The Wharf Marple Heritage Centre
A piece of history, made for the community.
At the junction of the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals, a Grade II listed warehouse opens its doors as a heritage centre, wellness hub, café and gathering place for everyone in Marple.
1804
Warehouse built for Samuel Oldknow
Grade II
Listed heritage building
2
Floors of community space
NLHF
Heritage Fund supportedThank you, NLHF
What you'll find here
Four floors of warehouse,
one place for the town.
Once you step inside The Wharf, you'll find a heritage centre, wellness studios, a café opening onto the canal, and a shop full of local makers, all under one roof.
Ground floor
Heritage & visitor centre
Exhibits, archive, and stories from the canal era through to today, including encounters with the people who built this place.
Read more
First floor
Wellness & fitness hub
Pilates, yoga, gentle movement, classes for older adults. Wellbeing programmes built around the local community.
Read more
Lockside
Café & community kitchen
Local food, all-day coffee, a welcome from the towpath. A kitchen that hosts schools, makers and groups when it isn't serving lunch.
Read more
Inside the foyer
Heritage shop
Locally made, story-driven goods: books, prints, gifts and pieces from Marple makers. Every sale supports the project.
Read more
The story behind the walls
Built in 1804 to load cotton from Oldknow's mill, and used in nearly every decade since.
The Wharf has been a coal store, a grain warehouse, a stables, a factory store and a forgotten shell. Every generation has left a mark. We've added ours, carefully, in a way that lets the original building keep telling its story.
Explore 220 years of history →What's on
There's always something happening at the Wharf.
Sat 14 Jun
10:00 – 16:00
Open Day: see inside the works
HeritageWed 18 Jun
19:00
Talk: Samuel Oldknow and the Marple cotton story
TalkSat 21 Jun
09:30
Towpath yoga, a gentle weekend wake-up
Wellness
Meet the characters
Step inside the
building's memory.
Talk with the people who lived this history: Samuel Oldknow, the industrialist who built it all, and Ann Vanpine, the apprentice cotton spinner he took on at fourteen. Conversational AI, grounded in the historical record.
On site at the kiosk, on the towpath via the trail app, and right here on this site. Same characters, three ways to meet them.
Meet them now →1756 – 1828
Samuel Oldknow
Industrialist who built the Marple mills
“I came to Marple to make cotton, and built the canals to carry it away.”
c. 1811 – 1890
Ann Vanpine
Apprentice cotton spinner. Later, a schoolteacher.
“At fourteen, with a Bible in one hand and a sheet of paper saying who I belonged to in the other.”
Made possible by
A community project, supported by the people who believe in it.
The Wharf is a Community Interest Company. Our restoration was made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside local partners and individual supporters. Want to be part of what comes next?
In partnership with
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Marple Local Heritage
Stockport Council
Canal & River Trust