Macclesfield Now Issue 02 by Spacehouse

We explore how local tattoo studio, Grindhouse, sets the standard for tattoo realism.

The Christmas Gift Guide brought to you by the Macclesfield Now team!

Macclesfield Rugby Club celebrates its 150th year at the heart of the community.

GOOD TIDINGS WE BRING!

FOOD & DRINK 4-6

4 - Talking Turkey!

JJJ Heathcote: Bollington’s butcher for over 100 years.

8 - Grindhouse set the standard... We dive into Macclesfield’s world of ink and needles. LIFESTYLE 8-10

FINANCE 14-16

14 - Breaking down the Budget...

Two Budget announcements that may affect your financial plan.

PEOPLE 18-20

18 - Back on Track!

A natural way of life for horses at Gawsworth Track Livery.

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE 21-24

The 12 gifts of Christmas, picked by the Macclesfield Now team!

FAMILY 26-28

26 - Call the Midwives!

The growing popularity of the independent midwife.

MOTORS 30-32

30 - Quentin Willson in the Spotlight

The TV presenter on his campaign to get us into electric cars.

SPORT & LEISURE 34-36

34 - More than a game...

Macclesfield Rugby Club celebrates 150 years in the community.

EVENTS 38-42

38 - What’s on?

Fill your diary with these events in and around Macclesfield.

40 - Christmas Crackers!

Jonathan Mayor tells us about Macc’s growing comedy scene.

THE TEAM

Editor: Paul Day paul@spacehouse.co.uk

Design & Layout: Oli Bowden design@spacehouse.co.uk

Publisher: David Harrison d.harrison@spacehouse.co.uk

Advertising: Matt Paton m.paton@spacehouse.co.uk

Advertising: Charlotte Staley charlotte@spacehouse.co.uk

Billing Enquiries: Jules Pointon accounts@spacehouse.co.uk

Macclesfield Now Magazine published by Spacehouse Ltd Pierce House Pierce Street Macclesfield SK11 6EX

FOOD & DRINK

SPORT & LEISURE

EDITORS COMMENT

Hello again! Welcome to the second issue of Macclesfield Now.

I’d like to thank everyone for all the positive feedback we received after publishing our first issue.

We said that we wanted to produce a magazine with a fresh, contemporary attitude and a design to match, so it was really pleasing that these were things people seemed to like so much about issue one.

Inevitably, we’re tilting towards Christmas this time around and, as such, we offer up a Gift Guide that is as much symbolic as it is meant to be practical.

It is meant as a reminder of the richness of choice that exists on the high streets of Macclesfield and Bollington. We could have spread the feature across twice as many pages and barely scratched the surface, so please give these businesses a thought when preparing for Christmas. It’s not always necessary to look further afield.

Thanks again, and see you in the New Year!

Paul Day

FOOD & DRINK

Talking turkey!

For more than 100 years JJJ Heathcote has been ensuring Bollington’s residents are festive feast ready. By Janet Reeder

Jeremy Heathcote proprietor of Bollington’s oldest purveyor of meats JJJ Heathcote doesn’t “mince” his words when explaining about all the hard work that goes into making the festive feast so special.

It’s not just a case of just selling turkeys and sausages; Jeremy and his team have to prepare hundreds of orders in the lead up to the big day. It’s a huge operation, hence if you don’t tell them what you want by a certain date, there is a chance it won’t make it onto your yuletide table.

“Last year we processed something like 900 orders but because everything needs to be fresh, and we can only start three days before Christmas the work is intense. We also make all our own sausage do all our own cooked meats so there’ s a lot of prep involved at Christmas time,” explains Jeremy.

“What makes the job more stressful if someone doesn’t order on time. The later orders put a bit of a spanner in the works, so I do carry a few spares just in case.

“It’s a big responsibility. Somebody’s Christmas dinner could be ruined.”

There’s a story about his dad and a young girl turned up at the shop on Christmas Eve desperately trying to buy a turkey. There was only one left, the one meant for his own family. So, he let her have that.

“We had pork that Christmas,” laughs Jeremy.

And in a twist of fate years later that girl became a member of his family as his brother Christopher’s wife.

Jeremy along with his brother Chris and their cousin Michael are third generation butchers following a trail blazed by its founder their grandfather Jonathan James Jackson Heathcote.

He takes up the story: “We opened in Bollington in 1908, but my grandfather was a butcher back in the 1890s and his mother and family were in butchering and farming.

“He had eight children six boys and two girls who all worked in the business. The eldest boys

were butchers, slaughterman and farmers; one of the girls worked in the shop while the other did the bookkeeping.

“We did have an abattoir until about 26 years ago, maybe longer, and we still retain one building there to hang the meat which is sourced locally.”

Local is very much an overused buzzword in the food industry but Jeremy can tell you the exact origin of all the meats sold in their Palmerston Street shop.

He reels off the names of some of their suppliers: “Lambs come from Sheldon’s on Sugar Lane, beef from Slater’s near Prestbury, the pork does travel a little bit; it comes from Buxton and chickens we had to source now from Penrith. Turkey at Christmas come from Garnett’s at Goosetrey a family we’ve dealt with for years and we also get geese from Huddersfield.”

JJJ Heathcote is still very much a family business, however, as butchering isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, he also has a close-knit team who have been recruited from outside.

“If a butcher isn’t busy at Christmas, then he’s in the wrong job!”

Jeremy

Heathcote Owner of JJJ Heathcote

Billy Jackson, uncle of JJJ Heathcote delivering meat

“We do have four good lads who work with us in the shop,” he says.

“Kevin Spencer has been with us for 32 years and Ian Hewitt has been in butchering a long time, while Sean Barber at the front of shop is a smashing lad who has been with us from being aged 18 – he’s now 26. And we have Jack Bentley who has just finished his qualifications in butchering and who has been with us for 18 months.”

There used to be four JJJ Heathcote shops in Cheshire but while the family still own the buildings they have been transformed into cafes and bars.

Maybe that’s in part because of another beef of Jeremey’s that a lot of the people who buy their meat at Christmas don’t shop there for the rest of the year.

It’s not a big deal: “But they do support us at Christmas, and we try our best to look after them,” he says.

Turkey is as popular for Christmas Day as it ever was, with sausages also a best seller for the festive season.

“We do sell a lot of turkey rolled breasts - some butchers call them crowns - we supply them boned and rolled,” he says.

“They are good value and go a lot further to be honest.”

Jeremy’s own Christmas is not as busy as it used to be partly because it’s two days off and then back to work, but he says the family like to keep the festive table traditional with turkey and all the trimmings. He does all the cooking and wife Edwina prepares the vegetables.

“I actually go for a turkey breast to be honest. It’s traditional but so easy to cook. It won’t dry out as much but when you cook it you need to keep an eye on it because it does cook quicker than a whole turkey. You should just treat it as a piece of beef.”

Jeremy is very proud of the business which has weathered all kinds of economic storms over the years. The business is very much at the beating heart of the community and he’ll support local causes – going beyond the call of duty in 2009 for a Naked Bollington calendar to raise funds for charity!

