Bollington Civic Society was the inspiration of Dr John Coope in 1964. He realised that the changes in society was causing a breakdown in the community. He decided to establish a number of groups, including the Civic Society, and organised the first Bollington Festival. Bollington Town Council was also in the doldrums and he recognised the need for some representation for the town in planning matters. A committee has met regularly ever since.
For the first 25 years of the 21st century the society held regular meetings for subscribed members. In view of societal changes, and different local needs from a civic society, as well as a better managed Town Council, the society decided to cease the regular meetings. From 2026 on the committee will meet regularly to identify things that need attention – particularly planning proposals. The public can still become members, there is no subscription, and receive updates on matters attended to.
Officers and Committee
Chairperson: Judy Snowball
Secretaries: Christine Kettlety (email)
Membership secretary: Christine Brear (email)
Treasurer: Alan Wilson
Committee: All the above plus Ken Edwards
A sub-committee chaired by Graham Barrow is responsible to the main committee for the management of the Discovery Centre .
Housing developments
The Civic Society keeps an eye on development proposals and strongly challenges un-sympathetic planning applications, often in concert with the nearby householders. Recent and current examples are development proposals (mainly housing) at:
- Crossfield Road and Kent Avenue – planning proposal for demolition of all the Peaks & Plains housing trust properties and re-development of the entire site;
- Further application related to St John’s church;
- Housing proposal for Lowerhouse mill;
- Future of St Gregory’s school;
- Ingersley (Clough) mill development.
Bollington Civic Society supports Civic Voice!
Bollington Civic Society is a member of Civic Voice
, which has the support of Restoration presenter Griff Rhys Jones to represent the interests of civic societies across the country to government, national bodies and local councils. This body has been successful in raising the profile of civic societies and the work that these bands of concerned volunteers do, and has gained a position of influence so that the concerns of civic minded groups like ours get a better hearing from government, local councils and authorities in general. Our conservation areas, in particular, are under threat from inappropriate developments, householder ‘improvements’ and the general clutter of modern life such as too many road signs, yellow lines and so on. It is important to have a national body that can raise awareness where it matters to get more consideration for the community built into public decision making and to raise the public’s awareness of what they, the community, are at risk of losing.
Ian Harvey, who, with Anthony Burton, founded Civic Voice in 2011, gave an outstanding presentation to Bollington Civic Society on the subject of Conservation Areas. He welcomed the action Bollington Civic Society has already, and continues to take to provide protection to our outstanding heritage buildings.
Civic Society activities
Your Civic Society is, or has been, involved in, as well as the planning items above, a number of important aspects of Bollington life:
St John’s Church
A plan was put to the Church authorities by a local developer, Simply Group, and they agreed to sell on that basis. The Civic Society was concerned on a number of matters but since seeing the full plans and heard the developer’s intentions we withdrew our objections. The full plans were approved in 2010 and development was supposed to be going ahead. However, nothing has happened for many years, although the developer continues to assure us that they “… will be starting soon.”! A new planning application has been submitted in January 2026. A page is devoted to this.
Town/Neighbourhood Plan
The Civic Society supported the development of the three Town Plans in 2004 and 2008. The Government then brought in a scheme to get every neighbourhood to develop its own local plan and Bollington did this by extending and revising the existing Town Plan. This activity had by law to be carried out independently of the Town Council (though individual councillors could contribute) and the Civic Society was a participant to the project. The new Neighbourhood Plan was put to a town referendum in 2018; it was accepted and was then legally included into the Cheshire East Borough council Local Plan. It is not at all clear what implications there are for the Neighbourhood Plan in the Labour government proposals for changes to the planning system in the 2020s.
Bollington Tourism – Destination Bollington!
There were concerns that tourism was not developing sufficiently well but that is now changing with the development outside the Civic Society (although members are involved) of the Destination Bollington project! Have a look at the page.
