Category: Stockport

Stockport Venue 1 – The Heatons

With the Manchester HS2 leg now officially aborted and as a result potential funds being freed up for other transport projects, there have been increasing rumours about extending the current metro terminus of East Didsbury all the way into Stockport. I believe this proposed route would cross over the River Mersey and traverse in via Cheadle.

The East Didsbury metro stop with its large car park is my nearest station and lies about 20 minutes’ walk away. From there you can begin to navigate up Didsbury Road past the Dog and Partridge pub and at that point you cross over into Stockport.  

The next touchpoint is the petrol station with an M&S attached where during the dark days of Covid, one of our treats was to visit there and purchase the frites and the fresh strawberries with meringues!  

You then reach the Griffin pub which is an archetypal old-fashioned boozer run by the local Holts brewery, which remains as one of the cheapest beers in Britain. It was built in 1831 and still contains two ornate shuttered bars and other original features.

As you continue up the hill you reach Heaton Mersey Bowl on the right which is a large green area containing a couple of football pitches. I recently discovered that a Moor Fest event was held there in 2005 were Mr Scruff, Tom Hingley, Mighty Wah! Clint Boon, A Certain Ratio and Howard Marks were on the bill. Viewing it now, it would be a natural amphitheatre for such a shindig, not dissimilar in layout to Avenham Park in Preston, but the records show that was a one-off singular event.

Moorfest Flyer. Image Credit mdmarchive.co.uk

If you continue down to the right, you arrive at Burnage Rugby Club where alongside the club they have a combined football/golf pitch and putt course. A couple of years ago they held an open-air movie night on the pitch with a screening of A Star is Born featuring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. When we visited Australia, we witnessed people queuing for a Rocky showing in an open-air cinema in glorious sunshine in Sydney Harbour. Our event was not in the same league, it was admittedly reasonably well organised, but the issue was the apocalyptic rain, and it was absolutely bloody freezing!

Back on Didsbury Road you then reach the Conservative Club where my political persuasion has ensured I have never crossed the threshold of any such establishment anywhere in the country. Back in Preston, there was once a family christening at the Con Club off Moor Park, and I was genuinely ill and could not attend but at least my ailment took a tricky decision off the table! The local club does have musical acts on, and my gig venue ‘addiction’ was briefly piqued, but the horrific calibre of acts, for example a Michael Buble tribute act at £20 per pop quickly quashed that thought!

Further up on the right is the Crown pub which has a raised beer garden which is a sun trap in the summer months, and it is a pleasure to sit there and while away a few hours with a Dizzy Blonde (the beer!). It is a proper old-fashioned establishment with wood beams, and I believe they used to do a fine Sunday lunch, but they have not had food on since pre-covid.

The Crown pub. Image Credit blogspot.com

There is an extremely steep cobbled incline by the side of the pub leading down to the river that bears an uncanny resemblance to the ‘Hovis Hill’ from the old 1970’s adverts, though the filming was actually undertaken on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury in Dorset. The hostelry was also used for a pub quiz scene in a recent episode of Cold Feet with the characters played by James Nesbitt and Robert Bathurst having a scrap on the aforementioned street.

A little further is St Winifred’s School where their choir had a moment of fame in 1980 with their number one Christmas single ‘There’s No Quite Like Grandma’, beating tracks by John Lennon and Jona Lewie to the top of the chart. The choir included the future Coronation Street actress Sally Lindsay.     

Back up opposite the Heaton Mersey Bowl is the Stockport Heatons. When I first visited at the back end of 2017 hunting a pub to watch a PNE match it was an interesting establishment called the Frog and Railway. Shortly after it closed and reopened under its current name and was more in the gastropub mould. When sampling some food there in August 2021 there was a local act called Heatons Jazz Band providing a soundtrack.

Before I go this week I must add my homage to the genius songwriting talent of Shane MacGowan. I initially missed the Pogues playing at the Paradise Club in Preston in front of about thirty people in February 1985 despite being in town that night and my brother trying to persuade me to attend. Oh, young foolish 16-year-old Jimmy!

