Along the original curve on Station Road (top of the hill just to the Bramhall end of the Station) is a small parade of shops running from Bellfield Avenue to the pathway over the railway called Butterfly Bridge. This was the first tarmaced road in the area and became called the 'Promenade'.
The typical rural village appearance is obvious in these old photographs and was maintained well into the the sixties. Older folk still refer to this part of Cheadle Hulme as the 'village'. Children often got jobs helping to fetch the cows and milk from the open fields and farms to the right of picture (2).
Much of the traffic would be private or public horse drawn carriages shifting passengers from the railway station to their 'villas'.
Hazeldine's belonged to a long established family in the area who also owned Millington Hall.
The Methodist Church shown here (built 1884) was burnt down in 1963 and its land sold off for offices. The map below (taken from the Lee, 1968) shows 4 sitings of the Methodist church and the old and new Station roads.
Station Road was widened and straightened in the 1960s leaving this loop and shops intact on the railway side of the road (picture 6). Just to the right of the photographer is Millington Hall.
(1) Station Road Promenade, about 1905. (W^) - Bellfield Avenue is to
the right. In recent years (1990s) the shops provided auto parts and take-aways (pizzas,
Chinese meals, and videos) see (5) below.
(2) Station Road Promenade (1930s) looking towards Cheadle Hulme Station . The shops on the left are shown in the picture above, the buildings on the right (farm, petrol pump, Hazeldines) were replaced by a BP petrol station when the main road was straightened to pass behind them in the 1960s (see (6) below. The petrol station closed in the late 1990s. (S^)
(3) Hazeldine's the builders on the Station
Road
Promenade. (E^)
(4) Methodist Church on the corner of
Station Road
and Bellfield Avenue. The site now houses an office
block for the TGWU. (W^) More
(5) Same view as in picture (1) taken in 1994. (S^)
(6) Same view as in picture (2) taken in 1994. Note the
office blocks in the distance have replaced the church. The green island (where
Hazeldine's was) is the petrol station, and the main road to the right is Station Road.
Millington Hall is off camera to the right. (N^)
Station Road after straightening, showing the Old cottage on the left and Millington on
the right (1994). (N^)
Bellfield Avenue in 1994 (N^) The railway is just to the right.