Landscape History Today:

the Bulletin of CSLH

September 2016 Number 59

Sandbach skyline, Discovery Day May 2016

Contents

Chair’s Message 3 Editor’s Desk 4 Field Visits... Thornton Hough 5 Blackden Trust 9 Aston Hall and Wall Roman Site 11 President’s Visit 14 Denbigh 22 Discovery Day 2016 24 End Piece 26

Please make sure all contribuons for the January edion of the Bullen are with the editor by 30 November 2016 .

Editor: Mrs Julie Smalley 2 Farley Close Middlewich CW10 0PU Email: [email protected] Web: www.chesterlandscapehistory.org.uk

Page 2 Chair’s Message

As the sun shines through the window it is difficult to believe that when you read this, Autumn will virtually be upon us. However, between now and the end of November, there is much to look forward to: lectures, the Derwent Valley residenal weekend and our 30th Anniversary Celebraons. If you have not booked your place for either the River Cruise or our joint Conference with the Society for Landscape Studies, then me is fast running out (please contact either Mike or myself). Not only will we be celebrang 30 years of the Society, but also the launch of our latest publicaon Landscapes Past and Present: and Beyond. Containing extended versions of many of the papers presented at our Research Day last year, the book will be a fing tribute to 30 years of the Society.

Like many local sociees the CSLH Planning Team are struggling to recruit new members. Following much thought, we have decided to ask members to complete a quesonnaire in order to find out what our members value most about the Society and to help us tailor our acvies accordingly. We would be really grateful if you would complete a copy (either electronically or paper based) and return it to us by the end of October. Sadly, without addional help we may have to reduce the number and range of acvies we run. The quesonnaire will be emailed to members in the next few days.

Before finishing this Chair’s Message, I would just like to thank Julie (Smalley) for taking over the producon and eding of the Bullen. I hope, like me, you feel it is an essenal way of communicang with members and as such is an important facet of the Society’s acvies.

As always, I look forward to seeing you again at one of our events.

Sharon Varey

Page 3 Editor’s Desk

Here goes with the second of our two CSLH Bullens for 2016 – and my first. Producon of this is a minor miracle. Please bear with me while I find my way. The most urgent thing I feel I must do therefore is to thank and appreciate Sharon, our former editor, for her numberless expert hours devoted to ‘Landscape History Today’. The next thing I would like to do is invite any of our membership to contribute. Why not? Quality wrien items of interest and value and relevant to the purpose of CSLH are warmly sought. I look forward to arcles, queries, leers or...surprise me! September’s issue contains a panorama of field reports and pictures. I thank all contributors. Also featured is a personal take on May’s Discovery Day (see below) experienced through the eyes of a new member. As the Bullen is about circulang news and views, sharing perspecves is a good way to feel part of our Society—whether just joined, well established or somewhere in between.

Roll on with our Autumn acvies!

Julie

Page 4

Field Visit—Thornton Hough 21 April 2016

Following on from his field trip to Port Sunlight last year, Gavin Hunter led a field visit to this Wir- ral village on the brightest day of the year so far. Thornton Hough is a planned village which has the unusual disncon of having been planned by two different people. We parked by the Seven Stars pub, which was there before both St George's UR (Congregaonal) church of them, and met in the part of the village built by Joseph Hirst, a texle manufacturer from Wilshaw in York- shire, opposite Wilshaw Terrace, a row of coages with a shop, built in the Gothic style in 1870 near a weighbridge on the side of the turnpike road. Round the corner were the original village school, the vicarage, and All Saints Church, all built in the 1860s and paid for by Hirst. The church is unusual in having five clock faces – four where you would expect to find them, one on each face of the tower, and an extra one slightly higher up on the south side, since when the church was built Hirst discovered that he couldn’t see the church clock from his home at Thornton House. Directly outside the church porch is the “wedding lawn” – although there are substanal monuments, mainly to the Lever family, on either side, the space in the middle has been kept clear of burials. It must make an aracve seng for wedding photo- graphs, but on a non-wedding day, with gravestones either side, it was un- selingly reminiscent of a cricket pitch.

