From The Reporter files - 5th June 2025

One of Stamford Park Bowling Club’s youngest members, 14-year-old Mark Glaister, won the president’s handicap competition.

Mark was one of more than 30 players taking part, going on to beat Ray Hughes, left, 21-14 in the final.  

Club president Tony Moss, accompanied by his wife, presented Mark with the winner’s trophy.

A freak storm closed the new M67 Hyde bypass and led to police breaking up a public meeting at Hattersley Community Centre amid fears the electrical fittings had been seriously damaged by flooding.

Meanwhile, scores of shoppers had to run for cover as a torrent of rainwater crashed through the roof at the Hyde Department Store on Mottram Road. Emergency services received more than 100 calls for help across Tameside - over half from Hyde.

Firefighters spent hours pumping out cellars and low-lying properties including several shops, pubs and banks.

Denton said farewell to a hatting firm which had been a major part of the town’s fabric for more than a century.

The landmark Walker, Ashworth and Linney building on Ashton Road stood in the path of the new M67 relief road and was earmarked for demolition.

Founded in Denton in 1867, the business, which eventually became the country’s largest silk hat manufacturer, had adapted to changing trends and would be moving to Great Norbury Street, Hyde.

Past and present pupils and staff were preparing to say farewell to Denton’s 130-year-old Christ Church School, due to be demolished under the M67 clearance.

A closing down thanksgiving service, social gathering and exhibition of photos and memorabilia would take place in July.

With temperatures nudging the low 80s, it was sunshine and smiles all the way as the Queen’s cousin Princess Alexandra opened the new Tameside Sea Cadets HQ at Lower Wharf Street, Ashton.

As The Reporter noted: “The elegant princess was a picture of freshness and charm” especially when negotiating a slippery gravel path after inspecting the cadets’ showpiece frigate. Hyde gave a ‘right royal welcome’ to Princess Anne as she arrived to officially open the new £250,000 St George’s CE Primary School.

Crowds gathered along the route through Woodley and Gee Cross, waving their flags at the roadside. With the church bells ringing out to greet her, the smiling princess stopped to speak to the ‘guard of honour’ of flag-waving infants lining the path into the school grounds.

A Droylsden headteacher who had been campaigning for a new school building for the past 20 years had seen his hopes dashed yet again.

Greenside Lane School’s infant annexe - six wartime huts on Manor Road - would continue in use with Tameside Council opting to ‘make do and mend’ -  replacing some of the ancient furniture and fittings and adding a new toilet block.

Head James Chadwick said he was grateful for the improvements - but disappointed his vision for a modern purpose-built school seemed unlikely to be fulfilled before his retirement - just two years away.

Mossley residents claimed their town had been snubbed by Tameside Council.

Leafing through the borough’s glossy new guidebook they could find very few mentions of Mossley and only one picture. Officials from Micklehurst Residents’ Association were so annoyed they planned to publish their own guide to Mossley - with no mention of Tameside.