Cheadle History Timeline

Cheadle is entered in the Domesday Book (1086) as “Celle” held by the lord of the manor, Robert of Stafford, at the time the area covered 6 miles by 3 miles and listed 9 families.

In 1176 the Basset family acquired the manor of “Chedle” and in 1250 Ralph Basset was granted a market charter and annual fair by King Henry III (750 years this year 2000).

In 1309, 75 families are recorded as using a corn-grinding mill sited near Mill Road.

In 1350 a new church was built replacing a 12th-century structure and this church remained in use until 1837.

In 1606 a school was founded by the church, and in 1685 the then curate of the parish (Rev, Henry Stubbs) left an endowment to “found” a grammar school in Cheadle. The school was built at Monkhouse and was active until 1917. The endowment continues to this day.

In 1676 Cheadle’s population is recorded as just over one thousand, and a hundred years later (1772) as one thousand eight hundred. At this time the main source of employment was agriculture and farming.

1775 : A new workhouse was built and opened. It was extended under the Cheadle Union an 1837. Part of the original building was demolished in 1909, renamed an Infirmary. The whole complex was demolished in 1987 and a new hospital was built on the site, which was opened on the 26th June 1989 by The Princess Royal.

In 1798, 10 weavers houses were built. The weavers lived downstairs and the looms for the manufacture of tape were upstairs. By the 1820’s the looms were transferred into a factory in Tape Street. This tape factory closed in 1972, and now forms a part of the “B&M Store”.

The First Motor Car In Chealde Was In 1903

In 1851 silk and narrow fabric mills were built in Cheadle (by Arnolds) and these employed hundreds of operatives in their day, to be closed down in 1981. Between 1875 – 78 William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, made frequent visits to the silk works in Cheadle to experiment with organic dyes. Many of Cheadle’s silk products featured Morris’s designs.

In the Brookhouses area of Cheadle in 1725, the Cheadle Brass and Copper Company started production, transferring to the Oakamoor area 100 years later under the then company Thomas Patten, to be purchased in 1851 by Thomas Bolton of Birmingham. In 1890 Bolton’s opened a factory at Froghall and the Oakamoor works were eventually closed in 1963.

At the turn of the 20th century the first open air swimming baths were constructed at Brookhouses, and telephone installation began in 1904. In 1901 Cheadle was linked to the railway network by the Cheadle Railway, operated and later owned by the North Staffordshire Railway, with the building of a railway station at Majors Barn, this giving access to further industries and movement of passengers. At a later period sand, gravel and aggregates used for building purposes were transported from the station as well as coal.

The first motor car arrived in Cheadle in 1903, and the first licensed omnibus service – Cheadle to Longton –commenced in January 1914.

After the First World War (1914-18) changes in employment was made available/ possible by access out of Cheadle by means of transport use either by train or bus services.

After the Second World War (1939-45) Cheadle developed by building and extending factories for employment which in turn created a need for more employees, which needed the building of more houses, both council and private for the families.

In the late 1950’s an industrial site was developed in the Brookhouses area

In the 1960s – Cheadle railway station was closed by British Rail for passenger traffic

In the mid 1980’s part of the JCB complex took over what had been “The Silk Mill”, and converted it to manufacturing products.

1980s Cheadle railway station closed for freight traffic as the local sand and gravel quarries which used the station to transport their output to rail moved to road transport.

In the 1990’s two new JCB factories were built on the Leek Road, in Cheadle, and JCB became one of the largest employers within the town.