Hazel Grove

Until the 16th century, there was very little development at Hazel Grove. The area straddled the boundaries of four townships or manors: Bosden, Bramhall, Norbury, and Torkington. Norbury was mentioned in the Domesday Survey in 1086 (as Nordberie).{{cite web |url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/cheshire2.html |title=Cheshire L–Z |work=The Domesday Book Online |access-date=30 June 2021}}

File:Bull's Head, Hazel Grove c.1900.jpg

In 1560, a blacksmith called Richard Bullock built a smithy on the corner of what is now Torkington Park. This building later became the Bullock Smithy Inn. It stood on the main road from Manchester and Stockport to Buxton and London, later numbered as the A6 road. A village known as Bullock Smithy gradually grew up along the road. The name Hazel Grove, referring to a grove of hazel trees, was also sometimes used for the area, appearing on a 1749 map as 'Hessel-grave'. In 1836, the villagers of Bullock Smithy held a public meeting and resolved to formally adopt the name Hazel Grove for the village.{{cite book |last1=Heginbotham |first1=Henry |title=Stockport: Ancient and Modern, Volume II |date=1892 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Co. |location=London |pages=137–138 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Stockport/cuyZkJxOBVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA138&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}{{cite news |title=Country News |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002576%2F18361009&page=7 |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=London Mercury |date=9 October 1836 |page=7}}

File:London Road, Hazel Grove c.1900 (3).jpg

A tram line from Stockport to Hazel Grove opened in 1890, running along London Road to a terminus near the Rising Sun public house at the corner of Buxton Road and Macclesfield Road.{{cite web |title=Cheshire Sheet XIX.8 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/114581950 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=13 February 2025 |date=1938}} The line was initially run by a private company, but became part of Stockport Corporation Tramways in 1905. Through services into Manchester via the connected Manchester Corporation Tramways network operated from 1908. The tram route closed in 1950.{{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Keith |title=The Directory of British Tramways |date=1996 |publisher=Patrick Stephens |isbn=978-1-85260-549-0 |pages=141–143}}

A Mechanics' Institute was built in 1871 at the corner of London Road and Hatherlow Lane, serving as the village's main public events venue. The charity that originally ran the building transferred ownership to the Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council in 1952, who later renamed it the Civic Hall.{{cite news |title=Council takes over Mechanics' Institute |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004027%2F19520425&page=16 |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=Stockport Advertiser |date=25 April 1952 |page=16}}{{cite web |title=Mechanics Institute - Hazel Grove |url=https://imagearchive.stockport.gov.uk/Home/Photograph?accessionno=22638 |website=Stockport Image Archive |publisher=Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council |access-date=13 February 2025}}

There were no churches in the area until the end of the 16th century. By the early 17th century, a chapel had been built in Norbury township. It stood in fields to the east of Macclesfield Road, opposite Norbury Hall Farm, nearly a mile south of Hazel Grove. The chapel was known for being served by Nonconformist ministers in the late 17th century. After the Restoration, a law was passed in 1662 forbidding ministers to preach without the Book of Common Prayer. The minister of Norbury Chapel, John Jollie, went there to preach, but found that the door was locked. He and his followers broke down the door and he preached as usual. Subsequently, he was tried for nonconformity, but it was decided that Norbury Chapel was not a consecrated place.{{cite book |last1=Heginbotham |first1=Henry |title=Stockport: Ancient and Modern, Volume II |date=1892 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Co. |location=London |pages=200–201 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Stockport/cuyZkJxOBVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA200&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}

In 1788, John Wesley preached in Bullock Smithy. In his journal he described the village as "... one of the most famous villages in the county for all manner of wickedness."{{cite book |title=The Works of the Rev John Wesley AM, Volume IV |date=1840 |publisher=John Mason |location=London |page=395 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Works_of_the_Rev_John_Wesley_A_M/V4BPAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA395&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}

