Local Man Reveals What 1930s Macc Looked Like In Colour

A local history buff has colourised vintage pictures of Between the Wars era Macclesfield.

Striking pictures show well-dressed 1930s gentlemen atop Brunswick Hill in colour, and a vintage snap of a Bollington butchers which still exists today.

Another digitally restored image shows a bus outside The Cat and Fiddle on Buxton Road, which closed after 202 years in 2015 to become a whiskey distillery.

Retired model maker David Easton (76), who lived in Macclesfield for 31 years, has spent hours meticulously researching and adding colour to these black and white images.

"I like the image showing the Heathcote family butchers in Bollington, with the two sheep in the cart. Which I believe to this day is still in business in Bollington [on Palmerston St]", he said.

"The picture of the 1935 Bollington bus took the longest, which took me a whole day.

"But generally most colourisations take about four hours.

"The detail and number of passengers made it need a great deal of research."

The Furness Vale resident uses Adobe Photoshop to preserve and modernise Cheshire's history through colour.

He has colourised over 1000 black and white images across the north west, in the last five years.

"One of my favourite anecdotes I learned from adding colour to these photos was with the North Western Bus Company at The Cat and Fiddle," added David.

"When the bus used to stop it would wait, and the driver would have a conversation with the conductor and leave the bus door open.

"It was quite common for sheep to come on board, and for passengers to take little treats with them and feed to the sheep.

"Then the sheep would get off the bus and it would depart and go to and from Macc to Buxton."

The site of The Cat and Fiddle Pub, infamous for being in an isolated location 1689 feet above sea level, now houses Forest Distillery, which opened in 2019.

David's colourisations can be found in print via his partner's books, former Maxonian and creative Simon Thompson

They can be purchased from here.

David's personal website can be accessed here.