However, he admits that things in Bollington are changing, some for the better such as the great restaurants and shops in the village but the involvement of Cheshire East council looks like making things difficult for all of them.

“We have a problem with Cheshire East at the moment” he reveals.

“They are trying to put car parking charges on Poole Bank, which is a big car park in the village.

Jeremy Heathcote’s contribution to the Naked Bollington calender

TAPROOM OPEN THURSDAY TO SUNDAY

horror... Body ...how Grindhouse sets the standard for tattoo realism.

Using skin as canvas, two North West artists have seen demand for their work rocket in the past decade. Martin Guttridge-Hewitt dives into a world of ink and needles to learn what makes them stand out.

Alex Wright and Kyle Williams are lucky men. While many wake each morning to the sound of their own screams, triggered by the thought of going to work, these North West creatives have turned lifelong passions into multi-award-winning careers, putting Macclesfield on the international map for one of the 21st Century’s most dominant art forms.

In 2016 they opened Grindhouse, a tattoo studio specialising in hyper realistic horror and pop culture, and quickly gained recognition for the quality of their work. Skip forward to today, and they’re joined by two more talented types, Shannon Wild and Mark Yarwood,

and this four person team now draw customers in from across the UK and Europe, and as far afield as the US, Canada, and Japan.

“If you go back to the mid-2000s, before that you just walked into tattoo studios and they’d have drawings on the wall, dolphins jumping over a moon or something basic like that. A Tasmanian Devil maybe. Around that time, the industry started changing and tattooing has developed so much since,” Wright tells us, speaking from the studio over the phone.

“Whatever people can paint on canvas, they can now paint on skin… I think the industry really started evolving after shows like Miami

Ink came out. The style of artwork began shifting in America, and then over here.

“Portraits began to become popular around the late-2000s, I started working on them maybe 2009. And it just snowballed from there, my client base got bigger,” he continues. “The industry advanced in its way of ink, machines, needle types, which gives artists a broader spectrum to work with. More oil painters and other artists began to get involved in tattooing, so it wasn’t just old school bikers and stuff like that. Spray painters, illustrators, this also started to influence the industry and shape it into what you see today.”

Wright name-checks three specific artists when asked for pioneers of this ‘next-generation’ of tattoos — Mike De Vries, Nikko Hurtado, and Joshua Carlton. Regarded as true boundary pushers, we’re told these visionaries changed perceptions of what was possible with body ink. Meanwhile, the rise of social media, and in particular the visual-focused Instagram, helped put work in front of more people, with the very best turning viral sensations along with the artists responsible.

“Me and Alex started on Instagram maybe a decade ago, when it was nothing really, and built a massive following. So we’re quite lucky that we have been part of that for such a long time,” Williams tells us, making it clear that Grindhouse also has an account, and a Facebook Page. “Now, as soon as we post something online the algorithms pick us up straight away, because we’ve been at it so long. You might find other studios haven’t such a following and aren’t as established, and I don’t know how it will be for them, probably more difficult now the market is really saturated.

“When we opened the studio it quickly began bringing in the horror clientele, so most people coming into the studio are involved in the industry or scene. Either they’re collectors or massive fans of horror, we get a lot of people coming from Comicons, because we already have the name. And horror is growing, in the cinema, on social media, and that’s obviously really working out for us,” he continues. “We’re doing good work and have worked hard to get to where we are… It’s all about experience, isn’t it?”

Alex and Kyle, pictured with Dynamo Alex and Kyle, pictured with Tim Cappello

But for many customers, it’s not just the experienced team but the Grindhouse experience itself that shines through. Wright proudly tells us the studio doubles up as a museum, with an array of artefacts, memorabilia and collectibles on display from the world of slasher, stalker and supernatural movies. Not only does this help set the scene, to an extent it also emphasises the authenticity of the business. An operation run by two best friends who found each other through a shared love of scary movies, equally bewitched by big and small screen chillers from very early ages.

“Most people that come to us, they’re into that culture. Horror movies, metal music, whatever else ties into those. I mean, we can do anything — if you want some flowers, or a football club badge, that’s fine too,” says Wright.

‘It’s hard to pick out a favourite piece or one I’m more proud of than others. Each is something different and I’m just happy to be doing what I’m doing, I’m in a position where people come to me with their ideas and let me produce good art on them. Because I’m into horror and pop culture, I can infuse a bit of myself into what I do, and as clients have similar interests it’s great to work together.”

“I’ve tattooed quite a lot of celebrities in my time, and I’m very proud of that. The fact that they want to come to me, trust me and like my work. It’s one of those things where every time I tattoo a celebrity they leave afterwards and I’m like: ‘wow, that was pretty cool’,” says Williams when we ask him for any specific highlights from the near-two-decades he’s been inking. “So there’s been some really great

experiences like that, which, you know, when I think back at tattoos, I think about those memories, when I was in that spot.”

This storied past now sets the tone for what should be an equally impressive future. Looking ahead, both Wright and Williams tell us their main priority is simply continuing to deliver standout body art, day-in-dayout. But beyond that, regular artist residencies at Grindhouse will continue drafting some of the finest tattooists from across the globe to the Cheshire address. And, having already travelled the world, the bosses are preparing for another busy year of international conventions and invites to work with other leading studios in 2025. In doing so, they not only spread the word about their operation, but Macclesfield and North West England as a whole.

33 Church street, Macclesfield, SK11 6LB grindhousetattooproductions

Grindhouse Tattoo Productions @grindhousetattooproductions 01625 472332

The Grindhouse Tattoo Productions team: Alex, Kyle, Shannon and Mark

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Breaking down the Budget: Two key Budget announcements that may affect your financial plan.

By the Sustainable Wealth Team at Sustainable Wealth Management

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the new Labour government’s first Budget on 30 October 2024. Amid the announcements were key changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Inheritance Tax (IHT) that could affect your financial plan.

Ahead of the Budget, prime minister Keir Starmer said it would be “painful” as there was a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. Indeed, Reeves went on to announce measures that would raise annual tax revenues by £40 billion by 2030.

Some of these taxes will be paid by businesses, but others could affect your personal finances. Here are two changes you might want to consider when reviewing your financial plan.

1. The main rates of Capital Gains Tax have increased

There was a lot of speculation that Reeves would announce changes to CGT. In the Budget, she revealed the rates would indeed rise. It could mean you pay more tax than you expect when selling assets.

CGT is a type of tax you pay if you make a profit when you dispose of assets such as:

• Investments that are not held in a tax-efficient wrapper, like an ISA

• Personal possessions worth more than £6,000 (excluding your car)

• Property that is not your main home

• Business assets.

In 2024/25, you can make profits of up to £3,000 before CGT is due. This is known as the “Annual Exempt Amount”. If profits exceed this threshold, you may be liable for CGT.

The changes Reeves announced to CGT rates came into effect immediately on 30 October 2024.

