What better way to escape the heatwave than to wander down a cool brook under the shade of a woodland canopy?
These pics are from a few visits and taken by me, @FreshFingers and SoundLightGo.
Poise Brook rises in High Lane, to the south of Stockport. A couple of tributaries downstream is where we started - from Buxton Road heading north, to its meeting with the River Goyt in Woodbank Park. We found a few interesting bits of history, ancient and modern.
The earliest reference for the name Poise is le Puysclogh (pease valley) around 1350; a place where peas grew, a staple food in medieval times long before the arrival of the glorious potato.
Hazel Grove golf club
A small brick culvert under the railway line, in the typical style of railway culverts; and a small road culvert, likely older than the previous one.
Mind the gap
The next section is in the gap between the railway line and the main road. It’s a small forest with a carpet of ivy blurring the contours of the ground.
We approached this unusual bridge – it’s low, wide, and hefty. Build to carry weight. But there’s no road, nowhere to go, so why is it here?
The next one is the same, if a little higher.
Here’s the map so far. Orange dots mark the culverts pictured above.
Scattered around this area were concrete cylinders, approximately three feet in diameter, with a hole through the middle, like a millstone.
Lots of them. That, and the low bridges obviously built for heavy traffic into the woodland wedge, demanded a side quest.
The last train
Almost blending into the background, only their distinctive outline catching the eye, stand several rusty, bramble-covered machines.
Further research revealed that this had something to do with building / demolishing the old railway station. Hazel Grove Midland Station, opened on 1st July 1902, had a one island platform which was reached by a subway via Buxton Road. The station had a limited service, which changed over the years. It was some distance from most houses and businesses. During the Great War, on the 1st January 1917 , the station was closed as an economy measure. It never re-opened. After closure the buildings were demolished, but the platform remained until 1949.
We found some names on the machines:
- Primet Bridge Foundry in Colne was occupied by the Rushworth Brothers, engineers and founders, in 1879. Rushworth Brothers are listed as engineers and millwrights in 1893, but by 1902, they were listed as steam and hand crane and stone-sawing machine makers in addition to the former trades.
- Thomas T. Crook, engineer, millwright, brass and iron founders, makers of stationary engines of Stanley Ironworks, Derby Street, Bolton.
- Joesph Sykes Hulse, Engineer and manufacturer of all kinds of engineers' tools, &c., Ordsal Works, Calder Street, Salford. Makers of lathes, drilling machine for locomotive boilers.
This map shows the site of the machinery (black lines) and the existing subway (not the station subway, which was at the other end).
Torkington Park
Back to the brook. The name Torkington may have come from ‘Turec’s enclosure or farmstead’ from around 1000. Nowadays it’s a nice park with Poise Brook running through it. Children splash in it and swing over on ropey ropes. The railway embankment looms high over the southern end of the park. There’s something about railway engineering; the culverts never seem to bow or crack like I’ve seen in other places. Maybe it’s those solid black bricks and Victorian perfection, perhaps time will tell.
At the other end of the park the brook goes under the road. At this point there used to be a sluice / lake, by Torkington Lodge.
When it rains heavily, water spills over onto the road. There is currently flood alleviation work going on here and downstream.
Fogg Brook
There are a couple of small culverts we skipped due to access. Then Fogg Brook joins Poise Brook. South of Marple Road was Fogg Brook Mill. In the 1820s it was three stories high and had three stones, a water wheel, and 8hp steam engine. At that time it was doing wood turning and corn milling. By 1897 it is recorded as a bleach / dye / print works.
From the Edinburgh Gazette 7 Dec 1869: William Henry Syddall, formerly at Fogg Brook, Offerton, under manager of a calico print works, now a prisoner for debt in the Gaol of Chester Castle.
But he returned to printing… From Pigot’s Directory 1891: William Henry Syddall, Syddall Brothers. Calico printers of Chadkirk Print Works, Romiley.
The water wheel would have been around here. There’s a rounded channel in the stone pillars, as if they held an axle, at the top of the stepped falls.
The final culvert takes us into the valley leading to the River Goyt. It’s at the bottom of someone’s garden so we didn’t go through here.
I put the pics below side-by-side, but their actual locations are far from each other.
Downstream the brook runs through a deep canyon. You can see layers of exposed shale and siltstone from the Upper Carboniferous period (around 250m years ago).
In these stones we found plant fossils.
Finally, I picked up what I thought was one bone and it turned out to be a whole dog rotting away in the water. The local paper recently reported “Parents are being warned to keep their children out of the River Goyt this summer as several youngsters reported falling ill after entering the water ‘full of leeches’.” I’m going to guess it wasn’t the leeches that made them sick.