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We had a good root around in the churchyard and Gavin pointed out the un- solved mysteries that always exist in churches – who made the stained glass west window in the church that was made as a war memorial? (There was once a signature, but it was smashed by a cricket ball…). Did the Celc cross in the churchyard that is a memorial to Eliza the wife of James Lever migrate to this churchyard from Bolton? We le the churchyard and crossed Raby Road to the part of the village built by Wil- liam Hesketh Lever. The first thing we saw was the Millennium Archway, a rusc arch- way built of oak and erected by Gavin him- self, with colleagues. Although funding was precarious, it chanced that the third (and last) Viscount Leverhulme died in 2000, and The Expulsion from Eden the family provided a substanal donaon to make the arch a memorial to him.

The view across the old turnpike road from here is very aracve – we were looking at one of the “typical English villages” created by Lever to house the staff on his extensive estates as a sort of counterpoint to Port Sunlight that was created for his factory workers. At the foot of the hill the village smithy sll stands, though the three farriers there now operate a mobile rather than in- house service and the spreading chestnut tree with which the smithy was origi- nally endowed has succumbed to thunderstorms. There are servants’ and workers’ houses, a former girls’ orphanage, and shops. One very harmonious aspect of the view is the tower of St George’s Congregaonal church, built by Lever (by now Lord Leverhulme) in 1906 on the site of a former Wesleyan Methodist chapel. The tower was kept deliberately rather squat so that it acts as a counterpoint in the landscape to the tower of All Saints. On top of the church is a weathervane in the form of a cockerel with a bugle – heraldic devic- es punning on the name Lever (“[se] lever” is French for “to get up”).

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Ecclesiologists will have spoed the use of “church” rather than “chapel” for St George’s. Lever was a devout Congregaonalist, but he also loved richness in architecture and dignity in worship. The church is cruciform with extensive and elaborate decoraon in Norman style. As well as stained-glass windows, unu- sually for a Congregaonal house of worship it even has an altar of Caen stone with inscribed crosses. In fact, as Gavin told us, the local Roman Catho- lics, who have no convenient church of Thornton Hough smithy (on le ) their own, o en borrow it, and feel right at home. The stained glass around the chancel contains sets of arms that show the rise of Lever through the hierarchy – one side shows the arms of a baronet, the other those of a viscount. There is a red rose for Lancashire, and elephants, which he admired, and are also a symbol of Bolton.

Above St George’s church are the few large houses that Lever built in the vil- lage, including the manse for the Congre- gaonal minister and others for mem- bers of his family. Nearby is the primary school – built by Lever in 1904 as a non- denominaonal school, it was closed in 1939 but reopened in 1953. Happy sounds were coming from it on the day of our visit. Behind the school is a build- ing with a mixed history – it was original- ly built as the “iron church” by Lever to Wilshaw Terrace cater for the dispossessed Wesleyans when their chapel was demolished to make way for St George’s. Since then it

Page 7 has been an estate workshop, a village gymnasium, a billet for an an -aircra unit, and an inadequately licensed café.

The war memorial contains names from the First World War only – no -one from the village was killed in the Second World War, though, as well as the an -aircra unit, the village also played its part when Lever Brothers was assembling parts of the invasion fleet – some components came from the USA and were hidden in local driveways Wilshaw Terrace unl required.

Gwilym Hughes expressed the Society’s thanks to Gavin Hunter for what we all knew would be an enjoyable and informave visit.

Mike Headon

Page 8 t Field Visit—Blackden Trust 14 May 2016

Over twenty members had an im- mensely enjoyable visit to Toad Hall (Cheshire dialect for T'owd Hall) and the Old Medicine House near Goostrey, Cheshire. The Trust that maintains these buildings was the creaon of Alan and Griselda Garner who seem to have devoted their lives to the project. Originally, Toad Hall (16th Cent. or earlier) had the site to Toad Hall (rear) and Old Medicine House itself but about 50 years ago, the mber -framed Medicine House was brought in pieces from Wrinehall (Staffs.) and reassembled here. The following spring, the adjacent ground on which the framing had rested during the winter before re-erecon sprouted all manner of medicinal herbs that had not grown here before and the conclusion was that the old mbers had brought these seeds from Wrinehall - hence 'Medicine House' (although the building had also been used to manufacture Johnsons Patent Medicines so there is a double connec- on with the name).

