STOCKPORT, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of England, in Cheshire and partly in Lancashire, is situated on an elevation above the Mersey at the junction of the Tame and Goyt, and of a number of railway lines, 46 miles east-north-east of Chester, 37 east of Liverpool, and 6 south-south-east of Manchester. Owing to the lie of the ground the streets are very irre gular and uneven, and occasionally precipitous, while in the south they rise above the river in tiers. The Mersey is crossed by a number of bridges, including one of eleven arches opened in 1826 at a cost of £40,000. None of the ecclesiastical buildings are of special interest, the principal being the church of St Mary, erected in 1817, at a cost of £30,000, on the site of one of the 15th century, of which the chancel and vestry remain. The free grammar school was founded and endowed in 1487 by Sir Edward Shaa or Shaw, knight. The present building was erected in 1831 by the Goldsmiths’ Company, who further endowed it with £290 a year, and handed it over to the corporation. The Stockport Sunday school, erected in 1805, has accommodation for 4000 scholars. There is a free public library, established in 1875. The principal public buildings are the court-house, the market-house, the union workhouse, the mechanics’ institute, the infirmary, the institution for the blind and deaf and dumb, and the fine new public baths. In St Peter’s Square there is a statue, unveiled 27th November 1886, of Richard Cobden, who was elected member for the borough in 1841 and 1847. Vernon Park, finely situated about a mile from the town, contains a free museum, built in 1858 at the expense of the members for the borough, and since enlarged by the corporation. The staple industries are the spinning and ...