Welcome to Marple Local History Society website

Quick links to the Society's Online Archives & many of the Society's images

• Images from The Virtual History Tour

Royal Scot was called the Railway Inn in 1830, 35 years before the railways came to Marple!

Winter Wonderland

Two contrasting images of Town Street

Next Meeting: 16 September 2024:

‘Coronation Street - Early Days’ - Mark Llewellin.

Here are links to a record of the 2023 - 2024 Season and a glance at the programme for our 2024 - 2025 Season.

Searching the website:

To find information within the website you may wish to use the search box within the top banner, above. Using this facility and the search terms ‘Strines’ and ‘Mill Brow' produced 41 results and 31 results respectively.

New eBooks

The society is proud to add two further books to its stable of eBooks, that may be downloaded.

First for your consideration, is ‘Industrial change in the Marple area - The dynamics of industrialisation’, by Ann Hearle and Fred North. Originally published in 1995 as “Marple - A nineteenth century failure?’, it was revised in 2019. The text has not been changed but the graphics have been updated. An appendix of the Society's Reference booklet on mills in the area is now included.

The second book is the first part of Owen Ashmore’s book 'The Historic Industries of Marple and Mellor' - this digital publication covers only the textile mill in 'Textile industry in Marple and Mellor'. This survey of the historical industry of Marple and Mellor was produced over a period of several years in the 1970s by an enthusiastic group of amateur historians, led by a professional industrial archaeologist, Owen Ashmore. Although the work of the Marple Local History Society has gone from strength to strength in the intervening years this particular study has never been bettered. This study was originally published in 1977. Some maps and illustrations have been added.

We publish this in memory of two dedicated local historians, who carried out much of the research for this book, Ann Hearle 1937-2020 and Tom Oldham 1910-1998.

(The remainder of the original Ashmore book will be published in the near future as another eBook - ‘"Other Industries in Marple and Mellor")