Sunday 9 March 2014

A great pear

I’m not sure whether the great fat pear on the top of this building is, strictly speaking, a sign, but I’m including it because I love it. This is Pear Mill, in Bredbury, Stockport, one of the last cotton spinning mills to be built. A Grade II listed building with six storeys, it started production in 1913, employing about 300 people. Apparently mills of this period were often flamboyantly decorated – the pear tops the mill’s water tower. Its life as a textile mill ceased in 1978 and, happily, the mill and its pear are now home to a variety of thriving businesses, including a play centre, home furnishing, a gym and a cycle shop.