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[Illustration: CHESHIRE. ROADS]
OXFORD COUNTY HISTORIES
CHESHIRE
BY CHARLES E. KELSEY, M.A.
WITH TEN MAPS AND FORTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1911
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK
TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
PREFACE
The aim of the present volume in the Oxford Series of County Histories
for Schools is to assist the study of the progress of the English people
by an examination of local antiquities, visits to ancient sites and
buildings, and suggestions of big national movements from local
incident. An attempt is made to foster the powers of observation in
children by showing them how to connect various styles of architecture,
for instance, with successive stages in the story of their county, and
to construct from familiar objects the broad outlines of national
history. Thus it is hoped that sooner or later the teaching of history
may become, to some extent, an _out-of-school_ subject and take its
place side by side with outdoor Nature-study and Practical Geography in
the curriculum of our schools.
In rural districts this end is obviously more easily attainable than in
large industrial centres. In the latter the expense of moving classes of
children from their schools to visit a site some miles distant would be
no doubt considerable; but is it too visionary to hope that before long
a motor-bus, capable of carrying a class of thirty or forty boys and
girls, will be deemed by Educational Committees a necessary part of
their 'apparatus'?
Apart from the educative value of such work there would, as the children
grow up, arise a body of public opinion which could give valuable help
in saving historic sites and buildings from loss or destruction, and
preventing the removal of antiquities from their natural home. Cheshire
has suffered perhaps more than her share of both these evils, and looks
with sorrowful eyes at many of her treasures housed in the museums of
towns beyond her borders.
All students of Cheshire history owe much to Ormerod's great work. But
his history is largely genealogical, and personally I wish to
acknowledge a greater debt to the labours and transactions of local
societies, particularly the Chester Archaeological Society and the
Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society. Many learned members of
these two bodies have made most important contributions to our knowledge
of ancient and mediaeval Cheshire within the most recent years. Among
other works consulted I may mention the _Palatine Note Book_, _Cheshire
Notes and Queries_, and Morris's _Diocesan History of Chester_. I have
received kindly assistance from several Cheshire clergymen, and to all
who have given me permission to take photographs within their churches I
express my thanks.
The maps, drawings, and photographs are original, with few exceptions. I
am indebted to the Council of the Chester Archaeological Society, and
the Grosvenor Museum for the loan of the block of a Roman tombstone from
a photograph by Mr. R. Newstead, and to Mr. Alfred Newstead, Curator of
the Museum, for photographs of the Runic stone and Roman altar.
The Rev. J. F. Tristram, of the Hulme Grammar School, read the two
geological chapters and made valuable suggestions. To the Clarendon
Press I am grateful for much kind help and criticism.
THE HULME GRAMMAR SCHOOL,
MANCHESTER,
_July, 1911_.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. POSITION AND NATURAL FEATURES OF CHESHIRE 9
II. THE MAKING OF CHESHIRE (1) 16
III. THE MAKING OF CHESHIRE (_continued_) (2) 21
IV. EARLY INHABITANTS OF CHESHIRE 25
V. THE ROMANS IN CHESHIRE (1) 29
VI. THE ROMANS IN CHESHIRE (2) 36
VII. SAXONS AND ANGLES COME TO CHESHIRE 43
VIII. THE CROSS IN CHESHIRE 47
IX. THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN 51
X. THE NORMANS COME TO CHESHIRE 58
XI. THE NORMAN ABBEYS AND CHURCHES OF CHESHIRE 64
XII. THE EARLS OF THE COUNTY PALATINE 74
XIII. THE CHURCHES OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 81
XIV. GROWTH OF TOWNS IN CHESHIRE 87
XV. EDWARD THE FIRST AND CHESHIRE 92
XVI. THE COMING OF THE FRIARS 99
XVII. A DEPOSED KING 107
XVIII. THE RIVAL ROSES 114
XIX. CHURCHES OF THE MIDDLE AGES 118
XX. THE REFORMATION AND THE GREAT AWAKENING 128
XXI. ELIZABETHAN CHESHIRE (1) 134
XXII. ELIZABETHAN CHESHIRE (2) 143
XXIII. THE RULE OF THE STUARTS 150
XXIV. CIVIL WAR: (1) THE BATTLES OF MIDDLEWICH AND NANTWICH 153
XXV. CIVIL WAR: (2) A MEMORABLE SIEGE 158
XXVI. CIVIL WAR: (3) THE PROTECTORATE AND THE RESTORATION 163
XXVII. THE FALL OF THE STUARTS 167
XXVIII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1) 173
XXIX. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (2) 180
XXX. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1) 183
XXXI. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (2) 188
XXXII. THE RAILWAYS OF CHESHIRE 192
XXXIII. PROGRESS AND REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 198
XXXIV. THE REIGN OF A GREAT QUEEN 204
XXXV. FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN OF CHESHIRE 211
XXXVI. CONCLUSION 216
INDEX 220
CHAPTER I
POSITION AND NATURAL FEATURES OF CHESHIRE
Few English counties owe more of their history to their geographical
position and surroundings, and to the character of their natural
features, than Cheshire. Not only in the past have the rocks and rivers
of Cheshire helped to make history, but even to-day they have a very
direct bearing upon the fortunes of Cheshire men and women. How many of
us reflect, as our eyes travel over the plain to the distant hills, that
on the wise and orderly arrangement of mountain and valley, forest and
winding stream, our very existence and means of livelihood depend? Truly
Nature has other work to do than merely create picturesque landscapes.