The rate of CGT you pay depends on your other taxable income. If you’re a:

• Higher- or additional-rate taxpayer, your CGT rate has increased from 20% to 24%

• Basic-rate taxpayer, you may benefit from a lower CGT rate of 18%, which has increased from 10%, if the taxable amount falls within the basic-rate Income Tax band.

So, it might be more important than ever to consider how to reduce your CGT liability as part of your financial plan. For example, you may:

• Spread disposing of assets over several tax years

• Focus on increasing investments held in a taxefficient wrapper

• Pass on assets to your spouse or civil partner to make use of their Annual Exempt Amount.

We could work with you to understand if you may be liable for CGT and the steps you might take to mitigate a large or unexpected tax bill.

Currently, your pension isn’t usually included in your estate for IHT purposes. As a result, you may have planned to use other assets to fund your later years so you could pass on wealth tax-efficiently through your pension.

However, Reeves announced she would close this “loophole” that gives pensions preferable IHT treatment.

From 6 April 2027, your unspent pension pot will be included in your estate when calculating an IHT liability. The change could mean the number of estates that pay IHT doubles.

Under the existing rules, around 4% of estates are liable for IHT and it raises about £7 billion a year for the government. However, the Budget states that bringing pensions into the scope of IHT will affect around 8% of estates each year. Reeves added the changes would boost IHT receipts by £2 billion a year by the end of the forecast period (2029/30).

So, if you haven’t previously considered IHT as part of your estate plan, you may need to now.

The threshold for paying IHT is known as the nil-rate band and is £325,000 in 2024/25. In most cases, you can also use the residence nil-rate band if you pass on your main home to a direct descendant.

In 2024/25, the residence nil-rate band is £175,000. In addition, you can pass on unused allowances to your spouse or civil partner. In effect, that means, as a couple, you could leave behind up to £1 million before IHT may be due.

It’s important to note that both the nil-rate band and residence nil-rate band are frozen until 6 April 2030 and will not rise in line with inflation.

As a result, you might need to consider how the value of your assets will change and whether growth could affect what you’ll leave behind for loved ones.

Previously, you may have increased pension contributions to build up a tax-efficient nest egg that you could leave to your family when you pass away. A financial review could help you assess if it’s still the right option for you in light of the changes.

Get in touch to talk about the impact the Budget could have on your plans.

If you’d like to discuss how the Autumn Budget could affect your finances and how you might keep your plans on track, please get in touch. We can work with you to create a tailored plan that reflects the changes and aligns with your aspirations.

Back on track.

It’s a return to a more natural way of life for horses at Gawsworth Track Livery.

By Janet Reeder

To say that horses have played a major role in the lives of Bethan and Dan Thornicroft is something of an understatement.

Bethan admits she’s been crazy about equines ever since she was seven years old when she had her first riding lesson. She even met her future husband through their shared love of steeds and two years ago they got married at their track livery farm surrounded by…you guessed it…horses.

Their love of these magnificent creatures is evident in the care they lavish on those whose owners are savvy enough to bring them to Gawsworth.

Here horses are surrounded by 34 acres of beautiful Cheshire countryside but more than that, they receive a special kind of treatment designed to replicate as much as possible how they might live in a wilder, more natural state. The couple want them to blossom and

thrive in a nurturing environment designed for them and not just their owners’ convenience.

The track system works by having fields and an internal fence within each field with a track around the edge. At Gawsworth the track is 1,000 metres and six metres wide. There’s also a shelter with a big barn. Everything is created to encourage the horses to behave as they would in the wild.

The Thornicroft family

Those animals fortunate enough to find themselves at Gawsworth Track Livery will stay for a few weeks to months and even years depending upon what they are there for. They range from those which need treatment for diseases like laminitis to others who will live out their days being looked after by Bethan, Dan and their very capable team.

How does Gawsworth Track Livery differ from other stables?

“Very, very different,” is Bethan’s response.

“Lowland grass isn’t good for horses, and you see many getting metabolic conditions such as laminitis. Equine Cushing’s disease and EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome) and this is all from incorrect diet and management.

“Laminitis is the equivalent to diabetes in humans for example and it is all down to the wrong type of living. If horses are kept in a stable being put into a tiny square patch of grass, being fed too much sugar, are overfed, underworked over rugged and over stabled then their wellbeing will suffer.

“The horses here live on the surface track they don’t graze the grass, instead, we grow our own especially for hay. This is because grass fluctuates in sugar content throughout the day as it grows, and it’s not got as much fibre as hay. So, we leave the grass to grow until it has gone to seed, and it is at its most fibrous then and that’s when we cut it and bail it to be fed to the horses.”

It’s not only ensuring that the horses get the correct feed that takes priority, but the right amount of exercise.

Says Bethan: “Horses in the wild would naturally move up to 30 miles a day but in a lot of places in the UK they are likely to be kept in stables with only a few hours of outdoor activity daily and it is just not enough for these animals.

“Here they are naturally made to walk their 30 miles a day. The food sources i.e. the hay is at the furthest point away from the water, so they have to walk back and forth while the track is made up of lots of different surfaces which in turn encourages healthy hoof growth. We also do a lot of barefoot rehab which is based on the wild

hoof model. Basically, horses in the wild would not be shod but would wear their hooves down naturally so we take the shoes off and the horses have their feet trimmed every six weeks to take them back to the hard sole plane which keeps them healthy and strong.”

Other livery businesses tend to keep their horses in their own small patch of stable when they are in residence, but socialisation is another way Bethan and Dan are bucking the trend.

They believe the importance of socialising their animals cannot be underestimated so they ensure that they have companionship for as long as they want it, not just from other equines but from their two adorably friendly dogs Sally and Peter and five chickens.

Explains Bethan: “It’s very important for horses to socialise. They are herd animals. If you went to a zoo and saw a zebra (which is another kind of equine) on its own, you’d think that doesn’t look right. Imagine going to a zoo and seeing zebras in individual boxes even someone who knows nothing about horses would know that doesn’t look right. Well, the horse is no different, they are meant to be together in groups and move together in groups and they feel safe in groups that is how they are genetically programmed to be. So, they are healthier and happier. They should not be locked into individual little cells.”

At the time of our visit, Bethan and the team were looking after 27 horses from all over the UK and beyond.

She explains: “A lot of them are from down south. We have some horses whose owners are in Dubai. They’ll learn how to be track horses here and then they get flown over and go to the track in Dubai which is modelled on the exact same thing we do. That track has a lot of competition horses living on it and they are all competed bitless and barefoot. Over in Dubai keeping them in air-conditioned stables is pretty much the standard and they don’t really get any time out so the track method is really quite a different proposition.

Aerial view of Gawsworth Track Livery

“Over here track systems are becoming more and more popular because we’ve got a big following. People are seeing that horses shouldn’t be locked in stables.”

Bethan hasn’t always worked with horses; in fact she trained as a make-up artist, a skill which she put to good use when a Scare Maze was created for Halloween in 2023. They had set designers come down to ramp up the fear factor and Bethan did special effects make-up – “and we had teenagers come and we scared the living daylights out of them,” she laughs.