Shane MacGowan. Image Credit withradio.org

I saw them three times after that with the second at the long-gone Manchester International 2 in December 1986 remaining one of my Top 20 ever gigs. They were extraordinary and I never since seen an occasion where about 90% of the audience were dancing, creating a huge communal euphoric experience. If only there was a way to bottle or freeze those moments in time!

I am sitting here misty-eyed listening to the marauding intent of ‘Boys from the Country Hell’ and the warped beauty of ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’ to name but two of his astounding canon of material. RIP Shane – ‘I Will Have a Pint With You Sir’!

Stockport Gigs

When we moved into our current pad in 2018, we quickly realised we were located 100 yards over the Manchester border into Stockport. This sparked thoughts of my previous interactions with Stockport.  

My first two visits were to the football stadium at Edgeley Park to watch Preston away. In our promotion season in 1986/87 we had a Monday night match, but when Uncle George arrived to pick me up and drive to the game, his car would not start up again. I didn’t drive or own a vehicle at that stage, so the only other option was to borrow my parent’s car as they were away on holiday and George had insurance to drive any motor.

Those initial shenanigans resulted in us arriving very late and we could only access the home end before being escorted around the pitch to the PNE enclosure, but in those basic stadium days we were then perched on the side of a dusty mound with hugely limited views, though thankfully we won the game 3-1. I recall us heading for a beer in the Greenall Whitley land of Warrington on the way home.  

We returned about five years later for a Friday night match and were well beaten with the 6ft 7-inch striker Kevin Francis tormenting us, as a postscript I have just read that he has had an interesting post career change and now works for the Canadian police force. Final word on the football front is that I am delighted to see Stockport flying high at the moment as they have been through a very lean period for the last couple of decades.     

I used to occasionally travel over to my brothers in Nottingham via Stockport on the M63 (as it was then). My only other recollection was in the early 1990’s when Gill was based in Eccles we travelled over to the Garrick Theatre, which remains to this day, to see the Rochdale Cowboy Mike Harding. He was excellent entertainment with I seem to recall a running gag throughout the evening involving cheese and crackers.

Stockport Garrick Theatre. Image Credit theatresonline.com

Stockport lies 7 miles southeast of Manchester and dates back to 1170 and the River Tame and River Goyt meet here to form the River Mersey and we can walk into the centre from our current home in about 45 minutes down the river. It has a considerable industrial heritage with industries covering products such as hemp, rope, cotton, silk and hats, the latter producing more than 6 million hats at its peak in the late 19th century.

Dominating the skyline over the M60 is the terrific Stockport viaduct with its 27 brick arches and uniquely Stockport train station is one of a very rare number in Britain to have a Platform 0. The reason for the quirky numbering is that there was only room for a new Platform on the Platform 1 side of the station. The Plaza is a Grade II listed cinema and variety theatre and is the last of its kind operating in original format. They have odd gigs there and last year Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott undertook a post Covid concert specifically for NHS staff.

Stockport Viaduct. Image Credit flickr.com

Stockport has suffered as a poor cousin to Manchester, but they are in the midst of a regeneration with many independent outlets opening up around Underbank and the 700-year-old marketplace. I do hope though that they retain the heritage and do not build a plethora of tower blocks as they have to excess in Manchester. They do also have a horror one way system and a ‘Wayward Pines’ car park with an overflow that on one occasion thought we would never be able to leave!

On the musical front, there is the remarkable fact the Jimi Hendrix Experience played not once but twice in Stockport in 1967, the first at the Sinking ship and a month later at the Tabernacle. The famous Strawberry Studios were located there, and it existed from 1968 to 1993 and was utilised by 10cc, The Smiths, Stone Roses, Paul McCartney and Joy Division. The upcoming band the Blossoms are from the town and other famous residents include the Crown actress Claire Foy and tennis legend Fred Perry.  

Jimi Hendrix Stockport flyer. Image Credit sevenmilesoutrecords.co.uk