The Old Medicine House was originally built about 1600 and we examined eve- ry nook and cranny seeing lots of carpenters' marks and apotropaic symbols cut into the mbers (to avert evil) and an amazing double smoke -hood chimney complete with remains of a smoking chamber (for meat). It was wondered whether some early occupants of the house may have been recusants, hence the obscure symbols for Mary in the beams but this may have been an aspect of more general superson.

Page 9 The Gardens were straight from Gerard with dozens of different herbs in circu- lar beds. Recently, a school project added further plants to the collecon.

Overall, a fascinang visit with lots to talk about, enhanced by most pleasant and helpful guides led by Mrs. Garner, not forgeng the refreshments at the end that included lots of moreish waistline-threatening cake.

Group visits only, by arrangement. Further informaon at www.theblackdentrust.org.uk

Mike & Maggie Taylor

Toad Hall

Page 10 Field Visit—Aston Hall &Wall Roman site 4 June 2016

The day started with early pickups which meant though an easy journey down the A5 to arrive at Aston Hall comfortably before our arranged meeng me. There was an impressive view of the surrounding Park from the Hall forecourt because of the rise on which the Hall itself was built. (Down below on land sold off from the estate was Aston Villa Football Club!) We were met by Mike, our Volunteer Guide, and soon the eight of us were assembled in the Great Hall for the tour – a fortunate number as that was the minimum for group entry. In his introducon Mike told a familiar story of a family making their mark. The Holte’s, having made their fortune in the wool trade, wanted to display their wealth and newly acquired status. Thomas Holte, knighted in 1603 and made a baronet in 1611, ordered a great house to be built at Aston. Begun eventually in 1618 it took unl 1635 to be completed. All the bricks and les used were made on the estate and 300 trees were felled to provide the mber. Inside, especially in the family and state rooms on the South side, there was intricate plaster work on the ceilings and the friezes, decorated panelling, beaufully carved staircases – the main one was canlevered too - marble fire surrounds and plaster work painted to look like wood panelling. The table laid in the Great Dining Room also illustrated the wealth of the family with its oranges and lem- ons, sea oysters, salad (never eaten because of the water in which it was washed), boar’s head and peacock centre piece. And there was that staple of grand living, the Long Gallery, 135 feet long for exercise and display of tapes- tries, furniture, portraits and panelling. In contrast to this fine living we were shown the servants accommodaon at the top of the North wing – a communal dormitory with 3-4 servants to each straw maress. One of their most menial tasks was to clean the family’s velvet covered portable toilet.

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A smashed newel post on the Grand Staircase evidenced the only serious dam- age resulng from the aack on the Hall by Parliamentary forces in 1643 during the Civil War. However a considerable quanty of furniture was carted away by the soldiers, Sir Thomas was taken to Coventry jail and an accumulave fine of £6,000 imposed which took the family almost twenty years to pay off. In the following century there were the usual family feuds, a disinheritance, gambling consequences, and an extravagant wife but mainly the estate was cared for and the last Holte, Sir Charles, was described as a great landowner with a gross income of £7.000 a year. However he died without issue in 1782, the last incumbent, James Wa Junior lived in the Hall unl 1848 and then it was bought by Birmingham Corporaon in 1868. It is now administered by Bir- mingham Museum Trust. One of the largest and most ambious houses of its day in the West Midlands it remains one of the finest examples of Jacobean architecture in the country. It had been a most interesng tour with a wealth of fascinang detail given by Mike. He recommended that we explore Lady Holte’s Garden before we le , recreated during the refurbishment of the whole estate between 2006 and 2009. This was a formal garden on the south side overlooked by the family/ state rooms with a longitudinal water feature, geometric beds enclosed by box hedging and a sunken feature area. We were more than ready by then for our sandwich lunch in the café before the journey to Wall for our a ernoon visit. We met John, our Volunteer guide, at the lile Museum with another volunteer, Julie, both of whom work with the Naonal Trust which was gi ed the land in the early 20th century. However it is English Heritage which actually manages the site and recently renovated the Museum and installed new glass display cases. John led us round to the excava- on area which comprises the remains of a bath house and a Mansio, a guest house. They lie on the northern side of Watling Street, just off the road, and across the rising ground leading to the hilltop where forts were successively

