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Sharing our memories of Heald Green
Last Updated 9th October 2025
Wilmslow Road/Long Lane shops
By Helen Morgan
First Published 09/10/2025
Last Updated 09/10/2025
Numbers 178A to 188
Picture the scene in the late 1920s. Moving up Long Lane from the Griffin pub towards Handforth with the cottages on both sides of the road.
Apple Tree farm on your left (where Mona Ave and Branksome Drive estate is) and the bigger houses on your right up to 178 Wilmslow Road. Where the shops are now, was fields.
Opposite was Bradshaw Hall Lane. There were some cottages and bungalows, dotted about on either side up to the chapel.
According to the book Long Lane Cheadle Remembered, these shops were built in the 1930s and satisfied the needs of the Long Lane residents with the range of shops that opened.
Indeed once built, the community along the Lane had everything they needed. With a variety of shops for everyday living, Etchells School behind and eventually the park. Doctor Payne of all names, as the local GP in one of the big houses, along with a dental surgery.
Later, a car garage and Mathers nursery for your garden. There was even Lonane kennels for your dogs in one of the bungalows and a private school way before Etchells was built.
Note: The Griffin pub end of Finney Lane was part of the Long Lane area up to St Ann’s Road.
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Fig. 1 Long Lane Private school
The Advertiser 12.9.1924
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This whole row, apart from 178A, is recorded on both the 1939 electoral roll and 1939 register.
Fig. 2 Parade of shops 19.7.2025
© H Morgan
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178A Wilmslow Road
2
This little shop on the end was built far later than the rest as an add on. By February 1963 the Ratepayer’s committee approved an appeal to build a butcher’s shop here.
The first business in there by 1965 was Matthews butchers. They also had a shop near Christ Church. They traded under the name of AE Matthews (Butchers) Ltd until at least 1975.
Fig. 3 Matthews advert
St Catherine's Outlook Magazine Dec 1965
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“There was a butchers just beyond the newsagents. I used to get chicken feet to play with by pulling the tendons up to open and shut the claws.”
- Martyn Griffiths, Facebook 2025
“I remember butchers on that row had sawdust on the floor back in the 1970s.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2021
By 1978 the unit had become AW Domestic Services until at least 1989 and possibly Alex’s repair shop. It was run by Alex Warburton and his son.
Fig. 4 AW Domestic Services
Rose Queen Programme 1986
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“The electrical repair shop started putting some fireplaces in the shop and then handed it over to his son who turned it into just fireplaces and called it Glowing Embers.”
- Melanie Lightfoot, Facebook 2021
Glowing Embers was definitely there by 1998, selling fireplaces, and was still there in 2009.
Fig. 5 Glowing Embers
© Google Maps April 2009
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“It was an electrical repair shop. I went to Glowing Embers about 15 years after they had opened, I carried my broken hoover the full length of the shop and started a minor argument with a young person who kept telling me they couldn’t repair it. Took a while before it dawned on me that the shop did in fact sell fires! It was a long walk back down the shop carrying my broken hoover.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2021
“The end shop sold fireplaces. I remember they also sold batteries by the counter. I used to go in and buy AA batteries as a kid for my hand held video games, and they were frequently dead. I had to go back and argue with the guy to swap them on more than one occasion.”
- Stephen Piskor, Facebook 2024
The shop then became a sandwich takeaway called Beatties and they were there by 2012.
Fig. 6 Beatties
© Google Maps October 2012
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Coopers Sandwich Bar began trading there in April 2018 and have recently made their outside space more attractive with new decking and places to sit.
Fig. 7 Coopers
© Google Maps October 2018
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Fig. 8 Coopers upgrade
© Jen JJ Love 11.6.2025
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In 1932 there was not a row of shops here. There were homes that had names like The Bungalow before the motor garage (where Coop is now), then Winncot, The Crest, Frankland, Bempton and Sancha. The shops numbered 180 to 188 were built first and some of the units were trading from there by 1934.
