Dukinfield Centenary Souvenir
The Centenary Trail
The Centenary Trail has been designed for people who wish to see some of Dukinfield's more historic sights in the space of a day, or an afternoon. It starts and finishes at the town hall, and there are plenty of pubs along the way where you can get a drink or a bite to eat.
The Town Hall: Dukinfield Town Hall - built in Domestic Gothic Style - was opened on June 15, 1901, by Alderman James Pickup, and cost £15,000 to erect from plans by J. Eaton and Sons of Ashton. The clock is by J.R. Joyce of Whitchurch, and the five bells were cast by Taylor and Co of Loughborough. Some of the windows still bear the names of their old borough departments and, above the main entrance is a blue plaque to Colonel Robert Duckenfield.
Nowadays the town hall doubles as the borough register office and as a leisure centre - the council chamber having been converted into a snooker room in the 1980s.
Before the hall was built, much of the land was used as a market place, and the houses on Hope Street bear a stone tablet with the inscription "Market View". On the Hope Street side it is also possible to see the slope from which the borough fire engine used to emerge, and the foundation stone.
Behind the town hall is the Jubilee Hall, which was started in 1935, the silver jubilee year of King George V. The town had long hankered after a public hall, and Arnold Kenyon, mayor in 1934/35, was the driving force in its construction. The foundation stones can be found either side of the main door, on Chapel Street.
Further up Chapel Street is the building, built in 1903, to house the police station and magistrates' court.
Turn back down Chapel Street, and turn left up King Street, until you reach the park...
Dukinfield Park was opened in 1902 - at a cost of £15,000 - with balustrades and terraces being used to overcome a difference of 80 foot from east to west. The sculpture by the main gates replaces a drinking fountain, presented by Sir Arthur and Lady Nicholson, which was audaciously stolen.
On the opposite side of King Street you can see Dukinfield Cricket Club, founded in 1870. Originally, the ground also had a football pitch, with grandstand, and tennis courts.
Behind the Angel pub, it was once possible to see the small gravestones of victims of the 1833 cholera epidemic. So many people died that some had to be buried in unconsecrated ground.
St. Luke's Church, an imposing red-brick building was licensed for divine service in 1889, and was consecrated in 1902. It has a stained glass window in memory of Daniel Adamson, first chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal Company.
Continue up King Street until you come to Kingsbridge Drive...
*This was the site of the Astley Deep Mine which was once the deepest in England at a depth of 686 yards. It took ten years to sink, at the start of the 19th century, at a cost of £100,000. In 1874, 54 miners died after an explosion of firedamp (an explosive mixture of methane and air). The pit closed in 1901.
Continue up King Street to White Bridge...
*This area takes its name from the road bridge over the railway which was traditionally whitewashed. Its original name, however, was Dewsnap Bridge.
The playing fields were originally the site of Astley mill, one of the biggest in the district, which was opened in 1885 and demolished in 1935. The strange obelisk along Dewsnap Lane may be made of stone from the mill.
The fields are traditionally known as nursery fields because the building now used by Old Hall Church was originally a nursery.
Go across White Bridge and down Globe Lane...
*The huge complex which can be seen on your right is the Great Central Railway Carriage and Wagon Works which was built between 1905 and 1910 and closed in the 1960s. Covering 30 acres, it cost £189,000 to construct.
Continue down Globe Lane to Globe Square...
Globe Square was once the hub of the Dukinfield Hall hamlet which began to be demolished after the war. The war memorial, unveiled on March 20, 1920, remembers the men of the district who served their country in the 1914/18 conflict
Turn left along Ashton Street, and then left down some steps to the canal...
If you were to continue along Ashton Street you would come to Gate Street, which was originally called Southgate Street and was home to a large house, built by John Wroe's Christian Israelites as one of their four gatehouses for the New Jerusalem. In fact, the area around used to be known, locally, as Jerusalem.
Turn right, along the Peak Forest Canal, until you come to a small plastic marker, by the waterside, bearing the number "66"...
*From here, between the trees, you can see the ruins of Old Hall Chapel, which can claim to have been the first Independent church in England, in the 17th century. Built in the reign of Henry VII (1485 - 1509), it was extended in the 19th century to become a congregational church, and set alight by arsonists in 1978. It was originally linked to Dukinfield Hall, the traditional home of the Dukinfield family, which was demolished in 1950. George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, preached at the chapel in 1647.
Retrace your steps, and carry on along the towpath until you come to a blue plaque...
*From here it is possible to see Plantation Farm, the home of Dr Livingstone's mother-in-law, Mary Moffat. Her maiden name was Smith, and some believe her family was related to Alexander Smith, one of the Bounty mutineers.
Turn right over the swing bridge, then follow the track up on to Astley Street. Turn left, and then down Charles Street...
*As you walk down Charles Street you will come to Clayton Brothers corn mill. On the opposite side of the road, at the back of the Kenyon complex, is the land on which stood the Reliance rope walk, built in 1903, which was reputed to be the longest in England.
Continue to the bottom of Charles Street. On the left you will see...
*The station bridge. This was built by the Sheffield, Ashton and Manchester Railway. The supports, either side, used to carry the platforms for Dukinfield Central Station, which closed in 1959. Nearby, on Wharf Street, can be seen the only remaining part of the London and North Western Railway viaduct, built in 1893 and, on the opposite side of the road, the brick wall remains of the Wharf Inn.
Walk along to the traffic lights...
*Here, to the left, can be seen Alma Bridge which was opened in May, 1855, at a cost of £4,900. It is named after the Crimean War battle of Alma.
Cross over King Street, and follow Wharf Street to its junction with Crescent Road, then turn left...
