Editing Hazel Grove (section)

== History ==
Until the 16th century, there was very little development at Hazel Grove. The area straddled the boundaries of four [[Township (England)|townships]] or [[Manorialism|manors]]: [[Bosden]], [[Bramhall]], [[Norbury, Greater Manchester|Norbury]], and [[Torkington]]. Norbury was mentioned in the [[Domesday Survey]] in 1086 (as Nordberie).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/cheshire2.html |title=Cheshire L–Z |work=The Domesday Book Online |access-date=30 June 2021}}</ref>

[[File:Bull's Head, Hazel Grove c.1900.jpg|thumb|left|The Bull's Head pub and Bullock Smithy Inn at the Hazel Grove tram terminus, in around 1900]]
In 1560, a blacksmith called Richard Bullock built a [[Forge|smithy]] on the corner of what is now Torkington Park. This building later became the ''Bullock Smithy Inn''. It stood on the main road from [[Manchester]] and [[Stockport]] to [[Buxton]] and [[London]], later numbered as the [[A6 road (England)|A6 road]]. A village known as ''Bullock Smithy'' gradually grew up along the road. The name Hazel Grove, referring to a [[Grove (nature)|grove]] of [[hazel]] trees, was also sometimes used for the area, appearing on a 1749 map as 'Hessel-grave'. In 1836, the villagers of Bullock Smithy held a public meeting and resolved to formally adopt the name Hazel Grove for the village.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heginbotham |first1=Henry |title=Stockport: Ancient and Modern, Volume II |date=1892 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Co. |location=London |pages=137–138 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Stockport/cuyZkJxOBVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA138&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Country News |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002576%2F18361009&page=7 |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=London Mercury |date=9 October 1836 |page=7}}</ref>
[[File:London Road, Hazel Grove c.1900 (3).jpg|thumb|London Road, in around 1900]]

A tram line from Stockport to Hazel Grove opened in 1890, running along London Road to a terminus near the Rising Sun public house at the corner of Buxton Road and Macclesfield Road.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cheshire Sheet XIX.8 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/114581950 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=13 February 2025 |date=1938}}</ref> The line was initially run by a private company, but became part of [[Stockport Corporation Tramways]] in 1905. Through services into [[Manchester]] via the connected [[Manchester Corporation Tramways]] network operated from 1908. The tram route closed in 1950.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Keith |title=The Directory of British Tramways |date=1996 |publisher=Patrick Stephens |isbn=978-1-85260-549-0 |pages=141–143}}</ref>

A Mechanics' Institute was built in 1871 at the corner of London Road and Hatherlow Lane, serving as the village's main public events venue. The charity that originally ran the building transferred ownership to the Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council in 1952, who later renamed it the Civic Hall.<ref>{{cite news |title=Council takes over Mechanics' Institute |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004027%2F19520425&page=16 |access-date=13 February 2025 |work=Stockport Advertiser |date=25 April 1952 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mechanics Institute - Hazel Grove |url=https://imagearchive.stockport.gov.uk/Home/Photograph?accessionno=22638 |website=Stockport Image Archive |publisher=Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council |access-date=13 February 2025}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
There were no churches in the area until the end of the 16th century. By the early 17th century, a chapel had been built in Norbury township. It stood in fields to the east of Macclesfield Road, opposite Norbury Hall Farm, nearly a mile south of Hazel Grove. The chapel was known for being served by [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformist]] ministers in the late 17th century. After the [[English Restoration|Restoration]], a law was passed in 1662 forbidding ministers to preach without the [[Book of Common Prayer]]. The minister of Norbury Chapel, John Jollie, went there to preach, but found that the door was locked. He and his followers broke down the door and he preached as usual. Subsequently, he was tried for nonconformity, but it was decided that Norbury Chapel was not a [[consecrated]] place.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heginbotham |first1=Henry |title=Stockport: Ancient and Modern, Volume II |date=1892 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Co. |location=London |pages=200–201 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Stockport/cuyZkJxOBVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA200&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref>

In 1788, [[John Wesley]] preached in Bullock Smithy. In his journal he described the village as "...&nbsp;one of the most famous villages in the county for all manner of wickedness."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Works of the Rev John Wesley AM, Volume IV |date=1840 |publisher=John Mason |location=London |page=395 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Works_of_the_Rev_John_Wesley_A_M/V4BPAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA395&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Norbury Parish Church - geograph.org.uk - 3184291.jpg|thumb|St Thomas' Church]]
In the 1830s, it was decided to build a new church, both to serve the growing village and to replace the increasingly ruinous Norbury Chapel. The site chosen was on the southern edge of the village, and was also in Norbury township. The church, dedicated to St Thomas, was completed in 1834.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=Church of St Thomas|num=1260001|grade=II}}</ref> The site of Norbury Chapel then reverted to fields.<ref name=1882OS>{{cite web |title=Cheshire Sheet XIX, 1882 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341008 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref> In 1842 an [[ecclesiastical parish]] called 'St Thomas, Norbury' was created, which initially just covered the Norbury township.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=20185|page=89|date=10 January 1843}}</ref> The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1878 to take in Bosden and parts of Bramhall and Torkington townships, such that it then covered the whole of Hazel Grove village.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24616|page=4810|date=23 August 1878}}</ref>

The legal name of the ecclesiastical parish covering Hazel Grove remains 'St Thomas, Norbury'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Norbury Church |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/12884/more-information/ |website=A church near you |access-date=8 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Church of England parish map |url=https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=67bce0ed36dd4ee0af7a16bc079aa09a |publisher=Church of England Data Services Team |access-date=8 February 2025}}</ref> The church is now known both as 'Norbury Church' and 'St Thomas, Hazel Grove'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Norbury Church |url=https://www.norburychurch.com/ |access-date=8 February 2025}}</ref>