Pickmere
Pickmere maps (2 available)
Map of Cheshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Pickmere books (10 available)
Pickmere memories
Read and share memories of Pickmere and Cheshire inspired by Frith photos
Summers holidays were invented for fishing
I remember as a small kid growing up in England I couldn't wait for the summer holidays to arrive. As the days drew closer I could hardly sleep at night knowing that any day now we would be packing our suitcases and heading to the caravan site for the whole summer, 6 weeks without any school,life was just great.
When the big day arrived we headed out of our house to the bus stop to catch the number 14 bus to Pickmere (back in the early seventies we didn't have a car, noboby did at least
not in the council estate in Manchester where we grew up). We were poor and didn't know it, we were happy. I remember getting ...read more here
Contributed by darren crumbleholme
Going to School at G.B. 1940
In the forties, we would cycle past this pond on the left then turn left towards Gt Budwarth [think that's how you spell it], passing a small woodland with sandy banks, eventually arriving at Gt Budworth, down an avenue of trees to the school on the rightl and the Church on the left. I recall a Wishing Well at the bottom of the hill past the Post office.
Mrs Dishman, taught the little ones, she was lovely. The Vicker also every day told us a story about God and Jeasus, at lunch time my friend Joyce Dean and I would hop over the Church wall and put flowers on the graves, somtimes wild ones that grew on places where ...read more here
Contributed by brenda burton
Brenda Burton of Holly Cottage
It was either 1939 or 1940 when we moved into Holly Cottage, I was two years old, there was a thatched roof and it had been two houses semi det, very primitive, dirt flooring, with a huge stone and I really mean big - THE STONE COULD NOT BE MOVED we were told, as many people had tried in the past. As the house was over 400 years old we decided to live with it, and my Dad [Erny Burton] tiled around it. There was a largish fire place not far from the stone, an open staircase and upstairs we slept in a bedroom with the underside of the thatch showing. Coming downstairs again there was a back door which led ...read more here
Contributed by brenda burton
The pond in the 1940s
I recall the row of houses on the left in 1940 to 1947. In the middle lived my friend Elsie Colburn, then on the end lived Joyce Dean, she was at the time one of nine children, we were all born in 1937.
The house on the right was a farm, I cannot remember the name of it, but I do recall where they housed and milked the cows. It was in the days of hand milking, each cow had its own little stall and above was the name of the said cow beautifully engraved. I can even remember some of the names - Daisy, Buttercup and Bluebell.
Contributed by brenda burton
O to be a boy again
I remember Pickmere Lake (pond) where I and my buddies use to bike to with home made fishing rods tied to the crossbar, you could hire a row boat and get the real feel of lake fishing LOL!! Our Mums packed us off with butties and crisps pop was a treat. they assumed we were going to the park for the day, but we off on an adventure.
It was a LONG bike ride and our mums never knew at first that we were out so far biking on a main road to Cheshire.
I am now expat living in Pickering ON Canada for 28 years
Memories of long ago.
Chris
I wonder what it looks like ...read more here
Contributed by Chris Walker
happy days
I used to spend my w/ends and school hols at pickmere in the 1950,s ,I used to hire out boats for jack spencer they were the blue and white rowing boats. his boat shed is hiddenby the tree in the foreground,his house is the white one above the tree, the boats in the midground were owned by the Egletons mum dad and two boys, the far distance was cheethams fair, I used to fish behind cheetham moared motor boats to catch small roach for live bait we used them on nightlines that we put out up the lake at dusk and rowed out to collect next morning ,we normal caught 5 or 6 large eels that made very nice eating, ...read more here
Contributed by dave pitt
Extracts From Pickmere & Cheshire books
This great open-cast canyon no longer exists,
it was filled in by tipping household waste in
the 1960s, but it shows how active the
Alderley Edge Mining Company was in the
second quarter of the 19th century. Alderley
Edge is possibly the earliest site of copper
mining in England, as traces of Early Bronze
Age activity was proved by the Manchester
University's excavation here in 1997.
An extract from from"Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Photographic Memories".
This view, looking north along what is now the
main A34 towards Alderley Edge village, shows
where Welsh Row crossed the old turnpike,
connecting the old enclosed fields on the plain
with the open common land of the Edge. At the
crossroads is the stump of a cross, a reminder
that in the 13th century, the then lord of the
manor, Sir Walklyn Arderne, attempted but
failed to found a market town here.
An extract from from"Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Photographic Memories".
This peaceful
unassuming lane
crossing the brook is
typical of the quiet
countryside that has
now gone with the
expansion of
Manchester Airport.
An extract from from"Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Photographic Memories".
Dedicated to St John the Evangelist, the main part of the church was built at the Parkers` expense at the end of the 18th
century, but the tower is an 1840s addition by their successors the Dixons. Inside, there are pleasant Arts and Crafts
features, including some late Morris and Co windows.
An extract from from"Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Photographic Memories".
However, all this changed with the coming of
the railways. Within 20 years, well-to-do
commuter communities had sprung up along
the lines; indeed, Alderley Edge village itself did
not exist before the trains came - it is a Victorian
creation dating from 10 May 1842, when the
station opened. Other villages, such as Wilmslow
and Prestbury, expanded to become the places
they are today.
Yet, as one travels around, one meets pockets of
very old landscape, and some places still exert the
same fascination as they did hundreds of years
ago. Lindow Moss, the peat bog shared between
Wilmslow and Mobberley, is still in places the
mysterious half-land half-water landscape where
two thousand years ago a Celtic tribe sought to
appease the gods and keep the Romans at bay by
sacrificing one of the best of their warriors.
Lindow Man reappeared in 1984, but he was not
the first bog body to emerge out of the moss. A few
years before, another head had been found, and
so well preserved was it that the police treated it at
first as a murder enquiry, and indeed arrested a
man whose wife had recently disappeared. Faced
with what he thought was the discovery of her
body, he confessed and was convicted of murder.
Such bizarre episodes testify to the fact that
this seemingly respectable landscape of well-to-
do businessmen (together with the odd
footballer and his wife) has a number of quirks.
There are others. The flat landscape of
Mobberley bred one of our country`s most
famous mountaineers, George Leigh Mallory.
Beside the A34 in Nether Alderley is the grave of
the third Lord Stanley, buried apart from the rest
of his relations as he was a Muslim. Up on the
Edge is the oldest-dated copper mine in
England, and evidence that the Romans were
looking for lead as soon as they conquered this
part of the world, proof indeed that the sacrifices
in nearby Lindow were in vain.
As befits a landscape with such a deep
heritage, the National Trust has considerable
parts of the area under its care, notably Alderley
Edge, and Styal with its Mill, accompanying
village and walks in the woods along the Bollin.
Elsewhere concerned residents do their best to
make sure that this landscape remains as
unspoiled as possible, although the nearby
Manchester Airport makes it clear that modern
life cannot be kept completely at bay.
An extract from from"Wilmslow and Alderley Edge Photographic Memories".