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Gatley is a suburb of the town of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, west-south-west of Stockport, east of Altrincham and north-east of Manchester Airport.
Gatley Carrs was the lower, marshy ground running down to the River Mersey and west to Northenden. Before 1700, it was a place for osier beds which local people had used for basket making or for wattles for cottages or fencing.
In 1800, Mr Worthington of Sharston Hall planted 1,000 poplars in Gatley Carrs.Shercliff, W. H. Wythenshawe; vol. 1: to 1926, published 1974, In the mid 19th century, Gatley Carrs was described as "a scene of such singular and romantic beauty, and so thoroughly unique in its composition, that we know nothing in the neighbourhood to liken it to".Grindon, Leo H. Country Rambles and Manchester Walks and Wild Flowers, published 1882
Over the years, Gatley Carrs has shrunk to a small part of its former size. In the second half of the 18th century, the Carrs was largely enclosed and partially drained to form farmed meadows. The Stockport-Altrincham railway line cut across it in 1864, running east–west. In 1934, house building began on High Terrace of the Mersey and also about that time Cheadle and Gatley UDC purchased to use as a refuse tip. Tree planting commenced due to complaints of smells and rats. There was loss of original field pattern because of extensive refuse tipping.
Carr Woodland was developed on what had been Carr Meadows. There was a major system of land drains identified on the 1934 map, including a sluice and non-return outfall gate to protect Gatley Carr from flooding when the river Mersey burst its banks.
In the mid-1960s, land restoration took place, although the Carr was only covered with soil to a depth varying between and . Gatley Carrs then fell to the management of the Mersey Valley Countryside wardens, until it was handed to Stockport MBC in the late 1990s.Research by Gatley Carrs Conservation Group
People living around Gatley Green were mostly hand loom weavers and became more dependent on textile manufacture. Their cottages had cellars for storage and well-lit upper rooms for the looms.Deakin, Derick "Wythenshawe: The story of a garden city", published 1989,
About 1750, William Roscoe from Bolton built a factory near Gatley Hall. Up to at least 1841, John Alcock was a textile manufacturer in Gatley, using the Roscoe factory for at least part of the period.
The spread of machinery in industrial manufacturers during the 19th century appears to have killed off industry in Gatley, before which it was a "very busy and important place, as a centre for weaving, spinning, shoemaking and fustian cutting." Handloom weaving may have survived in the area to as late as the 1880s (Melson's Directory of Cheadle, Northenden and Baguley, 1887.)
Gatley Hall and Gatley Hill House may both have been built in the mid-18th century by local cotton manufacturers; the latter is now council-owned by Stockport MBC and is used by various community groups. The mansion High Grove House was built for a member of a wealthy hatting family of Yorkshire and Manchester.
On 30 November 1745, about 55 Jacobite troops from Bonnie Prince Charlie's army crossed Gatley Ford and Gatley Carrs on their way to Cheadle and Stockport; the bulk of the army crossed the Mersey at Cheadle and Stockport that night and the following day. Having reached Derby but no further, the Jacobite troops were back in Stockport in the second week of December on their way back north.
Gatley residents joined the Luddite riots in 1818, but without any great distinction. They drilled in Gatley Carrs before marching to Stockport to take arms from the soldiers, but returned without actually attempting to do so. In the summer of 1819, soldiers formed square in front of the Horse and Farrier public house in Gatley with the aim of arresting the Luddite ringleaders. Several ran away and hid; one, Isaac Legh, in the chimney of Stone Pale House, two others in the Carrs.
The first non-conformist minister was the Rev. Jeremiah Pendlebury, succeeded by his assistant, the Rev. Samuel Turner, in 1788. By 1860, the church congregation had fallen to eight people; improvements made with help from the North Cheshire Rural Mission increased the congregation to 60.
Prior to 1875, Gatley's parish church was the Church of St. Thomas, away in Stockport. The people of Gatley rarely saw their parish priest, though they still had to pay their tithes.
The new church, St. James', was built of local handmade bricks and consecrated on 6 December 1881. The Rev. Percy M. Herford was the first vicar of St. James' Church. In 1888, the Rev. P.M. Herford left and was replaced by the Rev. John Bruster, who remained in position for 40 years and retired in 1928.
The vicarage was completed in 1894, following a donation of £100 from Mr W. Heald of Parrswood in 1889. The building is located a short walk away from the church on Northenden Road. The building was sold in 2007 and is now a private nursery.
Yeshurun Hebrew Congregation, a Modern Orthodox synagogue, opened in 1968.
Today, the suburb is home to three churches: St. James' (CofE), Bethany Elim Pentecostal and Gatley United Reformed Church.
To the south, Gatley borders onto Heald Green, with Grasmere Road and Yew Tree Grove marking the southern boundary. To the west and north-west, it meets Wythenshawe, with roads bordering onto Hollyhedge Park being the last in Gatley; Longley Lane and the M56 motorway marking the north-western boundary.
Gatley lies 130–200 feet above sea level.
The Etchells area was then administratively split between two townships: Stockport Etchells in the parish of Stockport and Northen Etchells in the parish of Northenden, with Gatley Brook serving as the boundary. The township of Stockport Etchells covered Gatley and much of the area now in Heald Green. From the late 16th century, the local and were held at a building that later became known as the Old Court House in Gatley, although it was probably primarily an inn at the time.
