Charles E. Kelsey

We have traced the story of Cheshire from prehistoric times. For long ages the story was one of war and bloodshed, of conquest and defeat, of the coming and the passing of many nations, each in turn yielding to a more powerful foe. Cheshire has seen more of the strife of nations than most counties of England. Her position on the map of the British Isles has willed that this should be.

When the latest struggle for the possession of our country was ended, and the Normans lorded it over the conquered Saxons, we saw Cheshire made into a bulwark to keep in check the nations that surrounded her on north and west. For 200 years this was her mission. She was a kingdom within a kingdom, with an earl or viceroy to rule over her, and a Parliament and laws of her own. More centuries passed by before a Tudor king permitted her to take her place in that greater English Parliament and to help to frame laws under which she, along with the rest of England, should be governed.

Dee Bridge and Mills: Chester

But Cheshire was not denied the greatest of all good gifts. We saw the lamp of Christianity burn brightly from Hildeburgh's Isle to Chadkirk, and some of the earliest Gospel teachers were sent by the very Welsh and Irish nations over which Cheshire was afterwards set as sentinel and watch-dog. Feebly the light sometimes glimmered in days of stress and storm, but it never went out; and after the Tudor monarch had shaken off the shackles of Rome, and the minds of men had been stirred by a great awakening, its early brightness was restored in a purified religion that gave freedom of conscience to all men.

Then came the horrors of civil war, when Cheshire men fought for the liberty to believe what they thought to be right, and rose in their wrath at the unlawful misdeeds of the Stuart kings, when patriots rose in defence of the ancient liberties that are the inheritance of all Englishmen. This was the last blood shed in Cheshire.

In the last hundred years the people of Cheshire have seen the face of Cheshire greatly changed. They have helped to create great industries, and they have witnessed the wonderful discoveries of the power of steam and electricity, and all the conveniences and comforts of modern life that have followed in their train. In ways too numerous to speak of, their lives have been made brighter and happier.

The Princes of Wales are the Earls of Chester still. King Edward the Seventh, when he was Prince of Wales, came to Chester and opened the new Town Hall. The citizens of Chester knew him well, for he was often a guest at Eaton Hall, the home of the Grosvenors, the descendants of the Conqueror's 'mighty huntsman'. William the Norman harried Cheshire with the sword, and the people of Cheshire fled before him. King Edward brought not a sword but peace in his hand, and the people loved him, for he was one of the world's great peace-makers.

In one of the earliest chapters of this book you have read of the 'making of Cheshire'. We have brought the story of Cheshire down to the present day, but Cheshire is not yet 'made'. Many and wonderful changes there have been since our ancestors shot wild beasts with their flinty arrow-heads, and devoured raw flesh in the pits and caverns of Alderley Edge. The people of Cheshire, who have struggled through long centuries to win for themselves light and liberty, have never turned their faces backwards. With steadfast purpose and unfaltering steps they march forward on the way of progress.

The 'making' still goes on; and there is plenty of work to do for the Cheshire boys and girls of to-day, that they may help to make their county a better place to live in than they found it.

The great families of Cheshire whose names recur so often in these pages were proud of the mottoes written beneath their crests and coats of arms. The words inscribed on the village cross which the boys and girls of Eastham pass on their way to school, are the best mottoes that all Cheshire school-children can take for their own:

And the day is very short. As the lines on a tombstone in Little Peover churchyard remind us:

INDEX

• Acton, 126.
• Adlington, 141, 161.
• Aethelfrith, 44.
• Aethelred, 50.
• Agricola, 36-8.
• Alabama, the, 203.
• Alderley Edge, 15, 18, 25, 42.
• Aldford, 20, 61.
• Alfred the Great, 51.
• Almshouses, 147.
• Altrincham, 88, 208.
• Anne, Queen, 171.
• Anselm, 64.
• Archery, 110.
• Architecture, Saxon, 50;
  • Norman, 65-71;
  • Early English, 81-6;
  • Decorated, 101-4;
  • Perpendicular, 120-2;
  • Elizabethan, 137-42;
  • Eighteenth-Century, 173-6.
• Arden Hall, 142.
• Armada, Spanish, 134.
• Astbury, 45, 104.
• Aston, Sir Thomas, 156.
• Athelstan, 55.

