Marple Bridge

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MARPLE BRIDGE - Description from Pigot's 1835 Directory

MARPLE and MARPLE BRIDGE, commonly called Upper and Nether Marple, (Nether Marple, or Marple Bridge, being situate in the county of Derby), form a chapelry in the parish of Stockport, about five miles E.S.E. from that town, and 12 from Manchester. The spinning of cotton, bleaching, and calico printing, are carried on to some extent in the chapelry and neighbourbood, and upon the river Goyt are some corn mills.

Not far from the village is a noble aqueduct of three arches, which bestrides the river Mersey. A branch from the Peak Forest canal to Macclesfield, was opened here on the 9th November, 1831; it joins the Mersey canal at Lawton, being twenty-six miles and a quarter in length, and is a most material convenience to this manufacturing neighbourhood.

Wyberslegh hall, now a farm house, is noted as the birth place of the notorious John Bradshaw, who was president of the high court of justice which condemned King Charles I. In the registers of Stockport church his birth is thus entered: '1602, John the Sonne of Henry Bradshaw, of Marple, was baptized the 10th of December'. In the margin is the word traitor, with a line under it. It is said the following prophetic lines were written by this staunch adherent to republican principles, on a stone in the church-yard of Macclesfield:

"My brother Henry must heir the land,
My brother Frank must be at his command:
While I, poor Jack, will do that
That all the world shall wonder at."

He died in 1659. The probate copy of his will, which may still be seen at Marple hall, contains a bequest of £700. to purchase an annuity for maintaining a free school, at Marple; the changes brought about with regard to property, at the restoration, prevented this provision from being available. Henry Bradshaw, who survived his brother, however, founded a small school here, and endowed it with the interest of £100, which has since been augmented by other benefactions. Marple hall is a noble old house, finely situate on the rise of a hill above the Goyt, and is the property, as well as Wyberslegh hall, of John Isherwood, Esq. a descendant of the before-named president Bradshaw.

Here is a chapel of ease to Stockport, rebuilt of stone, with a tower, containing the old bells of Stockport church. It is dedicated to All Saints, and the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the rector of Stockport - the Rev. W. W. Johnson is the incumbent: the registers commenced in 1655. Besides the church, here are chapels for Wesleyan and primitive methodists. The chapelry contained, in 1821, a population of 2,646, and in 1831, 2,678 inhabitants.

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835
Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie ©1999]

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