Landscape History Today:

the Bulletin of CSLH

September 2013 Number 53

Moreton Corbet, Shropshire Contents

Chair’s Message 3

Landscape change in a borderland township 4

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 24

Oliver remembered 26 Field Visit Reports 29 Publications 43

Dates for the diary

Members may be interested in the following events ... Saturday 26th October - CLHA History Day Saturday 26th October - Life and death; the stories of Norton Priory Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool http://nortonpriory.org/top-menu/whats-on/lectures-and-tours/

CNWRS Study Days 2013-14, Lancaster University http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/cnwrs/events/index.htm

Editor: Sharon Varey, Meadow Brook, 49 Peel Crescent, Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, CH3 8DA Email: [email protected] Web: www.chesterlandscapehistory.org.uk

Page 2 Chair’s Message

With the sun streaming in through the window it is difficult to believe that the autumn lecture season is nearly upon us. Let us hope this beautiful summer weather continues for our residential to Herefordshire.

This issue of the Bulletin is not without sadness as we remember two landscape history ‘greats’ who are no longer with us. In March CSLH lost Oliver Bott, one of it’s founding fathers and a great supporter of our Society. Our thoughts and very warmest wishes are with Elizabeth at this very difficult time. In memory of Oliver we shall be holding a special commemorative lecture in his honour next year.

Towards the end of June we were shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Mick Aston of ‘Time Team’ fame. Mick spoke to the Society on two occasions in recent years and was popular amongst members for his very down to earth approach towards landscape history and archaeology.

This spring/summer witnessed a collection of memorable field visits which you can read about later in the Bulletin. It was particularly nice to welcome newer members of the Society to these visits. Our thanks are extended to all those who were involved in their planning and organisation, but particularly to Mike and Maggie Taylor for ensuring everything went according to plan.

Finally, in my role as editor, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this edition of the Bulletin in any way whatsoever. I really appreciate receiving your photos, reports and articles. So, If you feel inspired to write a piece about your summer landscape exploits, please send it to me by 30th November so that it can be included in the January edition.

I look forward to seeing you during the autumn lecture season. Sharon Varey

Page 3 Landscape Change in a Borderland Township: a 1631 map of Burton

Whilst visiting a friend’s house at Burton near Rossett, I was shown a map of part of the township of Burton that dated from 1631. The map was drawn up at the behest of the Worshipful Mr Anthony Lewis to show the extent of lands he owned in the township. The map also shows the holders of adjacent parcels of land and names the fields, their owners and their acreage. The map is difficult to interpret because place-names in both English and Welsh are mis-spelled. Additionally, south is at the top of the map: the convention of placing north at the top had not been adopted at that stage since the profession of surveyor was a relatively new one dating from the reign of Elizabeth I. In this instance, the surveyor responsible was Dr Richard Norwood. A further difficulty with the map is that not all of the township is included and unfortunately there is no coverage of Burton’s arable Town Field.

Figure 1 The Burton map of 1631.

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In order to fully appreciate this snapshot of the landscape of Burton in 1631, an outline of the earlier history of this township is made below.

The small bridge that carries the old A483, now the B5445, from Chester into Wales, shown in Figure 2, is an inauspicious frontier marker. Yet Pulford Brook, over which the road passes, has formed the frontier between England and Wales since 1536, and, before that date marked the frontier between Cheshire and the Figure 2 Pulford Bridge. Marcher Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, created as a buffer state by Edward I following thefinal conquest of Wales 1277 - 82. There are a number of historians who believe that this frontier may be even more ancient. Professor Bu’lock noted that late seventh century Welsh sources named Pulford as the boundary with Mercia.1 It is interesting to note that to the south of Pulford lay the extensive Burton Marshes, beyond which lay the Alyn Valley, guarded by three small hill forts: Rofft, Caer Alyn and the controversial hill fort of Y Gaer, (Llay) and of course, Wat’s Dyke which also passes through Llay township. After crossing the frontier into North Wales, the traveller entered the large former multi-township parish of Gresford with Allington township lying to the east of the road and Burton to the west.

