Catering for Marple/Connect2

[jethroh65]

Arthur was inspired to go down to Chadkirk Bridge and take a photo yesterday and it's the best shot I've seen so far, using the sky as a plain background to make the cut-outs jump out.

I'm afraid John Bradshawe still looks like a Cavalier to me but in my dreams the one in the middle is Eric Morecambe!

Yip, it is definitely Eric Morecambe in the middle. Just need to have speaker playing bring me sunshine and job done!!

[admin]

Arthur was inspired to go down to Chadkirk Bridge and take a photo yesterday and it's the best shot I've seen so far, using the sky as a plain background to make the cut-outs jump out.

I'm afraid John Bradshawe still looks like a Cavalier to me but in my dreams the one in the middle is Eric Morecambe!

[simonesaffron]

This is the Marple website and not the history channel but only in his dreams and possibly yours Admin was Bradshawe ever second to Oliver Cromwell.

At the time of Charles Stuart's trial he was a competent but comparitively minor judge who was manouvered by his elders and betters into being the President of the court that he became. After the trial he was "looked after" for a short period of time and given land and money. Then he suffered a series of demotions by Cromwell, became little more than a bit player and was marginalised to the shires where he died in almost ignominy of malaria.

There is also some more to him that is not commonly known and was quite distasteful and not for a family website as you say somebody should have consulted the local history society.

His claim to fame or infamy as you say is as a plain and simple regicide. That you say he is being portrayed as a Cavalier is little short of being hilarious. Anyway when all is said and done it is only a park bench but I doubt that it will do much to attract the Royal Family to Marple - although some may think, that's a good thing.       

[admin]

Personally I think John Bradshawe is more than appropriate - he is Marple's most famous (or infamous) son - however, that cut-out looks like a Cavalier. Bradshawe was a Roundhead, second only in power to Oliver Cromwell. Whoever decided to create that image to represent him should have consulted the Local History Society over the design.

I had a look at the cut-outs the other day and wondered who they were meant to depict - I wouldn't have guessed Bradshawe as the Cavalier in a hundred years! I thought it must represent the Cavalier who, legend has it, was drowned at the ford at that very location on his way from Marple Hall.

Anyway, to read more about John Bradshawe visit the main site: http://www.marple-uk.com/JBrad1.htm

[simonesaffron]

Saint Chad and Mr Tattersall are fine but isn't John Bradshaw controversial to say the least.

He does have ..."long standing ties with the area",  this is true but isn't this the same John Bradshaw who was the senior Judge at the trial of King, Charles Stuart 1. Wasn't he the first signature on the then Kings Death warrant and after the Restoration wasn't his corpse exhumed, hung, drawn and quarterd whilst he was denounced as a traitor by the government of the day ?

Is this an appropriate figure for a portrait bench outside a chapel ?     

[marveld]

"As part of the scheme a Portrait Bench will be installed which will include metal cut outs of three people selected following a vote that was carried out at the Chadkirk Festival in July and also on-line via the website. The three people chosen are:

St Chad - A prominent 7th century church man and Bishop of Lichfield but important locally as the founder of Chadkirk Chapel.

Douglas Tattersall - Former Clerk to Bredbury and Romiley Urban District Council who arranged the purchase of Chadkirk Estate and Etherow Country Park for the people of Stockport before it was disbanded in 1974.

John Bradshaw - First President of the Council of England and number two to Oliver Cromwell. He had long standing ties with the area and who's descendants lived at Marple Hall."

photos can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allengleave/8621401649/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allengleave/8621401793/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allengleave/8621401551/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allengleave/8621401427/

[the rover]

Thanks Mark.

[admin]

Can someone please advise me on something? Is it possible to walk from Dale Road across the bridge to Chadkirk pushing a baby's trolley?

Thanks.

You will struggle with a trolley in the muddy pathway along Marple Dale - there are some places where it would be very difficult. You could go via the new paths from the site of Marple Hall though. The modifications have made this ideal for pushchairs and bikes etc. and you could go all the way to Chadkirk Chapel via the new bridge.

