- Stockport Heritage
Stockport Heritage was formed by volunteers in 1987 as a campaigning conservation group to help preserve and regenerate historic and architecturally sensitive buildings in the
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport ,Greater Manchester ,England .It's main work focussed on
Staircase House , a 15th century merchants' warehouse and home with later additions, which had been semi-derelict for a number of years on Stockport's 700 year old Market Place. Stockport Heritage won charitable status in 1988 being renamed Stockport Heritage Trust and successfully persuaded the local civic authorities to take up the Staircase House project. The House became the flagship of an old town quarter regeneration scheme ,opening to the public as the town's museum in 2005 after a £4 million restoration by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.In 2001 Stockport Heritage Trust sponsored a Stockport friendship link with
Dodge City , Kansas,in consideration of the many American descendants of the Dodge family ,who emigrated from Offerton, Stockport, in the 17th century. Members of the Dodge Association regularly visit their ancestral homes in Stockport, one of which is Staircase House. Starting in 1992 Stockport Heritage initiated a blue plaque programme commemorating various sites in the town including the birthplace ofJohn Bradshaw e, the republican regicide and President of the English Republic of 1649-53. Since 1999 Trust volunteers have helped run a free heritage centre open to the public on Market days in the part-13th/14th centurySt.Mary's Parish Church on the Market Place, which has also been the subject of a multi-million pound restoration scheme. Alongside their exhibitions the Trust house an archive of several thousand local images and Trust members have produced books,videos,pamphlets and a local Stockport Heritage magazine, alongside walks,talks and outreach on local heritage.References
Bibliography
Peter Arrowsmith, "Stockport - a history", Stockport MBC, 1997.Steve Cliffe, "Stockport History & Guide", Tempus, 2005.
External links
* [http://www.stockportheritagetrust.co.uk www.stockportheritagetrust.co.uk]
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