• Baguley, 106
• Baldwin, Archbishop, 79.
• Barnston, Colonel, 210.
• Barrows, 27.
• Barthomley, 162.
• Bebington, 71, 104, 147.
• Beeston Castle, 61, 160.
• Beeston, Sir George, 134.
• Benedictines, 64.
• Birkenhead, 12, 198-200.
  • Birkenhead, Priory, 71;
  • Shipping, 200.
• Black Death, 112.
• Booth, Sir George, 157, 166, 171.
• Boulder clay, 20.
• Bradshaw, John, 163.
• Bramhall, 106.
• Branks, 149.
• Brasses, 115.
• Brereton Hall, 141.
• Brereton, Sir William, 153, 155-60, 165.
• Bridgwater Canal, 184.
• Bridgwater, Duke of, 183.
• Brindley, James, 183, 185.
• British remains, 27.
• Brocmael, 43.
• Bromborough, 56.
• Bronze Age, 28.
• Broxton Hills, 27.
• Bruera, 86.
• Bucton Castle, 27.
• Budworth, Great, 119, 162, 164.
• Bunbury, 108, 134.
• Bunter Sandstone, 18.
• Burial urns, 27, 34.
• Byron, Sir Nicholas, 157.

• CÆsar, Julius, 29.
• Calveley, Sir Hugh, 108.
• Canals of Cheshire, 183-5, 205.
• Carboniferous Rocks, 24.
• Carroll, Lewis, 215.
• Ceawlin, 43.
• Celts, 26-8.
• Chad, 48.
• Chadkirk, 48.
• Charles I, 153, 158.
• Charles II, 164-6.
• Charters, 78, 88.
• Chartists, 202.
• Cheshire, Canals, 183-5, 205;
  • Meres, 15;
  • Plain, 10;
  • Rivers, 12-14;
  • Railways, 192-7.
• Chesshyre, Sir John, 177.
• Chester, Battle of, 44;
  • Castle, 55, 62, 96, 174;
  • Caleyards, 65;
  • Cathedral, 130;
  • Customs of, 62;
  • King's School, 133, 152;
  • Plays, 90-1;
  • Phoenix Tower, 89, 158;
  • Roman city of, 36-8;
  • Rows, 112;
  • S. John's Church, 50, 66, 81, 160;
  • S. Mary's on the Hill, 160;
  • S. Olaf, 57;
  • S. Oswald, 47;
  • S. Werburgh's Abbey, 64, 72, 83;
  • Siege of, 158-60;
  • Situation of, 10;
  • Trade, 55, 144;
  • Walls,37, 96;
  • Water Tower, 98.
• Chests, Church, 124.
• Christianity, Introduction of, 47-51.
• Christleton, 20.
• Chronicle, Old English, 54.
• Circles, Stone, 28.
• Cistercians, 73.
• Civil War, 153-66.
• Clive, Robert, 181.
• Clulow Cross, 25, 28.
• Cnut, 57.
• Coaches, 178.
• Coal measures, 22.
• Coal-fields, 183.
• Cobden, Richard, 202.
• Combermere, Abbey of, 73.
• Combermere, Viscount, 182.
• Congleton, 88, 148.
• Congreve, Lieutenant, 211.
• Connought, Major, 162.
• Constable's Sands, 74.
• Conversion of the English, 47-8.
• Cotton famine, 203;
  • manufacture, 188.
• Cotton, Stapleton,182.
• County Council, 208.
• Crewe, 195, 208.
• Crewe, Sir Randolph, 152.
• Crosses, 48.
• Crusades, 79.

• Danes, Invasion of, 57.
• Davenport, Peter, 162.
• Davenport, Vivian, 74.
• Dean Row, 168.
• Decorated Architecture, 101-4.
• Dee Mills, 77, 98.
• Dee, River, 12.
• Delamere, Forest of, 15, 27, 74.
• Dennis, Peter, 181.
• Derby, Earls of, 213.
• de Tabley, Lord, 216.
• Deva, 30.
• Dissolution of the Monasteries, 129-33.
• Domesday Book, 62-4.
• Done, John, 76.
• Downes, Peter, 181.
• Drayton, Michael, 135.
• Dukinfield, 151, 183.
• Dunham Massey, 62.
• Duttons, 212.

