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AS you can see in the photo there are two blue plaques on the town hall commemorating local events. One plaque commemorates the 'first general strike' which originated in this area. It began as a movement of resistance to the imposition of wage cuts in the mills and was also known as the 'Plug Riots'. It spread to involve nearly half a million workers throughout Britain and represented the biggest single exercise of working class strength in nineteenth century Britain.
©david nike
This former mill by the canal at Stalybridge has been converted into stylish apartments. The canal is below and to the left of shot.
©Roger May
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal passing through Stalybridge. This section had been in-filled but was restored and re-opened in 2001.
©Martin Clark
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal runs just under 20 miles (32 km) from Lock 1E at the rear of the University of Huddersfield campus, near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield to the junction with the Ashton Canal at Whitelands Basin in Ashton under Lyne. It crosses the Pennines by means of 74 locks and the Standedge Tunnel. The canal was first proposed in 1793 at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield. Its engineer was Benjamin Outram on the recommendation of William Jessop. His plan was to start from the Huddersfield Broad Canal and follow the River Colne with a climb of 438 feet (134 m) to its summit, where it would pass through a tunnel at Standedge before descending through Saddleworth and the Tame valley to the Ashton Canal near Ashton under Lyne. There were many woollen, worsted and cotton mills along its route which promised ample trade. However there was the possible problem of the loss of their water supplies, so Outram proposed to build a number of reservoirs. The canal operated for approximately 140 years and although moderately successful for a while its width, limited to boats less than 7 ft (2.1 m) wide; number of locks; and long tunnel made it much less profitable than its main rival, the Rochdale Canal, which had a similar number of locks, but was twice as wide, with no long tunnel. The Standedge tunnel proved to be a real bottleneck, having been constructed without an integral towpath. Narrowboats had to be "legged" through, eventually by professionally employed leggers. A company employee would chain the tunnel entrance behind a convoy of boats, and walk over Boat Lane, accompanied by boat boys and girls, leading the boat horses, to unchain the opposite end of the tunnel before the boat convoy arrived. This journey was made at least twice per day, for over twenty years. The construction of a double railway tunnel parallel with its route affected the revenue that was brought in and the canal was abandoned in 1944. In the late 20th century, after 27 years of campaigning and restoration by the Huddersfield Canal Society the canal was fully re-opened to navigation in 2001, when it again became one of three Pennine crossings, the others being the Rochdale and the Leeds and Liverpool, both broad canals. The canal is now entirely used by leisure boaters. During the period of time when the canal was closed, several lengths were culverted and infilled, and in some cases built over. Over the course of the restoration project, the vast majority of the obliterated line became available to be opened out again, and the canal remains on a substantially identical alignment with some minor alterations. At Heyrod, the canal runs through the legs of an electricity pylon. The pylon had been erected during the period when the canal was closed, and the only viable route for restoration was through the legs. No other such cases are known on navigable waterways worldwide, although other pylons have been constructed across former waterways that have been filled in with rubble and soil.
©Ken Bagnall
©Ken Bagnall
©Ken Bagnall
In 1867 Stalybridge was disturbed by the arrival of William Murphy. Records of this man indicate that his sole interest was to sow the seeds of dissent between Roman Catholics, who by this time had grown to significant proportions, and Protestants. He succeeded in this goal only too well for a full year. During 1868 there were a number of violent disturbances and rioting created by Murphy, who described himself as a "renegade Roman Catholic". In his lectures to the public "pretending to expose the religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church", he became a master at whipping up a crowd into a frenzy. Newspaper reports of the time told of his common practice of waving a revolver in the air in "a most threatening manner". On one occasion he incited a riot of such proportions that Father Daley, the parish priest of St Peter's, took to the roof of the church to defend it. A man was shot. The parish priest was tried but eventually acquitted at the Quarter Sessions. Following this incident, the community began to settle down and Murphy chose to extend his political activities elsewhere.
©Ken Bagnall
The rapid growth of industry in Stalybridge was due to the introduction of machinery. This was, however, met with violent opposition. After the arrival of Luddites in the area, the doors of mills were kept locked day and night. Military aid was requested by the mill owners and a Scottish regiment under the Duke of Montrose was sent to the town. It was led by Captain Raines who made his headquarters at the Roe Cross Inn. The Luddite disturbances began in November 1811. Gangs of armed men destroyed power looms and fired mills. The disturbances in Stalybridge culminated with a night of violent rioting on 20 April 1812. The social unrest did not curb the growth of the town. By 1814 there were twelve factories and by 1818 the number had increased to sixteen. The Industrial Revolution led to a rapid increase in the town's population in the early part of the 19th century. The population of the town by 1823 was 5,500. In the following two years, due in part to an influx of Irish families seeking better wages, the population rose to 9,000. Stalybridge was among the first wave of towns to establish a Mechanics' Institute with a view to educating the growing number of workers. Only a year after the establishment of Manchester Mechanics' Institute, Stalybridge founded an institute of its own. Its doors opened on 7 September 1825 on Shepley Street with a reading room on Queen Street.
©Ken Bagnall
Looking west.
©Dr Neil Clifton
©Ken Bagnall
Dist:0.1km<br/>A canal boat on the Huddersfield Canal moored next to the Tesco supermarket in Stalybridge.
©Gerald England
Dist:0.1km<br/>The Huddersfield Canal was restored in recent years and boats can now stock up at the Tesco supermarket in Stalybridge.
©Gerald England
Dist:0.1km<br/>Stalybridge's market hall closed on New Year's Eve 1999 and became the Civic Hall in 2001. Four years later, the area designated for retail space became exhibition space. There were plans to reopen the market and let the retail hall out to private contractors, though this came to naught.
©Ken Bagnall
Dist:0.1km<br/>
©Ken Bagnall
Dist:0.1km<br/>The song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" was created in the Newmarket Tavern, Stalybridge by the composer Jack Judge, in 1912, after being challenged to write, compose, and produce a song in "just one night". It was first sung in public by him in the Grand Theatre on Corporation Street on 31 January 1912. On 31 January 1953 a memorial tablet was unveiled by Jack Hylton on the wall of the old Newmarket Tavern, where the song was composed. To coincide with the ceremony a wreath was laid on Jack Judge's grave, by the mayor of Oldbury. Jack Judge is now also commemorated by a statue outside the Victoria Market Hall.
©Ken Bagnall

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