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180 Wilmslow Road
From 1934, this was the business of Esther Blakeley, a draper. On the 1939 register three people were recorded. Her husband Horace was an insurance clerk and 42 years of age. Esther was aged 40 and described as a draper and shopkeeper. She was assisted by 21 year old Norah O’Neil.
By 1947 the shop had become the rather posh sounding Madam Neil.
Fig. 9 Madam Neil advert
September 1947 The Review
© Ratepayers Association
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Going into the 1950s and following on from Madam Neil with the same goods to sell was Maryce. It was still there in 1968, until Kimgary Fabrics Ltd took over from 1971.
Fig. 10 Maryce advert
Contact Magazine December 1968
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Fig. 11 Kimgary Fabrics advert
Contact Magazine Summer 1971
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The next business was remembered by many, either as just a wool shop or Ida’s wool shop. However, the only name I could find was Woolwinder from 1978.
“I remember buying wool from Audrey’s wool shop in Gatley and there was a wool shop where Sounds Great is now”
- Betty Matthews, Facebook 2021
“There was a wool shop in the early 1980s run by a lady called Ida, who I think also had the Wool Shop in Cheadle Village, which had been her mother’s before her, when my mum was growing up in the 40s-50s probably. There was also a lady called Margaret I think who worked there. They did crochet lessons in an evening. I do recall Ida talking about some kind of access dispute at the back as they would’ve had to cross Sounds Great land to get to their bit, so she probably did sell out to them in the end.”
- Alison Murray, Facebook 2024
“It was my mum that went with yours Alison to learn to crochet. I was self-taught. My mum’s friend Margaret worked there and yes, she’s still on Kirkham. The wool shop was next door to what is Coopers. Don’t remember the wool shop’s name, we just called it Ida’s. Sounds Great tried for many years to buy Ida’s but she refused and eventually the shop was closed and used as storage for the Cheadle shop rather than sell to Sounds Great. They eventually got it and expanded.”
- Melanie Lightfoot, Facebook 2024
In January 1988, Robert Bennett and Partners from upstairs at 198 Wilmslow Road, applied to change the use of the unit from retail to office accommodation and storage space.
Sounds Great eventually expanded their shop next door into this unit too. By 2001 all their adverts still said 182 Wilmslow Road. This changed in 2002 with both units, 180 and 182 advertised at the same time.
Next came the Spar shop that is there now, that opened on January 12th 2023. I will give more details under the next unit for these two businesses.
182 Wilmslow Road
This was empty in 1934 and became a butcher’s shop from 1935 with the Taylors. Thomas Henry Taylor was there in 1935 followed by Eric Irvine Taylor.
On the 1939 register, 25 year old Eric was single and recorded as a farmer, shopkeeper and master butcher. He lived with Mr and Mrs Knowles. 26 year old Arthur was an electrical commercial traveller and his 23 year old wife did domestic duties (housewife).
It was all change in 1951 with the butchers becoming an ironmongers and hardware shop run by Mr G J Boden, who was remembered by residents.
Fig. 12 Bodens shop accident
Manchester Evening News 5.4.1951
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“I remember the one before Sommerville’s. He always smoked a pipe and had a boy and a girl, named Boden.”
- Anne Rostron, Facebook 2021
“Prior to Sommerville’s it was Johnnie and Pam Boden’s father’s shop. Sadly, their mother died quite young and that’s when Sommerville’s bought the shop and Bobby Theobald worked for them.”
- Phil Jones, Facebook 2021
“I can picture Mr Boden now with enormous thick eyebrows. Bobby Theobold worked there and then later he was involved with some band.”
- Howard Hunt, Facebook 2021
The shop continued as an ironmongers and hardware shop from 1960 until 1976, run by Mr K M Sommerville.
Fig. 13 Sommervilles advert
St Catherine's Parish News Dec 1962
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“I used to buy paraffin from Sommerville’s for my mum.”
“He had a big tank at the back”
- Robert Harmston, Facebook 2021 & 2022
“Mr Sommerville was a good friend to me and my pal Steve, when we needed bits for our bicycles and hadn’t quite got the money yet. I believe he was ex RAF but died of a heart attack.”
