Editing Stalybridge (section)

==Culture==

===Music===
Stalybridge has an established musical tradition. Stalybridge Old Band was formed in 1809, perhaps the first civilian [[Brass band (British style)|brass band]] in the world.<ref name="Ref_u">{{cite web |title=Welcome to the website for Stalybridge Old Band |url=http://www.stalybridgeoldband.org/index.htm |publisher=Stalybridge Old Band |access-date=14 August 2009 |archive-date=6 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106105107/http://stalybridgeoldband.org/index.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The band currently contests in the [[Brass Band Sections in Britain|second section]]. Carrbrook Brass currently contests in the [[Brass Band Sections in Britain|fourth section]] and represent the town annually at the [[Armentières]] festival. An annual brass band contest has been held in the town on [[Whit Friday]], since at least 1870. Other contests have been held on the same day in the surrounding villages of [[Millbrook, Greater Manchester|Millbrook]], [[Carrbrook]] and [[Heyrod]]. There is now an established tradition of holding brass band contests on this day around Stalybridge, Mossley and [[Saddleworth]]. Bands travel by coach from all over the United Kingdom, and sometimes from other countries, to contest in as many different locations as possible on the day.

[[File:Stalybridge - Jack Judge Memorial.JPG|thumb|right|upright|'Jack Judge' memorial outside the Old Victoria Market Hall]]
The song ''[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary]]'' was created in the Newmarket Tavern, by the composer [[Jack Judge]], in 1912, after being challenged to write, compose, and produce a song in just one night;. It was first sung in public by him in the Grand Theatre on Corporation Street on 31 January 1912.<ref name="Bridget">{{cite web | url=http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ACalend/VetsTiperary.html | title=It's a long way to Tipperary | author=Bridget Haggerty | publisher=Irish Culture and Customs | access-date=24 March 2006}}</ref> On 31 January 1953 a memorial tablet was unveiled by [[Jack Hylton]] on the wall of the old Newmarket Tavern, where the song was composed. To coincide with the ceremony a wreath was laid on Jack Judge's grave, by the mayor of [[Oldbury, West Midlands|Oldbury]]. Jack Judge is now also commemorated by a statue in [[Tom Pendry, Baron Pendry|Lord Pendry]] Square outside the Old Victoria Market Hall.<ref name="Ref_v">{{cite web |url=http://www.tameside.gov.uk/districtassembly/stalybridge/achievements.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-02-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207152732/http://www.tameside.gov.uk/districtassembly/stalybridge/achievements.pdf |archive-date=7 February 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

More recently a live folk music tradition has developed in the town. The Buffet Bar Folk Club meets every Saturday at 9&nbsp;pm<ref name="Ref_w">[http://web.ukonline.co.uk/martin.nail/regional.htm Folk and traditional music in specific areas of England<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411113721/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/martin.nail/regional.htm |date=11 April 2008 }}</ref> and the Free and Easy folk club meet at 9&nbsp;pm on alternate Thursdays at the White House public house in the town centre. Some members of the [[Fivepenny Piece]] who sang traditional North Country music in the 1970s were from Stalybridge.<ref name="Ref_x">[http://www.5pp.co.uk/ Fivepenny Piece<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and the band performed songs such as "Stalybridge Station" and "Stalybridge Market". They also took "In Bowton's Yard", the work of local poet [[Samuel Laycock]], and put it to music.

===Art===
[[File:Stalybridge , The Sundial - geograph.org.uk - 2231496.jpg|thumb|Stalybridge : The Sundial]]Built as a gift to the town of Stalybridge by [[John Frederick Cheetham]] and his wife Beatrice Astley, the Astley Cheetham Art Gallery originally opened to the public as a lecture theatre on 14 January 1901. The space was turned into a gallery to house the Astley Cheetham Collection, bequeathed in 1932. This collection has grown with gifts and donations throughout the 20th century and is one of the most interesting small regional collections of 15th century Italian paintings. The collection of work by Italian old masters includes 'Portrait of a Young Man' by [[Alessandro Allori]]. Also, British art of the 19th and 20th centuries is represented by artists such as [[John Linnell]], [[Richard Parkes Bonington]], [[George Price Boyce]], [[Edward Burne-Jones|Burne-Jones]], [[Mark Gertler (artist)|Mark Gertler]] and [[Duncan Grant]]. [[Aske Hall]] by [[J. M. W. Turner]] is also part of the gallery's collection. Alongside exhibitions of the collection, the gallery also hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions by regional artists.

