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Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
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Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
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Directory of Services
Local History
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An illustration of the castle at castle hill

The historical centre of Stockport is the Market Place which is situated on a 240 million year old Red Sandstone cliff. This overlooks what was once an important ford over the River Mersey. This ford was the meeting point of several Roman roads. Roman artefacts have been found in the Borough, but whether there were Roman fortifications or settlements here, we do not know.


The Saxons established a village on the site and this was the beginning of Stockport, The name was derived from two Saxon words: STOC - a stockaded place or castle, and PORT - a wood. Literally, a castle in a wood. There is sufficient evidence that a fortified stronghold existed in the vicinity in ancient British times, and that Agricola in AD79 recognised its strategical advantages and fortified Stockport to guard the passage of the Mersey.


Following the Norman Conquest, we entered more certain times. Cheshire was established as one of three Counties Palatine guarding the Kingdom along its border with Wales. Their Earls were meant to be strong enough men to hold those lands for the Norman King, and if the opportunity of extending the territory of England arose, they would take it. From their Castle in Chester, the Norman Earls ruled their Palatinate as absolutely as did the King, his Kingdom, and it was to the King alone they were answerable.


Like the King, the Earls of Chester created barons, exercising authority beneath them and responsible for raising armed men when they were required. One of those feudal barons was the Baron of Stockport. The second Sir Robert de Stockport played a part in the development of the town the direct consequences of which lasted over 600 years. Around the year 1220 he obtained a Charter (pictured above) from the Earl of Chester, Randle III, called Randle the Good, which granted the burgesses of Stockport the right to elect their own mayor, without interference from their Earl or Baron. Despite challenges and attempts to subvert it, that Charter, with only few changes served as the basis of local government in Stockport until the 1835 Municipal Corporation Act swept away such ancient traditions and privileges, and gave England and Wales a uniform pattern of local authorities. Stockport became a town divided into seven wards, with a Council consisting of 14 Aldermen and 42 Councillors. A further Act, in 1888, raised the town to the status of a County Borough.

 
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