STOCKPORT, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Lancashire (in part) and Cheshire (in part), England, 6 m. S.E. of Manchester. Pop. (1931) 125,505. The boundaries of Manchester and Stockport meet in Levenshulme. The ancient town stood on the slopes of a narrow gorge where the rivers Tame and Goyt join to form the Mersey, but the modern town has extended on to the more level land above. There are many river bridges and a lofty railway viaduct bestrides the gorge. Stockport is served by the L.M.S., L.N.E. and Cheshire Lines railways. Electric tramways connect it with Manchester. The town is an important industrial and railway centre. Its industries include cotton and felt hat manufactures, the construction of machinery for the cotton trade, motor and electrical engineering, bleaching and dyeing, and the manufacture of leather and of foodstuffs. The public buildings include the church of St. Mary (built about 1817) with portions of earlier date and a Decorated east window ; St. George's church (1897) ; St. Mark's church (1921) ; the town hall (1908), designed by Sir Brunwell Thomas; the central library (1913), the grammar school (1916) and the Hall of Memory. In all there are 214 ac. of parks. The Kinder water
works (1912) have a reservoir covering 44 acres. The old Stock port grammar school was founded in 1447 and the Stockport Sun day school (founded 1784) is one of the largest in the kingdom. Stockport returns two members to parliament. It was enfran chised in 1832, incorporated 1835, and became a county borough in 1888. Richard Cobden represented Stockport in parliament from 1841 to During the Roman occupation there was a small military sta tion on the site of Stockport, at the junction of two Roman roads. The etymology of the name may be Saxon, but there is no evi dence of a Saxon settlement, and the place is not mentioned in Domesday. A castle was in existence in the 12th century, but is not mentioned after 1327. Stockport (Stokeporte, Stopport, Stopford) was made a free borough by a charter of Robert de Stokeport about 1220. Thus Stockport was not a true municipal borough until formally incorporated under the Municipal Corpo rations Act of 1835.