Iron Bridge Cottage

[Peter]

The Lodge by the canal is privately owned but seems to come up for sale quite regularly if you fancy fulfilling your childhood dream.

[Oldmerpudlian]

Re the lodge  at the Station Road end of the park - who owns it - SMBC? Loved it when I was a little girl and wanted to live in it.

[admin]

I agree that the Iron Bridge Cottage would make an excellent tea room and visitor's centre, especially once the Iron Bridge is restored. With the increased traffic that will result from the new Multi-Modal trail that is to run through the park and over the bridge on the way to Etherow Park in Compstall, it has the potential to become a significant attribute to the park.

A big part of the reason that the cottage has not sold to a private buyer is that there is no right of way through the park for vehicles. The previous occupants were given access by concession due to the owner being disabled but the Council are apparently not prepared to continue this arrangement with a new owner.

Another reason why it has not sold is that the cost of turning it into a decent family sized home is prohibitive. The cottage was under offer last year but the buyers pulled out after they were quoted a substantial 6 figure sum for the improvements they hoped to make.

If only the Council could be convinced that buying the cottage and spending some money on it would reap benefits to the community. If they don't, it seems almost inevitable that the cottage will go the same way as all those other assets, whose value were only recognised after they were lost to Marple in years gone by.

It's a common perception that we are better at preserving our heritage now than we used to be, but we're certainly not as good at it, or as forward thinking, as we seem to believe.

[Deniseamb]

Lets hope the same fate doesn't befall the boarded up house at the entrance to the Memorial Park on Station Road.

I suspect the price of Iron Bridge Cottage has fallen slightly from the £150,000+ since the fire.  Make a nice tearoom!

[Howard]

I was walking the dog in Brabyns park early on Saturday morning (12th Feb) and there were a batch of fire fighting vehicles and a police car down at Iron Bridge Cottage. The cottage has been boarded up for weeks following the previous owners moving out and it seems that someone removed the boards and set a fire inside. The fire didn't look really serious - nothing major structurally seemd to be affeected but there was clearly some internal fire and smoke damage on the ground floor.

I was dreading this - it seems that any of the more notable buildings in Marple that can't be sold (Jolly Sailor, the Bowling Green and now the cottage) and are borded up and then torched in short order.

The cottage is so much part of the bridge that it would be an absolute tragedy if it was damaged so badly that it had to be demolished. I really hope that some effort can be made to keep it secure until someone who cares about it can move in and restore it. The trouble is that it's such an isolated place and so far from anywhere else that it's difficult for emergency services to get there (the fire engines certainly had a real problem backing out) and for the police to keep an eye on, that I'm afraid it won't be long before someone's back to finish the job.