• Earls of Chester, 59, 74-81.
• Early English Architecture, 81-7.
• Eastham, 205.
• Eaton Hall, 59.
• Eaton, Samuel, 151.
• Ecberght, 44.
• Eddisbury, 20, 54.
• Edgar, 56.
• Edward the Elder, 54.
• Edward I, 93-8.
• Edward III, 96.
• Edward VI, 130.
• Edward VII, 218.
• Edwin, Earl, 59.
• Eleanor, Queen, 94.
• Elizabeth, Queen, 134-50.
• Elizabethan Houses, 137.
• Ellesmere Canal, 206.
• Erratics, 20.
• Estuaries, 14.
• Ethelfleda, 53-5.
• Etherow, River, 12.

• Factory Acts, 201.
• Faddiley, 43.
• Farndon, 48, 159.
• Fitton, Mary, 143.
• Flagstones, 23.
• Flashes, 15.
• Flint implements, 25.
• Forest, submerged, 23.
• Forests of Cheshire, 74.
• Friars, Coming of the, 99.
• Frodsham, 65, 96, 174.

• Gaskell, Mrs., 213.
• Gawsworth, 120, 143, 178.
• George I, 172.
• George V, 210.
• Gherbod, 58.
• Gilds, 88-91.
• Glacial Drift, 20.
• Goyt, River, 12, 22, 189.
• Grappenhall, 79.
• Greg, Samuel, 190.
• Grosvenors, the, 60, 218.

• Halton Castle, 61.
• Handforth Hall, 141.
• Handley, 121.
• Harecastle, 185.
• Harold, King, 58.
• Harrison, Thomas, 164.
• Hastein, 51.
• Heber, Bishop, 215.
• Henry I, 76.
• Henry II, 80.
• Henry III, 87.
• Henry IV, 109, 114.
• Henry V, 114.
• Henry VII, 117.
• Henry VIII, 125-30, 146.
• Henry, Matthew, 168.
• High Legh, 20.
• Hotspur, 110.
• Hoylake, 170.
• Hugh, Earl, 59-73.
• Hugh Kyvelioc, 77.
• Hyde, 208.
• Hyde, Anne, 171.

• Industrial Revolution, 183-92.
• Ingemund, 53.
• Inman, William, 200.
• Irish Wars, 143.
• Ismay, Thomas, 200.
• Italian architecture, 146, 173-6.

• Jacobites, 172.
• James I, 150, 123.
• Shotwick, 15, 68, 95.
• Silk manufacture, 192.
• Simon de Montfort, 92.
• Simon of Whitchurch, 92.
• Simon Ripley, 122.
• Speed, John, 135.
• Stalybridge, 208.
• Stanlaw, 73.
• Stanley Palace, 146.
• Stanleys of Cheshire, 99, 112, 117, 164, 213.
• Steam, Introduction of, 189.
• Stephen, King, 76.
• Stockport, 12, 32, 88, 104, 202, 210.
• Stocks, 149.
• Stone Age, 25.
• Storeton, 18.
• Stretford, 32.
• Styal, 190.
• Sunday Schools, 207.

• Tame, River, 12.
• Tarporley, 155.
• Tarvin, 20, 157.
• Thelwall, 54.
• Thingwall, 52.
• Thornton Heath, 71.
• Timber Houses, 137-41.
• Tramways, 200.
• Turpin, Dick, 179.

• Vale Royal, 93, 129.
• van Zoelen, Baron, 171.
• Veratinum, 41.
• Victoria, Queen, 204-11.

• Wainwright, John, 215.
• Wakes, 147.
• Wales, Conquest of, 94.
• Wallasey, 14, 70, 169.
• Walton, Bishop, 167.
• Warburton, 105.
• Warford, 169.
• Warren, Sir George, 183.
• Watling Street, 12, 32.
• Weaver, River, 14, 19, 186.
• Wellington, Duke of, 182.
• Werburga, Saint, 50.
• Wesley, John, 180.
• West Kirby, 53, 171.
• Wilderspool, 32.
• Wilkins, John, Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press by Horace Hart, M.A.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Flint weapons no doubt continued to be used, especially in remote and hilly districts, even after the arrival of the Celts.

  [2] Sometimes the roof was held up by a single 'king-post' in place of two queen-posts. The 'king-post' reached from the centre of the tie-beam to the point of the roof.

  [3] i.e. twisting the fine threads into yarn. Those who were engaged in this particular process were called 'throwsters', just as spinster meant originally one engaged in spinning.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
  
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