Page 12 built between 60-100 AD. The Mansio, first built in 80AD in mber around an open courtyard, lies across the upper part of the slope. The present stone re- mains are from the third two- storey guest house established perhaps in the 170s but all the surviving interior walls are below the original floor levels so no doorways are evident. It fell into disuse around 250AD. The bath house occupies the lower slope but its water supply came from a spring line above the guest house though the whole area is noted for its springs and John said that at mes the site ‘floats’. Far more survives of the bath house than the guest house to indicate the layout. There were at least five phases of remodelling beginning with a basic layout of an exercise hall leading to a cold room, warm room, and hot room and back to the cold room. Extensions were made dated to 120AD at the me of Emperor Hadrian and further extensions were added in the 170s and the early 3rd century which would have made it an impressive structure. However the demise of the guest house meant less need for a bath house and about 275AD the baths were reduced to a small nucleus of rooms then doorways were blocked up indicang use eg as a house and then abandoned. John indicated where other Roman installaons such as the mid 1st century marching camp on the south side of Watling Street and the 4th century enclo- sure across Watling Street would have been and told us of the many finds some of which we later saw in the Museum. The rest are held in repositories in Bir- mingham, Hanley (Poeries) and an English Heritage store in Bedfordshire. Monty thanked John on the group’s behalf for his remarkably informave tour which we had thoroughly enjoyed. We le pondering two so different visits – an English Jacobean Hall and a Roman froner selement – and yet the similari- ty was there in the power to establish dominang features in the landscape.

Gillian Langrick

Page 13

President’s Visit 18 June 2016

FEATURES OF THE FRONTIER: Defining, Defending and Developing the Welsh Border

The first place we visited, Shrawardine, was held by the sheriff of in Domesday Book, and sub- sequently passed to the FitzAlan family, earls of Ar- undel and lords for several generaons of Oswestry and Clun. They held it for most of the period from the twel h century to the sixteenth, their territories being treated as within England (not ) but o en beyond the normal administraon of Shropshire. The castle here is first recorded in 1165 but was almost certainly built in the decades following the Norman Conquest. It consists of a moe with the remains of a stone shell keep around it plus three baileys, although some of the earthworks probably date to the rebuilding of the castle by the FitzAlans in the thirteenth century (when it acquired the name ‘Castle Isabel’). It was used by Henry II in his campaigns against the Welsh in the mid- 1160s and was successfully aacked by Llywelyn the Great in 1215. Garrisoned for the king in the civil war, it fell to a siege by parliamentary forces in 1645 and was then destroyed, much of the stone being taken to Shrewsbury to repair the town defences. To the west of the castle are the earthworks of the medieval selement and beyond them St Mary’s church, essenally a two -cell building (nave and chan-

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cel), originally Norman but now largely the product of seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century rebuilding and restoraon. Church and castle are fre- quently found close to one another along the Welsh borders, an arrangement which may point to the impact of the lord who built the castle (or his Anglo- Saxon predecessor) in founding the church. From Shrawardine we travelled to Alberbury, right on the modern bor- der - part of the Corbet barony of Caus in Domes- day Book and in the hands of their subtenants, the FitzWarins (also of Whington), by the mid - twel h century. Although there may have been an earlier structure, the castle here is usually aributed to Fulk Fitz Warin III in the early thirteenth century, when he also built Whington castle. If so, as a castle with a large rectangular stone keep and polygonal curtain wall without intermediate towers, it was somewhat out-of-date when constructed, since these were features of twel h - century castles elsewhere. It seems to have been abandoned in the mid- fourteenth century; John Leland about 1540 described seeing ‘the ruins of Fulk Guarine, the noble warrior’s castle’. St Michael’s church, adjacent to the castle, was a minster in the Anglo-Saxon period and connued as a collegiate church therea er, with four priests in the thirteenth century; the parish extends into Wales. This early importance ac- counts for the church’s considerable size today. However the earliest surviving structure is the tower of around 1300, followed by the south aisle chapel of the