Gawsworth Track Livery, Shellow Lane, Macclesfield, SK11 9RS

To diversify the business and make ends meet they grow pumpkins at Libby’s Patch (which is the actual Sat Nav reference you need to get there) in the autumn and strawberries in summer and during the festive season, they sell Christmas trees.

“We have a little horse trailer that is converted into a café and people come from all over for pizzas and cake and we have all the trees on stands so that they are out and create a Christmas tree ‘forest’ in the car park,” explains Bethan.

“We have Christmas music playing, and there’s a lovely festive atmosphere.”

Looking across the fields with horses ambling happily on the track, it’s easy to see why the couple have made this such a special place for themselves, their animal guests and three boys, Cyrus, 13, Heathcliffe, nine and Rupert, four.

It’s a place of happy memories, none more special than their own wedding which took place there two years last July.

“We met through horses,” says Bethan.

“I took my horse to another livery yard and Dan was there. So that’s where we met, and the rest is history. It was only natural that we had our wedding here. I had an aisle through the trees, and we blocked the track off so the horses couldn’t come over here during the wedding but yes they were here for the occasion.

The 12 gifts of Christmas

We hope you’ve been good this year! These gifts have been selected across 12 categories by our very own Macclesfield Now team from local businesses based in Macclesfield and Bollington.

Books

Macclesfield Visitor Information Centre

A generous selection of Joy Division books. From £10.99

Music

Vinyl Planet

A great selection of new and classic records.

Prices from £5.00

Margin Music

Fender® CD-60 (Call for colours).

£169.00

Food

Cheshire Cat

A specially selected hamper containing a range of products.

£50.00

Knowles Green

A selection of festive Christmas hampers.

£25-£80

Drink

Forest Distillery

Forest Distillery Premixed Cans Mixed Case 12 x 330ml.

£48.00

R&G’s Beer Vault

Over a dozen different Christmas beers in stock. See in store for great prices

Doggo General Store

“Freddie” eco dog toy.

£12.00

Pets at Home

Somers Scratch & Slide Cat Tower brown.

£19.00

Cooking with Jinny Cooking classes in Cheshire. Also available for team building and private parties. From £60.00

Arighi Bianchi

Rose Gold Fondue Gift Set with 6 Forks. £79.00

Festive Afternoon Tea

The festive holidays are the perfect time to treat yourself and your nearest and dearest, so there is no better time to indulge in our show-stopping Afternoon Tea.

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To make a booking call the Events Team on 01565 650333 or email events@cottonshotel.co.uk

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Call the midwives!

The number of women experiencing birth trauma in the UK is skyrocketing. Emily Whitehouse speaks to the founders of My Independent Midwife who are living proof that birth stories can be positive.

Devastatingly, the most recent statistics show birth trauma affects 30,000 women across the country every year. Though this number is much higher than it should be, it isn’t relevant to everyone. A friend of the magazine recently became a mum for the first time and to help her through her pregnancy and childbirth she used a company called My Independent Midwife. To use her words, she said that ‘every woman deserves to have what I experienced’, and after speaking with the two women who created the organisation, I couldn’t agree more.

My Independent Midwife was founded in 2022 by Sarah

Fitzsimmons and Jenny Johnson –two midwives who previously worked for the NHS. They created the company to de-bunk the myth that women’s pregnancies should be managed by hospital staff. To use their own phrase: ‘Our company is like Call the Midwife but with Fiat 500s.’

Jenny explains how it all began: ‘Sarah and I previously worked for a local NHS Trust. Sarah was the midwifery-led unit manager, and I was a senior midwife. We’re both very passionate about supporting women to have uncomplicated births and birth naturally, but we felt the NHS was making it very difficult.’

To give some context, data from the Royal College of Midwives shows over 50% of midwives are considering leaving their role due to understaffing pressures and fears they can’t deliver safe care to women in the current system. It’s estimated that across the UK up to one in five women develop some form of mental health problem during their pregnancy or in the year after they give birth.

‘The NHS has a lot to deal with and it has to be very systemised, which means they have to pigeonhole a lot’ says Sarah, jumping into the conversation. ‘Birth is very individualised and it’s unique to

every person, and whilst working for the NHS we just didn’t feel we were able to be the midwives we wanted to be.’

However, everything changed for Jenny and Sarah when the government introduced new rules concerning insurance for private midwives.

‘The government said you had to have indemnity insurance to deliver births, but this never existed. However, in 2022 Zest Midwives managed to work with an insurance company that already insured American midwives and bring birth indemnity insurance back to the UK,’ Sarah says. ‘Jenny and I were actually among the first midwives to get that insurance and shortly after, we left our roles to go independent.’

Sarah continues: ‘When we first started out, we recognised that there was definitely a need for our services, but nobody knew it was there. To help spread the word we attended lots of events where we’d try and educate families that birth offers choices, and you don’t always have to go through the NHS. After this, our business began to snowball and we’re now growing as a little team. We’re currently comprised of three members, and we’ll quickly move to four if we find the right person.’

After setting up their business Sarah explains that their next step was working out how many women they could care for: ‘We knew we always wanted expecting families

to feel like they are always a priority, so we decided to cap the number of women we care for at a time to 10. By doing this we’re able to deliver traditional midwifery –almost like back in the day when your GP knew you and your entire family.

‘As midwives we’re sort of like Mary Poppins, we fly in for a little snapshot of time and then once families have found their feet, we leave them to it.’

Chipping in, with a huge smile across her face, Jenny adds: ‘Being able to properly connect with families is both the best and worst part of our job. We establish such a close relationship with expecting mothers, their partners and existing children – if they have

any. When I was working for the NHS, quite a lot of the time when I’d go in to help deliver a baby I’d be meeting the families for the first time, but now I can remember the names of family members, job roles and what their beliefs and fears are. It’s like having 10 friends.

‘When it comes to leaving, we have to wean ourselves away and I think we need that as much as our clients.’

Although, as with many good things, there’s always some negatives involved. In this instance it’s bittersweet. Sarah recalls that when they tell women they have a choice and are in full control of their own births they’re often left in shock. She says: ‘According to the annual NHS statistics, at the minute in the

UK, the induction rate is 50%, but ours is 3.3%, which is how it should be. Back in the day being induced was a huge deal and it should still be a truly informed decision.

‘At the end of the day, it’s our job to provide families with the necessary information based on their pregnancy, but it’s up to them to decide how they want to proceed. It’ll never feel normal to me that pregnant women discuss when their induction date is with other expectant mothers at weekly prenatal groups or yoga classes.

Giving birth isn’t like scheduling in a weekly coffee date, it’s one of the most important days of your life. You wouldn’t book a big wedding the day you wanted to get married, you pour loads of time and effort into planning and giving birth should be the same.’

On the topic of effort, the amount of time these women have poured into their company is amazing. Although it’s only been running for two years, My Independent Midwife, which provides services in Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Manchester and surrounding areas, was named the best private midwifery care provider in the UK at LUXLife Magazine’s 2024 Parent and Baby Awards.

