After Macclesfield’s FA Cup giantkilling, the quiet Cheshire town remains suitably unassuming in the spotlight after years of heartbreak
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long the passenger bridge at Macclesfield railway station, a frieze celebrates the town’s history. Towards the far platform it reads “1874, Macclesfield Town established”. The next entry is “1979, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures released”. Local humour has it that for 105 years nothing happened in Macclesfield. “Macc’s Macc,” say those who know of a place where change is for ever slow, many Maxonians happy enough with that.
The town, in the east of Cheshire, a gateway to England’s north-west, is a classic northern mill town, though silk was the product not cotton. It once would have been described as a bustling market town until falling victim to the nationwide death of the high street, its Marks & Spencer branch boarded up in disuse and footfall low. That said, the outdoor Treacle Market, selling artisan foods and trinkets, held on the last Sunday of each month, claims to be the region’s “biggest monthly event”.
As the railway bridge suggests, football cleaves to the town’s heart. Macclesfield FC knocking out the holders, Crystal Palace, in the FA Cup’s greatest shock has shone welcome light on Macc’s football heritage. Before the Silkmen attempt a repeat performance against Brentford on Monday, though, strolling through the town’s cobbles and pedestrianised zones finds scant mention of such seismic success. In days gone by, local newspaper billboards might have reflected the excitement but the Macclesfield Express, produced in Manchester, confines any hype to its website and its slimline weekly edition.
