On the library shelves of the Moseley Hall County Grammar School are 300 books. It is considered to be a totally inadequate number for a school of 210 boy and girl scholars (there will be 300 next autumn), and ten times that number of books are needed. Where are those 3,000 more books to come from?

Councillor Mrs. M. F. Newell, a member of the board of governors, suggested while opening a garden party at the school on Saturday that the Parents’ Association, who organised the garden party, should hand part of the proceeds from their various activities to the headmaster, Mr. W. B. Simms, for the purchase of suitable additions to the library.

And the books problem is not the only difficulty the school has had to face during the two years since it was founded. Mrs. Newell, herself one of the foundation governors, spoke of “almost insuperable difficulties” which had been overcome to allow the school to grow and progress in many directions.

The following advert appeared in the Advertiser on 4th June 1948

Moseley Hall Grammar School, Cheadle, celebrated its 21st anniversary, on Saturday, with a re-union dinner and dance.

There was a large attendance of former scholars, members of the board of governors, parents who had taken a particular interest in the work of the school, and the school’s first headmaster, Mr. W. B. Simms, now living in Penistone.

The dinner was presided over by the chairman of the governors, County Councillor J. G. Purdy, who was supported by the Chairman of Cheadle and Gatley Council, Councillor William Bushell, and the present headmaster, Mr. C. F. Armishaw.

There were no formal toasts, but several speeches were made, in which were recalled some of the past successes of the school and some of the difficulties it had had to overcome.

Dancing in the school hall also gave an opportunity for individuals to get together to recall those days 21 years ago.

Cheadle and Wilmslow Divisional Education Committee on Thursday night last week refused to accept the site of Moseley Hall Grammar School as a suitable place to build a new College of Further Education.

The committee decided to defer their decision on this until they receive the opinions of Cheadle and Gatley U.D.C.

There were mixed feelings at the meeting after members received a report of the Director of Education for Cheshire setting out plans for using part of the present buildings and the site at Moseley Hall to build the new

Success can bring mixed blessings, whatever the level of performance, but it’s something you have to live with, as the boys of Moseley Hall G.S. are finding out at the moment. They are having their most successful cross-country season ever at senior levels, while the junior team are also doing well.

Their success has made them into what amounts to a household name in North Western school sports circles, brought them local and regional publicity and perhaps above all, has made them the team everyone wants to beat.

It means inevitably that they are always running under pressure, but their collective response in a sport best known for the loneliness of the individual has been a superb team effort. It has already given the Under-17 and senior teams their respective titles in the North, East Cheshire Schools’ league with one match to go, and one of their junior teams a very good chance of taking its title.

The two masters in charge of cross-country, Mr. S.C. Forbes, of the P.E. staff, and Mr. J.M. Newcombe, attribute the success firstly to the element of luck, which, in the senior teams, ahs brought some fine runners together at the same time.

But there are other factors. The boys themselves are keen to train in their own time, two or three lunchtimes a

Britain cannot afford the “gigantic task” of bringing in comprehensive schooling, a Cheadle Hulme grammar school head-master said last week. Mr. C. F. Armishaw, head of Cheadle Moseley Grammar School, was speaking at the school’s annual speech day on Friday.

“Whatever our varying views on reorganisation may be, this country cannot afford to continue with such a gigantic task either in terms of bricks and mortar or in terms of skilled and scholarly human resources”, he said.

“If, despite these unpalatable facts, it persists, the final result will be chaotic, with schools competing for slender resources, with schools either so large that they cease to be families, or so small that they are unable to offer the variety of courses we succeed in offering under the present system.”

Tudor-style school hall in Cheadle may be demolished if no use can be found for it.

Moseley Hall, site of the old grammar school, has been virtually disused since pupils moved to the new £370,000 Cheadle Moseley school last year. Now a Cheshire County sub-committee have asked the County Education Committee to seek the views of the local Divisional Executive on its possible demolition.

The black and white timbered building was taken over by the education authority in 1946. Before that it was privately owned though its early history is obscure.

If the government were to persist with the reorganisation of secondary education there would be chaos, a Cheadle Hulme headmaster said at the recent speech day of Cheadle Moseley Grammar School.

The headmaster, Mr. C. F. Armishaw, said that the country could not afford the gigantic task of bringing in comprehensive schooling.

“Whatever our varying views on the desirability of reorganisation,” he said, “this country cannot afford to continue with a gigantic task, either in terms of bricks and mortar or in terms of skilled and scholarly human resources.

