Cheshire Cheese

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 14 Jul 2024

According to Paul Taylor's "A History of the Pubs of Hyde and District" in 1817 the Cheshire Cheese premises were three private cottages owned by Bristowe Cooper. Behind them was a small dingle called Sugar Loaf Wood and one could walk down a path through this to a plantation which was owned by Samuel Ashton, the cotton magnate. The cottages were later transformed into a school for the children of Gee Cross and Bristowe Cooper became the schoolmaster. Around 1857 the school was closed and the premises became a butcher's shop, a beerhouse and a grocer's shop. The three cottages were then owned by Benjamin Cocker, who was also the first licensee of the beerhouse and who gave it the sign of the Cheshire Cheese. After Benjamin left Betsy Emery ran the three shops single handedly for many years. The Emery family occupied the "Cheese" until around 1974. According to the Hydonian blog https://hydonian.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Cheshire%20Cheese%20%28Gee%20Cross%29 the butchers became part of the pub in 1919 and the grocer's shop closed in 1959. It was a freehouse until 1943 when it was bought by Yates Brewery and then it later came under the John Smiths banner. In 2024 it became a stop on the Gee Cross Well Dressing procession following the closing of Gee Cross Methodist Church.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0