- Laurence Wyche, Facebook 2021
“Mr and Mrs Sommerville at the ironmongers. Years later they showed me the book where my mum had bought a new loo seat on tic!”
- Si Boothman, Facebook 2023
“Sommervilles used to sell the Cheadle Etchells school uniform and badges.”
- Ian McNeil, Facebook 2021
“I remember an ironmongers called Sommerville’s. I’m sure his first name was Keith. A bit like "Open All Hours" sitcom, where he sold just about everything.”
- Adrian Bowers, Facebook 2021
“Keith Sommerville, I can picture him quite clearly now and whatever you bought he either wrapped it or put it in a brown paper bag and sellotaped it. He had lost half of his middle finger I recall.”
- Howard Hunt, Facebook 2021
Let’s just say there were comments made about this finger that are unprintable but made me giggle. Boys will be boys!!
Sounds Great arrived by 1977 and is remembered by just about everyone.
Fig. 15 Sounds Great advert
HG Methodist Church magazine December 1994
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Fig. 14 Sounds Great advert
Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser 24.11.1977
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“Sounds Great was opened by Phil Lyons, who in the early 1960s owned 2 ladies’ hairdressers both called Tatton Hairdressing. One on Cheadle High Street between the Star pub and Ashfield Road and the other being by the Tatton cinema in Gatley.”
- Phil Jones, Messenger 2024
“Ahhh bought my first flute there in 1990 something. All going well until I smacked it on the sofa when I couldn’t perfect the music. After that it sounded #+*!”
- Caroline Elizabeth, Facebook 2022
“Sounds Great and its owner have so much to be proud of. Through his scheme, many children/people were able to learn music. My children amongst many benefitted from his scheme. One could rent a musical instrument, and if it was decided that was the “one”, then if you wanted to buy it, initial rental money was taken off the price.”
- Diana Renko, Facebook 2022
“Remember wondering what the Founda Great shop was, realised years later it was “Sounds Great” but the font was quite stylised!”
- Mark Jackson, Facebook 2024
“My friend’s son worked there about 15 years ago and she said the owner was called Phil and Rick Lowe was the manager for a long time.”
- Po Hutton, Facebook 2025
“Mark Lyons is Phil’s son and he ran Sounds Great most recently with his wife Penny.”
- Ruth O’Keefe, Facebook 2025
“His son Mark retired when the business closed.”
- Victoria Clark, Facebook 2025
The family business came to an end with retirement in 2021, although Covid-19 in 2020 probably didn’t help either.
The shop had been extended into the old wool shop next door and for a while they sold pianos in the shop on the corner of Merwood Avenue at 188 Wilmslow Road.
Such was their reputation, that their customers came from far and wide, not just our area.
Fig. 16 Sounds Great shut 23.10.2021
© H Morgan
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Chinese whispers grew as we waited to see just what business would go into this double fronted unit. We did not have to wait too long. Alterations began downstairs in 2022.
Fig. 17 Sounds Great to Spar October 2022
© H Morgan
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Fig. 18 Spar 17.1.2023
© Matthew Thompson
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Spar, Long Lane would have been a nice touch. However, the sign started as Cheadle and then became Heald Green. It has parking outside the shop but the kerb had not been dropped from Wilmslow Road. There are now picnic tables on the spaces, in competition with Coopers decking on the end!!
Fig. 18a Spar and Coopers outside 5.9.2025
© H Morgan
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The flats above were also refurbished at this time.
We were worried about what this competition would do to Saleem’s shop at 190 Wilmslow Road and that was before the Coop arrived!
184 Wilmslow Road
This shop was our newsagents for many years. In 1935 Gertrude Harvey ran the business. On the 1939 register there were two Lang families there. Thomas aged 70 was a retired newsagent and his 61 year old wife Isabella was doing unpaid domestic duties. Thomas junior, aged 37 was recorded as a Dealer Manager of newsagents, sweets and tobacco, with his 36 year old wife Doris doing unpaid domestic duties. On the 1939 electoral roll the shop was T Lang and sons, newsagents.