St Helens mill was built in 1819, as a cotton mill, but it is more than a century since it was used for that purpose. For many years it was home to the Compo company which manufactured washing powder, and which was owned by Henry Pratt, the first mayor of Dukinfield.
Continue to the Park Hotel...
*From here, to the left, can be seen the area which was once properly known as St Helena, but nicknamed Cuckoo Square. Until it was cleared, in the 1930s, it was reputedly the toughest area in Dukinfield. However, when it was built, in the early 19th century, it was a visible sign of the town's industrial expansion.
The bridge is Dukinfield Bridge, better known as County Bridge since being widened in 1903.
Cross over, and walk up the river, towards Rock Terrace...
*The large weir is all that is left of the manorial corn mill, worked until the 1880s. The steep, grassy area, ahead, is Huncliffe and used to be part of the lands belonging to Dukinfield Lodge, home of the Astleys, which was built in the 1770s and demolished in 1948. The area was laid out with walks, which still exist; and, just past Rock Terrace, you can see a bricked up entrance which once gave access to the Lodge.
This road, Park Road, leads into the Tame Valley hamlet - an interesting place in itself - where many former cotton mills still stand, plus the old Dukinfield Brewery, and pubs like the Tame Valley Hotel and Brunswick.
Go back past Rock Terrace to the junction with Crescent Road, and then turn left up the hill until you see Crescent Road Church on the other side...
*The present Crescent Road Church, built in the 1970s, is the fifth to stand on the site. Providence Chapel, a Calvinist place of worship opened in the 1800s and was rebuilt in 1825 and 1854.
A few years later the congregation at Providence Chapel split and the place was forced to close. The empty building was taken over by members of Albion Congregational Church, Ashton, who laid the foundation stones for a new church in 1865. This was demolished and replaced in the 1970s.
The Old General pub opened in 1807 and is named after one of the Astley family's favourite horses.
Continue up the hill until you see a church on the left...
*The first Old Chapel was started in 1707 and rebuilt in the mid-19th century. Behind it, there are several interesting graves, including the Astley memorial.
The Dukinfield Moravian Settlement used to stand on Old Road, and was established 45 years before the more famous one at Fairfield. The area was sold for housing in the early 1970s, although part of the graveyard remains at Moravian Close.
At the other side of Old Chapel is the Astley Arms where a dinner was held for Ensign Andrew Moyhihan V.C. on his return from the Crimea, and a blue plaque attests to the fact.
Cross Crescent Road to the war memorial...
*This, the town's main war memorial, was unveiled by Sir John Wood M.P. on July 30, 1922. The Second World War tablet was added on November 11, 1951.
Cross over to Russell Street, and follow it to its junction with Pickford Lane...
*The low, brick building was Dukinfield's first magistrates' court, built in 1859, and now the home of Adamson's Military Band. Next to it, right on the corner with Pickford Lane is the old police station, built at the same time. A tablet bearing the words Cheshire Constabulary can still be seen.
Turn down Pickford Lane, and then right along Grenville Street. Cross Chapel Street and continue down Zetland Street...
*On your left you will see St Mary's R.C. Church which was opened in 1856 and, in 1868, almost wrecked during the Murphy Riots. It replaced a building opened on Astley Street, in 1825, and which was rendered unsafe by mine workings. By 1900 the site was owned by the Kenyons, who started to build on what was the graveyard. Some human remains were unearthed, and Edwin Kenyon was imprisoned for six weeks. The area is now a garden.
Turn left at the Newborough, named in honour of the "New Borough", cross Astley Street, and walk through the flats, down the central parade, until you see the Methodist Church...
*This is the only Methodist Church remaining in Dukinfield, and the present building, erected in the 1970s, replaced a bigger building opened in the early 1840s. During the First World War, the Sunday school was briefly used as a military hospital. In the mid-19th century, the congregation included the Mackintosh family, whose son John went on to found the famous toffee firm.
Walk down Wellington Parade to King Street, cross over, and walk up West Street to St Mark's Church...
St Mark's is the parish church of Dukinfield, and was consecrated in 1849, the congregation having originally met in a room above the Queens Hotel which used to stand at the corner of King Street and Wharf Street.
For more than 100 years, St Mark's had its own school but, in 1980, only months after closing, to be replaced by Clarendon Fields School, it burned down.
Go back to King Street, cross over again, and walk up to the Pyramid Snooker Hall...
*From 1913 until 1960 this was the Princess Cinema and, in 1956, was the scene of a riot, during a showing of "Rock Around the Clock", when Teddy boys jived in the aisles and slashed seats. After closure, it became a bingo hall and, more recently, a snooker hall.
At one time Dukinfield could boast three cinemas. The first, the Palladium, on Crescent Road, closed in 1958 and was converted into an engineering works. It was demolished in 1973 and houses now stand on the land.
The Oxford at the corner of Foundry Street and Oxford Road finally closed in 1966. After several years as a "nightspot" it stood derelict for some time and was eventually demolished to make way for the petrol station at Morrison's supermarket.
Walk up King Street until you reach the town hall and your walk is complete...
Obviously, this walk does not take in every "historic" site in Dukinfield, but is felt to offer a satisfactory look at the town within a fairly compact area.
For those interested in Dukinfield Lodge, it is worth noting that, at the end of Crescent Close, there are still some stone structures which were once part of the Lodge's servants' and kitchens complex.
On Town Lane, it is possible to see the memorial tablet from the original library, which was been preserved and set into a wall.
Other sites worth seeing include St John's Church and the Baptist Church, on Oxford Road; and the canals, which have been impressively restored and offer walks of an almost rural nature.
It is also possible to gain access to riverside walks from Cooper Street, which was once the site of the Dukinfield and Ashton station which closed just after the war.
Many of Dukinfield's early worthies are buried in the cemetery, including the first mayor, Henry Pratt.