During the earlier part of the 20th century, Stalybridge was artistically captured by the painter [[L. S. Lowry]].<ref name="Howard2007">{{cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2043331,00.html | publisher=Guardian | title=The loneliness of LS Lowry – part two | author=Howard Jacobson | work=Guardian Unlimited | access-date=3 April 2007 | location=London | date=26 March 2007}}</ref> Some of his paintings were of the people of Stalybridge. Lowry continued painting pictures until his death in 1976. His house is marked with a [[blue plaque]] on Stalybridge Road, [[Mottram in Longdendale]]. There is also a statue of him, holding his sketch pad, on a bench near the Stalybridge Road bus stop. Sheila Vaughan is a Stalybridge artist working in oils and acrylic.<ref name="Ref_y">{{Cite web |url= http://www.dailypainters.com/artists/artist_gallery/1196/Sheila-Vaughan |title=Sheila Vaughan, Artist – Paintings by Cheshire, England artist |work= DailyPainters.com |access-date= 24 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213110308/http://www.dailypainters.com/artists/artist_gallery/1196/Sheila-Vaughan |archive-date=13 February 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Her work and that of other Stalybridge artists such as Keith Taylor are displayed at the Peoples Gallery on Melbourne Street.<ref name="Ref_z">{{cite web |url= http://thepeoplesgallery.org.uk/artists.php |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080130072638/http://thepeoplesgallery.org.uk/artists.php |url-status= dead |archive-date= 30 January 2008 |title= The Peoples Gallery |access-date=24 January 2008 }}</ref>

The ''Lock Gates Sundial'' is a large piece of [[public art]] alongside the canal in Armentieres Square. It commemorates the reopening of the canal and was installed in 2008. The north facing balance beam forms the [[gnomon]] of the sundial, and heel stones mark the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lock Gates Sundial |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lock-gates-sundial-252509 |website=artuk.org |access-date=26 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

===Literature===
As well as being described by Engels, Stalybridge was featured in [[Benjamin Disraeli|Disraeli's]] [[Coningsby (novel)|''Coningsby'']]. The children's author [[Beatrix Potter]] visited Gorse Hall many times as a child as it was the home of her maternal grandmother.<ref name="Ref_aa">{{cite web | url= http://www.tameside.gov.uk/corpgen1/beatrixpotter.htm |title=A Tribute to Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) |publisher= Tameside MBC |access-date= 24 March 2006 |url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427125502/http://www.tameside.gov.uk/corpgen1/beatrixpotter.htm |archive-date= 27 April 2006 |df= dmy-all }}</ref> Samuel Laycock (1826–93) was a librarian at the Mechanics' Institute for two years. His poetry presents a vivid impression of the mid-19th century, working-class life, and he drew on his personal experience in the cotton industry. His best-loved poems are "Bowton's Yard" and "Bonny Brid"&nbsp;– both written in Stalybridge. [[Tim Willocks]], author of ''Bad City Blues'', ''Green River Rising'' and ''Bloodstained Kings'' is from Stalybridge.<ref name="Ref_ab">{{cite web |url= http://www.twbooks.co.uk/crimedigests/digests98/arrowau98.html |title=Tim Willocks |work= TWbooks.co.uk |access-date=23 August 2006}}</ref><ref name="Ref_2006">{{cite news |url= http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article1211747.ece |title=Tim Willocks: Land of Pope and Glory |work=The Independent |date=4 August 2006 |place=London |access-date= 24 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070223102631/http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article1211747.ece |archive-date= 23 February 2007 }}</ref> Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the ''Jack Haldean'' murder mystery series (published by Constable & Robinson and currently by Severn House) and ''Frankies' Letter'' (on Kindle) is from Stalybridge and currently resides there. [[M. John Harrison]] describes Stalybridge in his short story "The Ice Monkey" as a place "where nothing is clear-cut and there is neither town nor country, just a grim industrial muddle of the two".<ref>M. John Harrison, ''The Ice Monkey and Other Stories''. London: Victor Gollancz, 1983, p. 16.</ref>

===Traditions===

====Whit Friday====
[[Whit Friday]] is the name given to the first Friday after [[Whitsun]] in areas of northeast Cheshire, southeast Lancashire and the western fringes of [[West Riding of Yorkshire|Yorkshire]]. The day has a cultural significance in Stalybridge as the date on which the annual [[Whit Friday#Whit walks|Whit Walks]] were traditionally held. It is also the day on which the traditional annual Whit Friday brass band contests are held.

====Wakes Week====
The [[wakes week|wakes]] were originally religious festivals that commemorated church dedications. Particularly important was the [[Rushcart]] festival associated with [[Rogation days|Rogationtide]]. During the [[Industrial Revolution]] the tradition of the wakes was adapted into a regular summer break in the [[mill town]]s of Lancashire, where each locality would nominate a wakes week during which the cotton mills would all close at the same time.<ref name="Ref_ac">[http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/newswcraven/display.var.813544.0.final_wakes_week_marks_end_of_an_era.php Final Wakes Week Marks End Of An Era (from Craven Herald)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Stalybridge Wakes occurs in the third week of July. Wakes Week became the focus for fairs, and eventually for holidays where the mill workers would go to the seaside, eventually on the newly developing railways.