This memory recalled by Jean is just wonderful. What a lovely lady she was, born in 1930 and living at Bradshaw Hall farm.
“Lang’s sweet shop used to have an ha’penny tray and a penny tray of sweets. The milk at Etchells school you used to have to pay a ha’penny for a third of a pint each day, making tuppence ha’penny for the week. Mother gave me a thruppenny bit, so I had a ha’penny left over for the tray on Monday. A penny would get you five aniseed balls or five gobstoppers.”
- Jean Margaret Rushton, in conversation 2021
Fig. 19 T Lang & Son advert
Ratepayers Review Sept 1947
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In 1952 Mr J R Henwood arrived, having had previous newsagents in Broughton, Salford.
“The newsagents I remember was called Henwood’s when I was a kid. My friend’s mum Betty worked in the newsagents for years.”
- Patricia Ann Morris, Facebook 2021
“Mr Henwood, where we could spend our farthings on sweets in the early 50s.”
- Ann Park, Facebook 2021
“One of these shops was where I spent my pocket money on sweets in the early sixties.”
- Susan Raistrick, Facebook 2024
Fig. 20 Wilmslow Road and Merwood Ave 1965 © Hazel Hankinson
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“There’s an advert that can be seen on the old photo above for Bristol cigarettes, above the newsagents. They were the biggest cigarette manufacturer in the UK apparently.”
- Colin Barnsley, Facebook 2021
By June 1965, Butlers Newsagent was advertising their arrival.
Fig. 21 Butlers newsagent advert
Contact magazine June 1965
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“I remember in the 60s, Players launched a new cigarette and ran a competition for shops selling them; to run their own promotion scheme, some kind of prize was given. Butler’s newsagent’s exterior was dressed up, to look like a packet of Players No10 cigarette, don't know if a prize was won.”
- Graham Bloxsome, Facebook 2023
“Butler’s Newsagents, where I had a paper round and my hand squeezed painfully, in a friendly handshake by Mr Butler. Waiting outside on a Saturday evening for the Football Pinks to be put in the yellow vending machine.”
- Si Boothman, Facebook 2024
“Butlers News. I used to call every morning before school.”
- Susan Boylan, Facebook 2024
Fig. 22 Butlers newsagent advert
Contact magazine Christmas 1970
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“I worked at Butler’s newsagents on a Saturday from early 1970s (73/74?) until the early 80s. Keith Madley owned it with his wife Mavis.”
- Jill Presley, Facebook 2021
“Mavis is still around but sadly Keith died a good few years ago. I also was a paper boy for many years including working for the weekend wholesale paper distribution throughout the night and was still doing it for extra cash after I got married.”
- Tony Rains, Facebook 2021
“Nick and me spent our pocket money (50p?) on sweets from the jars at the newsagents.”
- Joanna Lavender, Facebook 2025
It was still a newsagents into the 1980s as Mr Butts.
“Mr Butts was early 1980s, still Butler’s before that.”
- Robin Smallman, Facebook 2024
“I worked for Mr Butt there in about 1983 as a paper boy for a bit but left, as he only paid £2.25 a week and all the others paid at least a quid more!”
- Mark Jackson, Facebook 2021
Cheshire newsagents were there from at least 1993 until 2009.
Fig. 23 Newsagents at number 184
© Google Maps April 2009
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Next came Linney Cooper the carpet and flooring shop, with its royal seal of approval.
Fig. 24 Linney Cooper
© Google Maps June 2016
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Then there was Sparkle hair and beauty clinic with great ideas for parties, yet sadly curtailed by Covid-19.
Fig. 25 Sparkles
© Google Maps October 2021
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AF Whites, funeral directors, opened in October 2022.
Fig. 26 AF Whites
October 2022
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186 Wilmslow Road
This was another earlier business. By 1934 George Edward Pickford, the bread man and grocer, was trading from here.
Here’s another wonderful memory from Jean.
