Hawk Green has always been part of the township of Marple and Wybersley. Early on there were just scattered farmsteads, but as industry developed pockets of housing sprung up, and by using maps of different dates and looking at the styles of buildings you can get a good idea of how the settlement has grown.

On a warm, potentially showery, May evening we gathered in Brabyns Brow car park, for a stroll led by Frank Pleszak, to learn about the mills of Marple Bridge. Confusingly, where we were standing, on the Marple side of the River Goyt, used to be called Low Marple, and the lower side (Marple Bridge) was called Ludworth.

In November 2021, Manchester City Councillor Andrew Simcock came to speak to the Society about how he arranged for a bronze statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to be made and placed in St Peter’s Square Manchester in 2018. Following the talk many people wanted to go to Manchester to see the statue. We suggested that Andrew himself might guide us, but he felt that Blue Badge Guide Jonathan Schofield would do a better job, and so it was that on the afternoon of Tuesday 5th April 2022, 16 of us met with Jonathan at the ‘Meeting Circle’ in which the bronze ‘Mrs Pankhurst’ stands.

 Covid has a lot to answer for. Not only has it disrupted our monthly meetings for well over a year but it has also eliminated the interesting trips that Judith arranges several times a year. It has been a long and barren period but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Because there were intimations of demand over the summer Judith decided to arrange an uncomplicated trip to test the water. No coach arrangements. No coffee stops. Space for social distancing. Where? The obvious answer was Stockport - a walk around the town centre to see how it has developed. And she was right. There was a demand for such a tour. In fact enough demand for a second auxiliary tour to accommodate those who couldn’t make the first. The primary tour on 21st October 2021, the auxiliary tour on 12th November.