‘The support we’ve received since creating our business has been incredible,’ Sarah says. ‘But the support that went on behind the scenes whilst we were in the process of setting up was also amazing.’

She explains: ‘Zest Midwives have a directory of all the independent midwives in the UK and so we all support this. We’re like a big community and we all train

together and support each other. There’s constantly someone asking if anyone’s got the most recent piece of research to hand about a certain pregnancy condition and someone is always quick to help.

‘We all also share the same view that women should know as much as possible about their birth before they decide on how they want to do it. I understand that a lot of women don’t want to go private, but if I could offer any mum-to-be one piece of advice it would be to try and educate yourself as much as possible on pregnancy and childbirth. Giving birth is one of life’s greatest pleasures and families should enjoy the experience every step of the way.’

MOTORS

Quentin Willson IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Quentin Willson is one of the UK’s best-known motoring faces. He was a Top Gear presenter for over a decade, wrote and presented BBC2’s The Car’s The Star and started Channel 5’s Fifth Gear. He is an enthusiastic EV campaigner, having co-founded FairCharge which works to ensure the UK has the right EV-related policies for the environment, economy and drivers. Interview by Paul Day

You’ve spent your adult life working with cars, were you obsessed with them as a boy? It occurred to me at an early age, maybe 10 or 12, that cars were fabulous symbols that could change your importance in life. They could make you look younger, or more mature than you are. More prosperous, more successful. And I just gravitated towards them.

When I was 11 my dad bought me a Ford Anglia engine for my birthday, he got it from a scrapyard. I dismantled it and then got it working, much to the annoyance of the neighbour because it had no exhaust, so when you fired it up there was this huge noise. And then somebody gave me the AA Book of the Car for a birthday, so by about 15 I was pretty good on cars. The teachers at school would come and court my advice.

Then I realised I could buy cars and then sell them for a profit. So even before I got my license I was buying little Frogeyed Sprites for 200 quid and sell them for 350. My mum would drive them round for me.

So by the time I got to university, I’ve got this little kind of stash of money and cars were so cheap then. So while everyone on campus was driving around in minis and escorts, there am I in a wildly unsuitable, mauve Jensen Interceptor and a sheepskin coat.

When I got my grant for buying books at university I bought a Granada GXL with it instead and pretended I was Jack Regan in The Sweeney, smoking Piccadilly cigarettes. But it was just part of this illusion that makes you a new and better person if you’ve got a posh car.

How did you get involved in the industry?

This lovely man, Steve Cropley, identified me as somebody who knew about cars but could also write - particularly about secondhand cars. He started a magazine called ‘Buying Cars’ and it got noticed. I got a call from a man at the BBC who sounded like a vicar. He said, would you come and do a screen test? And the rest, as they say is history.

When did EVs first come in to your life?

I’ve come from the dark side haven’t I? I’ve spent a large part of my broadcasting career telling people to buy these large, multi-cylindered cars but while I was going Top Gear I was also driving electric cars, much to Clarkson’s mirth. I was one of the first journalists in the UK to drive a thing called the GMEV1, which was

wonderful - the first production EV in the world. I drove it on Sunset Boulevard and I was thinking, blimey, this is good. It was out-accelerating everything in sight, and looked cool. I said ‘this is the future and one day we might all be driving these’. GM then crushed them all because, you know, they didn’t want the EV1 to interfere with their global combustion car business. And then we didn’t get proper production electrics cars till probably 2009.

What was the first EV you owned? The first one I bought was a ferociously expensive, miserable, hateful little car, which would only do about 50 miles on one charge. The children had to go to school in their hats and coats, freezing, ‘daddy why can’t we have the heater on?’ And the low battery warning light would come on: ‘are we going to get home? What’s going to happen to us?’

I love classic cars and we’ll carry on getting lots of enjoyment out of them, but the combustion engine has had its day.

As a family, we did all our motoring in these electric cars for years and years. I bought a Leaf, then a Zoe and now I’ve got a Tesla and it does 300 miles to one charge. The only combustion car I have now is a 60 year old Ford Mustang, which paid off its embedded carbon debt long, long ago.

So I decided: this technology works. We need to do something about it. And also, living in London, you just have to run your finger along the window ledge and it’s black with diesel particulate. I’d walk along Marylebone Road in the traffic and you got that metallic taste in the back of your throat.

That’s when I decided to start this campaign called Fair Charge. And we’ve been campaigning for electric cars ever since.

A lot of people driving EVs they say they miss the throb and the rattle of an ice engine. You never found that? You were quite happy to drive along in silence? Yes, because if you understand about cars you realise that you’re got all that friction - all that flailing around of cogs and wheels and chains and pistons and camshafts - and you understand that 70% of that power is lost by the time it gets to the rear wheels. And they breakdown so much and they cost so much to service. I had a Bentley once and I took it in for service and that’s £5,000 please. And so for me, it’s a kind of liberation. My current car will do 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds, which is faster than most Ferraris. And it’s quiet, it’s refined, it’s smooth and for me, the arch petrolhead, I don’t feel that I’ve made any sacrifices.

I love classic cars and I think we will carry on owning and driving them, and getting lots of enjoyment out of them. But the combustion engine, that’s been around for 120 years, it’s had its day.

Are you happy with where we are now in terms of transitioning the country to EVs?

I think that we’re in at very difficult stage where all the early adopters have bought electric cars and the fleets are running around in them quite happily - we have a million electric cars on the UK roads - but

getting the private buyers to make that jump is really difficult.

If we’re not careful, we won’t have this transition and we’ll go back to fossil fuels. And that’s a real problem for me. So to answer your question, we need to pull our fingers out fast, otherwise, the Chinese will just sweep us away with their £15,000 EVs that can do 300 miles.

Hardly any car manufacturers over are making cheap EVs, they’re making big SUVs with electric engines and they are just too expensive.

Yes, this is what legacy auto does. They just carry on doing what they’ve always done and they took their big SUVs and then strapped a battery in the bottom and charged anything up to 100 grand, thinking, ‘well this is what the public wants.’ I guess they’re protecting their profit margins but it’s backfired on them spectacularly.

What we really need is the little £10,000, £15,000 no-frills electric car. The profits are difficult on electric cars, we know that, but the cost of batteries and raw materials are coming down significantly.

Would you rather the Chinese were able to supply us or do you think it’s more important to protect our motor industry?

It’s a really difficult question. We should protect our domestic motor industry in the UK. There are 800,000 jobs in the supply chain and billions and billions of pounds of economic activity, but legacy auto have shot themselves in the foot.

I want consumers to have cheap, affordable electric cars that are well made and go for long distances and you think, well, if they come from China, maybe we’ve got to have them. But we’re in such a parlous position that it’s very difficult. I remember talking to the CEO of a very, very wellknown car company in the UK years ago who told me EVs were ‘just a passing fad’ and they continued down their road of diesels and confused model strategy. And now they’re blinking into the headlights of this tsunami of Chinese cars. They got it wrong.