“I went to Cheadle Etchells School and walked there and back four times a day, as I went home for lunch. I was five years old (1935) and walked three quarters of a mile each way by myself to Bradshaw Hall Farm. On Wilmslow Road was a set of shops. Mr Pickford the bread man used to see me across the road.”
- Jean Margaret Rushton, In conversation 2021
On the electoral roll for 1939 and the 1939 register the Pickford family were still there. 63 year old George was a retail grocer and provision dealer helped out in the shop with his wife 67 year old Miriam, along with her unpaid domestic duties.
Their son was 31 year old Edward. He was a clerk for the manifest, customs and freight department of Cunard White Star Ltd no less! (RMS Olympic was in their fleet of ships and was the sister ship of RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage on 15th April 1912). He was also a local ARP Warden.
By 1956 the shop had become a John Williams grocers. There was also one on Finney Lane, where Nafees is now, along with other branches in villages around. Like Tescos of their day! It was still there in 1966/67.
Fig. 27 John Williams advert
St Catherine's Parish News Dec 1962
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In 1971 the unit was a fish and chip shop called High Fry.
“I worked at the chippy when it belonged to Winnie and Michael Rooney. I became great friends with them and they now live in Blackpool. Happy days. I worked there about 1973/74.”
- Linda Stevenson, Facebook 2024
Many remember this being a Chinese chippy known locally as Mr Mac’s but it was apparently still called High Fry.
“Just been talking to a lady who owned Mr Mac’s chip shop and she told me it was called High Fry.”
- Joan Sharp, Facebook 2024
“I used to go in Mac’s chippy and ask for a Cornish pastie. That used to wind them up no end as a kid!”
- Paul Howarth, Facebook 2022
“Best curry ever at Mr Macs.”
- Joan Sharp, Facebook 2024
“I remember sitting in my dad’s Capri outside the chippy on a Saturday night in the 1970s as they got fish and chips from Mac’s chippy, or whatever it was called then. My mum went in from what I remember, as my dad listened to the football scores on the radio. Chips from there were always of the crinkly type, quite greasy but delicious.”
- Mark Jackson, Facebook 2024
“Mac’s chippy where their old black labrador was always asleep on the customer waiting chairs.”
- Si Boothman, Facebook 2024
“I remember that chippy used to have crinkle cut chips. Best chippy in Heald Green. I used to work at the petrol station there and often went to the chippy of an evening but can’t remember the name. This was 1981.”
- Danny McCarthy, Facebook 2022
“Macs Chinese chippy I remember back around 1983.”
- Dawn Pollard, Facebook 2024
“The Chinese chippy, can’t remember proper name, nickname Macs, best crinkle cut chips around, mid-seventies.”
- Antony A Pownall, Facebook 2025
“All I remember about the houses built on the corner of St Ann’s and Finney Lane was that Mr Mak of Mak’s chippy retired and moved into one of them. Seeing him pottering around as I walked past the houses, makes me hungry for his incredibly crispy chips. Thrice fried at the very least!”
- George Hudson, Facebook 2024
The chippy became the Sunflower by 1992. Mr Sai Bin Li had a planning application refused in 1994.
“I remember it was the Sunflower chippy around the late 90s and they sold crinkle cut chips, which I thought was unusual.”
- Susan Parker Hawtin, Facebook 2024
The shop became the Noodle House by 1998 and around 2005 Linda and Mike Cheung took over and they continued to trade until it closed in 2023. As of 2025 the signage is still there.
Fig. 28 Noodle House
© Google Maps April 2009
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188 Wilmslow Road
Lennards the ironmongers was here in 1934 run by Mr Leonard C Maydew.
By 1939 on the electoral roll, he had changed tac and the business was now a fried fish dealers of all things! On the 1939 register, five family members lived here. 40 year old Leonard was recorded as a fish and chip dealer along with being in the police reserves. His 40 year old wife Lucy was incapacitated. Leonard’s 70 year old widowed mother, Hannah, lived there doing unpaid domestic duties. Their son 18 year old Bernard was a sweets and tobacco proprietor. Their 15 year old daughter, Joan, was an office girl/clerk in a goldsmith and silversmith office. The business was called Clieffe’s fried fish.
