From the Reporter files - Thursday 11th September 2025

The traditional midday meal was a moveable feast for pupils and staff from St Peter and St Paul RC Secondary School, Dukinfield.

In 1972, the school had been closed for a major revamp -  but the new extensions and improvements to the existing buildings had fallen behind schedule following recent strike action.

As the new term began, lessons were continuing off-site in temporary accommodation at Dukinfield Moravian and the former St Mary's in Dukinfield, St Peter's and the former Castle Hall in Stalybridge.

The kitchen and canteen were the first parts of the St Peter and St Paul campus to reopen - with the 600 pupils and teachers being taken there by bus each lunchtime.

More than 2,000 babies had been born in Ashton General Hospital’s new maternity unit in the first ten months since it opened.

Speaking at the annual nurses prizegiving in September 1972, principal nursing officer Miss Sefton revealed the latest total, saying the unit was a growing concern. Guests at the ceremony included former chairman of the hospital management committee Lord Wright of Ashton, the town mayor and other civic heads.

The current chairman Arthur Walton welcomed the secretary of the Manchester regional hospital board Mr Pethybridge who had been the driving force in securing £750,000 to be spent over the next few years improving patient care on the hospital’s geriatric and psychiatric wards.

Passengers fighting British Rail’s plans to close the Stalybridge to Stockport line won a pledge of support from local MP Tom Pendry.

Writing to Dorothy Redfern, petition organiser and licensee of the Stalybridge Station Buffet Bar, Mr Pendry said a closure would be a “blow to local commercial and public interests”.

He had made “strong representations” that the line should remain open and urged his constituents to sign the petition. “This line is of importance locally to many people and the stronger the pressure we can bring to bear, the more effective it will be.”

Following a public inquiry earlier in the year, the routes for the long awaited M67 Denton relief road and Hyde by-pass were finally confirmed in September 1972. 

In Denton, the Barcliff Bingo Hall on Ashton Road which had seemed likely to be bulldozed won a last minute reprieve. For the club’s owners and hundreds of regular players, it was as though Christmas had come early.

A spokesman said: “It means pensioners can still have their afternoon game of bingo and 50 jobs have been saved.”

Premier Mill, Stalybridge resumed production after a break of two years.

Previously a weaving shed, the single storey building had been fully re-equipped with the latest textile machinery including revolutionary new break-spinning frames.

With production expected to be at full capacity by the end of the year, Premier would have jobs for up to 70 textile operatives.

Dukinfield councillors were seeking urgent talks over shock proposals to close the King Street main post office and transfer services to a sub-post office.

Alderman Kirk said he could not think of a suitable building in the town centre which would be as convenient. “I can’t see a sub-post office offering the same degree of service,” he added.

Godley infant and junior schools would become one in the junior building from the start of the spring term in 1973.

The scheme agreed by Cheshire County Council’s primary education sub-committee, including provision of a mobile classroom and toilet block, was awaiting government approval.

Denton’s 136-year-old Hope Congregational Church was to be demolished and replaced with a purpose-built modern worship centre.

Surveyors found the roof was riddled with dry rot.

Stalybridge’s former Cross Leech Street Baptist Church, closed in July 1972 when a new church opened  on Ambleside, was given a new lease of life as a youth centre under the supervision of Baptist minister and full-time youth leader Bob Cartlidge.