Thanks for reading.
These pics are from a few visits and taken by me, @FreshFingers and SoundLightGo.
Poise Brook rises in High Lane, to the south of Stockport. A couple of tributaries downstream is where we started - from Buxton Road heading north, to its meeting with the River Goyt in Woodbank Park. We found a few interesting bits of history, ancient and modern.
The earliest reference for the name Poise is le Puysclogh (pease valley) around 1350; a place where peas grew, a staple food in medieval times long before the arrival of the glorious potato.
Hazel Grove golf club
A small brick culvert under the railway line, in the typical style of railway culverts; and a small road culvert, likely older than the previous one.
Mind the gap
The next section is in the gap between the railway line and the main road. It’s a small forest with a carpet of ivy blurring the contours of the ground.
We approached this unusual bridge – it’s low, wide, and hefty. Build to carry weight. But there’s no road, nowhere to go, so why is it here?
The next one is the same, if a little higher.
Here’s the map so far. Orange dots mark the culverts pictured above.
Scattered around this area were concrete cylinders, approximately three feet in diameter, with a hole through the middle, like a millstone.
Lots of them. That, and the low bridges obviously built for heavy traffic into the woodland wedge, demanded a side quest.
The last train
Almost blending into the background, only their distinctive outline catching the eye, stand several rusty, bramble-covered machines.
Further research revealed that this had something to do with building / demolishing the old railway station. Hazel Grove Midland Station, opened on 1st July 1902, had a one island platform which was reached by a subway via Buxton Road. The station had a limited service, which changed over the years. It was some distance from most houses and businesses. During the Great War, on the 1st January 1917 , the station was closed as an economy measure. It never re-opened. After closure the buildings were demolished, but the platform remained until 1949.
We found some names on the machines:
- Primet Bridge Foundry in Colne was occupied by the Rushworth Brothers, engineers and founders, in 1879. Rushworth Brothers are listed as engineers and millwrights in 1893, but by 1902, they were listed as steam and hand crane and stone-sawing machine makers in addition to the former trades.
- Thomas T. Crook, engineer, millwright, brass and iron founders, makers of stationary engines of Stanley Ironworks, Derby Street, Bolton.
- Joesph Sykes Hulse, Engineer and manufacturer of all kinds of engineers' tools, &c., Ordsal Works, Calder Street, Salford. Makers of lathes, drilling machine for locomotive boilers.
This map shows the site of the machinery (black lines) and the existing subway (not the station subway, which was at the other end).
Torkington Park
Back to the brook. The name Torkington may have come from ‘Turec’s enclosure or farmstead’ from around 1000. Nowadays it’s a nice park with Poise Brook running through it. Children splash in it and swing over on ropey ropes. The railway embankment looms high over the southern end of the park. There’s something about railway engineering; the culverts never seem to bow or crack like I’ve seen in other places. Maybe it’s those solid black bricks and Victorian perfection, perhaps time will tell.
At the other end of the park the brook goes under the road. At this point there used to be a sluice / lake, by Torkington Lodge.
When it rains heavily, water spills over onto the road. There is currently flood alleviation work going on here and downstream.
Fogg Brook
There are a couple of small culverts we skipped due to access. Then Fogg Brook joins Poise Brook. South of Marple Road was Fogg Brook Mill. In the 1820s it was three stories high and had three stones, a water wheel, and 8hp steam engine. At that time it was doing wood turning and corn milling. By 1897 it is recorded as a bleach / dye / print works.
From the Edinburgh Gazette 7 Dec 1869: William Henry Syddall, formerly at Fogg Brook, Offerton, under manager of a calico print works, now a prisoner for debt in the Gaol of Chester Castle.
But he returned to printing… From Pigot’s Directory 1891: William Henry Syddall, Syddall Brothers. Calico printers of Chadkirk Print Works, Romiley.
The water wheel would have been around here. There’s a rounded channel in the stone pillars, as if they held an axle, at the top of the stepped falls.
The final culvert takes us into the valley leading to the River Goyt. It’s at the bottom of someone’s garden so we didn’t go through here.
I put the pics below side-by-side, but their actual locations are far from each other.
Downstream the brook runs through a deep canyon. You can see layers of exposed shale and siltstone from the Upper Carboniferous period (around 250m years ago).
In these stones we found plant fossils.
Finally, I picked up what I thought was one bone and it turned out to be a whole dog rotting away in the water. The local paper recently reported “Parents are being warned to keep their children out of the River Goyt this summer as several youngsters reported falling ill after entering the water ‘full of leeches’.” I’m going to guess it wasn’t the leeches that made them sick.
Thanks for reading.