The shallow valley, now occupied by Pulford Brook, once represented a much more physical challenge to travellers along the ancient corridor that ran from north to south following the line of the present Welsh borderlands. This area was once an extensive marshland covered by dense damp oak-alder forest. The marshland was prone to frequent flooding and extended north westwards to Lower Kinnerton and was known as Burton Marshes or, further north, Dodleston Moor. It is probable that a number of post-glacial pools existed within the marshes as suggested by local place-names such as Pulford, Poulton,

Page 5 Llyndir meaning ‘lake land’ and the farmhouse of Llyn Tro (turning lake) named after the moat that once surrounded this farm which dates from c.1350.2

Areas of marshland were used as a location for making votive offerings to some lost water deity in Bronze Age times as witnessed by the archaeological treasures discovered in the former marshland at Burton and Rossett and the magnificent Caergwrle bowl found in a bog below Caergwrle Castle. The finds at Burton (Figure 3) were unearthed in 2004 by metal detectors and consist of a hoard of gold jewellery and bronze tools buried on a ceramic pot. The artefacts have been dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1300-1150 BC).3 The Rossett hoard, which was also found by metal detectors, consisted of a faceted axe, a tanged knife and pieces of a gold bracelet. The hoard dates from the late Bronze Age. On the Cheshire side of the marsh, recent archaeological excavations have identified a possible Bronze Age ritual landscape at Poulton containing a birch post circle. On the Welsh side, a possible Bronze Age burial ground has been located at Lavister4 suggesting that the fringes of the marshes were inhabited from an early date.

Figure 3 The Burton hoard.

The earliest permanent settlement of the township probably dates from the early medieval period. In order to fully appreciate the significance of the emerging settlement pattern, it is necessary to understand the physical nature of the area. The township is located on land that slopes in a north easterly

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direction from a height of 85 metres on its boundary with the adjacent parish of Hope to 12 metres on the Pulford Brook boundary with Pulford parish. The steeply sloping land in the east of Burton township is made up of sands and gravels and forms part of what is known as the Wrexham delta. During the last ice age which ended around 11,000 years ago, after reaching its maximum extent around 42,000 years ago,5 much of North Wales was covered by an ice sheet known as the Welsh ice sheet. The Welsh ice was in contact on its eastern side with a much larger ice sheet that had moved south eastwards from the Irish Sea to reach the southern edge of the Cheshire Plain. This ice sheet was known as the Irish Sea ice sheet. Much of today’s physical landscape along the borderlands of north east Wales, particularly in Burton township, reflects the impact of the advance, coalescence and subsequent uncoupling of the Welsh and Irish Sea Ice during a phase of the last Ice Age known as the late Devensian. The ice sheets left behind a covering of boulder clay up to 105 metres thick that overlies the older Triassic and Liassic rocks that underlie the Cheshire- Shropshire basin,6 including the land in the east of Burton township.

As the ice sheets retreated at the end of the Ice Age, meltwater from the Welsh ice sheet flowed into the Cheshire Plain from the east forming a large lake or series of lakes covering much of the western part of the Cheshire Plain. As streams of melt water reached a lake or a surviving mass of ice, the streams lost energy and were forced to deposit their load of fluvio-glacial sands and gravels as a deltaic deposit. The delta formed the steep slopes that occur in the west of Burton Township and at Marford Hill to the south. This forms part of a feature that extends over 40 square kilometres and is up to 38 metres thick.7 The light, well-drained sandy soils on the eastern side of the township were easily worked and not surprisingly formed the location of Burton’s medieval common arable town field referred to as ‘Maes Burton’ in medieval documents. The heavy glacial boulder clays in the east of the parish were best suited to pasture and were enclosed on a piecemeal basis from an early date although the name Burton Green suggests that there may have been some common pasture. In the areas closest to Pulford Brook that were prone to flooding, the land was utilised as meadow land.