All I’d say to anybody who isn’t an EV convert, who’s thinking about buying one, talk to someone who owns one!

On the Fair Charge website, you call for more measures to help lower income drivers to be able to access EVs. Is there anything that we can do apart from reducing the VAT on public? There’s a whole raft of options you can do. We campaigned with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders to cut the VAT on brand new EVs and second-hand EVs. That would knock 20% off the price of a used EV in some cases. Government needs to pull more levers to make this work - put signs where the electric charges are, so people know that we’ve got an existing infrastructure. China’s got 2.7 million electric charging points and we’ve got 53,000. You put your head in your hands and say, Why are we so behind?

And there must be ways that we can help people without driveways, who can’t charge at home, who are on lower incomes, to have electric

cars and to have zero tailpipe emission. There are salary sacrifice firms like Tusker who help many 20% taxpayers: nurses and factory workers and shop workers and that’s very successful. And we see when that happens that you get a 85% to 90% satisfaction rate in their electric car.

We could also redeploy a lot of the second-hand cars that come off leases and from companies who are essentially dumping into a second-hand market and letting dealers buy them. Can we not repurpose those, so we can create a funded model where people on lower incomes have access to an electric car and a charging point?

Do you think anti-EV sentiment is getting worse?

It’s a wedge issue and we’ve got this left versus right thing. The left likes electric cars, they think they’re smart, wearing polo-necks and driving Teslas. The right hates them because they want their diesel pickups and it’s been really badly messaged. So you’ve got people learning about electric cars on Facebook, and listening to that stuff, which is being amplified again and again and again. It’s nonsense.

There are people now saying that they’re EVs are more polluting than production cars because of the particulates from the tyres. I talked to Kwik Fit about this recently and I said ‘would you please tell us the party line on this? And he said the wear is slightly more because people tend to drive them faster but broadly, the wear patterns they see are similar to combustion cars. So, where does that come from?

There are newspapers who like to run these stories. The Mail did one which was pages and pages of things that are wrong with EVs, just because Aston Martin weren’t able to produce a battery they were happy with. It’s clickbait because the advertising revenue is down and they need clicks for their reach. So that’s part of the problem.

Because of all this, all I’d say to anybody who isn’t an EV convert, who’s thinking about buying one, talk to someone who owns one! There’s a million EVs driving around in the UK and we don’t hear the voices of those people, those are the voices that we’re not hearing and I think it would be good if we did it.

Maybe I should do something about that…

Chrome Motors returns to Macclesfield

Chrome Motors, a respected family-owned dealership, is thrilled to return to Macclesfield, the town where it all began. Now located in The Old Stables at the corner of Brook Street and the A523 Silk Road, Chrome brings its nationally recognised service back to its roots. Founded over 20 years ago by Danny and Natalie Towns, the dealership has evolved from a small local business to a celebrated national dealership, known for its hand-selected, high-quality preowned vehicles and commitment to a customer-first experience.

“Macclesfield has always been home,” says founder Danny Towns. “We started Chrome here, raised our family here, and serving this community is personal for us.”

Originally based on Beech Lane, Chrome Motors quickly built a reputation for excellence,

earning awards from AutoTrader, CarGurus, and Car Dealer Reviews. It’s now the top-ranked dealership in Cheshire and Macclesfield and ranks among the top 40 in the UK. The dealership also buys vehicles, providing honest, professional valuations. Customers enjoy the family-run feel, with interactions often handled personally by Danny, Natalie, and their team.

With extensive experience, Danny remains dedicated to raising industry standards, collaborating with AutoTrader, MotoNovo Finance, and Car Gurus to address the challenges facing independent dealers. Outside of sales, Chrome Motors is actively engaged in the Macclesfield community, sponsoring Macclesfield Rugby Club and Langley Cricket Club, supporting charity events, and contributing to efforts to attract visitors to the area.

Chrome Motors warmly welcomes customers, old and new, to experience its unique service. Contact Chrome at 07904 803 760

SPORT & LEISURE

More than a game...

Macclesfield Rugby Club celebrates its 150th year at the heart of the community.

By Janet Reeder

If the game of Rugby Union conjures up an image of tough guys covered in mud facing everything that can be flung at them then you haven’t been down to your local rugby club lately.

While that kind of action on the pitch still happens, Macclesfield Rugby Club has become a thriving venue, welcoming players, party goers and more.

It’s been 150 years since the 8th Cheshire Rifle Volunteers brought the game to Macclesfield and rugby enthusiast JW Thorp won the accolade “Father of Macclesfield Rugby” before becoming president of the RFU. Since then, the club has been transformed into a community hub albeit one with the game very much at its heart.

Now you are as likely to see boys and girls playing together in the under 11s Mini team, as you are watching burly men scoring tries for their town. Or maybe a gathering of Slimming World clients, or people enjoying the club’s big Christmas lunch on Dec 14th

One of the flourishing areas of the club is the women’s team which had an incredible 2023/2024 season with a 100% win rate against competitors in the Inner Warrior group. In fact, the 2024/2025 season will be the first time Macc Rugby Club will have a women’s team playing league rugby.

This has presented a challenge for the club, which prides itself upon fostering talent from an early age.

Andy Appleyard General Manager of Macclesfield Rugby Club explains: “In the last three years we have established a women’s section and last year they were really successful and now are in an official league and going from strength to strength. The question is, how do we maintain that? So obviously there’s a big focus on girls rugby to hopefully drive them through the system and into the women’s team.

“We are currently trying to develop our girl’s section and have a few girls on our books, but it is definitely an area we are focusing on.”

Andy, a former RFU development coach, admits that rugby has always been a difficult game to promote when faced with the enormous popularity of football but once people get into it, they find themselves hooked.

“The boys youth side is really popular, and it does help that we have King’s on our doorstep which is quite an established rugby school,” he says.

“There has been a strong relationship between the school and the club for a long time. And there’s some great work being done in the other local schools as well. Tristran Wood has been working voluntarily with the local schools and delivering rugby and putting on competitions here so we’ve seen quite a few boys who wouldn’t normally pay rugby take part. The idea is to obviously get those lads playing for the club. That’s a programme that has been working really well and we hope we can build on Tristran’s good work moving on.

“Ultimately we want to get as many people as possible playing rugby in the town and then seeing the young people hopefully transferring into the senior sections.”

There are currently three men’s senior teams at Macclesfield, the first and second team, with the first playing semi-professional rugby at level four since their promotion from Regional 1 North West 1 to National 2 West, the second team play in Division 1 of the Northern Merit Leagues, then they have a third team which is more of a social affair but still playing good competitive rugby.

“Anyone can pitch up and play for the thirds. They are in a league, so it is competitive but its full of good local lads who like to play rugby and just enjoy themselves. It’s really popular and all about having a good time.”

There’s also a walking rugby team at the club, aimed at those who enjoy the sport but whose mobility isn’t what is used to be.

