Chartered Surveyors Stockport Greater Manchester

Approximate Population: 136,082

The earliest evidence for human occupation in the wider area around Stockport. These are microliths from the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic period (the Middle Stone Age, about 8000–3500 BC) and weapons and tools from the Neolithic period (the New Stone age, 3500–2000 BC). Early Bronze Age (2000–1200 BC) remains include stone hammers, flint knives, palstaves (ie bronze) and funery urns; all finds have been chance discoveries, rather than a systematic search of a known site. There is a gap in the age of finds between about 1200 BC and the Roman period (ie after about 70 AD). This may indicate depopulation, possibly due to a poorer climate.

There is little evidence of a Roman military station at Stockport, despite a strong local tradition. It is assumed that roads from Cheadle to Ardotalia (Melandra) and Manchester to Buxton crossed close to the town centre. The preferred site is at a ford over the Mersey, known to be paved in the eighteenth century, but it has never been shown that this or any of the roads in the area are Roman. Hegginbotham reported (in 1892) the discovery of Roman mosaics at Castle Hill (the area around Stockport market) in the late eighteenth century, during the construction of a mill, but noted it was ‘founded on tradition only’; substantial stonework found in the area has never been dated by modern methods. However, Roman coins and pottery were probably found there during the eighteenth century. A cache of coins dating 375–378 may have come from the banks of the Mersey at Daw Bank; these were possibly buried for safekeeping at the side of a road.