From the Reporter files - Thursday 26th June 2025

A fancy dress parade deep in the heart of Audenshaw was among the main attractions at St. Stephen’s Church garden party, with cowboys and cowgirls sporting stetsons and feathers.

With cute maids and ballet dancers also joining the lineup, the array of characters may have strayed beyond the chosen theme, but they all had a fun time.

Gee Cross was set for a return to the “good old days” with people picnicking on the village green - and very little traffic, according to local Werneth ward councillor John Bell.

The leader of Tameside Council’s Tory group said work was already underway to transform the former Queen Adelaide reservoir site into a village green and added: “Once the Portwood to Denton (M66) motorway is open, Stockport Road (A560) will be de-trunked with a lot less traffic.”

Traffic lights were needed more than ever at the junction of Manchester Road and Hulme Road, Denton since the M66 construction began.

With Windmill Lane closed for six months, drivers had been urged to use Gorton Road and Reddish Lane as an alternative route - but many were choosing to go via Hulme Road instead.

The extra traffic had made the junction with Manchester Road a bottleneck - and without lights, extremely difficult to turn right.

Struggling independent retailers in Ashton’s Market Avenue, Stamford Street and St Michael’s Square remained unconvinced they would gain any extra trade if a proposed new £35 million shopping mall was built near the bus station.

Council chiefs insisted it would attract many more shoppers to the town and traders nearby would also reap the benefits.

The ages-old song Underneath the Arches had inspired an innovative railway regeneration scheme creating vital start-up premises for new businesses in the heart of Stalybridge.

Extensions had been built on to the previously unused spaces underneath four railway arches with similar projects on track at viaducts across the North West.

A Dukinfield eyesore was set to disappear when Tameside planners gave Redrow Homes the green light to build 72 houses and bungalows on waste land off Cheetham Hill Road, which had once been a reservoir.

The development was approved despite calls for the land to be made into a park for elderly residents on the nearby Yew Tree estate. 

Mossley’s new fire station was set to open within two years, replacing the old Manchester Road station after three quarters of a century.

Its replacement would be built next to the library on Wyre Street. When the old station opened in 1912 it was regarded as ultra-modern. Instead of the horse-drawn vehicles of Victorian times, it had its own Morris fire engine with ladders.

Vandals had sunk one of Stamford Park’s most popular attractions.

The Stamford Belle pleasure launch was wrecked in what officials described as a pre-meditated attack by saboteurs who swam out to the middle of the boating lake, drilled eight holes in the bottom of the motor launch and then left it to sink.

Thousands had enjoyed boat trips over the past 14 years, but now, at the height of the summer season, the Belle was suddenly out of action amid fears it might never return. Officials were waiting to hear the final cost of repairs from boatbuilders assessing the damage.

Workers at Dukinfield firm H and J.E. Buckley rolled out the barrel for their retiring colleague Eric Morris - one of only 18 time-served coopers in England. Eric, of Palmerston Close, Denton had clocked up half a century in the dying art of making traditional oak barrels.

His workmates arranged a special outing to Burton-on-Trent and made sure he had a great send-off.

Hundreds of teddy bears turned up for a picnic at Denton West End Primary School, overwhelming the staff who were not expecting so many.

Each bear had to pay 20p before staff would let their owners in. Headteacher Mrs Roberts joked: “All we could see that day were teddy bears coming up Balmoral Drive!” With more than 470 bears in all, the school raised £98 for the National Children’ Home.