More about this scene
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.