[the rover]

Can someone please advise me on something? Is it possible to walk from Dale Road across the bridge to Chadkirk pushing a baby's trolley?

Thanks.

[the rover]

I am surprised that no-one else has noticed that the signs indicating distances have been placed incorrectly. The sign at Rose Hill gives the distance to Macclesfield as 9m whereas the sign at Wood Lane gives the distance to Macclesfield as 10m. They are the wrong way around!

Having walked from Marple to Macc along Middlewood Way a few years ago on a very wet and windy winters day it seemed about 30 miles to me when I finally arrived in Macc. Came back on a nice warm bus!

[marplerambler]

I am surprised that no-one else has noticed that the signs indicating distances have been placed incorrectly. The sign at Rose Hill gives the distance to Macclesfield as 9m whereas the sign at Wood Lane gives the distance to Macclesfield as 10m. They are the wrong way around!

[CTCREP]

This strand started off with a plea for useful Information Boards to enable visitors to enjoy the delights of Marple and the surrounding areas and in doing so benefit local businesses such as cafes and pubs. After continually saying there is no money available Stockport MBC now have some through their Transportation Capital Program. It is essential this money is spent wisely and not on, for example, self advertising Corporate Notice Boards as have appeared in all our Parks during this period. The few Information boards around are far from satisfactory, one at Otterspool tells you more about how to get to the Motorway than that the attractive Chadkirk Chapel is nearby, and the one in the Memorial Park, although it mentions  Chadkirk and Etherow Country Park, it gives you no incentive to want to go there. If we are to help our neighbourhood by promoting local services such as cafes etc then it is necessary for local people to explain to Stockport Council how this money should be spent. For example it is proposed that  Information Boards should have canopies. Great, but if there is then insufficient money for an additional board or signage of routes between locations then I suggest we do away with the canopies. There are other areas where money is proposed to be wasted, for example providing leaflets which only benefit those who have them and which have a very limited life before they are put in the dustbin. Boards that show where cafes,  pubs and other relevant facilities are available and with well signed routes on how to find them would benefit everybody for years to come. Although these points have been made to Stockport's Cycling Officer at their Cycle User Group meeting, if any of you can influence this Council and our Councillors not to be profligate with what little money they have available please do so now. The programme can be seen at their Potential Cycle Projects for the Transportation Capital Programme  PDF 27 KB 

http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/documents/s22255/report.pdf

[CTCREP]

Stockport is proposing to put a "Portrait Bench" by Chadkirk Bridge. You are invited to vote for whose portraits are to be displayed. See       http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/transport/gettingaround/connect2

[jimblob]

Useful signs would certainly be money better spent than one the current "Don't become a statistic" and "Young Drivers think!" signs on Stockport Road.

[CTCREP]

Re additional signage this is of course very necessary and very welcome, however what are also required are Information Boards showing visitors what is available in the area and why they should go there.  We are of course still waiting for Stockport to put up such an information board at Rosehill to show where you can go from there. For example there is a sign pointing to Chadkirk Chapel but unless you knew there was a pleasant garden there and the possibility of a cup of tea there is little incentive to visit the chapel. Having met someone on the Malvern Hills on a motorised wheel chair I would hope one or two of our more intrepid disabled users would check out the possibility of now being able to visit the chapel by themselves.

Still on the subject of Information Boards you may like to take a look at one by the Otterspool Car Park. The one I refer to replaces one that showed you how to get to Oldham that I complained about several years ago. It's replacement now shows you how to get to Bredbury and Romiley by car. Surely anyone arriving at Otterspool by car would probably have a road map of their own and would want to know where they can walk to. Admittedly there is another board that shows how to walk round the nearby field but the majority of people are more adventurous than that and would welcome being shown how to get to Marple or Etherow Country Park. We need to pester Stockport MBC to create more useful information boards that could bring more visitors to the area that would support our local businesses.