Page 15 1320s, with much of the rest being the result of nineteenth or early tweneth century work. Although both the medieval and modern selement lie close to church and castle, there was considerable reordering of the layout in the 1780s by the Leighton family of neighbouring Loton Park, whose deer park with Victo- rian lodge survives. This included the diversion of the main road southwards, to its present course. A mile and a quarter north-east of Alberbury, Fulk Fitz Warin III also founded about 1232 a religious house of the Order of Grandmonne monks, one of only three in England, which following suppression as an ‘alien priory’ during the Hundred Years War with France was granted in 1441 to All Souls College, Ox- ford; the college maintained chantries here unl 1547 a er which the building was converted to a house and farm. A er lunch we reassembled on the outskirts of Chirk, which in late medieval mes lay in Chirkland, a lordship granted to the Mormers of Wigmore by Ed- ward I as reward for their parcipaon in the conquest of ; this also passed to the FitzAlans during the fourteenth century and remained be- yond any central authority, Welsh or English, unl becoming part of the newly - formed county of Denbighshire under Henry VIII. Therea er, we drove through Overton, Bangor -on-Dee and Worthenbury, all of them within Saesneg (‘English Maelor’), whose complicated administra- ve history sums up the confusion of Anglo -Welsh border polics. This area was part of the ’s ‘Cheshire’ in Domesday Book, fell to the Welsh in the mid-twel h century and was reconquered by Edward I who made it a de- tached poron of his new county of by the in 1284. It remained as ‘Flintshire Detached’ even a er Denbighshire had been created out of neighbouring lordships under Henry VIII. A boundary commission in the 1880s found that most of the populaon favoured absorpon into Shrop- shire but this never happened. Instead, it eventually became part of in 1974 and then part of in 1996. So despite its many

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English place-names and a landscape closely resembling that of south west Cheshire, it remains a component of Wales to this day . This led us on to Threapwood, straddling the Anglo-Welsh border. The name means ‘disputed wood’ and it probably developed a er the border was fixed in the sixteenth century as a squaer selement beyond the reach of the sheriffs and jusces of either Cheshire or Flintshire - a refuge for those escaping the jurisdicon of either authority. A descripon of 1753, when it was known as a place where men went to escape press gangs and unmarried women went to have babies, said that it contained ‘about 300 acres, the greatest part of which is waste land; the rest is covered with twenty-seven coages and small enclo- sures and the inhabitants numbered at 150’. The irregular enclosures from the wood are sll evident in this dispersed selement today, now surrounding ex- pensive houses. A church (St John’s) was finally built in 1815. Shocklach, on the east side of the River Dee and clearly part of Cheshire both in Domesday Book and in later mes, was our next stop. The isolated parish church of St Edith, one mile north west of the main selement, probably dates to the twel h century but may be earlier. It is an excellent example of a small two-cell church (nave and chancel, though the laer is a fourteenth -century addion) and thus similar to the church at Shrawardine. Its isolaon led to speculaon in the early days of medieval selement studies that this was the site of a Deserted Medieval Village, but it is now thought more likely that it stands at the confluence of a series of tracks and footpaths from the dispersed selement centres within the parish. In this case, the castle at Shocklach is a good distance from the church. We then crossed the Dee back into Wales and visited Holt. Notwithstanding the importance of Holt as an industrial centre in Roman mes, its medieval history is usually said to begin in 1282, when, in the a ermath of the defeat of the Welsh by Edward I, John de Warenne earl of Surrey was granted the lordship of Bromfield and Yale on the west side of the River Dee. He and his grandson (and

