Norbury, Greater Manchester

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Norbury was a civil parish in Cheshire, covering the southern part of Hazel Grove. In 1900 it was abolished and merged into the new civil parish of Hazel Grove and Bramhall. That area later became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester in 1974. The Norbury name isn’t widely used for the area today, but the Church of England parish for Hazel Grove is still officially called St Thomas, Norbury. The name also appears in Norbury Hall Primary School, Norbury Brook, and the Norbury Moor housing estate built in the 1960s on the southern edge of Hazel Grove.

Historically, Norbury was a township in the ancient parish of Stockport, in Cheshire’s Macclesfield Hundred. From the 17th century, parishes took on civil duties for poor relief, often carried out by townships. In 1866 the law defined parish boundaries for this work, making Norbury a civil parish.

There was a small chapel in Norbury by Macclesfield Road, used by Nonconformist ministers in the 17th century. By the 1830s the chapel was ruinous, and a new church, St Thomas, was built on the edge of Hazel Grove and completed in 1834. In 1842 the ecclesiastical parish St Thomas, Norbury was created, initially covering Norbury. It was enlarged in 1878 to include all of Hazel Grove.

When parish and district councils were created in 1894, Norbury joined Stockport Rural District. Five parishes (Bramhall, Bosden, Norbury, Offerton, and Torkington) resisted being absorbed by Stockport, so Cheshire County Council formed the Hazel Grove and Bramhall urban district, which included Norbury in 1900.

In 1891 the population of Norbury was 1,495. Hazel Grove and Bramhall became part of Stockport in 1974. The church remains called St Thomas, Norbury, known today as Norbury Church or St Thomas, Hazel Grove. The Norbury Moor housing estate was built in the 1960s to the south of Hazel Grove.