Storer's Stories
Waters Green Tales
By
Apr 27, 2008, 19:20

I was reminded just the other day that, come October of this year, it will be one hundred years since the first Model T rolled off the revolutionary production line at Henry Ford’s Detroit plant. It was a mere 3 years later that the first British Ford Factory opened at Trafford Park in Manchester. It’s little wonder, therefore, that many of the early vehicles in Macclesfield were Model Ts.

It was at this point that the old grey matter was disturbed to the point that I began to recollect some stories about the Waters Green area of Macclesfield. It is widely believed that a certain Mr. Brocklehurst was the first car owner in Macclesfield and that to prove its versatility, he demonstrated to amazed locals that it could be driven down the 108 Steps from behind the parish church to Waters Green below. And local legend also says that if you run up the 108 Steps without taking a breath, then your wishes will come true. The area now called The Waters, or Waters Green, at the foot of the 108 Steps would have seen the wide River Bollin flowing through low ground beneath the eastern walls of Macclesfield’s boundaries. It would be to here that locals would bring their animals for watering – Brunswick Hill, close to the Police Station was called Duck Lane at the time. On the opposite side of the present railway line, under which the Bollin still runs, and close to the Kwik Fit Tyre depot, a reminder still exists of the penalties imposed on nagging women of medieval times. At the end of Cuckstoolpit Hill was a ducking stool. Nagging wives would be adorned in a scold’s bridal, a metal piece of headgear that held the tongue and restricted the movement of the chin. Nagging wives would be then secured to the stool and ducked in the Bollin. An example of the bridle can be found in the West Park Museum. As I pen my ramblings, the spring fair in Waters Green is providing modern day rides for youngsters of the town. The fair dates back to the time when Macclesfield was granted a Royal Charter in 1261 and differed in many ways to what we see today. Macclesfield is recorded as the last English town where wives could be sold at the medieval fair – they would often earn the princely sum of two shillings and sixpence for their husband’s purse.

Waters Green was a notable boundary for medieval Macclesfield. To the east was common land where grazing rights were granted, and the boundary of the township of Hurdsfield reached a point roughly where the famous Arighi Bianchi Store stands on the site originally occupied by the local lunatic asylum.

I wonder what comment will stimulate my recollections for my next story.