Page 17

namesake) proceeded to build a castle, someme before 1311, to provide a church (dedicated like Farndon’s to St Chad), to lay out a planned town and in 1338 to begin the building of a stone bridge across the Dee. The populaon of the selement in 1315 was about 650. A er the Warenne line died out in 1347 the complex came a few years later to the FitzAlan earls of Arundel, although it was briefly under Richard II’s control within the ‘Principality of Chester’ be- tween 1397 and 1399. A er passing to Sir William Stanley in 1484, Holt castle was forfeited to the crown on Stanley’s execuon for treason in 1495. It sur- vived in a somewhat neglected state unl the civil war, falling to the parliamen- tarians in 1647 and being used therea er as a quarry, notably by Thomas Grosvenor who between 1675 and 1682 shipped much of the stone along the Dee to build his Eaton Hall. This destrucon has le the castle plan somewhat difficult to interpret, since the principal feature to be seen on a sandstone plinth is really only the pentag- onal inner ward, shorn of its surrounding round towers and barbican entrance. These have to be imagined, as does the wet moat fed by the river which sur- rounded the castle and must have helped to make it both visually aracve and a formidable forficaon. Inscripons of a lion which were once to be seen over the castle entrance and on the tower located part way across the Dee bridge are almost certainly associated with the alternave names for Holt of ‘Lion’s Town’ and ‘Lion’s Castle’. The visit concluded at Aldford, which like Shocklach lies to the east of the Dee and which was clearly part of Cheshire in Domesday Book. Aldford provides another example of castle and church adjacent to one another, although the present church (St John Bapst) is an enrely Victorian and Edwardian building, successor to an earlier structure. The castle was almost certainly in existence by the mid-twel h century. Its earthworks show a classic moe and bailey layout, with prominent defensive ditches, and geophysical survey, plus very limited excavaon, have suggested the presence of a stone tower and enclosing wall (perhaps a shell keep) on the moe. Some of this stonework may have been

Page 18 added in the thirteenth century. The castle was held by a series of subtenants, ulmately holding from the earls of Chester, and may be regarded as one of a chain of forficaons guarding the county’s western flank. There is also evi- dence of landscape planning around it, both in the grid paern of Aldford’s vil- lage streets and in traces of former parkland in the vicinity. It is not known when the castle ceased to be occupied but since it did not figure in the civil war it has probably long since been abandoned. During the course of the visit, menon was also made of Richard II’s short -lived Principality of Chester. Richard II’s reign was blighted by faconal strife be- tween his royal court and favourites on the one hand and a group of nobles on the other, among whom Richard Fitz Alan earl of Arundel was a leading figure. In 1387-88 Arundel was one of the Appellants who ‘appealed’ (accused) several of Richard’s advisors of treason and secured their exile or execuon, amid talk of the deposion of the king. In the event, Richard was able to reassert control and governed for much of the 1390s with a Council balanced between the fac- ons. However in 1397 he took revenge on three of the Appellants, having them charged with treason, among them the earl of Arundel who was executed and whose estates were forfeited to the crown. Two other Appellants, who ac- tually remained in favour through 1397, were exiled the following year. Of these, the most significant was Henry Bolingbroke duke of Hereford, to whom fell the vast duchy of Lancaster on the death of his father (the king’s uncle) John of Gaunt in February 1399. Richard II confiscated the duchy when Gaunt died, denying it to the exiled Bolingbroke, an acon which prompted the laer’s invasion that summer. This led in turn to Richard’s surrender and depo- sion, to be succeeded by Bolingbroke as King Henry IV in October 1399. Richard II’s father Edward the Black Prince had been earl of Chester and had taken a close interest in the governance of the county. As earl in succession to his father, Richard clearly had an affinity with Cheshire, seeing it as a parcular- ly valuable source of troops and revenue, and for the most part the county was

