Sunday Walk – Artisan to Patrician
‘Green Island’ must be one of the most enigmatic descriptions for that area to the east of Congleton bounded by Moor Lane, Willow Street and Bromley Road. It suggests a rural idyll of green fields and open heath land shaded by mature willow trees reflected in gently flowing streams.
Whether this idyll ever existed is not clear. If it did Congleton’s Industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries replaced it with that mixture of large and small textile factories and associated tightly packed workers housing which remained until the middle of the 20th century.
Yet within a few hundred yards of this Victorian ‘Industrial Estate’ and adjacent to the notorious ‘Gibraltar Rocks’, along tree lined Park Lane Congleton’s industrial and commercial elite built, as a testament to their success, elegant Edwardian ‘Arts and Crafts’ villas.
Join this walk to be led by Ian Doughty ,to find out about how these two contrasting localities of the town developed adjacent to the ’Gibraltar Rocks. The walk will begin from Congleton Museum, which is situated in Market Square behind the town hall and end with one of our complimentary cream teas.
Leader Ian Doughty
