About Bramhall

Community spirit is alive and well, as PAUL MACKENZIE reports

- Paul Mackenzie

BRAMHALL has been hailed as Cheshire’s culinary capital, home to one of the most supportive communities anywhere and the place to go for good independent shops and boutiques – and that’s just what we’ve said about the place over the years. It has also been named the friendliest place in the UK and it only takes a short walk around the village to see that it could well all be true.

Staff in the shops are cheery, the locals out and about are bright and breezy and even the children in school uniform are jolly (although they were on their way home, so that could explain that one).

This sunny disposition is something that appealed to Jonathan Dawson when he moved to Bramhall 12 years ago to take up the post as pastor at the Ford’s Lane Evangelical Church. He is originally from London and was previously based at a church a couple of hours from Madrid, so the transfer to the North West was something of a step into the unknown. ‘My wife did have images of Coronation Street in her mind before we moved,’ he said. ‘But she needn’t have worried – Bramhall is a lovely, friendly place and nothing like Coronation Street.