Torkington is an area of

Hazel Grove Hazel Grove is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. The built up area as defined by the Office ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Stockport The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is south-east of central Manchester and south of Tameside. As well as the towns of Stockport, Bredbury and Marple, Greater Manchester, Marple, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It was formerly a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, covering the small hamlet of Torkington and eastern parts of the village of Hazel Grove. The parish was abolished in 1900 to become part of

Hazel Grove and Bramhall Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. ...

, which was in turn abolished in 1974 to become part of the metropolitan borough of Stockport. Torkington Park is one of the main public open spaces in Hazel Grove.

History

Torkington was historically a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, which formed part of the

Macclesfield Hundred The hundred of Macclesfield was an ancient division of the historic county of Cheshire, in northern England. It was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1242, and it was formed to a great extent from the earlier Domesday hundre ...

of Cheshire. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the

poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Stockport, the civil functions were exercised by each township rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Torkington became a civil parish. The village of Hazel Grove straddled four townships: Bosden, Bramhall,

Norbury Norbury is an List of areas of London, town and suburb in south London. It shares the postcode London SW16 with neighbouring Streatham. The area is mainly in the borough of Croydon London Borough Council, Croydon, with some parts extending int ...

, and Torkington. When elected parish and district councils were created in 1894, Torkington was given a parish council and included in the Stockport Rural District. Shortly afterwards, Stockport Borough Council began campaigning to have the various small parishes just outside its southern boundaries (most of which had formerly been townships in the parish of Stockport) incorporated into the

County Borough of Stockport Stockport County Borough was a county-level local authority between 1889 and 1974. The town of Stockport had been an ancient borough governed by a charter dating from circa 1220 granted by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester.''An Illu ...

. The five parish councils of Bramhall, Bosden, Norbury, Offerton and Torkington collectively decided that they wished to resist being brought into Stockport, and therefore petitioned

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities: Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. ...

to create an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

covering the combined area of their five parishes. The county council agreed, and the parish of Torkington was therefore abolished in September 1900, with the area becoming part of the new civil parish and urban district of

. In 1891 (the last census before the abolition of the parish), Torkington had a population of 294. Torkington Park - geograph

Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council bought Torkington Lodge in 1935. The early 19th century main house was converted into the council's headquarters, with the first council meeting being held there in January 1937, and its grounds were turned into a public park. Hazel Grove and Bramhall was abolished in 1974 to become part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester. Torkington today is classed as part of the Hazel Grove built up area by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

. Torkington is not a postal locality; the area comes under the Hazel Grove postal locality within the Stockport

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...

. Away from the built up area of Hazel Grove, eastern parts of the former Torkington parish remain rural, forming part of the

North West Green Belt The North West Green Belt is a green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space throughout mainly the North West region of England. It is contained within the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, L ...

References

{{Reflist Areas of Greater Manchester Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport

History

See also

References