just after the new millenium, Cheshire East Council proposed an ambitious development for the dilapidated Princess Street area of Congleton to be undertaken by the Salford building group, Modus. but Modus would soon discover that working with the bungling Unitary Authority was never going to end well. the only progress seemed to be the renaming of the catchy Princess Street Development to The Bridestones and then finally, The Bridestones 2.
let’s talk about the Bridestones
the Bridestones development was to include a new hotel, supermarket and shops along with a new market, which any visitor to the urban bomb site it occupied, would be sure to welcome. But working with Cheshire East and its pitifully inept capital project planning team was never going to be easy. sure enough, Modus collapsed in 2009 with no foundations laid and no plans even formalised.
the story of the Bridestones was more like an Ealing Studios farce than a major development project but worse was to come.
sorry – does anyone know who owns this land?
enter council number two. while no one ever expects the public sector to manage a project well or deliver on time or on budget, it’s not unreasonable to expect for the proposing council, Cheshire East, to have discovered who owned the land before proposing anything. yet after so many years of meetings for planning, proposals and consultations, they actually had not the faintest idea who the land beneath their feet belonged to. so no, or know, they didn’t.
enter council number two
let’s not even get into how a Greater Manchester Council over 40 miles away should come to own a derelict street in a rural town in South East Cheshire, because that’s worth an article in itself. let’s just try to get our heads around how a council could not remember being approached to be involved and agreeing to commit to public money it was entrusted with to fund such a project.
so with one council with a reputation for being unable to manage capital projects and another that couldn’t remember anything about a project it was funding, poor old Modus never stood a chance. with no money forthcoming from Tameside, the company folded. Enter the Yorkshire group, Scarborough Developments.
a new project delivery partner and a new project name, The Mills. enter the flying pigs
by all accounts, Scarborough’s dealings with Cheshire East were a disaster, both for the residents of Congleton, who were looking forward to a revitalised market area and for Scarborough’s project team, who described meetings with Cheshire East as “challenging”. delays followed delays. nothing happened at all for over seven years. in fact, the only step forward was the appearance of flying pigs images pasted onto the fanciful artwork for the aging “coming soon” Mills posters. to cut to the somewhat inevitable conclusion, planning meetings were abandoned and like Modus before it, Scarborough went to the wall.
was this project to be eternally cursed?
all it takes is some (private) enterprise
when everyone seemed to have given up all hope for the Bridestones/Mills development, a local figure well known to Congleton threw his hat into the ring to deliver for Congleton. that man was Nick Hynes.
Nick’s company Nick Hynes Real Estate had already completed a landmark old mill rescue and fit out of the old Havanah Mill, now tastefully reborn as Riverside. He took on of changing Congleton’s “dormatory town” status following the relentless sprawl of new house building and little else that had blighted this fine old town. his vision knew it offered so much more. in late 2022, the plans were drawn up and a few months later, work began.
stage one opens – on time!
fast-forward to a chilly Christmas 2023 and Congleton Market Quarter (CMQ) opened its doors to a huge crowd of visitors for its opening night. those braving the cold were welcomed by Bollington Brewery’s The Foundry offering craft beers, along with eateries ranging from Smokin BBQ and a taste of the East from Pukht and Zumuki Sushi. soon to open Wood-Fire-Smoke’s artisan pizza, provided a glimpse of things to come.
The Congleton Market Quarter from the old town market
the steps down from Congleton’s Swan Bank looking towards the old town market
Bollington Brewery’s craft beer venue, The Foundry.
Wilmslow-based Wood Fire Smoke pizza house
and no flying pigs on the menu.