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17th October 2009

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Stockport is not really known as a tourist attraction, but everyone who has been past on the train says "I always wondered what the hat museum is like". There are actually quite a few interesting places to visit in Stockport and I tried to cram them into one day.

Hat Works is the famous hat museum. It has two floors: one is just totally obsessed with hats (I love the 'here is a list of famous people who wear hats' thing) and the other is about hatmaking, containing the building's original machines as well as machines from all the other stages in the hatmaking process.

Stockport Story is a little museum of the town's history attached to Staircase House and the tourist office.

Staircase House is a 500-year-old house that has been restored in an interesting way - as you climb it and pass from room to room, the restoration travels forward in time until you are in the final room, a Second World War-era bedroom.

Stockport Air Raid Shelter is the most amazing thing I saw in Stockport. A huge shelter built to house thousands was cut into the clay underbank of Stockport, with running water, flushing toilets and even a kitchen and medical bay. It's all been preserved and restored for tourists.

Bramall Hall is very different from all the other big houses in Cheshire. It's a huge half-timbered building set on high looking down upon its gardens - the layout of the land reminded me more of German castles than British ones. Unfortunately I arrived too late to look round the interior.

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