Thus, the landscape of what was to become Burton township in the post- Roman period offered potential settlers a range of agricultural possibilities once

Page 7 the dense woodland that covered the area was cleared. The end of British rule in this part of north east Wales and neighbouring west Cheshire came in the decades following the defeat of the forces of Gwynedd and Powys by the Northumbrian king Aethelfrith at the Battle of Chester c.613. The Northumbrian ascendancy was short-lived and it was replaced by Mercia, which was to emerge as one of the last major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be established in Britain. The Mercian settlement of west Cheshire, north Shropshire and parts of eastern Wales was underway on a piecemeal basis by the 630s. One of the main legacies of the Mercian settlement was the establishment of new settlements or perhaps the occupation of pre-existing settlement sites. The place-name Burton suggests that its settlement dates from this early period since the name is translated as ‘farm of the fortified place’ or ‘farm of the bower or hall’.8 Place-names ending with the suffix ‘ton’ were identified by the late Sidney Wooldridge as typical of the expansionist phase in Anglo-Saxon settlement and the most widespread place-name element in the areas settled by the Mercians in the northern borderlands between the late seventh and ninth centuries.9 Such names are found in abundance in settlements lying close to Burton such as Dodleston, Poulton, Allington and the lost hamlet of Hewlington.

Margaret Gelling has attributed the proliferation of Anglo-Saxon names in the Welsh Marches to the thoroughness of Mercian administrators in recording settlement sites in the newly settled areas.10 Other Mercian place-names give further information about this phase of settlement. The suffix ‘ford’ isalso thought to have links with Mercian seventh and eighth century settlement. The ‘ford’ settlements such as Aldford, Gresford, Marford and Pulford may also give further clues about route ways existing at that time. The suffix ‘ley’ also appears in Burton township in the names of the two small hamlets of Honkley and Golly. This suffix is derived from the Old English leah, a woodland clearing or, in some cases, meadow. Given that both hamlets are located close to small watercourses, the latter interpretation may be appropriate. It may be assumed that both represent secondary land clearance from the original Mercian settlement in Burton.

The Mercian settlement of the Welsh borderland also left a pattern of ecclesiastical parishes that was common to both north east Wales and some

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nearby areas of Cheshire and Shropshire. These areas all shared a pattern of large parishes with a number of constituent townships. The central parochial settlement of these ancient parishes, such as Gresford, Wrexham, Farndon and Hope, grew as nucleated villages surrounded by their satellite townships made up of hamlets or dispersed farms.11 It has been argued that these large parishes were almost identical in their areas with Mercian estates reflecting the lord’s patronage and power to influence ecclesiastical appointments within those areas.12 Many historians accept a hypothesis that these large parishes, or the large estates with which they may have shared their boundaries, allowed access to a range of soil types and natural resources that supported a high degree of self-sufficiency.13 These townships frequently formed part of multiple estates containing a variety of resources that included fisheries, salt houses, mills and churches.14 Certainly an estate centred on Gresford which included Burton would have contained many of these features. Thus the entire parish of Gresford and its township of Burton lay administratively within what was to become Cheshire from the seventh until the early twelfth century. The early frontier of Wat’s Dyke lay just to the west of Burton in Llay township placing Burton within early eighth century Mercia.

Following the Norman conquest, in 1071 William I granted the earldom of Chester to one of his loyal followers, Hugh d’Avranches, who had gained experience in frontier conflict on the borders of Brittany.15 William had no intention of annexing North Wales but turned a blind eye to the territorial ambitions of his marcher lord. As in Brittany, the new marcher lord allocated newly gained territory to castellans who controlled their areas of influence from hastily erected mottes. Two such mottes overlooked the Burton marshes at Pulford and Dodleston. There was a move to extend Norman control beyond the marshes and a new motte was later erected on the site of the Iron Age hillfort at the Rofft, Marford. A further motte followed on another former hillfort site on Wat’s Dyke at Erddig, Wrexham. Some of the settlements in the newly controlled lands were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1087. Burton itself is not mentioned in Domesday but nearby settlements such as Gresford, Allington, Hoseley, Radintone (now identified as Marford), Hope, Kinnerton, Dodleston and Pulford are recorded.16 It seems likely that Burton may have been included within the large and important manor of Gresford.

Page 9 This area of Cheshire was lost to the Welsh around the turn of the thirteenth century and once again Pulford Brook became a frontier between the marcher lordship of Chester and the Welsh principality of Powys. Welsh became the dominant language and several place names of Anglo-Saxon origin were given Welsh forms notably Llay - originally the early English leah (clearing) and Gwersyllt, originally Wershull, derived from the English personal name Wersige and hull meaning hill. During this period fields and woods in Burton were probably given Welsh names so making the Pulford Brook a linguistic as well as a political frontier.

