From the Reporter files - Thursday 3rd July 2025

It was a full house at Dane Bank Primary School, Denton, for the first of two festival evenings involving every child in every class.

The varied programme ranged from drama to dance and poetry to choral singing. Highlights included a spectacular musical version of The Sleeping Beauty by class six with costumes made by parents and teachers.

As many as 250 parents and friends enjoyed the first evening with a similar number expected for the second performance.

Stalybridge’s small independent retailers feared they would lose out if the government pressed ahead with legislation which would limit their opening hours.

The local shops were generally open six days a week - a total of 54 hours with staff wages agreed on that basis. A change in the law  - bringing the UK into line with other European Common Market countries - could see that figure reduced to a maximum of 40 hours a week.

‘Space age industry to give new life to old cotton mill’ was the front page headline as Sterling Coated Materials revealed exciting plans to revitalise Whitelands Mill - one of the biggest in Ashton.

The five-storey building used mainly for storage in recent years would be ‘throbbing back to life’ within 12 months.

For reasons of ‘industrial secrecy’, company bosses would not reveal details of the new processes being introduced, except to say that the capital investment was significant. Some technical staff would be transferring from other Sterling factories in Stalybridge and Dukinfield.

‘If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise...’ - the famous opening line of the song Teddy Bear’s Picnic was set to come true with plans for a 16-acre safari park on the border of Denton and Reddish.

Our reporter had visions of ‘hippos in Holt Wood and rhinos roaming in Reddish Vale’ if Stockport Council approved the multi-thousand pound scheme to create a wild animal reserve in the vale.

Lancashire company Norwest Holst would develop the site in conjunction with the Chipperfield Organisation whose previous projects included the famous Knowsley Safari Park.

Closing off a wall stile meant walkers could no longer access a popular footpath known locally as Flaggy Fields between Ridge Hill and Wakefield Road, Stalybridge. 

Resident John Royle accused the landowner of a deliberate attempt to obliterate a much-used public right of way.

The countryside-loving campaigner claimed walkers would need to be athletes “with the nimbleness of a goat” to gain access and cross a swamp-like stream which previously had been easy to negotiate.

Two of Denton’s biggest employers, Haddon-Oldham and Lancaster Carpets, were to become neighbours.

Both had bought land on the 35-acre former gas works site on Oldham Street. Haddon-Oldham planned to build a purpose-designed factory which was destined to become Britain’s most modern battery plant.

Lancaster Carpets’ land grab would allow further expansion of its long-established factory alongside, with the European tufted carpets market predicted to double in size over the next seven years.

Within 12 months, the entire Peak Forest Canal - including the Hyde stretch - would be completely navigable.

Work to breathe new life into the waterway was well underway. By April 1974 the canal locks in Marple and Ashton were due to be repaired and the ten miles of water in between would then be open for boats.