Cheshire is situated in the north-west of England, washed partly by the
Irish Sea, and guarded as it were on its eastern and western sides by
two great ramparts of hill country, that on the east formed by the
southern spurs of the Pennine Chain, while the Welsh hills of Flint and
Denbigh are the natural frontier on the west.
The western boundary, however, which has been frequently changed, now
follows roughly the Valley of the Dee. A semicircle of hills of lesser
height fringes the county on the south, and the river Mersey divides it
from its northern neighbour, Lancashire.
In the north-west of the county a rectangular stretch of country known
as Wirral is washed by two great estuaries and by the Irish Sea, and a
wedge of moorland in the north-east penetrates into the heart of the
Pennines. Here the hills reach their greatest height, Black Hill the
highest point in Cheshire being just under 2,000 feet above sea-level.
The low-lying lands enclosed by this amphitheatre of hills form the
Cheshire Plain, broken only by ridges or terraces of low sandstone
hills running north and south.
A glance at a map of the British Isles will show you that Cheshire lies
in the very heart of the three kingdoms. Its geographical position has
thus made it a meeting-place of nations, and you will see in later
chapters that all the peoples that have helped to make our national
history have in turn realized the importance of its position, and have
fought desperately for its possession. Briton and Roman, Angle and Saxon
and Dane, Welsh and Norman have all left some mark of their presence in
the county, and from these many elements is derived the blood that flows
in the veins of nearly all Cheshire boys and girls of to-day.
Now look at the map opposite. The shaded portions represent land over
300, 600, or 1,000 feet above sea-level. In the south, the eastern and
western uplands slope gradually down towards the bit of white which
touches the centre of the bottom of the map and forms what is known as
the Cheshire Gap. Through this gap the Midlands lie open to the
north-west and to the Cheshire Plain, and over these lower heights
naturally passed the great highway from London to the Irish Sea.
Chester, built on a rocky plateau at the head of the tidal waters of the
Dee and protected on its western side by a natural bend of the same
river, was clearly a position of great importance for guarding alike the
coast road into North Wales and the roads to the north of England; and
there is no doubt that it was held as a fortified post long before the
Romans built the Roman city of Deva.
For many centuries this stronghold was one of the chief military
outposts and frontier towns of England, not often free from war's
alarms, and the sentinels on her walls and watch-towers ever on the
look-out for the approach of some new enemy. Chester became the 'base'
or head-quarters from which all military campaigns in the north-west, in
Wales or in Ireland were carried out, united with the metropolis by the
great road that passed through the heart of England, along which armies
could march without any difficult hills to cross and hardly a river of
any great size to bridge. In later and more peaceful times, for the
same geographical reasons, the London and North-Western Railway, the
lineal descendant of the ancient 'Watling Street', laid its lines on
nearly the same ground as the old highway, and is thus the easiest as
well as the most direct of all routes from London to the north-west.
[Illustration: CHESHIRE CONTOUR MAP]
With the exception of the Dee, which rises near Lake Bala in Wales, the
rivers of Cheshire have their sources in the eastern or southern
uplands. For eight months of the year moisture-laden winds blow from the
sea across the Cheshire Plain and deposit their rains upon the hills. In
the hilly country of the north-east, where the rainfall is greatest, the
water is gathered and stored in a number of reservoirs in Longdendale;
and the moist climate is the chief reason why this district is the seat
of the cotton industry, for cotton threads become brittle in a dry
atmosphere. In the valleys of the Tame and Goyt the abundance of fresh
running water from the hills formerly caused many mills for the
bleaching, dyeing and printing of calicoes to be erected on or near the
streams. Nowadays, however, owing to the greater supply of water brought
by pipes from a distance, mills are erected principally on the outskirts
of the great towns and nearer the centres of population. Hence in the
villages of the Goyt it is no uncommon sight to see the tottering walls
of mills that have been abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin and
decay.