File:Norbury Parish Church - geograph.org.uk - 3184291.jpg

In the 1830s, it was decided to build a new church, both to serve the growing village and to replace the increasingly ruinous Norbury Chapel. The site chosen was on the southern edge of the village, and was also in Norbury township. The church, dedicated to St Thomas, was completed in 1834.{{NHLE|desc=Church of St Thomas|num=1260001|grade=II}} The site of Norbury Chapel then reverted to fields.{{cite web |title=Cheshire Sheet XIX, 1882 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341008 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=12 February 2025}} In 1842 an ecclesiastical parish called 'St Thomas, Norbury' was created, which initially just covered the Norbury township.{{London Gazette|issue=20185|page=89|date=10 January 1843}} The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1878 to take in Bosden and parts of Bramhall and Torkington townships, such that it then covered the whole of Hazel Grove village.{{London Gazette|issue=24616|page=4810|date=23 August 1878}}

The legal name of the ecclesiastical parish covering Hazel Grove remains 'St Thomas, Norbury'.{{cite web |title=Norbury Church |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/12884/more-information/ |website=A church near you |access-date=8 February 2025}}{{cite web |title=Church of England parish map |url=https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=67bce0ed36dd4ee0af7a16bc079aa09a |publisher=Church of England Data Services Team |access-date=8 February 2025}} The church is now known both as 'Norbury Church' and 'St Thomas, Hazel Grove'.{{cite web |title=Norbury Church |url=https://www.norburychurch.com/ |access-date=8 February 2025}}

There is one main tier of local government covering Hazel Grove, at metropolitan borough level: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. The council is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is led by the directly-elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. Hazel Grove gives its name to the Hazel Grove ward for elections to Stockport Council and to the Hazel Grove constituency for parliamentary elections.{{cite web |title=Election Maps |url=https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/election-maps/gb/ |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=10 February 2025}}

The majority of the village lies within the Hazel Grove parliamentary constituency which is currently represented by Lisa Smart of the Liberal Democrats.{{Cite web|title=MPs representing Hazel Grove (Constituency) - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament|url=https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/4092/overview|access-date=1 August 2024|website=members.parliament.uk|language=en}} The western part of Hazel Grove lies within the Cheadle parliamentary constituency which is currently represented by Tom Morrison also of the Liberal Democrats.{{Cite web|title=MPs representing Cheadle (Constituency) - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament|url=https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/3973/overview|access-date=1 August 2024|website=members.parliament.uk|language=en}}

The village of Hazel Grove historically straddled the boundaries of Bosden, Bramhall, Norbury, and Torkington. Bosden was a detached part of the township of Handforth (also known as Handforth-cum-Bosden), which formed part of the ancient parish of Cheadle.{{cite book |last1=Earwaker |first1=John Parsons |title=East Cheshire: Past and Present |date=1877 |page=264 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/East_Cheshire_Past_and_Present/35uKZN-dKtIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA264&printsec=frontcover |access-date=15 January 2025}}{{cite book |last1=Brooke |first1=Richard |title=Visits to Fields of Battle in England |date=1857 |publisher=John Russell Smith |location=London |page=268 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Visits_to_Fields_of_Battle_in_England_of/vwAHAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA268&printsec=frontcover |access-date=15 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=Bosden Hamlet / Civil Parish |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10041260 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth |access-date=6 February 2025}} Bramhall, Norbury, and Torkington were all townships within the parish of Stockport.{{cite web |title=Stockport Ancient Parish / Civil Parish |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10157791 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth |access-date=12 February 2025}}

From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Stockport and Cheadle, the civil functions were exercised by each township rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Bramhall, Norbury, Torkington, and Handforth-cum-Bosden each became separate civil parishes.{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Frederic |title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume II, Northern England |date=1991 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |location=London |isbn=0861931270 |page=xv}} Bosden, which lay some {{convert|5|miles|km}} away from the rest of its parish at Handforth, was subsequently made a separate civil parish in 1878.{{cite web |last1=Langston |first1=Brett |title=Stockport Registration District |url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/stockport.html |website=UK BMD |access-date=15 January 2025}}