Clarence footbridge over the canal
The Civic Society, represented by Graham Barrow, were at the forefront of the campaign to construct the new footbridge over the canal at Clarence Mill to enable canal users on the towpath to access the mill, its businesses and facilities, particularly the café and our own Discovery Centre , and to enable those who live in and around the mill to access the towpath and the Recreation Ground for their recreational purposes. To break an impasse we even agreed to own the finished structure! The opening of the bridge at the end of August 2009 has resulted in very significant increases in the numbers of visitors to both the café and the Discovery Centre .
The Discovery Centre Project
We developed the Discovery Centre at Clarence Mill which opened on 14th May 2005. It is on the canal side at Clarence mill by the great generosity of the owners Clarence Mill Properties Ltd. We obtained grants for its development from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cheshire Rural Recovery, Macclesfield Borough Council, Bollington Town Council and other private donors. It provides information and exhibitions designed to show the past, present and future of Bollington, its industries and its people. Do pay us a visit, opening times on the web page.
Historic Picture Collection
The Discovery Centre houses the very popular historic picture collection which contains over 5,000 pictures of Bollington and its people going back more than 150 years! This project began in the 1980s when the late Dr John Coope MBE urged his patients to get out their old family albums and lend him the pictures for copying. The collection was scanned into digital images as part of the Discovery Centre project in 2004/5 and we spent some years cataloguing the collection in order to make all the pictures available to the public in a structured manner.
We continue to collect pictures and documents to be added to the collection. The database went online in 2009. Unfortunately, technical problems mean that the online database is presently not available.
Bollington Carbon Revolution project
This project was established in late 2006 and did much good work over the years. In early 2013 the group decided they should merge with a Macclesfield group ‘go-lo’ who took over the re-development of the toilet block at the bottom of Shrigley Road, having been able to obtain the resources necessary to carry out the work. Unfortunately the government changed their mind about Eco funding and withdrew the monies allocated to this project and so, regrettably, the group has now folded. Subsequently, Turner’s Lodge, as it is now known, was taken over by the Bollington Initiative Trust who re-furbished the building and let it out to a local business.
Conservation Areas
We take a close interest in changes that take place in the four Conservation Areas (CA) in Bollington. These are described in full on separate pages.
One of our achievements was in getting a further CA established at Lowerhouse. In 2017 we were advised that CEC would support a change to Bollington Cross CA to add Lowerhouse to that CA, and this has now been implemented.
We have also discussed with the CEC Highway Authority their compliance with Conservation Area guidelines while maintaining our roads, such as laying narrow primrose no parking lines in CAs, rather than the wide bright yellow lines that we are more familiar with.
Development planning (ongoing)
We watch planning applications, discuss them with those having an interest and make representations to Councillors and CEC planners where we wish to challenge proposals. If you are concerned about a proposal and would like to discuss it with the Civic Society please email the chairman Chris Kettlety.
History and heritage (ongoing)
A group of historians and their helpers have assembled a very large collection of photographs showing Bollington and its population through the past 100+ years – our oldest picture dates from about 1860, before the railway was built! They continue to research the history of the town, its industries and the people who made it what it is today. The Discovery Centre provides public access to the collection for the first time. The collection is also now available online – go to the Discovery Centre pages. We have re-published two of the well known books about Bollington and further publications are planned.
Heritage Plaques
The society has installed around the town a number of plaques describing many of the most important heritage items. A leaflet is now available from the usual outlets describing a heritage walk encompassing all of the plaques.
The Kerridge Ridge & Ingersley Vale Countryside & Heritage Project
The Society was involved in the historical survey which formed an early part of this project. We are also acutely interested in what development takes place in the Vale. The KRIV project finished in summer 2010. KRIV Volunteers continue to maintain the area.
Bollington Live!
The Civic Society originally founded Bollington Live! and has remained as a sponsor since it became independent. The village magazine is published three times each year and delivered free to every home. Several of our members are involved in the writing, editing, selling of advertising, and delivery of the magazine.
Do you have an interest
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