St. Gregory's R.C. Aided Primary School

Bollington - A Potted History

Bollington prospered steadily from the time of the Industrial Revolution with thriving cotton spinning and mining industries.

However the cotton industry has been declining since the fifties and the last mines closed in the thirties.

Waterhouse Mill c. 1910

Bollington owes much of its present day character to two events which took place some time ago.

During the railway building era of the nineteennth century, two railway lines were built between Macclesfield and Manchester.

Bollington Railway Station c.1905

However, it was decided that the main London line should pass through Prestbury, leaving the line on which Bollington stood high and dry - the line finally closed in 1970.
The other 'non-event' involved local landowner William Clayton; around 1850 he made several unsuccessful attempts to persuade mining companies that there was a substantial four foot coal seam running the length of Kerridge. If he had succeeded, Bollington would have been a very different place today.

Bollington School Children 1897	Albert Road 1902
Pictures are from the Bollington Civic Society archives and reproduced from the book 'Looking Back at Bollington' by George Longden and Molly Spink with the kind permission of the authors.

Please send any comments to the following E-mail address:
mdalzell@dalzell.org.uk