In 1886, a local government district called Cheadle and Gatley was created, administered by an elected local board. The district covered the Stockport Etchells township (in which Gatley was the main settlement) plus the parts of the township of Cheadle that were outside the municipal borough boundaries of Stockport. Local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.
In 1933–34, both Manchester and Stockport wanted to annex the Cheadle and Gatley Urban District. An opinion poll of nearly 10,000 residents recorded near-unanimous support for continuing independence.
In 1936, the boundaries of the Cheadle and Gatley Urban District saw minor changes, taking in a small area from the abolished Handforth Urban District, the majority of which went to Wilmslow. Cheadle and Gatley Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester. Some roads in the western side of Gatley (containing around 500 homes) were a part of the City of Manchester until the early 1990s when residents launched a successful application to the Boundaries Commission to enable Gatley in its entirety to become a part of Stockport.
In 1286, Gatley was a hamlet within the manor of Stockport Etchells, contained at least six households (around 30 individuals); it was probably a significant growth from levels in the late 11th century.
An Etchells Court of Survey document, probably from the late 16th century, gives Gatley as having 16 tenants (households) including Thomas Whitelegg (the largest holding, 25 acres), Roberte Gooddyer, Arnoulde Baxter and Roger Royle.
Cheadle and Gatley Urban District saw the highest population growth of anywhere in Stockport in the inter-war period. In 1921, its population was a little over 11,000; by 1931, it was 18,500 and 27,000 by 1939. Cheadle, Gatley and Cheadle Hulme all saw an increase, as did the previously rural area of Heald Green. This growth was largely due to people moving out of Manchester into the area.
| +Gatley Compared: Religion |
| 49,138,831 |
| 71.74% |
| 14.59% |
| 0.52% |
| 3.10% |
| 1.11% |
| 0.67% |
| 0.28% |
| 0.29% |
| 7.69% |
The Muslim population is higher than the average across England and similar to neighbouring Didsbury. Bangladeshi make up the majority of this group.
The data in the table refers to the Cheadle and Gatley ward. The data comes from the 2001 UK census, when the ward name was Cheadle which encompassed the whole of Gatley and a large part of Cheadle. Gatley has never been an administrative district in its own right and no data for Gatley alone exists.
| +Gatley Compared: Place of birth |
| 49,138,831 |
| 87.44% |
| 3.3% |
| 2.35% |
| 6.91% |
There are also three small-medium-sized office blocks (on Northenden Road, Park Road and Stonepail Road) which house various businesses.
Turnpikes opened across Stockport from 1725, with the road through Gatley being amongst the last in 1820. This was the main road through Cheadle, Gatley, Altrincham and Northwich. By July 1822, the fast coach along the road from Stockport to Liverpool, via Warrington, made it possible to spend six hours in Liverpool and return on the same day.
Gatley had no public transport until 1896, when a postmaster started a cab service. In 1898, Mr Potts began to operate a service to Stockport with a single (horse drawn) omnibus, continuing until the arrival of the electric tram in 1904. Electric trams began to run in Stockport in 1902, with the service to Gatley (terminating at the Horse and Farrier) opening in March 1904. In Gatley, trams were replaced by buses in 1931. The trams were not wholly reliable; broken rear axles were common and the trams often disengaged from the electric cable.
The LNWR railway station at Cheadle allowed travel via Edgeley to Manchester, but closed as early as 1917 due to competition with the electric tram between Gatley and Stockport. LNWR opened the Styal Line in 1909, including Gatley (as Gatley for Cheadle until 1974) and Heald Green railway stations.
The M56 and M63 (now part of the M60) were opened in 1974, bypassing Gatley and joining with each other at Kingsway; the latter had been extended south across the river Mersey in 1959.
The Manchester Metrolink was extended to Manchester Airport in 2014, including Benchill stop, which is approx one mile from Gatley.
The Cinema opened in 1937 with just one screen; in the 1960s, a second, smaller screen was added, known as Tatton Minor in cinema listings, with the main auditorium known as Tatton Major; by the 1970s, it had been converted into a three screen cinema. In 2005, the auditoriums (situated at the rear of the building) were demolished leaving only the front facade and foyer area still standing. Plans to turn the old cinema into a supermarket were delayed due to the Great Recession. By 2010, two planning applications had been placed to build sheltered housing on the vacant land where the auditoriums were and to create a supermarket at the front. The first supermarket plan envisaged the demolition of half of the facade and the building of a modern edifice to the same scale. The second supermarket plan envisaged the conversion of the same half of the facade. Both planning applications met with opposition (from established local retailers and councillors) and were rejected. In 2015, after years of inaction at the now derelict site, Stockport Council announced plans to acquire the site from its present owners by means of a compulsory purchase order. In August 2015, the current owners, Dickens Property Group, then submitted a new planning application for a supermarket and residential buildings at the site, similar to the plans previously submitted but this time maintaining all of the art deco front facade while demolishing the adjoining buildings and constructing new ones in their place. Manchester Evening news (28 Aug 2015) The plans were accepted by the council, though in October 2015, the council also agreed upon issuing a compulsory purchase order should the planned development not proceed. Work finally began in 2018 and, almost 20 years after the Tatton Cinema closed, a new Co-op supermarket finally opened on the site in November 2020.
The festival is believed to have started in the early 1930s, as the Gatley Rose Queen Parade. The current festival format of a large parade and then a funfair and stalls was started around 1986 and was originally held in what is now known as Gatley Recreation Ground before moving to the much larger Scholes Park next to Gatley Hill House. The festival still maintains the tradition of crowning a rose queen.[3]
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