“It’s mainly made up of people new to the game, mums and dads from the mini and youth section and ex-players who can’t do the contact rugby anymore,” explains Andy.

“So, they turn up on Thursday at seven O’ clock and they play an adapted game of walking rugby which I am told is really fun.”

The club has also spawned some standout players including Macc lad Tommy Taylor who plays for Sale Sharks.

“He was coaching with us last year and helped the first team to their promotion” reveals Andy.

“And we’ve also got a few young lads who have recently represented England under 18s Olly Davies and Toby Wilson. Stars in the making,”

The 150th anniversary has been a fantastic chance to highlight what an asset the club is to the community, not only through its sports programmes but as a brilliant location.

Macclesfield Rugby Club Girls team

We want to be a community hub, a place where people can come and enjoy themselves.” “

Andy

Appleyard General Manager at Macclesfield Rugby Club

The clubhouse which nestles picturesquely at Park Priory lane on the Macclesfield/Prestbury border is a destination venue which is open to the public whether they want to hold a party, function, wedding, or just feel like grabbing a swift pint at the bar. You can book the venue by contacting: venue@maccrugby.co.uk

1st Team Saturday Fixtures are very popular as the rugby attracts many to support the town, usually every other week kicking off at 3pm.

“We do have other sports here,” adds Andy.

“We have a football team based here, UK lacrosse playing and lots of other activities going on. There are numerous birthday parties, weddings and meetings and we are quite versatile about what we are doing. We want to be a community hub. We are very proud of the rugby and that’s always going to be at the heart of it but, we are passionate about having great connections in the community and it being a place where people can come and enjoy themselves.”

“We pride ourselves on being a strong family environment especially during daytimes. Upstairs the main room is made to be a blank canvas so when people have events, they can put their own stamp on it.

“The venue side of the club has got much better, but we still have our Spiral Lounge, a quality space for the community to just come and have a pint,

the lounge has a rugby related sports bar type feel to it with some massive HD screens for the perfect sports viewing. We are definitely open to the public and if anything, we want more people from the community coming along.”

Another important aspect of the 150th anniversary has been the fundraising side. The club has been selling wall tiles so that people can have their names inscribed on the wall “for another 150 years,” they had a successful Oktoberfest which raised a substantial amount of money and there have been several rugbyrelated events devised by each team designed to raise much-needed cash, all events can be seen of the rugby club website.

The money says Andy will go to improve the pitches as that is the fairest way to ensure that every team benefits. And of course they have lots of support from the community.

“Our main sponsor is Money Guru who have been very supportive for over 6 seasons, but we also have a number of key sponsors” says Andy.

“There are lots of good people who are linked to the club some way. We do have some great external connections as well. It is really important we have those sponsors as we couldn’t operate in the way we do without them. Their help and support go a long way, and we really appreciate it.”

If you or your child is interested in having a go at rugby, contact the relevant person below:

• For Mini & Youth rugby, please email: nicky.griffin@maccrugby.co.uk

• For Senior Rugby, please email: matt.coleridge@maccrugby.co.uk

• If you’re interested in supporting the club please email: robert.oliver@maccrugby.co.uk

To find out more about the club and its events and fixtures, scan the QR or visit: www.macclesfieldrufc.co.uk

What’s on?

THEATRE & DANCE

24 November

FOLLOW THE STAR! AT THE BOLLINGTON ARTS CENTRE

A Bollington Festival Music Theatre performance. Admission is free but donations will be welcome!

2-7 December

THE WATSONS – AT MADS LITTLE THEATRE IN MACCLESFIELD

This amature production has been adapted by Laura Wade from the unfinished novel by Jane Austen!

6 December - 1 January

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK AT THE BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

Join Jack and a talented cast for lots of festive fun, wonderful music and an huge amount of Christmas magic.

14-23 December

RUMPELSTILTSKIN AT THE PAVILION ARTS CENTRE

A new spin on the traditional tale and explore Rumpel’s story as it’s never been seen before.

COMEDY

First Friday of Every Month

BUXTON BUZZ COMEDY CLUB AT THE PAVILION ARTS CENTRE

Quality stand-up to leave you in stitches. Upcoming 2024 dates: 6 Dec

6 December

MACCLESFIELD COMEDY CLUB

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL AT CINEMAC

Live stand up comedy from some of the very best in the business! It’s going to be a Christmas Cracker!

8 December

RUSSELL KANE: HYPERACTIVE AT THE BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

The presenter, actor and author Russell Kane is out on the road again with his hilarious new tour.

13 December

AVALON PRESENTS – THE COMEDY NETWORK AT STOCKPORT PLAZA Avalon presents The Biggest Stars Of Tomorrow TODAY! Live comedy at its best in The Plaza Green Room.

COMMUNITY

11-12 January

EAST CHESHIRE HOSPICE 2025

CHRISTMAS TREE COLLECTION

Dispose of your real Christmas tree in an eco-friendly way while supporting a vital local charity! Visit www.echtrees.org.uk or call 01625 708939 to register your tree!

FAMILY FUN

Last Sunday of Every Month TREACLE MARKET MACCLESFIELD

Discover 160+ stalls of amazing crafts, food, drink & vintage finds. Upcoming 2024 dates: 24 Nov | 22 Dec

16 November - 23 December

YULETIDE: A GLITTERING WINTER GARDEN ADVENTURE

Spectacular family fun as winter myths and stories come to life at Tatton Park Gardens.

23 November - 24 December

FATHER CHRISTMAS AT THE FARM AT TATTON PARK

Visit the festive grotto, every Saturday & Sunday on the run up to Christmas. (Also 23-24 December).

29 November - 1 December CHRISTMAS GIFT FAIR AT TATTON PARK

A shopping experience inside Tenants Hall – a wing of the mansion not usually open to the public.

30 November STEP INTO CHRISTMAS MACCLESFIELD TOWN CENTRE

Join us in welcoming Christmas to Macclesfield. FREE crafts for kids, plus a variety music, food and drink.

30 November - 1 December CHRISTMAS WREATH MAKING WITH NORTH AND FLOWER

A festive workshop at Tatton Park, perfect for adding a personal touch to your Christmas decorations.

7-29 December (9am - 4pm)

TEGG’S NOSE COUNTRY PARK ELF HUNT

The Elves are on the loose can you find them all & collect their names? Maps available in the Visitor Centre.

8 December

TATTON PARK - YULE YOMP 10K 2024 BY RUN NORTH WEST

Perfect for both club runners seeking to place and recreational runners enjoying a festive event.

12 December

TWILIGHT MARKET IN MACCLESFIELD TOWN CENTRE

Christmas gifts from the Made in Macc market stalls, plus mulled wine and food from local providers.

17 December

DEER FEED SAFARI AT TATTON PARK

Join the expert ranger team for an exclusive opportunity to get up close to Tatton’s ancient deer herd.

MUSIC & FESTIVALS

Every Tuesday from 7pm BUTTON LIVE LOUNGE

Every Sunday from 2:30-4:30pm SUNDAY SESSIONS

Free entry, amazing music and chilled vibes at Button Warehouse.

