Cheadle is a small suburban village contained within the borough of Stockport which has a 15k population and is a gentle 30-minute walk from our current residence. It is the home of the large sportswear company Umbro, who were founded originally in 1924 and used to supply the British Olympic kits for a couple of decades and also the kits for my football team Preston North End in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Famous Cheadle residents contain the sci-fi writer Christopher Priest, actress Diane Darvey who used to appear on the Benny Hill Show, novelist Nigel Williams who provided the screenplay for the Emmy award winning Elizabeth I TV dramatisation in 2005 starring Helen Mirren and the current England international footballer Kobbie Mainoo.
Diane Darvey. Image Credit www.imdb.com
From 1866 onwards Cheadle contained two separate train stations, the last one closing in 1964 but you can still see the original line which runs past the Cheshire Line Tavern pub. The former one was located in the centre of the village and shut in 1917, but there is now formal approval to build a new station on the existing Altrincham to Stockport line. The development has dragged its feet for years, but it is now believed work on it could commence imminently.
Our walking route takes us from the Parrs Wood cinema complex before crossing the River Mersey and passing the aforementioned Cheshire Line Tavern hostelry. You then walk past Victorian Abney Hall which was the location of Cheadle Town Hall for a period, and which contains bonny parkland grounds to potter around. Opposite there is the Alexandra Hospital, which is the largest private hospital in the UK outside of London.
After you mulch past the Ashlea pub you reach the traffic lights at the main Cheadle High Street. If you take the road to the left, you reach the Wobbly Stamp which opened in Covid by taking over an old post office and they occasionally stage live music, with Tom Hingley of the Inspiral Carpets having played a couple of acoustic shows there.
It is a lovely little bar and stocks some strong ales resulting in us seeing some ‘wobbly’ punters on our maiden visit! Prior to there is the Red Lion which is run by a member of the Emmerdale cast and in my humble opinion they serve the best Sunday roast in the district.
Wobbly Stamp. Image Credit www.facebook.com
Back at the lights you will find the Royal Oak which was a rundown establishment when we first visited but following an extensive refurbishment by the local Robinson brewery it is vastly improved now. Next to there is a locally run carpet shop which we have frequented and bought their wares. There also used to be a Nationwide building society branch which I once had to make an emergency dash to for some outstanding paperwork when buying our current pad.
As you enter the busy high street there are a suite of charity shops and many food outlets and I can recall us having some fine tucker at Aamchi Mumbai, Bellini’s and Istanbul Grill restaurants, the latter is one of a number of kebab joints in the area. The George and Dragon and White Hart pubs are a tad too brassy for my tastes, but the James Watts and Crown Inn are very fine destinations and have been visited on a regular basis.
I also recently visited one of their charity shops following a clear out of my CD collection so there was a swathe of obscure but high quality indie albums for sale for a while which replaced the usual pot pourri of Julio Inglesias and Celine Dion CD’s.
Further down the road is the Grade 1 listed St Mary’s Church which has been in that spot since the 12th century. On one particular bank holiday Sunday a couple of years ago we were having a sally around the village and reached the church grounds and discovered much to my chagrin that there had been an outside gig taking place for which I had just landed a little too late to hear the musical notes!
Caffe Grande Luna. Image Credit facebook.com
There is also a plethora of independent cafes in the village, with one of these being the Stockport Cheadle Caffe Grand Luna. It is a homely, licensed café bar and we have visited just the once and whilst in residence and imbibing a cold beverage we saw a singer/songwriter called Shirley.