Marple
Bridge
Association
Promoting the interests of people who live, work, shop, socialise, or have children at school in
Marple Bridge
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View along Town Street, from the bridge
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Since 1987 Marple Bridge has been holding a non-commercial Christmas Party known as Winter Wonderland, usually on the first Saturday in December. From humble beginnings, this has evolved over the years in to a fantastic family afternoon out, which attracts thousands of people to the village centre, whatever the weather.
The very successful ‘Bridge in Bloom’ campaign, organised and paid for by the Marple Bridge Association, puts flowers on the village centre lampposts, and in other containers and at other sites around the village including the Peace Garden. All this hard work has seen the village compete successfully in regional and national competitions, both in its own right and as part of Stockport’s winning entry in Britain in Bloom in 2005.
Marple Bridge is a very attractive, predominately stone built, village on the edge of the borough of Stockport. With its lovely stone cottages, scenic riverside walks, coffee shops, traditional and trendy pubs and other individual shops, the centre of the village is a Conservation Area.
About the Marple Bridge Association
The MBA’s main aim is to help Marple Bridge continue to be as attractive a place as possible, in which to live, trade, work, shop, eat, drink, or walk and ramble, by ensuring it continues to thrive as the centre of a vibrant local community.
About Marple Bridge
‘Bridge in Bloom’
Winter Wonderland
MBA Blog
The Marple Bridge Association Blog is where you will find more in depth news coverage of our latest events and projects.
Marple Bridge TV
Marple Bridge TV is the Marple Bridge Association’s own channel on You Tube, where you will find video clips and photo montages of recent and past events in the village, as well as media coverage of the Association’s activities.
Visit Marple Bridge
Marple Bridge is easily accessible, being just 5 ½ miles along the A626 from junction 27 of the M60, on the borders of Stockport, South Manchester, North Cheshire and the High Peak district of Derbyshire.
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Marple Bridge’s public floral displays
Friends of Brabyns Park
Marple Bridge had some of the only public floral displays in the whole of Stockport last year, thanks to the hard work of volunteers from the Marple Bridge Association. A combination of Stockport Council’s need to save millions from the year’s budget, and the partly unrelated closure of the council owned Woodbank Nurseries, led the Council to take the lamentable decision last spring to axe their floral displays throughout the borough, for the foreseeable future.
‘Bridge in Bloom’ News
Marple Bridge Bloomed Almost Alone
Stockport Council previously did a good job of supplying the hanging baskets for Town Street’s lampposts from those nurseries at Woodbank Park, and then keeping them watered. They also used to supply and maintain the flowers for the large planters and various borders in the area, although MBA volunteers have always planted up and maintained the many smaller ones. However, unlike in other parts of Stockport, where the Council have funded the summer floral decorations, in Marple Bridge it is the MBA which has, for many years, paid for the majority of the flowers in the village centre.
So, not wanting to see the village’s crowning glory go, last year the MBA decided to shoulder the whole role. As well as the MBA paying for all the flowers, MBA volunteers sourced, planted, watered and maintained them. As well as the hanging baskets, new planters were supplied and planted out with further beautiful floral displays.
Beautifully planted display on Town Street, funded, supplied, and maintained by the MBA
No, not one of ‘Ghostbusters’, but a dedicated MBA volunteer watering the hanging baskets
Whilst not wanting to denigrate Stockport Council’s efforts in previous years, the general consensus in the village is that Town Street had never looked better than it did last summer. Apparently residents of some other areas of the borough also decided to buy and plant their own floral displays last year, but the residents of Marple Bridge can be proud that the MBA have been doing it for years, and will continue to do so in the future, when it has never been more needed!
MBA volunteers planting some of the tubs
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