7 December

MACCLESFIELD MALE VOICE

CHOIR - ST MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS

Tickets available at the Tourist Information Centres in Macclesfield & Congleton and Bollington Library.

22 December

CHRISTMAS CAROLS IN THE STABLEYARD – TATTON PARK

Free event, no booking required! Sing-along to Christmas carols and songs in the twinkling Stableyard.

26 December

GRAND BOXING DAY CONCERT AT THE BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

Performed by Burbage Band (Buxton) one of the oldest brass bands in the world, formed in 1861!

31 December

NEW YEAR’S EVE GALA CONCERT AT THE BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

Bring in the new year in style with live music from The British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

31 December

THE VIRGINMARYS PERFORMING LIVE AT CINEMAC

The Virginmarys return to perform in their hometown of Macclesfield on New Year’s Eve.

Christmas in crackers Macclesfield

Emily Whitehouse sits down with stand-up comedian Jonathan Mayor to find out more about Macclesfield’s growing comedy scene. Who said small towns had to be boring?

Image credit:

“ Hilarious. Charmingly vicious. ”

JASON MANFORD Comedian and Presenter

“ Marvellously wicked!”

SARAH MILLICAN Comedian

“Very funny.”

MICHAEL PALIN Actor and Comedian

“Cinemac will always be one of my favourite places to host shows. The venue is really freaky and legend claims it’s haunted!”

Jonathan Mayor Comedian

A comedy group and a host walk into a Sunday school…Not the start of a joke, but essentially a summary of how one of Macclesfield’s oldest landmarks came to be the town’s biggest comedy venue. The Cinemac first opened in 2003, based in the Heritage Centre on Roe Street, previously a Sunday school which had been established in 1814. The building’s high ceilings, fold out chairs and stone staircases offer a subtle nod to its background, though its rich history also makes for exceptional comedy material.

“The comedy scene in Macclesfield is evolving,” says Jonathan Mayor, the host of Macclesfield’s Comedy Club nights. “And the Cinemac is one of our favourite places to perform. Our comedy group, which is represented by Nodding Dog Comedy, started performing in Macclesfield in 2021 when we played at the rugby club, but we moved to RedWillow Brewery a year later and started performing at the Cinemac in 2022.”

“Currently, we put on two standup shows at the RedWillow each month and one at the cinema,

if it can even be classed as that. Only in the North would you find a building that has a museum of its history on the ground floor and a cinema that doubles up as a live entertainment venue on the top. Although people seem to love it - most of our shows here sell out, which isn’t an easy target to achieve given the venue seats 280 people,” Jonathan continues.

Putting it into context, hundreds of well-known and aspiring comics have appeared on the line-up. The shows have established themselves as a stop-off on the regional circuit for emerging stand-up comedians. The latest performance at the Cinemac, which premiered on 4th October, saw future comedy legends Glenn Moore and Anja Atkinson play to a sold-out crowd. What’s more, a show in the summer included Tom Wrigglesworth, a multi-awardwinning act who is best known for his Radio 4 shows.

The line-up for the next performance maintains this standard. On Friday 6th December the event will feature Andrew Bird, who has just appeared on The Russell Howard Hour and Finn

Taylor, who’s making his debut in Macclesfield following the success of his web series Finn Vs The Internet. I guarantee the jokes will be better than those in your Christmas cracker.

Although the performers change with each show, one thing that remains the same is the resident compère, Jonathan Mayor. He claims that since he started comedy in 1993, the gigs in Macclesfield are some of his favourite.

“I didn’t even mean to create a career in comedy, I just fell into it,” Jonathan laughs as I ask him about where it all began. “When I was younger, I wanted to become an opera singer, but I didn’t get into the Royal Northern College of Music. After that I ended up joining a gay rugby team in Manchester and one of the guys had a pub where he’d host a quiz night on a weekend. The questions were incredibly complicated – they were all concerning science and maths – and eventually the guy I was friends with asked if I would host it to make it more accessible for other members of the public.”

(c) Andy Hollingworth Archive

“There was one night where a woman, who had been horrible to me throughout the entire quiz, shouted at me for apparently delivering the wrong answer, so I said to her ‘if you keep being mean I’ll take five points off your team’ which made the rest of the pub howl. After this, future quizzes turned into me doing a lot of crowd work – I would deduct points off people if I didn’t like what they were wearing, or I’d ask questions about what TV or films people liked and if I hated them, I’d issue penalties.” Jonathan adds.

“It was here that I learned I loved to make people laugh and shortly after hosting a few quizzes, I booked my first ‘proper’ comedy gig at a place in Manchester called the Buzz Club. Though, as much as I enjoy performing my own shows, I prefer being the host because they get more time on stage and can engage in a lot more crowd work.”

Jonathan goes on to explain that, although he landed a few shows, breaking into the industry was still hard for him. He says: “I moved to London for a month in the 90s and I hated it, I found the people weren’t very welcoming and I had a ‘normal’ job that didn’t pay very well so it was hard to

get my comedy career off the ground. However, after I came back to Manchester and started playing more regularly in Northern cities, I was able to drop down to part-time hours in my office job and explore the comedy scene a bit more.”

“The reception in the North and the places you get to perform also make it worth exploring,” Jonathan continues. “For example Macclesfield’s Cinemac will always be one of my favourite places to host shows. The venue is really freaky, legend claims it’s haunted and not so long-ago people held a séance there and allegedly summoned the spirits of the old children that attended the Sunday school. I’m not sure how much I believe this, but at the start of my gigs I try and summon them, although I haven’t had any luck yet.”

As well as complimenting Macclesfield’s venues, Jonathan also explains that the crowds they gather never disappoint. He says: “One of the best parts about booking a reoccurring gig in a small town is you get to know faces. The community in Macclesfield are amazing and we often get the same regulars. There is this one wonderful woman who always comes to

our Cinemac nights called Linda. She’s registered deaf although you wouldn’t think it – she has the most infectious laugh; it pretty much fills the entire building.”

However, Jonathan goes on to note that sustaining a decent sized crowd hasn’t always been easy. “The COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living has had devastating effects on the comedy scene. Not only do people not have as much money to spend on nights out, but some comedians – especially new ones – don’t have the funds to travel miles to venues,” Jonathan remarks. “This is why gigs in smaller towns are so important, they give young aspiring comics the chance to perform on stage and they provide residents with entertainment on their doorstep.”

Jonathan adds: “During my career I’ve had the pleasure of performing alongside Sarah Millican and MC-ing a few of her new material gigs. I’m also just about to go on tour with Janet Taylor who has written a new play called Varnish. These have all been massive highlights, but I’m more than happy just performing in smaller venues because, at the end of the day, I just want to keep making people laugh.”

Jonathan Mayor, Macclesfield Comedy Club’s long-standing host, describes himself as ‘the forgotten Bollywood love-child of Hinge and Bracket, Kenneth Williams and Eddie Izzard.’

(c) Andy Hollingworth Archive

(c) Old Woollen

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