Drummer in the bands Joy Division, New Order, The Other Two & Bad Lieutenant.
• Jim Moray - Folk Artist, Born in Macclesfield.
• Arthur Smith Woodward - Paleontologist
• The Macc Lads - Infamous local punk rock band.
• Reg Harris - successful track cyclist, active in the 1940s, 50's and 70's
• Deborah Corrigan - Glamour model and Page Three girl.
• Geoff Lloyd - Radio DJ, also known as the Geoff half of Pete And Geoff. Currently doing the Hometime show on Absolute Radio.

See also

Armoury Towers

• Cat and Fiddle Road
• St Michael's Church, Macclesfield
• Christ Church, Macclesfield
• St Alban's Church, Macclesfield
• King Edward Street Chapel, Macclesfield
• Macclesfield Castle
• Barracks Square and Armoury Towers

Notes and references

Notes

Bibliography

• Clayton, D. J. (1990). The administration of the county palatine of Chester, 1442—85. Manchester, United Kingdom: The Chetham Society. ISBN 0719013437. 
• Furness, R. A. (1988). The Cheshire Hundred (1888-1988): The centenary history of the Cheshire & North Wales Chess Association. Cheshire and North Wales Chess Association. 
• Scholes, R (2000). Towns and villages of Britain: Cheshire. Wilmslow, Cheshire: Sigma Press. ISBN 1850586373.