By 1947 they were advertising as caterers, with the name changed to Cliff’s.
Fig. 29 Cliffs advert Sept 1947
The Review Ratepayers Association
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Next came the Harrisons, father and son, who were decorators. They are remembered for a café here on the corner of Merwood Avenue and later Pymgate Lodge.
Derek the other son is remembered for Skyways Milk Bar at Moss Nook, a renowned establishment for motor bikers by all accounts! This became the very posh Moss Nook Restaurant before Derek and his wife Pauline went to run a hotel in the Lake District. (Underscar Manor, near Keswick, from 1991).
The café was first in the telephone directory as WH Harrison café in 1953. After that the address was just WH Harrison decorator up to 1958. By 1960 WH Harrison and sons, painters and decorators were still using the shop phone number, GAT 2767, but the address was Brookside Farm, Wilmslow Road!
“Derek Harrison had the café on Long Lane before they went to Skyways. We used to go there for coffee and play the jukebox in my early teens.”
- Shirley Slack, Facebook 2021
“In the mid-1950s there used to be a café/coffee bar. I remember they had a jukebox. It would be about 1957.”
- William Longstaff, Facebook 2024
“There was a café on the corner run by Harrisons. We used to get 1d worth of popcorn on our way up to Sunday school.”
- Ann Park, Facebook 2021
“Originally they had a painting and decorating business but had a café on the corner of Merwood Avenue. That was in the 1950s and that was the start of their move to Skyways. The café had a jukebox. They also had Pymgate Stores on Styal Road which then became Pymgate Lodge Hotel.”
- Howard Hunt, Facebook 2021
“It was Harrison’s but not Derek and Pauline that had Skyways. It was father and the other son who you will find were painters and decorators! It did have a jukebox, definitely! Skyways then changed name to “The Moss Nook Restaurant” which was run by Derek and Pauline, who then took on an hotel in the Lake District. The other side of the family, the ones that had the café, turned a house into an hotel on Styal Road, Pymgate Lodge, which I stayed in for one night just after Christmas. That is now run by a Romanian couple and is very nice. Thay are renting it, so whether it is still owned by any of the surviving Harrisons I am not sure.”
- Howard Hunt, Facebook 2024
In August 1998, on celebrating 25 years of the Moss Nook Restaurant, Derek said in the Manchester Evening News,
“Skyways Milk Bar had the reputation of being a bikers’ caff. I’ve seen one or two of the old Hell’s Angels come back to the Moss Nook as diners in their Rolls Royces.”
Fig. 30 Skyways pre 1973
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Fig. 31 Harrison decorator at Pymgate Lodge
Contact magazine summer 1970
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Hames bakers and confectioners came next from 1960 to 1964. Their Head Office was in Lincoln Grove in Ardwick.
“Hames cake shop ended up where Harrison’s café was and I worked there on a Saturday about 1960.”
“I got a job at Hames when I was 15. It was great, free cakes!”
- Ann Park, Facebook 2021 and in conversation 2021
True to Time, shoe repairers were there by 1965. I can remember going there after 1987 for shoe repairs and also taking dry cleaning to be collected at a later date.
Around 1996 Hayley from VS Hair bought the building from Barbara and Ray and went on to rent it out for a while.
Fig. 32 True to Time
Contact magazine March 1967
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“Where La Parisienne is now used to be shoe/bag shop in the 1970s. I remember getting what I thought at the time was a cracking pair of navy/white platform shoes from there.”
- Alison Murray, Facebook 2025
“The lady who had the shoe shop repairs was called Barbara Baker.”
- Joan Sharp, Facebook 2021
“True to Time was on the corner until at least 1982 and probably longer. I remember Barbara and her son Derek.”
- Julie Burgess, Facebook 2025
Heald Green Discount beds were there by 1999, renting off Hayley.
Fig. 33 Heald Green discount beds advert
Heald Green Festival magazine 1999
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Sounds Great Pianos opened here by 2009, again renting off Hayley.
