company produced Crown and Scene wallpapers and Crown Vinyl wall covering, employing 450 people. The site has since been redeveloped for housing. Pear New Mill was owned by Combined English Mills and were spinners of superfine white hosiery yarn, employing over 400 people. The building has since been subdivided into industrial units. William Crosland, an engineer and ironfounder, started business in 1855 in an upstairs room at Miller Street in Manchester. He was later joined by his four sons and the company moved to Stockport Road West in 1894, manufacturing machines and cutting tools for the packaging industry and specialised tooling for the sheet metal trade. The site has since been redeveloped as an industrial estate. 20th century In the 1930s, and after the Second World War, the growth rate accelerated with the coming of new industries, including engineering, chemicals, clothing and textiles, whilst the village became an important residential area on the periphery of the Greater Manchester Urban Area. A large bakery was erected on Ashton Road in 1951. Comprehensive sewerage and sewage disposal services were completed and put into operation in 1938. In 1948, the tramway along the A560 from Stockport to Hyde and beyond was abandoned after less than 50 years use. The section through Bredbury had been opened in August 1901. After considerable pressure by the Government and the Mersey River Board, the Urban District Council agreed in 1966 to a joint scheme with the County Borough of Stockport, abandoning the treatment works at Welkin Road and the sludge beds at Brinnington, to provide for the rapidly growing population and the additional industry. Governance Bredbury and Romiley Local Board was created in 1865, covering the civil parishes of Bredbury and Romiley, and in 1880 the two parishes were amalgamated. Bredbury and Romiley Urban District was created in 1894, and was extended to include the former Compstall Urban District in 1936. In 1952, Brinnington township was transferred to the County Borough of Stockport to enable a large residential overspill estate to be built. Until 1953 Bredbury Ward returned twelve councillors to the urban district council, with Romiley Ward returning six and Compstall Ward returning a single member. In that year, Bredbury Ward was divided into Bredbury North and Bredbury South wards, and in 1959, there was a redivision of the urban District into seven wards, with Compstall continuing to return a single councillor, and each of the