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loyal to him in return, when some other parts of the country supported his po- lical opponents. It provided him with a personal bodyguard of archers and in 1397 a sum of over £2,500 was distributed among the Cheshire men who had served the king on a previous campaign. In September 1397 Richard II formally raised Cheshire to the status of a Principality - with himself as prince (rather than earl) of Chester -so clearly placing it above other county palanes (Lancaster and Durham) and above the duchies of Cornwall and Aquitaine. Only the (beyond the March of Wales) was its equal. However the new Principality consisted of more than merely Cheshire. Flintshire, which had been administered jointly (by the same officials) as Cheshire since its crea- on in 1284, was an integral part of it and so were several marcher lordships forfeited by the executed Arundel. This meant that a connuous block of terri- tory from Holt through Chirk to Shrawardine - much of the area included in this visit - bolstered the new Principality on its western flank, the intenon being to provide the king with a power-base on which he could call in any future con- flicts with his opponents. Holt castle became the king’s personal treasury, where he kept his own consid- erable stock of funds beyond the reach of the exchequer. Richard is known to have visited Chester, Holt, Chirk and Shrawardine in February 1398, and Ches- ter again four mes between March 1398 and February 1399. But - partly be- cause the cream of Cheshire’s soldiers were with the king in Ireland at the me of Bolingbroke’s invasion - the Principality surrendered without a struggle in summer 1399, to be broken up and restored to its previous constuent ar- rangements by the new king Henry IV. One of the major debates about medieval Cheshire is also how far the county as a whole under its late-eleventh, twel h and early thirteenth -century earls was effecvely independent of governance by the kings of England: like the March itself, a buffer between England and Wales. Had the Principality of Ches- ter survived long-term, there can be lile doubt that an expanded Cheshire -

Page 20 embracing the area covered during this visit - would have developed a great deal of autonomy as a froner zone between England and Wales. This is one of the ‘might-have-beens’ of late-medieval English and Welsh history!

Graeme White

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Field Visit - Denbigh 16 July2016

Our last field visit of 2016 took us to Denbigh where we planned to visit the castle, Leicester’s Church, the town walls and St Marcella’s Church. The castle is o en overlooked in favour of beer known ones such as Conwy and Caernar- fon but there is sll much to see and there are fine views of the Vale of Clwyd and the Denbigh Moors. Our trip was led by local historian and town guide Medwyn Williams. We began with a brief outline of the geology of the area which, to put it simply, is a mixture of limestone and sandstone; both of which can be seen in the cas- tle’s structure. The town’s name derives from the Welsh din bach (small fort) and there is believed to have been a selement here from the seventh century onwards. This became one of the royal courts of the princes of Gwynedd. By the middle of the thirteenth century it was the residence of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last nave Prince of Wales. No traces remain of buildings from this era, although lile or no geophysical surveys have been carried out within the castle. Edward I granted the lordship of Denbigh to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in 1282. De Lacy began work on the castle and walled town immediately a erwards, progress was slow as the castle was paid for by de Lacy himself, it not being a royal castle. The castle then remained in use unl it was slighted a er the Civil War in 1660. The most impressive feature is the triple-towered gatehouse and our guide gave us a de- tailed descripon of the various defensive features that it boasts. A er this we passed through the inner ward past the site of the chapel, kitchen and great hall. The castle well is located in the ward; it was found to be unrelia- ble and eventually springs further down in the town were used. Legend has it that one of the de Lacy sons fell to his death down the well. Our progress now hastened as the skies opened. In spite of this we viewed the postern tower and

Page 22 gate with its steep and slippery paths and ramps. Our aenon was also drawn to the mantlet that was added to the outside face of the castle walls as a fur- ther defensive measure. Finally we passed the sallyport next to the Bishop’s Tower. We then walked past St Hilary’s Tower, which is all that remains of the church of c. 1300. The adjacent Leicester’s Church is noteworthy for being the only major church built, or rather begun, in Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. It is believed that its final design would have reflected Leicester’s protestant views but con- strucon was never completed for financial reasons and because of the opposi- on of the local people.

