Home » Streets » Grimshaw Lane

Grimshaw Lane

Listed buildings 

At the junction with Greenfield Road
View from the bottom looking up toward the railway around 1900

Grimshaw Lane, once called Greenshaw Lane, runs from the junction of Henshall Road and Wellington Road up the hill to Kerridge, at Stakehouse End, the junction with Jackson Lane and Chancery Lane. The top 40m is in Kerridge.

Approach off Henshall Road, Wellington Road, Jackson Lane.

Leads to Field Close, Clough Bank, Adelphi Mill, Bailey Business Park, Pearson’s Yard, Beechway, Cedarway, Greenfield Road, Bamford Close, Fairfield Avenue, Bishop Road, Hurst Lane, Chancery Lane. Footpath to Grimshaw Avenue.

Nearest shops – corner of Greenfield Road, Wellington Road.

Nearest pubs – Bayleaf, Bull’s Head.

Council Ward – From Wellington Road to the canal aqueduct, Central; above the canal aqueduct, East, except No.66 which is in Central.

Three pairs of new semi-detached houses completed very early 2018 have received positive comments from the local community of their suitability for the street.
Bottom of Grimshaw Lane from Rose Bank
 Grimshaw Lane passes through the Middlewood Way at its only road crossing without a bridge, then under the Macclesfield Canal aqueduct. The road used to be two roads – the part below the canal aqueduct was known as Commercial Road and that above the aqueduct Greenshaw Lane; it is marked as such on the 1862 map but when and why this was changed I don’t know. It is possible that Greenshaw was simply a misunderstanding on the part of the map draughtsman. I also have an early 20thC plan of Adelphi Mill (below the canal) showing the lower part as Greenshaw Lane.
Adelphi mill from the gatehouse
 Between the Middlewood Way and the canal there are a number of commercial activities. Clough Bank is a small industrial estate built on the Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway goods yard. The now demolished railway bridge over Grimshaw Lane was exactly where the entrance to Clough Bank is today. Opposite is the Middlewood Way and the location of Bollington passenger railway station. The railway was closed in 1971. Other industrial activities include Bailey Business Park opposite Adelphi Mill (left). On the uphill side of the canal is Bollington Wharf where various boating activities take place and is also the mooring place for the restaurant boat White Nancy [YouTube video].
Bailey Business Park is the yard and industrial units opposite Adelphi Mill. Pearson’s Yard is a further industrial area behind Bailey Business Park with access via the drive to the right of the business park.

Further up Grimshaw Lane is St John’s School and its playing field. This school was built in 1963/4 when the old one in Church Street was cleared for the Vine Street re-development.

Hollin Old Hall is close to the top of the road. The junction with Hurst Lane was once known as Gatley Green, possibly in recognition of the Gatley family who lived nearby and quarried stone in Kerridge Hill. Alfred Gatley was a notable sculptor in the 19th century.
A series of names along the route suggests that perhaps Scandinavian soldiers and settlers came this way. Grimshaw Lane may be derived from the Old Norse ‘haugr’, which can mean hill, with ‘Grimr’, a Scandinavian personal name – as Kenneth Cameron suggested for Grimshoe in Norfolk.
Extract from a history of Kerridge Hill and Ingersley Vale by George Longden for the KRIV project.

In view of the fact that the street had different names in the 19thC it is possible that Grimshaw was named after a member of the notable local family of that name living until the early 20thC at Errwood Hall in the Goyt valley.

The junction with Chancery Lane and Jackson Lane is known as Stakehouse End. This name probably refers to there having been a stake or timber cattle enclosure there in earlier times. Grimshaw Lane is one of the original roads in the area and has a very long history.

The very top end, from its junction with Hurst Lane, is in Kerridge.

Listed structures

See Listed Buildings page for the full list and notes regarding Listed, Article 4, and SPD properties.

The links on the structures are to the Historic England web site. Any links to local history pages are to this web site.

  Rose Cottage, 58 Grimshaw Lane; II, Formerly a farmhouse now a house: 17thC with 19thC alterations. (Local history page).
  Adelphi mill; II, Cotton mill, 1856, by Swindells brothers. (Local history page).
    Hollin Old Hall; II, Formerly hall, then farmhouse, now divided into two houses: Early 17thC core, addition to rear and raising of roof mid 18thC for Richard Broster, further major addition c.1870 for the Ascoli family, who remodelled the whole house.
    Macclesfield Canal aqueduct over Grimshaw Lane; II, c.1830 by William Crosley, engineer.

Conservation

Part of this street is in the Kerridge Conservation Area. Numbers 85-105 are subject to Article 4 Direction.