Snowbound at Rose Hill - 1947

Mr. and Mrs. Bradley of Romiley got in touch about an antique cup and saucer that came into their family from Marple Hall. They believe it was given by the Squire as a wedding gift to a relative who probably worked there as a servant. Possibly at the time it was just a surplus item of crockery to the Bradshaw-Isherwoods but it's now a treasured heirloom of the Bradley family. The Bradleys also allowed us to borrow a number of interesting family photographs, including a superb picture of a steam train snowbound at Rose Hill Station in the severe winter of 1947.

Way back in April we received a call from Mike Yates who lives in the Old Vicarage on St. Martins Road. Mike contacted us because he hoped to discover more about one of the crests on the wall of his house that is being eroding away by the weather. The crest bears the initials EH and as St. Martin's Church and the Old Vicarage were built by the Hudson family it was reasonable for Mike to assume that it was a Hudson crest. Research at the Marple Library, aided by librarian and Local History Society member Margaret Bradbury, revealed that this was not the case. The crest is actually that of the Reverend Edward Hayes, first vicar of St. Martin's, for whom the house was built in 1873. The Reverend was later to change his name to the much more fashionable de la Hey. Following the recent open day at St. Martin's, we hope to tell you more of this beautiful church in a future article.

A rewarding contact earlier this year was from Chris Wright, the lady who donated the shutters from Marple Hall featured in the first article in the Community News back in September 2000. They are still currently displayed in the Heritage section of Marple Library. This time Chris had discovered an old carriage lamp, also purchased by her father during a sale at the hall, in her mother's loft. The lamp was extremely dirty and rusty but a few hours with the wire wool and a coat of paint has made all the difference and it now looks remarkably presentable. Should we ever get a heritage centre in Marple it will be able to go on display to the public.

Possibly the most exciting contact of all was from 90 year old Master Baker Frederick J. Bentley M.B.E. from Chislehurst in Kent, who discovered Mark's interest in Marple Hall through the web site. Fred had been researching his ancestry and trying confirm a long established tale that his grandmother, Ann, was disinherited by her wealthy family. The story suggests she was the daughter of Thomas Bradshaw-Isherwood, Squire of Marple Hall in around 1840 and his wife Mary Ellen. Ann is said to have been cut off by her family after running away with Fred's grandfather, William Henry Bentley, then a coachman working at the hall. Despite the best efforts of Fred and Mark we have so far been unable to establish a definite connection between the two families. However, if this tale does prove to be unfounded it would be hard to explain why Fred's father was christened Isherwood Bentley!

In addition to these unique and interesting contacts we've been delighted by the numerous photographs contributed by local people and also from more remote corners of the world through the Internet.

If you have ever visited the Marple Website you hopefully would have been tempted to look at the Virtual Tour. These photo galleries were added to the site in March of this year.

Photos of bygone times have long been a fascination for people and we are no exception. We realised that a fantastic way to share this interest and our growing collection of pictures was through the Internet. Having decided to begin a photo gallery on the Website, our next problem was where to get enough images to make visiting worthwhile. Experience should have told us that the people of Marple would not let us down. Principally we approached Marple Local History Society, who generously gave us access to their vast collection and it also wasn't long before individuals began contacting us. In no time at all we were up and running with what we called 'A Virtual Time Tour Of Marple'.

The galleries are split into 17 categories ranging from Street Scenes to Buildings, People to Canals. Each gallery has approximately twelve "thumbnails", small pictures which enlarge when clicked upon to reveal a larger image. At present there are over 50 galleries displaying in the region of 700 photographs, with more being regularly added.

We think if you visit the site you will be impressed with the variety and guarantee that there will be many images that you will have never seen before. You can even search the galleries using keywords if you are looking for a photograph with a particular topic.

A recent, new direction involves choosing suitable photographs and re-visiting the scene to take a modern day equivalent from as near the same place as possible, this has proved to be a great success. It's surprising how little the landscape has changed, in many cases over 100 years on, the most surprising change is the trees. It isn't that there are substantially fewer as one might expect but that there are substantially more!!! In some cases it's a struggled to get the same shot without becoming buried in the undergrowth. There were of course major exceptions which we would dearly loved to have shown in comparison, chiefly Marple Hall, Brabyns Hall, the Lime Kilns and of course Bottoms Mill, however we have the small consolation that we can still enjoy looking at their images and trying to imagine what they were like in the flesh.

Our plan is to keep developing the Photo galleries and as yet we still continue to find new sources for pictures, however this can only go on so long. If you have images of Marple and district in your collection why not share them with the rest of us? If you are unsure if they are the type of thing we need then call us and we will visit you to see if they can be used. Often the best photos are family snaps of people against the background of a local scene.

We can hear some of you now, saying "This is all very well, but I don't have access to a computer or the Internet!" well as long as you have a library card you do have access. Marple Library are now connected permanently to the Internet and all you have to do is either call in or ring (427 3246) and they will book you a session, FREE OF CHARGE, they will even show you how to 'Log On', it's really easy. So take this opportunity to see what this Internet stuff is all about and at the same time look at what is probably the best collection of images of Marple and District available anywhere on the planet.

Marple Website makes no financial gain whatsoever from the 'Virtual Tour' and the galleries are provided purely for our own and your pleasure. We would like to extend a special thank you to all those people who have let us copy their photographs so far, including Marple Local History Society, Gordon Mills, Ann Hearle, Fred Robinson, Kathleen Rowson, Arthur Rowson, Walter Thorpe, Marie Turner, Marie Woodhouse, F.R. Jones, Dr. J.A. Collings-Wells, Cecilia O'Neill, Bill Beard, Charles Battersby, Mrs. H Ashworth, Mr & Mrs Bradley, Dave Brindley, Jack Froggatt, Pat Booth, D. Davies, Tony Hurley, Ray Noble and Chris & Derek Newton.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Community News readers and thanks to those of you who've taken the time to tell us how much you enjoy our articles. Don't forget, if you have anything interesting to share, please get in touch with Mark or Peter using our contact us page.