Fig. 34 Sounds Great pianos
© Google Maps April 2009
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“Phil Lyons’ son opened the piano shop at the opposite end of the parade.”
- Phil Jones, messenger 2024
Now, VS Hair and La Parisienne operate out of the same numbered unit, and there now stands a house behind 188, built in 2004, replacing Margaret Ransley’s The Village Salon.
Prior to that it had been a barbers, beginning life as a prefab garage and then having a bit of an extension to look like the photo below.
Fig. 35 The Village Salon
© Hayley Morris from VS Hair
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“I think that was how it looked later, but being the best part of 70 years ago, the memory is as good. I think that was after it had an extension added on the side. I’m sure originally it was conventional prefab garage shape.”
- Howard Hunt Facebook 2025
Unfortunately, I never managed to find the name of the barbers. However, it was run by Mr Ross from the 1960s. Hayley at VS Hair continued to get mail addressed to him after he had long gone.
“Behind the hairdressers to the rear of the end shop, was originally in the 1950s a prefabricated garage, that was turned into a Barber’s shop, complete with revolving pole outside!”
“I couldn’t remember his name. I didn’t know what was a good cut and what was a bad cut back then!”
- Howard Hunt Facebook 2024
“Yes the barbers, I used to go there.”
- William Longstaff, Facebook 2024
“The Barbers in the "tin shack" on Merwood Ave in the 1960s was run by a chap called Ross. To be honest he wasn’t the best barber around. I preferred Nino at Coiffure on Finney Lane.”
“Ross definitely there in the 1960s, average height with black horn rimmed glasses, think his first name began with E. Don't recall the shop ever had anything on a sign but E. Ross. After he 'nicked' my ear, I went to Nino in the village.”
- Graham Bloxsome, Facebook 2024 & 2025
“I got my first skinhead there when I was 12 (1970). A lot of the local lads off Outwood used to get cut there. Can’t remember the name though.”
- Antony A Pownall, Facebook 2025
“I used to get my hair cut at a little barber shop behind the shoe repair shop.”
- Sidney Rose Frsa, Facebook 2022
To begin with VS Hair opened up for businesses in the newly built house on Merwood Avenue. That later became number 2A.
The house now has a wall to separate it from the pavement and the man that lives there does a lovely job of tending to flowers in pots.
Fig. 36 VS Hair Merwood Ave
© Google Maps April 2009
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By October 2012, the salon was on the corner where Sounds Great Pianos had been. It remained there until swapping places with La Parisienne beauty salon in early 2023.
Fig. 37 VS Hair
© Google Maps October 2012
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Fig. 38 VS Hair swap to back March 2023
© H Morgan
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La Parisienne were behind VS Hair by March 2017 and in March 2023 swapped places so that they were front facing onto Wilmslow Road.
Fig. 39 La Parisienne
© Google Maps March 2017
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Fig. 40 La Parisienne Beauty swap to front March 2023
© H Morgan
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Also on Merwood Avenue was Hewitt’s taxis. The first advert I found for them was in 1947.
Fig. 41 Hewitts Taxis September 1947 advert The Review
© Ratepayers Association
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They advertised regularly in the Contact Magazine up until Spring 1975. They are remembered as still trading after then, but the Contact Magazine stopped running adverts within the magazines until 1999.
Fig. 42 Hewitts Taxi advert
Contact magazine February 1963
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“My mum worked at Hewitts doing a 9 till 6. Then went to the Tatton Arms working behind the bar after work. My mum was a grafter.”
- Joan Sharp, Facebook 2021
“I remember the Hewitts taxis. I used them in 1968 when I got married. Their son Colin was in my class at Etchells and he had a brother called Rowland. We just used to pop to their house if we needed to arrange taxis for weddings etc.”
- Ann Park, Facebook 2021
My thanks to everyone who has helped me to timeline these shops and for your memories of times gone by, priceless.
Bibliography
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Williams, K & JT (1998), Long Lane Cheadle Remembered,pp.38
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The Editor, February 1963, More Heald Green Jottings, Contact Magazine, 1(2), pp.24
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