“If, despite these unpalatable facts, it persists, the final result will be chaotic, with schools competing for slender resources and with schools either so large that they cease to be families, or so small that number and variety of courses we succeed in offering under the present system.”

Five hundred parents of girls at Cheadle Grammar School packed the school hall on Wednesday last week and gave an overwhelming “NO” to merging with the school next door, Moseley Boys’ Grammar. They voted unanimously to keep the school separate with its own headmistress, when it goes comprehensive in September next year.

By a small majority the parents agreed to recommend that there should be co-operation between the two grammar schools at sixth-form level.

The meeting also decided to set up a working party “with as wide a brief as possible” to look into the future of the school.

A group of Cheadle parents have won their year long fight to keep their local schools separate.

Stockport learned this week that Education Minister, Mr. Fred Mulley is allowing Moseley Boys’ Grammar and Cheadle Girls’ Grammar to remain single sex schools.

Now that Stockport has been told the Minister’s decision, the local education authority can go ahead with its transfer plans for all Stockport’s 5,000 children due to leave junior schools for secondary schools in September.

“We were concerned about the delay,” explained Stockport’s Director of Education, Mr. B. L. Harmon. “We asked to be notified not later than the end of December, because we could not do them for the whole borough because some children out of the area might want to go to Cheadle schools.”

Rust had begun to eat into the fabric of three locomotives, long disused, when Colin Saxton, unearthed them in Lincolnshire brickworks.

Today they stand as bright and shining as they were in their prime, part of a collection of industrial locos, wagon and lengths of track at Moseley Boys’ School, North Down Road, Cheadle.

Plans to turn the site of a former school into a massive entertainment complex and hotel have infuriated residents and councillors.

But developers say their fears are groundless.

The application, submitted by Thornham Development Company, has caused some apprehension; even tough it received outline planning permission.

A report on the company’s detailed plans for the site of Moseley Hall School, off Cheadle Road, was made to Cheadle area committee and brought even stiffer opposition.

Coun. Len Singer said: ”We were led to believe in the first instance that this would be primarily a hotel with some entertainment features."

“But we fear it could become primarily an entertainment complex and disco with some hotel beds.”

Coun. John Needham chairman of the development services committee, said: “It is clear that there is a great deal of local opposition to the plan."

A hotel with 75 bedrooms may be built on one of Cheadle’s most attractive sites at the bottom of Schools Hill.

Stockport Council has decided to sell off the former Cheadle Adult Centre and Valley Schools together with three-and –a-half acres of land for the project.

It is also likely that a restaurant and leisure complex will be included which would be complementary to the adjoining Cheadle Leisure Centre and swimming pool.

The director of development, Mr.

Following our article about Moseley Old Hall, several people expressed an interest in reading about the ‘other’ Moseley Hall which used to stand near the bottom of Schools Hill and will be remembered by many as the Boys’ Grammar School.

Today the lively Village Hotel and Leisure Centre stands in its place, catering for varied social functions and providing a whole range of activities for health enthusiasts.

The scene at the end of the 18th century was considerably quieter; Cheadle was a peaceful rural village when Joseph Fowden of Alderley took a fancy to living near his brother Reginald, who lived at Brookside, a picturesque black and white farmhouse, approached across the brook, which ran alongside Wilmslow Road.

Joseph bought the Schools Hill estate across the road. It consisted of an old farm and several acres of land, along with six tenanted cottages and a pew at the parish church.

The Fowden family had been settled in the Cheadle area for several generations, their occupations changing from yeoman farmers and tanners to traders and shipping merchants, with a rise in their fortunes.

Both Reginald and Joseph had strong links with Liverpool and the sugar/slave trade. There are memorial plaques to them on the inside wall of the church tower. There is also one to their grandfather, William Fowden, who as Constable of Manchester during the 1745 rebellion, was tried for treason for attempting to procure food and lodging for the rebels. He was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Around 1800 either Joseph Fowden, who died in 1808, or his son Reginald, built a large house on the Schools Hill estate, which was named Schools Hill.

Amazing what you can find in rose arbours - not to mention sewage works, clay quarries and mushroom farms.

"You can find railway track" says 29 year old schoolmaster Colin Saxton, whose brother-in-law recently bought a house in Doncaster and found the rambling roses in the garden were climbing over arches fashioned from steel railway lines.

Now the rails are laid in the sports field at Cheadle Moseley Grammar School where the boys run three renovated locomotives and two carriages they have build themselves.

Project Diesel, a sort of purposeful hobby, was launched at the school five years ago when the boys build a horse-tram under the direction of craft teacher Mr. Saxton.