Townships such as Burton were very important units for administration and taxation in medieval Wales and their boundaries were well known locally. In medieval times, a township or a group of townships rendered payments in kind (later cash) to the local lord’s court known as a llys. In some cases the landowner had royal status and his court was termed a maerdref17 as was the case in Wrexham. The commote of Marford, in which Burton was located, was a free township in contrast to other local townships, such as Marford and Hoseley, which were bonded (unfree).

In 1277 and again in 1282, the forces of Edward I moved into north east Wales in what was to be the final conquest of the area by the English. In order to offset the threat of Welsh guerrilla attack in wooded areas, Edward’s supporters cleared wide swathes of woodland along routes into Wales from Chester and Shropshire. These were known as ‘passes’ and in April 1277, William Beauchamp, the earl of Warwick, descended upon Pulford to clear such a pass between the village and the River Alyn on Burton’s south eastern border in ‘a place that has never been cut.’18 This latter reference gives an indication that much of the woodland in the township remained un-cleared in the late thirteenth century.

The township of Burton lay in the newly created marcher lordship of Bromfield and Yale and was eventually to become demesne land of the new marcher lord’s castle at Holt. In 1282, Bromfield and Yale contained around eighty-seven townships19 many of which have subsequently disappeared from our maps. The townships retained their importance as units of landholding in Wales until the late seventeenth century.20 However, Edward I’s creation of the new county of

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Flintshire in 1277, with its nine detached portions, created an administrative problem. He had granted the lordship of Hope to Dafydd ap Gruffudd, brother of Llewelyn, the prince of Wales, in appreciation of Dafydd’s help in defeating the Welsh in 1277. The lands of Hope acquired by Dafydd included lands to the north of the River Alyn, namely the townships of Burton, Honkley, Llay and part of Allington. The situation became complex from February 1283 when Edward I granted all Dafydd’s forfeited lands in Hope and the castle at Hope (Caergwrle) to his queen, Eleanor. Thus Burton township became part of Flintshire. After Eleanor’s death, Hopedale was eventually granted to the prince of Wales who farmed the lands out to the de Warenne family, lords of Bromfield and Yale. Documentary evidence suggests that the de Warenne’s were harsh and repressive landlords with their tenants complaining about over-exploitation of woods and forests and active assarting together with enforced ditching and hedging of farms. After John de Warenne’s death in 1304, Hopedale reverted to the Crown but the disputed lands of Burton, Llay and Allington, north of the Alyn, were assigned to Bromfield and Yale.21

There is a dearth of woodland on the 1631 map, perhaps the result of the incidents described above. Just a few acres remain in what is now the hamlet of Golly (Figure 4). This section of the map has south to the top of the picture and therefore the wood lies to the south of the lane that still leads through Golly linking Burton Green to Hope, Shordley and Kinnerton. In 1631, this lane is

Figure 4 Surviving woodland in Golly, 1631.

Page 11 named in Welsh as Stryt y Talwrn (street of the clearing). Less than one kilometre to the north east lies Talwrn Farm within the neighbouring township of Shordley. The 1902 OS map reveals that part of this woodland survived until recent times.

The location of Burton within the marcher lordship of Bromfield and Yale brought about a change in its status. The township lay administratively within the bailiwick of Marford, once the Welsh commote of Marford. However, by the close of the fourteenth century, smaller units: the ringildry (for free townships) and the provostry (for bonded townships) had largely replaced the bailiwick for administrative purposes within the marcher lordship. Burton became the centre of a ringildry that included the neighbouring free townships of Allington, Honkley, Gwersyllt, Gresford and the hamlet of Llay. An official known as the ringild was the lord’s agent in each of the three bailiwicks that made up Bromfield and Yale and was responsible for the collection of rents, heriots, pannage, farms of lands and office and running the ringildry court.22 Presumably the ringild dwelled within the township and held court there. The map of 1631 gives a possible location for the ringild’s headquarters - Burton Hall - shown on the map as the most substantial dwelling in the township (Figure 5).

