Offerton is a suburb of

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. Offerton was formerly a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, which was abolished in 1900 to become part of

Hazel Grove and Bramhall Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. ...

. A parish called Offerton Park existed between 2002 and 2011, which covered one of the area's housing estates. Offerton gives its name to an electoral ward, although the ward excludes the older part of Offerton around Offerton Green.

History

Offerton was historically a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, which formed part of the

Macclesfield Hundred The hundred of Macclesfield was an ancient division of the historic county of Cheshire, in northern England. It was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1242, and it was formed to a great extent from the earlier Domesday hundre ...

of Cheshire. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the

poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Stockport, the civil functions were exercised by each township rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Offerton became a civil parish. When elected parish and district councils were created in 1894, Offerton was given a parish council and included in the Stockport Rural District. Shortly afterwards, Stockport Borough Council began campaigning to have the various small parishes just outside its southern boundaries (most of which had formerly been townships in the parish of Stockport) incorporated into the

County Borough of Stockport Stockport County Borough was a county-level local authority between 1889 and 1974. The town of Stockport had been an ancient borough governed by a charter dating from circa 1220 granted by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester.''An Illu ...

. The five parish councils of

Bramhall Bramhall is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 17,195. Bramhall was formerly a civi ...

, Bosden,

Norbury Norbury is an List of areas of London, town and suburb in south London. It shares the postcode London SW16 with neighbouring Streatham. The area is mainly in the borough of Croydon London Borough Council, Croydon, with some parts extending int ...

, Offerton, and Torkington collectively decided that they wished to resist being brought into Stockport, and therefore petitioned

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities: Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. ...

to create an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

covering the combined area of their five parishes. The county council agreed, and the parish of Offerton was therefore abolished in September 1900, with the area becoming part of the new civil parish and urban district of

. Offerton remained relatively small at that time, comprising a scattered hamlet along Marple Road (later numbered as the A626 road) through Offerton Green. In 1891 (the last census before the abolition of the parish), Offerton had a population of 372. Suburban development was subsequently built across much of the area of the former Offerton township, especially in the second half of the 20th century, notably at the Offerton Park estate and parts of the neighbouring Bosden Farm estate. Hazel Grove and Bramhall was abolished in 1974 to become part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester. A new civil parish called Offerton Estate was created in 2002, and subsequently renamed Offerton Park in 2006. It covered one of the area's 1960s housing estates, rather than the whole area known as Offerton. The parish was abolished in 2011. Offerton today is classed as part of the Stockport built up area by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

. Offerton is not a postal locality; the area has Stockport postal addresses.

References

Areas of Stockport Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester {{GreaterManchester-geo-stub