"A walk down Memory Lane"
Part 2

I walked along New Hey Road, where there used to be a number of small shops and continued through to Bulkeley Road, called after "Cheadle Bulkeley". One shop on the left was Patterson's grocers, opposite which was the three story building of Pritchards Manufacturing Chemists. They employed over two hundred girls and their travelling salesmen used to go all over the north of England and North Wales. As I got nearer the high street there was a builders and undertakers. They were next to the police station at the corner of Oak Road where Goddard's farm was. This was before the council houses were built.
On the opposite corner is Cheadle Conservative Club. There used to be an old house called "The Beeches" here which was a doctor's house and Surgery. The doctor's names were Wilson and Jackson. I remember them going out to see patients. Dr. Wilson had a Douglas motor bike and Dr. Jackson a push bike. Behind the house was a lovely orchard. Next door was a bakehouse owned by Sam Crutchley where you could buy delicious bread and also iced buns at 1d each.

Cottages followed and then the premises of H.Chester and Sons, Plumbers. They lived in a big house with a garden at the front and the plumbers yard at the back. It was attached to the George and Dragon Hotel. This hotel was residential, with people who worked locally staying throughout the week and then going home at weekends. It had a bowling green at the back plus a menagerie which had monkeys and other animals, kept by a Mr. and Mrs. Sanders. The sign which hangs at the front depicting George and the Dragon was made in Wilmslow and I am told it cost eight pounds at the time. It is all copper.
The next shop was a confectioners owned by Oldham's. Ashfield Road follows and at the top is the library and the council school where the Headmaster was a man called George Bates. Then comes the Social Club which in my day had a good membership. There was the Cheadle Organ Society which met on the first Monday of the month. Reids, the motor people, started their first business in this part of Cheadle and there was also Laxtons, the vets, with an animal hospital at the back. Newton's, the joiners and builders, were also on this busy road where there were many tradesmen.

We are now on the High Street, where I used to listen to the roar of the trams and horse drawn cabs. There were grocers vans, coal carts and all manner of vehicles. In fact it was quite a noisy village even in those days. I moved along to where Lyle's shoe shop was, which offered a repair service. This was next to the Star Inn, one of Hyde's houses. Then there was the centre of the village with the council offices, a nice Victorian building with a two faced clock facing up and down the street. The councillors used to meet every Thursday night with a general meeting once a month. At the back were the surveyors offices and also the fire station and ambulance depot. The horses were also stabled in this building. There were about ten belonging to the Highways Dept. and the Town Council. Nearby were six or seven small shops starting with a drapers owned by Mr. Jones and a well known saddlers, John Donald's. The shops now standing where the council offices were are Timpsons and the Lloyds Bank. Next is the electrical showrooms which used to be a large house. Also, more shops ran along to Massie Street, including Reads garage and another pub, The Vine. There was a popular shop kept by Meesons and in the back you could get a hot drink for 2d.
We are still in the High Street, looking at Barclays bank at the corner of Mary Street. Here there used to be a small arcade with about four shops including a ladies milliners, a chemist and a newsagent next to the old telephone exchange. The Electra Cinema was where the sports shop is now, there were also about six shops, Bardsleys the decorators, Meadow's cycles, Goff's fish and chips, Livesleys antiques, which is now the Trustees Bank, and Pidgeon's ice cream. The Liberal Club was on the corner of Church Street and where the charity shop is there was Boothroyd's the grocers. At nearby Harrison the hairdressers they used to have a lather boy, who lathered you up before the barber came to give you a shave with a cut-throat razor!

At the beginning of Wilmslow Road was a fish and chip shop and next door was Parry's the jewellers, where there was a row of small cottages with equally small gardens next to the National School, where Gateway is now. Across the road was a cab stand with horse drawn cabs, where the horses could be seen eating their meal out of a nose-bag with the oats sprinkled all over the floor and the cabby waiting for his first fare to Stockport or Cheadle Hulme which cost about 2/6d.
Near to the National School, where I remember the sound of children playing in the yard, was another pub called the Nag's Head, in nearby Chapel Street. I looked down and saw the Congregational Chapel, a gracious building, down on Massie Street. Passing Butlers, newsagents, on to Hamlets there used to be a large wooden hut owned by a Mr.Wayne where you could get your shoes made into clogs or have new clog irons put on your old clogs. Lots of clogs were worn in those times. The last shop on the corner of Brooklyn Road was Ray's, who sold fish, rabbits, hares and different birds. You could see them hanging outside, the fish were kept in ice. It was also an off-licence for Whitbreads. There were no fridges or electricity so ice was delivered twice a week.

There was only one cafe in Cheadle. It was upstairs in a very large room where most weddings and local functions were held. There were staff to wait on tables and at night you could see motor cycles collecting all around outside. Girls were taken for rides on the pillion. They were just becoming popular, the motor cycles that is,"Douglas","Indian Scout","A.J.S." and "Triumph" were some of the popular makes, and you could buy one for twenty or thirty pounds. The cafe was owned by Mr.Reekie and you could get a cup of tea for 2d and a coffee for 3d. There used to be a lot of fun in those days at the cafe. It was on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Gatley Road opposite the White Hart Hotel.

The Rectory was a fine black and white building in Elizabethan style. It used to stand where the Post Office is now, and the little lay-bye is called after it, Rectory Gardens.
The Electra Cinema which used to stand in the middle of the High Street was made out of corrugated iron and owned by Mr. Burns. In those days there were only silent films with a piano. They made their own electricity to show the films with a gas generator. Prices were 3d, 6d and a shilling! Tom Mix was a favourite along with Mary Pickford and, of course, Charlie Chaplin. It was pulled down eventually and a supermarket built on the site. The supermarket has now also gone!