OK, perhaps this is a rather unfair argument. But as far as I can see there is very little or nothing to do in this rather useless former mill town. It is sort of close enough to Manchester for everyone living there just to migrate the short distance to a real city, but too far away for the town to be of any use.

When researching (however briefly) this article I can accross a website which contains tourist attractions for every major town in Britain. Stockport had a measly 4 entries, the largest of which being the Stockport Hat Museum.

Tourists to the area arriving by train are confronted with this “museum” from the train line on the approach to the town. The imposing tower holding aloft the words “Hat Museum” is quite impressive, but I feel could be put to much better use to advertise the city to potential visitors. I suggest using the tower to support a 100ft billboard with a picture of a lovely naked lady on it; this would certainly treble tourism to stockport over the course of 2 years.