A jacket potato at the old Poco-a-Poco

The Four Tops provide the soundtrack to my latest walk around The Four Heatons

The Scarf My Father Wore

Mar 16, 2024

Saturday 16 March 2024

NEXT HOME GAME: MK Dons – Saturday 23 March, 5.15pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Crawley – Monday 18 March, 8pm

If you’d like to write an article for The Scarf My Father Wore, share a few snippets or photos, or advertise your business, please email thescarfmyfatherwore@substack.com.

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Saturday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

There’s no County today, but I’m sure many of us will be keeping a close eye on the rest of League Two this afternoon. Leaders Mansfield can extend their lead to five points with a win at Bradford. Wrexham only need a point at home to Tranmere to move above us. But the biggest game of the day is MK Dons v Crewe. 5th v 4th. It means at least one of our promotion rivals will drop points later today, hopefully both of them if it’s a draw. If County were to then win at Crawley on Monday night, we’d have a five point cushion over the chasing pack, still with games in hand.

With no game today, please allow me to share my latest instalment from ‘The Streets of Stockport’ after walking another 23 miles eight days ago (the Friday before Newport at home). I’ve almost done the whole of Heaton Norris now. Another three full days of walking and I reckon I’ll have ticked off SK4 completely. Just seven Stockport postcodes to go after that!

Our first live event of 2024 is taking place next month. ‘Flynny at the Finger’ – an evening with County legend Mike Flynn – is at The Fingerpost on Wednesday 17 April. Start time 7.30pm. Over 60% of the tickets have now been sold. If you’d like to join us, please email thescarfmyfatherwore@substack.com. Tickets are £10 (or £5 for paid subscribers plus anyone who’s written an article for The Scarf My Father Wore). That includes a full colour souvenir programme, and even a little bit of stand-up comedy!

Today’s edition is sponsored by Rub A Dubz Detailing and Stockport Hero Hire. A big thank you to both Grant and Johnny.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 136.36 miles

Total steps so far: 217,174

Total raised so far: £1,641

Total completed streets so far: 271 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

It’s time to share my adventures from Day 8 of the walk, published under what is undoubtedly my favourite title so far. After stopping for lunch at The Hinds Head – standing on the site of the former Poco-a-Poco club – I’m not ashamed to be singing The Four Tops’ 1988 hit “Loco in Acapulco” during the afternoon, but I am rather embarrassed to admit to you lot that I’m genuinely singing my own “jacket potato” version of the iconic lyric. (Although I bet some of you are attempting to sing that exact same line right now, which tickles me!)

As I share a photo of my lunch on WhatsApp, along with an update of where I am, older friends tell me they remember the Poco-a-Poco well. “I saw Berni Flint there in 1978,” says Steve Cash. “You’d have to be of a certain age to remember him!” Steve McMahon goes with the following: “Ah, the wonderful Poco, demolished and replaced by a plastic pub where you can get a jacket spud with cheesy beanz. All in the name of progress.”

I wasn’t alive when Berni Flint – the Southport-born singer-songwriter and Opportunity Knocks star – played the Poco, and I was only two or three when the building was demolished, so I’m unable to share any personal memories with you. There is, however, an interesting article (plus a photo) on the wall, which I capture on my phone, so I can type up later on for our readers:

By the time it felt the force of a wrecking ball in 1987, Chester’s Nightclub in Heaton Chapel had certainly seen better days. Victim of an arson attack in the months leading up to its demolition, the compensation sought was ridiculed. The club had after all lain derelict and awaiting demolition for some time, bought for its land rather than for any value in its structure.

Chester’s would be more commonly and fondly remembered as The Poco-a-Poco club, but in its various incarnations remained something of a monolith, and divided opinion throughout its short lived existence.

It first opened as The Empress Cinema in 1939. Local residents petitioned against the proposals, which included a 1400 seater cinema, a ballroom, whist hall, crèche and six full sized tennis courts, of which only the dance hall and cinema were actually realised.

The Empress Cinema was characteristic of the ‘Supercinemas’ of 1930s Britain: entertainment centres of unprecedented scale with cinema as their focal point, whose success was, in many cases, sadly cut short due to the advent of television. Local families vacated cinema seats to enjoy the novelty of home entertainment instead, and in 1959 the Empress Cinema closed.

The building re-opened later that year as The Empress Cabaret Club. Run by Manchester City footballer Keith Marsden, it housed cabaret entertainment, a Flamingo Coffee Jive Club and bingo. In 1967 the Empress Club closed due to fire and re-opened in 1968 as The Poco-a-Poco Club and Casino.

The Poco Poco (as it was commonly shortened to) held sway in the Manchester music scene, famously playing host to David Bowie’s Wonderworld tour in 1970.

The club formed part of a circuit of cabaret venues in Greater Manchester, which included the Golden Garter, The Princess, and The Domino Club. Patrons paid for a seat at a table and an evening of entertainment – often a mixture of live music, dancing and comedy. The Poco even made it to the BBC, hosting televised performances by folk band Five Penny Piece and entertainer Mike Harding. In 1987, after failing to gain momentum under its new identity of Chester’s the building closed its doors for good.

