Until the 16th century, there was very little development at Hazel Grove. The area straddled the boundaries of four
townships or
manors:
Bosden,
Bramhall,
Norbury, and
Torkington. Norbury was mentioned in the
Domesday Survey in 1086 (as Nordberie). In 1560, a blacksmith called Richard Bullock built a
smithy on the corner of what is now Torkington Park. This building later became the Bullock Smithy Inn. It stood on the main road from
Manchester and
Stockport to
Buxton and
London, later numbered as the
A6 road. A village known as Bullock Smithy gradually grew up along the road. The name Hazel Grove, referring to a
grove of
hazel trees, was also sometimes used for the area, appearing on a 1749 map as 'Hessel-grave'. In 1836, the villagers of Bullock Smithy held a public meeting and resolved to formally adopt the name Hazel Grove for the village. A tram line from Stockport to Hazel Grove opened in 1890, running along London Road to a terminus near the Rising Sun public house at the corner of Buxton Road and Macclesfield Road. The line was initially run by a private company, but became part of
Stockport Corporation Tramways in 1905. Through services into
Manchester via the connected
Manchester Corporation Tramways network operated from 1908. The tram route closed in 1950. A Mechanics' Institute was built in 1871 at the corner of London Road and Hatherlow Lane, serving as the village's main public events venue. The charity that originally ran the building transferred ownership to the Hazel Grove and Bramhall Urban District Council in 1952, who later renamed it the Civic Hall.
Religion There were no churches in the area until the end of the 16th century. By the early 17th century, a chapel had been built in Norbury township. It stood in fields to the east of Macclesfield Road, opposite Norbury Hall Farm, nearly a mile south of Hazel Grove. The chapel was known for being served by
Nonconformist ministers in the late 17th century. After the
Restoration, a law was passed in 1662 forbidding ministers to preach without the
Book of Common Prayer. The minister of Norbury Chapel, John Jollie, went there to preach, but found that the door was locked. He and his followers broke down the door and he preached as usual. Subsequently, he was tried for nonconformity, but it was decided that Norbury Chapel was not a
consecrated place. In 1788,
John Wesley preached in Bullock Smithy. In his journal he described the village as "... one of the most famous villages in the county for all manner of wickedness." In the 1830s, it was decided to build a new church, both to serve the growing village and to replace the increasingly ruinous Norbury Chapel. The site chosen was on the southern edge of the village, and was also in Norbury township. The church, dedicated to St Thomas, was completed in 1834. The site of Norbury Chapel then reverted to fields. In 1842 an
ecclesiastical parish called 'St Thomas, Norbury' was created, which initially just covered the Norbury township. The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1878 to take in Bosden and parts of Bramhall and Torkington townships, such that it then covered the whole of Hazel Grove village. The legal name of the ecclesiastical parish covering Hazel Grove remains 'St Thomas, Norbury'. The church is now known both as 'Norbury Church' and 'St Thomas, Hazel Grove'. == Governance ==