===Food and drink===
Stalybridge has the [[public house]] with the longest name in Britain – The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, which closed in June 2016 but reopened in April 2019 – and also the one with the shortest, Q.<ref name="Ref_ad">Nicholls (2004), pp.&nbsp;121–122.</ref> The railway station is one of the last in Britain to retain its original buffet, the 1998 refurbishment of which won awards from [[Campaign for Real Ale|CAMRA]] and [[English Heritage]].<ref name="tmbcsb">{{cite web|url=http://www.tameside.gov.uk/eandp/new/staly2.htm |title=Facts About Stalybridge |publisher=Tameside Council |access-date=13 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213085832/http://www.tameside.gov.uk/eandp/new/staly2.htm |archive-date=13 February 2006 }}</ref><ref name="Ref_ae">{{cite web|url=http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowDoc&DocID=554 |title=Station Buffet, Stalybridge |publisher=Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) |access-date=24 March 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060322005500/http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowDoc&DocID=554 |archive-date=22 March 2006 }}</ref>

{{multiple image | align = right | total_width = 300 | image1 = The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, UK 01.jpg | alt1 = The front of The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn public house, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester | image2 = The Q Inn, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, UK.jpg | alt2 = The front of the Q Inn, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester | footer = The pubs with the longest and shortest names in the [[United Kingdom]] respectively, The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, and The Q Inn, located close to each other in Stalybridge
}}
The restoration of the canal between 1999 and 2001 attracted new commercial ventures such as riverside cafés and boat trips. The reopening of the canal and the fact that the Tame runs through the town centre resulted in the nickname "Little [[Venice]]".<ref name="Ref_af">[http://home.hio.no/~knuta/onsdag/index.htm Microsoft PowerPoint-presentasjon<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505074552/http://home.hio.no/~knuta/onsdag/index.htm |date=5 May 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Ref_2004">{{cite news|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_city/c/79859_fans_sing_the_blues_over_citys_tough_line.html|title=Fans sing the blues over City's tough line|date=31 January 2004|work=Manchester Evening News}}</ref> Stalybridge has in recent years acquired another nickname, "Staly [[Las Vegas Valley|Vegas]]";{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} the nickname became popular and was used ironically after the controversial conversion of premises in the shopping area into [[nightclub]]s and bars, the proliferation of takeaways and the refurbishment of some of the more traditional [[public house|pubs]].

The town's traditional foods include Tater Hash (Potato Pie, or Meat and Potato Pie), a variation on [[Lancashire Hotpot]], [[black peas]], today mainly eaten on [[Whit Friday]], and [[tripe]]. Stalybridge is the location of the region's last remaining tripe shop.<ref name="Rooth2007">{{cite news|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1025807_its_offal_but_we_like_it|title=It's offal, but we like it|author=Rooth, Ben|date=24 November 2007|work=Manchester Evening News}}</ref>

===Media===
''The Stalybridge Reporter'' weekly newspaper was established in 1855. With ''The North Cheshire Herald'' it now serves the wider district under the name ''The Tamesider Reporter''. Its office, and that of ''The Glossop Chronicle'' is at Park House, Acres Lane. The weekly free newspaper ''The Tameside Advertiser'' was established in 1979 and is now owned by [[Trinity Mirror]] and distributed throughout Stalybridge.

Local news and television programmes are provided by [[BBC North West]] and [[ITV Granada]]. Television signals are received from the [[Winter Hill transmitting station|Winter Hill]] TV transmitter <ref>{{cite web |url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Winter_Hill |title=Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter|date=May 2004 |publisher=UK Free TV |access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref>  and one of the two local relay transmitters (Saddleworth <ref>{{cite web |url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Saddleworth |title=Full Freeview on the Saddleworth (Oldham, England) transmitter|date=May 2004 |publisher=UK Free TV |access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref> and Brock Bottom <ref>{{cite web |url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Brook_Bottom |title=Freeview Light on the Brook Bottom (Tameside, England) transmitter|date=May 2004 |publisher=UK Free TV |access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref>).

Local radio stations are [[BBC Radio Manchester]], [[Capital Manchester and Lancashire]], [[Heart North West]], [[Smooth North West]], [[Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West]], and [[Tameside Radio]], a community based station.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

===Other media===
The town has been used for location shoots for various film and television series. 
The most notable of these was the [[John Schlesinger]] film ''[[Yanks]]'' which featured [[Richard Gere]] and was released in 1979. The opening sequence of the film features Stalybridge War Memorial on Trinity Street and the US army camp scenes were filmed at Stamford Golf Club in spring 1978.<ref name="Ref_ag">[http://www.tamesideadvertiser.co.uk/community/nostalgia/s/383455_the_1970s The 1970s – Nostalgia – Community – Tameside Advertiser<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
In 1986 the [[BBC]] children's TV series ''[[Jossy's Giants]]'' was filmed in the town. In 2009 the BBC3 Comedy Show ''[[We Are Klang]]'' was filmed at the Victoria Market Hall,<ref name="Ref_ah">{{cite web|author=Jane Simon |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/tv/todays-tv/2009/07/30/we-are-klang-bbc3-10-30pm-115875-21556816/ |title=We are Klang – BBC3 |work=Daily Mirror |date=30 July 2009 |access-date=27 March 2012}}</ref> and around the town centre. Scenes from ''[[Coronation Street]]'', ''[[Making Out (TV series)|Making Out]]'', ''[[Common As Muck]]'' and ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' have also been shot there.