The combined waters of the Etherow, Tame, and Goyt form the Mersey at
Stockport. Only the left bank of this river is in Cheshire. Moreover,
for a large part of its course it has been 'canalized', so that it no
longer flows between its natural banks, but down the artificial channel
of the Manchester Ship Canal. The estuary of the Mersey, which is three
to four miles across at its widest point, narrows at Birkenhead to a
width of barely three-quarters of a mile. At this point the river is
kept open to the largest vessels afloat by constant dredging. Here in
the docks you may see ships of all nations, and generally one or more of
our huge ocean greyhounds riding at anchor in mid-river or awaiting
but the turn of the tide to take out their cargoes of human lives to
distant lands.
[Illustration: SOURCES OF RIVERS IN E. CHESHIRE]
The Weaver, on the other hand, is wholly a Cheshire river, rising in the
Peckforton Hills in the south-west of the county. The Mersey and the
Weaver receive a number of tributaries, of which the Bollin and the Dane
are the most important, from the eastern highlands,
the high-crowned Shutlingslawe
... with those proud hills whence rove
The lovely sister brooks the silvery Dane and Dove,
Clear Dove that makes to Trent, the other to the West.
At Northwich the Weaver becomes navigable as far as the Mersey.
The rivers flow mainly in a westerly or north-westerly direction.
Spreading evenly over the plain in almost parallel lines, they serve to
drain and fertilize the land, which thus affords the finest pasturage
for cattle. Dairy-farming and stock-raising have therefore become the
principal occupation of the inhabitants of the Cheshire midlands; and on
market days the piles of the famous Cheshire cheese are generally the
first thing we notice in the open market-places of our country towns.
The most noticeable feature of the county are the two estuaries of the
Dee and the Mersey. The tract enclosed between them is for the most part
flat, Heswall Hill, the highest point, being little more than 300 feet
in height, and the lowest parts have to be protected from the inroads of
the sea by long embankments. Several portions were in fact, at one time
separated from the mainland, like Hilbre Isle at the present day, as is
shown by the names Wallasey, 'isle of the Welsh or strangers,' and Ince
'an island'. In the Middle Ages, owing to the importance of Chester, the
Dee was the principal outlet for the trade of the north-west, as Bristol
was for the south-west of England. In those days Liverpool was but an
insignificant town, and the Mersey was known as the 'Creek of Chester'.
But in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the shipping trade of the
Dee declined owing to the great accumulation of sand and silt in the
channel. When vessels could no longer unload or ship their merchandise
under the walls of Chester a quay was formed at Shotwick, some six miles
along the northern shore of the estuary. In this neighbourhood over two
thousand acres of land have been recovered from the sea that once flowed
over them. Navigation was partially restored as far as Chester for small
vessels by a new artificial channel, but since the rise of the cotton
and other great industries in South Lancashire Liverpool and Birkenhead
have replaced Chester and become the second port in the kingdom.
Cheshire also possesses a miniature 'Lake District'. Between the Bollin
and the Weaver are scattered many lakelets or 'meres'. They are
particularly numerous in the salt districts, where they are due to the
pumping of brine which has been going on for ages, and caused the
sinking down of the overlying rocks. In the neighbourhood of Northwich
the sheets of water thus formed are called 'flashes'.
The county still contains much 'forest', that is, uncultivated land. The
hilly country of the east consists mostly of bleak and barren moorland,
affording but poor pasturage for sheep and used mainly for the
preservation of game. Such names as Wildboarclough, Wolf's Edge, Cat's
Tor, Eagle's Crag, and many others, show clearly the wild and desolate
character of this district. Extensive woods are found in the valleys and
'cloughs' of the Etherow and Goyt. Delamere was once a deer forest
extending as far as Nantwich, but in the last hundred years the greater
part of it has been cultivated. Many towns and villages still retain
their 'common' land, often bright with patches of broom and gorse, while
the numerous and extensive parks of the great landowners are justly
noted for their fine forest trees.
To many of you the natural features described in this chapter must be a
familiar sight. Some of you have perhaps stood by the beacon on Alderley
Edge or by the sham ruins on the summit of Mow Cop, and viewed wide
stretches of the Cheshire Plain. Others have looked down from the
Frodsham Hills upon the estuary of the Mersey mapped out at their feet,
or from the walls of Chester have gazed upon the purple hills of Wales.
But the surface of the county suffered many changes before it assumed
its present aspect, and we must now see what story the stones have to
tell us of bygone ages when Cheshire was yet in the making.