Guidepost

701/0/10043

EDWARD STREET Guidepost

01-NOV-07

GV II Also known as: Guidepost, WELLINGTON ROAD SOUTH

Guidepost. Early-mid C20. Manufactured by Stanton Ironworks Company of Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Cast-iron.

Cylindrical post with four fingers and an annular finial with the words `County Borough of Stockport'. Two fingers point north and south along the line of the A6 (Wellington Road South), the southern finger listing London 182 ½, Hazel Grove 2 ½, Macclesfield 12 ½, Buxton 18, the northern finger listing Carlisle 118 ½ and Manchester 6 ½. The other two fingers point north-east along Edward Street (Marple 4, Hyde 5 ½), and south-west along Greek Street (Cheadle 2 ¾, Altrincham 9, Chester 39).

HISTORY: Stanton Ironworks Company was a principal manufacturer of guideposts during the later C19 and early-mid C20. The guidepost is post 1888 as Stockport became a County Borough that year. It is likely that it dates from early-mid C20; the adjacent Town Hall opened in 1908.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION The Edward Street/Wellington Road South guidepost is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is an intact and unaltered example of an early-mid C20 cast-iron guidepost with four `fingers'. * It is located in a prominent position in the Town Hall Conservation Area and stands adjacent to the front elevation of the Grade II Town Hall (q.v.), and in close proximity to four Corinthian capitals (q.v.), the former Stockport Infirmary (q.v.), the Grade II War Memorial Art Gallery (q.v.), and the Wellington Road South and Greek Street shelters (q.v.). * This functional piece of municipal design illustrates the civic pride of the late C19 County Borough of Stockport by implying that it was situated on a direct route to London in the south and Carlisle in the north.