File:Hazel Grove Civic Hall.jpg

When elected parish and district councils were created in 1894, Bosden, Bramhall, Norbury and Torkington were each given a parish council and included in the Stockport Rural District. Shortly afterwards, Stockport Borough Council began campaigning to have the various small parishes just outside its southern boundaries (most of which had formerly been townships in the parish of Stockport) incorporated into the County Borough of Stockport. The parish councils of Bramhall, Bosden, Norbury, Torkington and neighbouring Offerton (to the north of Hazel Grove) collectively decided that they wished to resist being brought into Stockport, and therefore petitioned Cheshire County Council to create an urban district covering the combined area of their five parishes.{{cite news |title=Proposed new urban council |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000206%2F19000112&page=10 |access-date=8 February 2025 |work=Manchester Courier |date=12 January 1900 |page=10}} The county council agreed, and the five parishes were therefore abolished in September 1900, with the area becoming the new civil parish and urban district of Hazel Grove and Bramhall.{{cite book |title=Annual Report of the Local Government Board |date=1901 |page=340 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Local_Government_Bo/iUswAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover&bsq=Norbury |access-date=8 February 2025}}

Hazel Grove was the largest settlement within the Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District, and the council chose to base itself there, initially at offices on London Road.{{cite book |title=Kelly's Directory of Cheshire |date=1914 |page=358 |url=https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/235555/rec/3 |access-date=10 February 2025}} In 1935, the urban district council bought Torkington Lodge, opening the grounds to the public as Torkington Park and converting the main house into its headquarters, with the council's first meeting there being in January 1937.{{cite news |title=Torkington Lodge: Hazel Grove and Bramhall Council Recommended to Purchase |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004027%2F19350628&page=13 |access-date=10 February 2025 |work=Stockport Advertiser |date=28 June 1935 |page=13}}{{cite web |title=Councillors - Hazel Grove |url=https://imagearchive.stockport.gov.uk/Home/Photograph?accessionno=36809&searchString=Romiley&searchOption=All&searchArea=All&ClassSearch=True&first=False&last=False |website=Stockport Image Archive |publisher=Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council |access-date=10 February 2025}}

Hazel Grove and Bramhall was abolished in 1974 to become part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester.{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Local Government Act 1972|year=1972|chapter=70|schedule=1|access-date=15 January 2025}}

File:Hazel Grove Railway Station - geograph.org.uk - 638647.jpg

Notable features of Hazel Grove include the A6 road, a major thoroughfare which connects Luton with Carlisle, passes through the centre of the area. After several plans to build a by-pass which did not come to fruition, consent was given in 2014 for a new Manchester Airport Relief Road (an extension of the A555 road) passing to the south of Hazel Grove, designed to take some of the traffic from the A6. The road opened in October 2018.{{Cite web|title=SEMMMS : A6 and Manchester Airport Relief Road |url=http://a6marr.stockport.gov.uk/planningapplications/05councildecisionnotices.html|access-date=10 November 2021|website=a6marr.stockport.gov.uk}}{{Cite web|title=A6MARR opens to traffic {{!}} SEMMMS|url=http://www.semmms.info/a6marr-opens-to-traffic/|access-date=10 November 2021}}

The area is served by Hazel Grove railway station, which is on the Hope Valley and Buxton lines from Stockport. Regular services, operated by Northern Trains, reach Stockport, {{rws|Manchester Piccadilly}} and {{rws|Buxton}}.{{Cite web |title=Timetables and engineering information for travel with Northern |work=Northern Railway |date=2 June 2024 |access-date=21 July 2024 |url= https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/timetables |quote=}} Hazel Grove (Midland) station was situated between the railway overbridges at the south end of the town and was only open from 1902 until 1917.{{Cite web |title=Station Name: HAZEL GROVE (Midland) |work=Disused-stations.org.uk |date=21 May 2017 |access-date=21 July 2024 |url= http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/hazel_grove/index.shtml |quote=}}

Bus services in the area are operated by Stagecoach Manchester and Belle Vue Coaches. Hazel Grove is the southern terminus for the 192 bus route, which runs along the A6 to Manchester via Stockport. Other routes connect the area with Buxton, Manchester Airport and Hawk Green.{{Cite web |title=Hazel Grove Bus Services |work=Bus Times |date=2024 |access-date=21 July 2024 |url= https://bustimes.org/localities/hazel-grove-stockport |quote=}}

{{Geographic Location

| title = Neighbouring districts and places.

| Northwest = Stockport

| North = Offerton

| Northeast = Marple

| West = Stepping Hill
Bramhall

| Centre = Hazel Grove

| East = High Lane – Disley

| Southwest = Woodford

| South = Poynton

| Southeast = Higher Poynton

}}

The area has four state primary schools – Hazel Grove, Torkington, Norbury Hall and Moorfield. In addition, there are two Catholic primary schools – St Simon's and St Peter's.