The house shown is of two or three storeys with chimneys and looks to date from the ‘Great re-building’ period of 1575-1625. It almost certainly replaced an earlier medieval manor house on the site. There is a substantial doorway from an enclosed area facing the road labelled ‘The Court’ and the adjacent enclosed fields are both named ‘Cae Penty’ - enclosures of the head house. This substantial house also had a very large barn, a garden and an orchard (Figure 6). There are also four cottages with gardens which were possibly the houses of retainers.

Other relict features of the late medieval landscape of Burton can be identified on the 1631 map. The fourteenth century was a period of massive social and economic upheaval beginning with a marked deterioration in the climate leading to colder and wetter conditions throughout western Europe. This triggered serious harvest failures across Britain in 1315-17 and was accompanied by a devastating cattle disease that returned in 1348 and 1363.

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Figure 5 Burton Hall.

Figure 6 Burton Hall Site.

Page 13 This must have had a serious impact on the pastoral economy of an area such as Burton. These disastrous events were, of course, eclipsed by the devastating impact of the bubonic plague or Black Death that reached the area in the late spring of 1349 returning again in 1361 and 1369. Although the impact of the plague was felt most in urban areas, a conservative estimate is that at least 25% of the population of rural North Wales died in the epidemic, particularly those in the lowest economic category: the unfree bondmen.23 Many of the bondmen who survived the plague fled their hamlets in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.24 A number of these settled in Cheshire as freemen taking advantage of a shortage of labour following the plague.25

There is evidence that Burton may have received many migrants in this period. The late fourteenth century Lansdowne MS 28 mentions a class of settlers in Bromfield known as advocarii – ‘outsiders’ who held their land under a system of tenure known as avowry.26 Under this system, the new settler could, after one year and a day, remain in his cottage for life providing that he had shown good conduct towards the lord and his tenants. He was liable to pay an avowry rent or, in Welsh arian arddel (district money). Advocarii, held at the lord’s will, only the land on which their cottage stood. These people were often servants or labourers working for a weekly wage, or sometimes tradesmen such as smiths, tailors, shoemakers or fullers. Burton, with thirty-three advocarii in the late fourteenth century, had more than any other settlement in Bromfield. The 1631 map shows a number of roadside cottages standing in small plots of around one acre or less that may possibly have once been the homes of some of these late medieval settlers in the district. Figure 7 shows a cottage of this

Figure 7 Anne Nicholas’s plot.

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type held on 1631 by Anne Nicholas, a widow.

The map gives an accurate picture of the settlement pattern of the east-central part of Burton township in the pre-Civil War period. It is interesting to note that the network of lanes shown on the map still exists today. Their survival is perhaps due to the emergence of a new focus of settlement along the mid eighteenth-century Chester-Wrexham turnpike. The turnpike road ran along the eastern boundary of the township crossing the Alyn near Rossett Mill which stood within Burton township. The other water mill on the eastern side of the turnpike was in the neighbouring township of Allington. A mill in this township is mentioned in the Domesday Survey (1087). The present half-timbered Rossett mill dates from 1661 and replaced an earlier building on the site.

Figure 8 Upper Mill, Rossett.

It is interesting to note that in 1631, all the house sites, apart from the small nucleus around Burton Hall, were located in roadside positions (Figure 9). This created the loose dispersion of settlement that still persists within Burton today. Along the lanes there are tighter clusters of houses in the hamlets of Burton Green, Honkley and Golly, all located on ‘dry-point’ sites above the reach of flooding that was common around Burton marshes. The same is true along Burton Hall Road that skirted the marsh, especially at its junction with Rosemary Lane. It is possible that the origin of the earliest of these roadside house locations were small farms working newly assarted lands taken from the woodland as is mentioned in fourteenth century documents.

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Figure 9 Road and house sites, 1631.

Figure 10 shows one small enclosure in the hillside hamlet of Golly belonging to a person called Bould. This enclosure could be an example of a small farm created on newly assarted lands. The field to the rear of the cottages is called ‘The field above the house’ while the same person owned or rented a field on the opposite side of the lane called ‘Cockshutt’. The name Cockshutt is common in English border counties and is derived from the Old English cocc-sciete meaning a glade where nets were spread to catch woodcock. The site is adjacent to a small watercourse and it is tempting to believe that this settlement site began life as a result of late medieval woodland clearance. The lane in front of the house led to Hope. The watercourse crossed this lane by way of a ford. This is the case elsewhere in the township suggesting that waterlogged roads could have been a problem during the rainy season.