By now the rain was torrenal and our walk along the walls was aborted. This was unfortunate as the walls are largely complete and look out over the town and surrounding countryside. A er lunch we visited St Marcella’s Church, which is located on the outskirts of the town. The church is a fine example of the Vale of Clwyd double-nave type. Its main feature is the array of monuments, “one of the richest collecons in Wales” according to Simon Jenkins. We focused our aenon on the magnificent tomb -chest of 1588 in memory of Sir John Salus- bury and his wife Joan and the wall brass memorial to Richard Myddleton, gov- ernor of Denbigh Castle in the late sixteenth century, and his wife Jane. The church also has fine wood carvings and a collecon of funerary hatchments. Thanks are due to Medwyn Williams, who was an enthusiasc and informave guide and to Canon Pauline Walker of the Denbigh Parish.

Gwilym Hughes

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Discovery Day 2016

Sandbach 7 May 2016

Arrive carrying a map. Good advice if you’re interested in landscape history? Even beer advice if you’re new to CSLH and about to enter the restaurant meeng place for your first Discovery Day. I needn’t have worried because several friendly faces immediately called out greengs from tables set with tea and cake. ‘I must look like a newbie,’ I blurted. They smiled and pointed to the map in my hands. Ah, yes. Nothing like joining a group of trained observers!

I am not a historian, but I joined the CSLH a er hearing Prof. White’s fascinang talk in Northwich on the Cheshire Magna Carta. I didn’t know what to expect from the Discovery Day but it sounded well-organised, relaxed and informave. I hoped that I could tag along and learn from the discussions. I was delighted when Julie Smalley gave us a waterproof map-handout with several self-guided walks. We could choose themes such as the early origins of the town, its transport links or ecclesiascal history, including the 9 th century Saxon Crosses in The Cobbles. Julie also provided a table of maps and books – flanked by her pots of yellow tulips! I didn’t know that such a range of old maps existed, for example. In short, we could explore at our own pace although Julie’s round-up allowed us to share and debate findings as a group too.

One lovely member kindly took me under her wing and I enjoyed her poinng out paerns of bricks and roof les, doorways, windows and chimneys – and spong the two fonts in St. Mary’s church. Julie’s walk-guidance definitely helped me to consider the terrain in relaon to the layout of streets and the different public buildings and homes. Perhaps Sandbach is a good example for a beginner because the town’s character changes so visibly as you walk from the church by the River Wheelock up past the half-mbered buildings (some as early as 1570) and on to the Victorian civic buildings at the northern end.

What surprised me most about the nature of the Discovery Day was how exploring a town’s history can unlock all sorts of friendly encounters with the locals. The florist staff had no qualms about leng us into the back to view the wooden beams there. Once the vicar had got over his alarm about a posse of

Page 24 landscape historians arriving at the same me as the bridal party, he chaed about the Anglo-Saxon fragments at the base of the church tower. A gent on his electric scooter heard us talking about the Literary Instute (1854) and stopped to help us out.

My most haunng moment was when I realised that the car park by the library where I’d parked that morning was ‘Scotch Common’, the scene of a skirmish in 1651. Returning to the car, I saw the spot in a very different light and indeed Sandbach itself. A small town, which I’d passed through from me to me when diverted off the M6, had become vivid. I drove home out past the public drinking fountain marooned in the centre of a roundabout. That morning, I didn’t give it a second glance. From now on, I will give it a knowing nod.

My thanks to everyone for their welcome!

Caroline Hawkridge

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End Piece

The CSLH 30th Anniversary Celebraon comprises a Dee river cruise with Autumn buffet and of course our book launch. This takes place on Sunday 9th October 2016 from 1pm unl 3pm. An enjoyable occasion is assured!

Also in October is our first ever joint conference with the Society for Landscape Studies. To be held on Saturday 15th October 2016 between 9:30 am and 4:30pm this will be at St Mary’s Centre Chester CH1 2DW. Smulus guaranteed.

The Planning Team is constantly trying to think of new offerings for the membership. We welcome your views on these possible ideas so that we can incorporate them into future programmes:

• A ernoon lectures during November and January • Coach visits to more distant sites • Social events (Type of event and whether you would like to parcipate) • Research Days

We are always grateful for your responses. Please speak to, or telephone, a member of the Planning Team or email [email protected]

© Chester Society for Landscape History, 2016

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