Hazel Grove High School is the area's high school for pupils aged 11–18.

File:Hazel Grove.jpg

Most residents work outside the village.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} Hazel Grove was also home to the UK Adidas headquarters, who had their main warehouse on the edge of the village, and the nearby Stepping Hill Hospital which is the main maternity and A&E hospital serving the Stockport and south Manchester areas.

[http://mirrleesfields.org.uk/history.shtml Mirlees, Bickerton and Day] established a factory in October 1908, where diesel engines were manufactured for many years.{{Cite web|title=Mirrlees Fields – History|url=http://mirrleesfields.org.uk/history.shtml|access-date=2021-11-10|website=mirrleesfields.org.uk}}

Nexperia (formerly NXP, Philips, Mullard) have a semiconductor manufacturing plant (wafer Fab) off Bramhall Moor Lane in Hazel Grove. The site has been there for over 25 years and currently employs around 1100 people.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}} Before that, the site was at School Street, which has an interesting history. Before 1939, the site beside the Marcliff (later Warwick) cinema at the south end of the village had a garage and petrol station (opposite Jack Sharp's greyhound track), which was converted at the outbreak of war into an aircraft factory,{{citation needed|date=July 2013}} occupying the entire triangle between Macclesfield Road and the two railway lines. This seemed also to have been extended behind the Norbury Church, in School Street. At the end of the war, prefabs were built.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} The Macclesfield Road site was taken over later for pharmaceuticals by British Schering. Eventually, G.E.C. started a transistor factory at the School St address. Both of these locations are now light industrial estates housing a number of small businesses, some still in the original buildings.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}

Hazel Grove's main shopping street, London Road, and its surrounding area is the largest district centre in Stockport Borough with a diverse range of small shops and larger supermarkets, public houses, restaurants and takeaways{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}.

Speedway racing was staged at the Hazel Grove Greyhound Stadium in 1937, although details of the meetings are sketchy. Greyhound racing meetings were held every Saturday afternoon for many years, until the track was closed around 1960. In the 1970s, part of the site was made into an extension of the local football pitches on Torkington Park for amateur teams to use, until the site was sold and redeveloped; partly as a Carpetright store, partly as the Greyhound Industrial Estate.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Hazel Grove has two recreational centres: Hazel Grove Sports Centre, in the grounds of Hazel Grove High School,{{cite web |url=http://www.hazelgrovehigh.co.uk/page/?title=Leisure+Centre&pid=7 |title=Welcome to HG Sports Centre |publisher=Hazel Grove High School |access-date=20 June 2017}} and Life Leisure Hazel Grove (Hazel Grove Swimming Pool).

Hazel Grove Snooker Club, on Macclesfield Road, has been a notable centre of national snooker competitions since its establishment in November 1984. Being one of the largest snooker venues in the UK, the club has hosted a substantial number of WPBSA (later WSA) and ESPB competitions throughout the last three decades, leading to two confirmed and referee-verified 147 breaks at the club (Jason Prince in British Open Qualifier, 13 January 1999,{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} and Nick Dyson in UK Tour Event 4, 2 March 1999{{cite web |url=https://www.eurosport.com/snooker/on-this-week_sto2263493/story.shtml |title=On this Week |publisher=Eurosport |date=22 March 2010 |access-date=11 July 2019}}). The club has also hosted major disability sports events, such as the WDBS Northern Classic 2019 for participants with learning and physical disabilities{{cite web |url=https://www.wpbsa.com/hazel-grove-hosts-successful-disability-snooker-event/ |title=Hazel Grove Hosts Successful Disability Snooker Event |date=12 February 2019 |publisher=World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association |access-date=11 July 2019}} and the WDBS DS Active Workshop 2019 providing snooker training for players with Down's Syndrome.{{cite web |url=https://www.dsactive.org.uk/news/dsactive-team-run-first-workshop-for-world-disability-billiards-and-snooker/ |title=DSActive run first workshop for World Disability Billiards and Snooker |date=15 February 2019 |publisher=Down's Syndrome Association |access-date=11 July 2019}}