The other feature of the settlement pattern that requires discussion is the elongated, roughly rectangular area of land running north-west to south-east enclosed by Burton Green, Rosemary Lane and Burton Hall Road. The enclosed area measures approximately 1.5 kilometres in length and 0.75 kilometres in width and slopes from west to east. It is drained by a number of small

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Figure 10 Bould’s enclosure - an early assart? watercourses leading into Burton marshes to the east. The question arises as to why Rosemary Lane skirted around this area. The 1631 map indicates that the area was enclosed into parcels of land which also contained Burton Hall. At its northern end stood the area still known as Burton Green which might suggest that the area was once the township’s common pasture. If so, it may have been surrounded by a wooden fence to prevent animals straying into the flooded marshes and give some protection from predators in the surrounding woodland. Thus Rosemary Lane may have skirted this early boundary fence.

Burton Hall was located in a central position within the township and was the most important dwelling in the early seventeenth century. Was this site perhaps the original clearing made by eighth-century Mercian settlers and did the boundary of the Saxon ‘farm of the hall’ with its boundaries marked by a fence or stockade lead to the placing of Rosemary Lane around its eastern flank? The final explanation that can be offered is that Rosemary Lane gave access to the late medieval farmsteads of Llyn Tro and Croes Howell and also to tracks leading to the Town Field. The southern end of what is now Rosemary Lame is shown on the map as the ‘Way to Marford Bridge’ and a lane leading off it to the south is named as ‘The road to Gresford’ suggesting that the lane may be an old thoroughfare to Burton from the ecclesiastical centre of the parish in Gresford. It is logical that at its northern end the lane would give access to Burton Green and formed a nodal point for lanes leading northwards to Honkley and Kinnerton, north westwards to Golly and Hope, westwards to Gresford and Llay and eastwards to Pulford.

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Figure 11 The enclosed area, 1631. By 1631, the area within the enclosing lanes was enclosed into fields with adjoining fields owned by prominent landowning families. These included Anthony Lewis, who commissioned the map, and resided at Burton Hall. Lewis owned over 211 acres of land in the township. Lewis’s surname was originally Lewis ap William and this change is indicative of the Anglicisation of Welsh surnames that was taking place in the seventeenth century. Other important landowners were the Sontleys who also held estates near Erddig and Ruabon and the Bellots (Billet on map) who originated in Great Moreton, Cheshire. One of the family, Robert Bellot, became bishop of Chester.27 The Howell and Lloyd families were also represented along with Elizabeth Langford (widow), a blood relative of the Lewis’s. This may be evidence of the sale of former common land and the process of estate building that had its origins in the late medieval period, but was accelerated in Wales after 1536, when Henry VIII formally ended the ancient Welsh inheritance system of gavelkind that divided

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lands between male heirs creating ever smaller land holdings. Its replacement by English land laws made the sale of land in Wales legally simpler and encouraged the sale of land to larger land owning families. This must also be linked with the price inflation for food and wool with prices as a whole rising by 500% between 1530 and 1640.28 It was the smaller local gentry, such as the families listed above, who benefited most from the high returns. They actively leased lands from the Crown or the Church and often sub-let these lands at a profit. These families have been called the ‘new’ gentry for the acquisition of land brought with it respectability and security.29

Some of the enclosed area was marshy and subject to waterlogging. This is evident from the amount of meadow land (dol in Welsh) and the large enclosed area known as ‘The High Moor’ adjacent to Burton Hall Road. This English name occurs in an area where most fields still bore Welsh names and may suggest that this enclosure was more recent. Three fields in the north west of the area bear the names ‘Golly Ucha’ (Higher Golly), ‘Golly Issa’ (Lower Golly) and ‘Golly bychan’ (Little Golly). Golly was an emerging hamlet in the township, half a kilometre north west of Burton Green. Could these fields represent former common grazing lands of tenants from this area?