The Poco Poco remains a cultural icon; revered on nostalgia websites and even referenced in literature. Author Richard Francis lived around the corner from the club for several years, and set his novel Taking Apart The Poco Poco on the day the club was torn down. Two of the characters – a couple whose marriage is under threat – had met at the club, and the demolition provides a backdrop for the personal crises they encounter.

Richard recalls that the club in its latter years had become a “moribund” place. Local residents had suffered for a long time from the din of late night revellers, and latterly from the effects of a derelict eyesore in their neighbourhood. They petitioned for it to be knocked down and later in 1987 welcomed family pub The Hinds Head in its place.

A few hours before my lunch (which is delicious, I must say) my day starts on Parsonage Street, ever so slightly up the A6 from the town centre. I tick off the cluster of streets which fall under the shadow of Heaton Norris Park, or the San Siro as it’s more commonly known to anyone who’s played Sunday football in Stockport.

Belmont Way’s next, taking me past Asda, Farmfoods and The Navigation, before I head into the abundance of streets in Heaton Norris lined with terraced houses. Today’s residential streets are quite repetitive, but at least I’ve got a number of former County players keeping me company such as Danny, Greg, Phil and Shane (photos below if you want to play the game of matching first names with surnames).

During my morning stroll, I’m sad to report I come across a shocking example of discrimination: a car park where Big Kev isn’t allowed. I’m ready to summon the County troops for a march on the Stockport Council offices to demand action, but then I find another car park in Heaton Norris where Big Kevs are allowed. All is well with the world again. Big Kev’s allowed to park in the middle of the A6 if he wants to.

After my jacket potato at the old Poco-a-Poco (it’s bloody catchy this tune, isn’t it!), my plan is to turn back on myself and complete the rest of Heaton Norris. Whilst I’m at The Hinds Head, however, I tick off Empress Drive and Denby Lane, and then Gower Road and Glenfield Road, which takes me past St Anne’s School. Then it’s Marlborough Drive, Rosedale Road, St Leonards Road and Brackley Road, before walking back past The Hinds Head, and back into the mean streets of Heaton Norris.

I don’t wish to pour scorn on Heaton Norris, but within the space of 45 minutes I come across a boarded-up pub, a police incident at a block of flats, a handwritten warning to “the tramps who leave rubbish”, two shit-stained mattresses, and a notice in a lorry window which reads: “Will the Phantom Shitter Please Stop Defecating On The Pavement.”

My mind absorbs those five single elements and moulds them into a plot for a new TV drama. Maybe the landlord or landlady at The Grapes has fallen on hard times, forced to close the pub before moving into a nearby flat. They started leaving rubbish from the pub on the street, before the stress of the whole situation started causing havoc with their bowels, which led to them shitting on mattresses on the pavement, and then the pavement itself. Police have tracked them down and are about to dump them in prison. OK, perhaps that’s not in the same league as Line Of Duty or Broadchurch, but I could definitely envisage a slot for my new drama on Channel 5.

Society does seem to be collapsing before our eyes more and more these days. I think to myself what older generations must make of Great Britain in 2024, especially when I stop to take a photo of a sign on a lamppost which reads: “When my mum heard the air raid sirens, she would put my baby brother in a drawer and take him to the shelters on Dodge Hill.” So many people went through such adversity back then, with a great number making so many sacrifices so you and I can enjoy today’s modern day freedom, but I must say shitting on the streets of Heaton Norris is perhaps taking that freedom a step too far.

At this point, after walking for 23 miles, I need to go myself. You’ll be pleased to learn your editor doesn’t shit on a mattress, nor a pavement, but holds it in until he reaches Stockport town centre, with the cinema at Redrock chosen as his dumping ground. That’s the toilets, by the way. Not the cinema itself. I don’t pull my pants down and take a crap all over the carpet in front of a load of people watching Mission Impossible. You might think that’s a given but in 2024 it might need clarifying. After all, there’s still a Phantom Shitter on the loose somewhere in Stockport…

If you’re able to spare a few quid, please click here to make a donation to Mentell through my JustGiving page.

Leave a comment

Win two mini valets worth up to £30 each!

It’s competition time, courtesy of our friend Grant over at Rub A Dubz Detailing. All you have to do is visit the Rub A Dubz Detailing Facebook page, LIKE and SHARE their pinned post, and then type DONE in the comments. You’ll then be allocated a number and the draw will take place on Easter Monday.

Good luck!

Visit rubadubzdetailingltd.com for a full list of services and prices.

Leave a comment

Introducing… Panther!

If you want a hero who can leap, creep, bounce and move with super speed then come and get your paws on this guy!

He’s the latest character to join the Stockport Hero Hire team. If your kids love the Marvel movies, imagine the smiles on their faces when Panther turns up for their birthday party or any other celebration!

Visit stockportherohire.co.uk for further details on all of the different heroes you can book for your child’s party.

Leave a comment

Photo of the day

Edgeley Park, Stockport

🎶 Ohhh Rodger Rodger, Rodger Rodger Rodger Rodger Rodger Wylde! 🎶

Leave a comment

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

Three films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Migration (U) at 12.30pm, One Life (12A) at 2.45pm, and The Holdovers (15) at 5pm. Click here for tickets.

At 8pm, there’s also a screening of the National Theatre production of Vanya.