Made in Macclesfield

Macclesfield has plenty of thriving small businesses, many of which have been going strong for over a hundred years. New and old, every one of them celebrates, enriches and enhances the town’s unique and independent character.

 

The best ice-cream...

First of all, you haven’t really visited Macclesfield until you’ve had a Granelli’s ice-cream. Angelo Granelli came to Macclesfield from Genoa in 1890 to join his uncle who had a sweet shop here, and Granelli’s ice-cream was born. 120 years on, it is still run by the same family and is still only sold in and around Macclesfield. Their vans are a familiar sight all around the region, and you can visit their Newton Street premises where there is a mini-museum and shop selling forty different flavours – including the local favourite, TreacleTown!
Granelli’s 74 Newton Street Tel: 01625 424391        

     

A few good pubs...

Ask any Maxonian which is the best pub in town and each one will give you a different answer. Do you want music or conversation? Blues or jazz? Local ale or Belgian bottled? Book groups or quiz nights?  Sky Sports or Scrabble? Resident ghosts or rude landladies? We wouldn’t presume to venture an opinion but plenty of folk will! If you're still in doubt, check out the latest Loop or look online for news and reviews of all Macclesfield’s favourite haunts.

 

Our own brew...

And of course it is essential to try the local ales. Macclesfield’s own award-winning Storm Brewing Company produces a range of seventeen different beers at its brewery within a former pub in the town centre – all with lovely names to conjure with. Arrange a visit to the brewery and enjoy a pint at its own Altar of Ale!

Bollington Brewery has a firm foothold in the town now too, with its own pub, the Park tavern on Park Lane, and its range of ales widely available throughout the town.

 

Favourites for food...

Narrowboaters on the Macclesfield Canal are known to moor up specially to come to Cheshire Gap on Mill Street – the local independent deli and café with a fabulous selection of breads, cheeses, cakes, pies, and little gourmet treats! Spearing’s pies are famously popular, additive free using locally reared meat, from Marshall Spearing Butchers on Park Green – which has been there for about 70 years.

 

...and fabric

And as you would expect of a real textile town, there are some fantastic fabric shops – The Fent Shop on Pickford  Street and Shufflebothams – known locally as Shuffs - on Gunco Lane. The indoor market is the place to go for all your buttons, ribbons, threads and ever kind of trimming you can think of!

If you want someone else to do the hard work and have your fabric already made into something beautiful, the iconic Arighi Bianchi store which first opened for business in 1892 and is still owned by the Bianchi family, is full of gorgeous furnishings – and a great restaurant (serving Granelli’s ice-cream of course!), and there are one or two delicious designer boutiques along historic Chestergate…