
The Marple Website is proud to have been involved in or supported numerous community projects since it began in 1998. The more recent ones are detailed here. Older projects can still be found on the original Marple Website and will gradually be migrated to this section as time allows. Get in touch with The Marple Website to feature your Community Project or Community News here.
In February 2019 the Marple Website was pleased to be able to rescue two historic plaques from the Albert Schools building on Church Lane due for demolition. These include a previously unrecorded WWI War Memorial and a lost plaque commemorating Thomas and Hannah Carver from 1911.
Following installation of a brass plaque, paid for by the United Reformed Church, the project to rescue the two memorials found under the stairs at the Albert Schools is now finally complete.
There are eight men named on the WWI War Memorial plaque recovered by the Marple Website from the Albert Schools in 2019 and now restored and on display in Marple URC Church on Hibbert Lane.
Seven of the men have well established local connections and are commemorated on the Cenotaph in Marple Memorial Park but the inclusion of Marmaduke Cooper was at first less clear. With the help of Marple Local History Society and "Lest We Forget" Hollingworth we now have a much better understanding of how Marmaduke came to be named on this recently rediscovered War Memorial.
In August 2014 Friends of Marple Memorial Park began what they have called “Marple's WWI Timeline” on the railings of Hollins House in the park. The group's objective was to commemorate the Centenary of the First World War and to highlight the impact it had on a small town like Marple.
Over many years, Marple has been the home of a community that has generated a timeline of successful local events. The Carnival, which started in 1962, has over 55 years of memories in its foundations. Since 2006, the Marple Food and Drink Festival has drawn crowds of families and people from all areas to these unique experiences. Brand new events, such as “Make it Marple” have also been successfully introduced into the community calendar for Marple recently.
The Marple and Romiley area has scooped 3 Awards at the 16th Cheshire Best Kept Stations Awards Evening held on Tuesday 5th February 2019. Marple won the Transport for Greater Manchester Award; Romiley the World War 1 Centenary Award and Rose Hill the Merseyrail In Bloom Award. The awards cover pre-1974 Cheshire boundaries which includes Stockport and the Wirral and in 2018 the lead sponsors of the Awards were Merseyrail. All three winners are Northern stations.
Organised by Compstall Community Council, the event was a roaring success with hundreds of people attending from the village and further afield.