There is also a tennis and bowling club on Douglas Road and two cricket clubs, Hazel Grove CC and Norbury CC. The latter includes a lacrosse club and crown green bowling club, each with their own facilities. Torkington Park provides crown green bowling, tennis courts and football pitches.

Hazel Grove Football Club was founded in 1957 and play their home games at Torkington Park. The club was taken over by new management in 2014 and plays in the Manchester Saturday Morning Football League. Richmond Rovers JFC is a junior football club based opposite the high school on Jacksons Lane.

• Joan Bakewell, journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer.{{cite news| work= The Times |url= https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/time-and-place-joan-bakewell-009kq3gd8k9| title= Time and place: Joan Bakewell |date= 1 March 2009 |access-date= 10 January 2023}}
• Peter Bowker, playwright and television writer.{{cite web |url= https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/occupation-local-hero-921161?service=responsive |title= Occupation: Local Hero |author= |date= 8 June 2009 |website= Manchester Evening News |publisher= Reach plc |access-date= 3 September 2023}}
• William Garbutt, former professional footballer and manager.{{cite news| work= Manchester Evening News| url= http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/never-mind-rooney---garbutts-978037| title= Never mind Rooney – Garbutt's the real legend| date= 15 February 2007| access-date= 22 August 2015}}
• Carolyn Hansson, materials engineer.{{cite web |title=WOMEN OF IMPACT |url=https://www.metsoc.org/women-impact/ |website=metsoc.org |accessdate=November 29, 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030050306/https://www.metsoc.org/women-impact/ |archivedate=October 30, 2017}}
• James Horsfield, professional footballer.{{cite news|url=https://www.mancity.com/james-horsfield |title=James Horsfield club profile |publisher=Manchester City F.C. |date=12 October 2015 |accessdate=3 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317234519/https://www.mancity.com/james-horsfield|archive-date=17 March 2017 |url-status=dead}}
• Johnny Johnson, former professional footballer.{{Cite web |last=Trice |first=Jeff |title=Johnny Johnson |url=http://www.margatefootballclubhistory.com/johnnyjohnson.shtml |access-date=8 June 2017 |website=www.margatefootballclubhistory.com}}
• Benny Phillips, football manager and former professional player.{{cite web |url= http://www.mossleyweb.com/ManagersHistoryProfiles/BennyPhillipsProfile.html |title= Benny Phillips |author= |website= Mossley Web |access-date= 8 September 2023}}
• Tim Scott, instrumental recording artist.{{cite news |last= Stocks |first= Lisa |date= 5 August 2010 |title= Four years later… guitar hero Tim is finally in the pink |work= Manchester Evening News |page= 11}}
• Edward John Thompson, scholar, novelist, historian and translator.{{cite web |url= https://dmbi.online/index.php?do=app.entry&id=2719 |title= Entry for Thompson, Edward John |author= |date= 2000 |website= Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland |publisher= Epworth Press |access-date= 24 September 2023}}

{{portal|Greater Manchester}}

• Listed buildings in Hazel Grove and Bramhall

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Coutie |first=H |title=Hazel Grove: A Village History Trail: Hazel Grove or Bullock Smithy? |publisher=Stockport Historical Society |year=1982 |isbn=0-905164-75-X}}
• {{cite book |last=Speak |first=R |title=The Story of Hazel Grove and Bramhall |publisher=The Crescent Press |location=Stockport |year=1964}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.stockport.gov.uk/ Stockport Borough Council]
• [http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/business/regendevelopment/regeneration/districtcentres Stockport District Centres]

{{Greater Manchester}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Areas of Greater Manchester

Category:Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport

Category:Towns in England