Industry

I often walk around here, the space enclosed by the River Tame and the M60, it was a maze of busy streets, home to peoples’ homes, industry, pubs, clubs and railways.

Much of that is now gone, either left to its own devices, untended rough empty ground, or overwritten by the newly built Tesco Extra and Porsche dealership.

But what was there?

Archi UK – Map 1913

Water Street, Portwood looking north, taken from Avenue Street. Looking underneath the railway bridge, on the left hand side, the first building used to be a public house called ‘The Beehive’, further along was Kent & Swarbrick’s Tripeworks, now a precision engineers, then North West Concrete Works – Easymix. On the right is Coxson’s Brushworks, then the Portwood Mill, Kershaw’s Tannery and the Meadow Mill at the bottom of the street. 

H Lees Stockport Image Archive 1968

The area was also home to the Blood Tub boxing ring.

Outside the Blood Tub Back Water Street Portwood.

Centre row left to right Billy Pitt Taylor Micky Pelham Jack Hulme Jo Moran owner John Morry Bobby Riley Laurie Glen a jockey

2nd row from the back – James Jimmy Rose.

Back row left to right – Charlie Dean An ambulance man Ike Irelands horse dealer – Team from Macclesfield.

Extreme right – Jo Mulrooney.

Front row left to right extreme left – Sidney Smith soft Sidney – a simpleton Jo Hulme.

Copied from a photograph lent by Eddie Pitt 

Alligator Rainwear – a British company, whose main factory was based in Beehive Mill. It was best known for its 1960s collaborations with Mary Quant in the design and production of her Wet Look collection of PVC raincoats.

The firm was started after the First World War by Reuben Satinoff, who had previously founded the London Waterproof Company – Silkimac. It was taken over by his sons after the Second World War. For decades, it manufactured traditional weatherproof raincoats in black, brown and beige, but the collaboration with Quant led to new fabrics including PVC and nylon, and a range of bright and vibrant colours.

At its peak in the 1960s and 1970s, Alligator had a turnover of £5 million per year and was exporting its products to Europe and North America. It was later owned by Baker Street Brands who describe it as one of their heritage brands.

Viewed from Tiviot Dale Viaduct

Tiviot Dale station was located on the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) operated Stockport, Timperley and Altrincham Junction Railway line from Portwood to Skelton Junction, a section of what became the Woodley to Glazebrook line. It was situated at the bottom of Lancashire Hill, next to the present motorway bridge. It was opened on 1 December 1865  and was originally known as Stockport Teviot Dale. From 1880, Tiviot Dale was also served by long-distance trains running on the Manchester South District Railway to London St Pancras.

Tiviot Dale remained a part of the CLC, which was jointly owned from 1923 by the London and North Eastern Railway and the London Midland and Scottish Railway, until 1948 when it became part of the British Railways London Midland Region.

The lines through the station remained in heavy use by coal trains heading for Fiddlers Ferry power station near Warrington from the Woodhead Line. These, however, ceased in 1980 when damage was caused to the nearby Tiviot Dale tunnel during construction work on the M63 motorway – now M60 motorway and the line temporarily closed for safety reasons. The closure was made permanent west of Bredbury’s stone terminal in 1982, following the demise of the Woodhead route; the track was subsequently lifted in 1986 and the tunnel partially filled in. The area surrounding the station was further altered at the beginning of the 21st century to allow the construction of a supermarket and office buildings, which now block the old trackbed.

Wikipedia

Portwood Railway Station was on the Stockport and Woodley Junction Railway – later becoming part of Cheshire Lines Committee – Glazebrook to Woodley line. According to Bolger it opened to passengers on 12 January 1863, along with the rest of the Stockport and Woodley Junction Railway, although Butt suggests it opened on 1 December 1865 when the Stockport, Timperley and Altrincham Junction Railway opened.

The station opened for goods traffic in 1865, closing to passengers on 1 September 1875, when it became a goods station. It remained in use until 25 April 1966 when it closed except for coal traffic which continued until 27 March 1972 when it closed entirely except for a private siding.

Today no trace of the station remains, the site being buried under a slip road of the M60 motorway.

Monica Clarke on her tricycle in Marsland Street, behind her across the cobbled street is the Sheba Works – 1951.

Marsland Street east, showing the Haymarket Chambers – 1967

The front of Haymarket Chambers Marsland Street.

Boarded up dwellings on Compstall Court, off Marsland Street.

Portwood Cut 1968

James Harrison bought the manor of Brinnington in the early 1780’s – by 1790 Harrison had three factories in Portwood and others were to follow. In 1796, to provide sufficient water-power to this industrial zone he constructed a substancial millrace. Known as the Portwood Cut, it carried water across the Tame, between his Reddish and Brinnington estates. Harrison also planned the construction of factories at Wood Hall but that particular scheme was abandoned after his death in 1806.

Harrison’s Weir still survives on the river. To the south sections of the Portwood Cut also survive within Reddish Vale Country Park, both as a shallow depression and as water-filled, if somewhat silted and overgrown channel.

Reddish Vale Country Park

Kershaws is one of the only original businesses which still trades in the area.

Established back in 1855 by Joshua Kershaw, the company has gone from strength to strength.

Way back then, it was just a tannery. Today, seven generations on, Edward Kershaw heads a company that is known and respected for it’s quality leather in Europe, America and the Far East.

Kershaws also provide white leather for masonics and bagpipes.

Brewery Street – a view of the steps leading to the railway footpath to Tame Street – 1967.

The mill in the foreground is the Portwood Spinning Mill now called Portwood Mill – on the front of the mill it states Sir Richard Arkwright Portwood Mill.

Employees – Portwood Spinning Company

Coal drops and yard at the rear of the Beehive Spinning Mill

Tame Street gave motorized access to the Cut and here the caravans of travelling folk were parked several times a year, usually until the police ‘moved them on’. The men collected and sold scrap metal, the women sold clothes pegs and told fortunes from door to door. Many of the local people treated them with suspicion and some local pubs would not admit them.

Building work on Lancashire Hill can be seen in the background – 1968 

In 1971 Daniel Meadows visited the Traveller’s Camp and produced this series of photographs, published by Café Royal Books.

© Daniel Meadows

Aerial view 1976

General view of Portwood, seen from the railway bridge on Lancashire Hill.

The Alligator Rainwear factory can be seen in the top right of the picture – 1979

By 1982 the motorway has arrived – and the railway un-arrived.

In a relatively short space of time things come and go and are easily forgotten, their remnants all but erased from the landscape and memory.