Above: This is the finest photo I’ve found of Goyt’s Bridge. It shows Errwood Cottage (also known as Gatehouse Cottage) in the right foreground, beside the main entrance drive up to Errwood Hall, which can just be seen in the far distance.

The building at far left is Goytsbridge Farm, with Goytshead Farm opposite. The packhorse bridge is hidden in the dip beside the farmhouses.

The hamlet of Goyt’s Bridge

Goyt’s Bridge was a small farming hamlet clustered around an ancient packhorse bridge on the River Goyt. Today it lies beneath the southern end of Errwood Reservoir, close to the Errwood Hall car park – and in dry summers its old walls and lanes still emerge from the water.

Before the Grimshawes arrived in this upper part of the valley, Goyt’s Bridge was little more than a handful of farm buildings sitting beside an ancient packhorse bridge. With the building of Errwood Hall, a new order had arrived. But it would only last for a single century – from the 1830s to the 1930s.

The last of the Grimshawes

In 1930, following the death of Mary, the last of the Grimshawe family, Stockport Corporation purchased the entire estate. They had identified the valley as the perfect site for two reservoirs which would provide water to Stockport and surrounding towns.

Although Errwood Reservoir wouldn’t be completed for another 30 years, Errwood Hall and some 20 farms and cottages were demolished by 1935. It’s said that the planners feared their drains could pollute the reservoirs.

Unique cine film

Watch a grainy, black and white silent cine film taken at Goyt’s Bridge in 1932, and a video bringing to life the history of both Goyt’s Bridge and Errwood Hall.

Above: The green arrow at top right of this early 1900s OS map marks where the photograph was taken. The blue shows the area now lying beneath Errwood Reservoir. And I’ve also marked the position of today’s Errwood Hall carpark.  (Click the image to enlarge it further.)