Castle street was renewed in 2021 and in doing so the council have chosen an assortment of rock types to make this area of the town really stand out. The building on the corner the old Cheshire Building Society was formerly the old post office and telephone exchange. It is an imposing building constructed in 1925 as the main post office for Macclesfield.
Works to reform Castle Street involved the removal of the old concrete paving slabs and tarmac street. The works were completed in 2021 using natural stone pavers for the foot path and harder wearing granite cobblestones along the roadway and showing its unique kerbstones inlaid with rock extracts from the poem written by Jacqui Wood 'A Love Letter To Macc'
Dear Macc,
Drawn to you
I fell in love straight away
With the proud landscape and culture of a silk town.
This place is real, it breathes that landscape and shouts its history
Refreshing, challenging, inspiring,
Macclesfield, you are my home and I love you.
I remember
Stepping off the train into your arms, as if meeting for the first time,
The space between platform 1 and the street
With the dipper singing down on the river Bollin,
Knowing its song will echo off the buildings
Hidden spaces, hidden yards.
The thrum of passing cars on the silk road.
We hadn’t known each other long
But you were soon in my heart with your creative edge,
Passionate people and cobbled streets
Nestling in the hills.
I love your green spaces, Herons and kingfishers in Riverside Park
Your skies, grey, blue, sunny, windy, cloudy: always changing.
I love stepping out of my front door and quickly being up high looking down on you,
I love the hills, the mills; cobbles, curves, canals and concrete.
Close in, far out, family, friends, colleagues, chance met in random spaces.
Adopted home and launch pad for the stars.
I love Miss Dale’s oatcakes, and Fittons pies
The train station, my house, the football ground,
The indoor market, the Fent Shop, Print Mill and Art Space.
Sunsets viewed from Sunderland Street.
The raw beauty of the forest
A town to be proud of.
I’m glad I’m here with you In the park out of my back gate or Granelli’s ice cream parlour,
Playing on the red slide in West Park,
Watching films at Cinemac, roller skating at the MAC
Quirky shops, tea rooms, The Monocle deli, the Heritage Centre, Arighis
Brassington’s lemon buns,
Beer, gin, art, rain, silk, memory.
Turning a street corner and always a view, just brilliant.
Church bells ringing for people to hear all over the town
A proper town.
Thank you for coming back to life
First in orange
Then in treacle
And now in all of the cafes
Where people actually want to eat.
I am proud, to come home to Macc.
Thank you for all the weather.
For the green of my garden, the woods and the drystone walls.
Thank you for the folk of Macc,
Friends new and old - warm, helpful, straight to the point,
They feel like a whole family to me.
Cultural collaborators, comrades in parenthood.
I love that Macclesfield people are people I can have a right belly laugh with.
I’ve lived in places where that wasn’t the case,
And that could be lonely. So thank you
You provided me with a Northern grounding,
A sense of history, humour, sadness and sorrow.
You have been the background of beauty where our children grew.
A vibrant, engaging and safe place to raise our family.
You have shaped their dreams. Thank you.
Thank you for Barnaby, Treacle and silk: a heritage and history for us all.
When I look back to the accidental way I found you,
It seems almost impossibly unlikely.
But here, together, we ended up
And here we’ve flourished, and cried, and grown, and lost.
And throughout it all, there’s been you, constant: stone, and hills, and rain,
And brilliant, unexpected sun. I’d never expected to be so well-nested.
A lucky bird indeed.
Lots of love,
The people of Macclesfield
The final cache is about a 5 minute walk away and can be located at
N HP° AB.(F-G)IK W G° (N-O).L(H+C)(Q-J)
1. WP 1 What date was the stone laid? DD/MM/YYYY = AB/CD/EFGH
2. WP 2 What date was Castle Street originally opened? DD/MM/YYYY = IJ/KL/MNOP
3. How many letters are in the final word of the extract found on Castle Street? = Q
References
https://cheshireeast-consult.objective.co.uk/kseapi/public/files/5537394
https://lovelettertomacc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/lovelettertomaccfull.pdf
Check here http://www.geochecker.com/index.php?code=c7d99d8252c494622f519211dfa16d5e&action=check&wp=47433952374543&name=412d6c6f76652d6c65747465722d746f2d6d616363