Hazel Grove – A Complete History – Introduction to the Site

Hazel Grove is located 3 miles south of Stockport, Cheshire and is separated by the A6 road. The name Hazel Grove actually dates from 1836. Before that, the area was known as Bullock Smithy.

The people of Bullock Smithy had been the butt of local jokes for decades and so the inhabitants took it upon themselves to rename the ‘village’ Hazel Grove. Presumably, Hazel Grove comes from a reference to a place called “Hassel Grave” on an obscure map of the area in 1674. The fact that “Hassel Grave” is shown on the map as being near the Robin Hood Hotel on Buxton Road (High Lane) seems not to have bothered the 1836 reformers!

Hazel Grove is actually made up of 4 small hamlets – Bramhall to the North, Bosden to the east, Torkington to the south-east and Norbury to the south-west and west. The origins lie in the 11th Century and many still know parts of Hazel Grove by those names, although actual boundaries have shifted since earlier times.

This site is by no means a complete history, but it should give “Grovers” past & present a good idea of the village’s history.

Unfortunately, much of the period after the Domesday Book until the mid-eighteenth century is patchy (to say the least), so anybody who knows of any other sources to research this time, I would be totally grateful.