Land held in severalty was far more profitable than land held in common, hence the reduction in common grazing land in sixteenth and seventeenth century Burton. The northern part of the township was known as the Common Moor at the time of John Norden’s Survey (1620) of the Prince of Wales’s lands in Bromfield and Yale which included Burton.30 The moor called ‘Gwern Gwerydau’, meaning ‘alder marsh on the moss’, extended for 507 statutory acres into Kinnerton township. A quarter of this area had been allocated to Sir Richard Grosvenor whose family, unlike many other upper gentry families, were prospering in this time of high prices. Clearly this family had the capital to drain and enclose this area of common land. This development concerned tenants in Burton who claimed that they enjoyed free socage on this ‘ancient common’.

Thus it is not surprising that by 1631 the common pasture known as Burton Green (Figure 12) had shrunk considerably in size to just over six acres. Some encroachment of the Green by small cottages is also apparent.

Page 19 Figure 12 Burton Green.

There is some evidence from both the map and contemporary documents that enclosure of common grazing lands was still proceeding in the first half of the seventeenth century. Figure 13 shows several parcels of enclosed land close to the Denbighshire-Flintshire boundary on the north west of the map. Most of the enclosures belong to one family: the Howells’ but others have been allocated to single owners/tenants.

Moor surrounds the enclosed parcels and some of these remained unenclosed until the nineteenth century. In the northernmost parcel a marl pit is marked, one of many in the township, and a common feature in parishes across the border in Cheshire. Marl is calcareous clay that was spread on fields in areas of acid soils to reduce soil acidity and improve productivity. Its first use dates back to the mid-thirteenth century.31 It was dug in bowl-shaped depressions now usually filled with water. Marl pits were often located in working fields since it was bulky to transport.32 The map reveals that several roadside marl pits existed in Burton in 1631.

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Figure 13 Enclosure of common land.

Page 21 Space and time have made it necessary for me to curtail this analysis ofa fascinating seventeenth-century primary source for landscape history. The map poses as many questions as it answers and all the above explanations are of course purely speculative, but this is the joy of local studies! Please let the author know if you can throw any further light on interpreting this source.

I am grateful to Derrick and Bridget Gwilliam of Burton for agreeing to loan the map to me for this has made it possible to write the notes on which this article is based. Ray Jones End Notes 1 J.D. Bu’lock, ‘Pre-conquest Cheshire 383 - 1066’ in J.J. Bagley, ed. A History of Cheshire, 3 (Chester, 1972), 32. 2 H.W. Owen & R. Morgan, Dictionary of the Place Names of Wales, (Llandysul, 2008), 58. 3 National Museum of Wales website: ‘The Burton Hoard, Wrexham: Context and significance’. 4 M. Emery, ‘Poulton-Pulford 7500 BC - 1650 AD’ in Pulford Local History Group Pulford and Poulton in Cheshire Through the Ages, (Bury St Edmunds, 2010). 5 J. Shaw, ‘The Irish Sea glaciation of north Shropshire – some environmental reconstructions’, Field Studies, 4 (1972), 607. 6 C.A. Lewis, The Glaciation of Wales and the Adjoining Regions (London, 1970), 328. 7 R. Jones, Gwenfro - A Landscape History of Wrexham and its River (Chester, 2012), 5-6. 8 A.N. Palmer & E. Pugh, A History of the Ancient Tenures of Land in North Wales and the Marches (2nd edn, Wrexham, 1910), 238. 9 S.W. Wooldridge, ‘The Anglo-Saxon settlement’ in H.C. Darby, ed. An Historical Geography of England before 1800 (London, 1936), 110. 10 M. Gelling, ‘The early history of western Mercia’ in S. Bassett, ed. The Origins of Anglo Saxon Kingdoms (Leicester, 1989), 190. 11 D. Sylvester, The Rural Landscape of the Welsh Borderland, A Study in Historical Geography (London, 1969), 469. 12 N.J. Higham, The Origins of Cheshire (Manchester, 1993), 127. 13 K.J. Matthews, ‘Early estate development in Cheshire’, Cheshire History, 35 (1995-96), 2.

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14 N.J. Higham, ‘Anglo Saxon Cheshire AD 400 - 1066’ in A.D.M. & C.D. Phillips, A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Chester, 2002), 26. 15 A.H. Pryce, ‘Frontier Wales 1063 - 1282’ in P. Morgan, A Tempus History of Wales (Stroud, 2006), 84. 16 J. Morris, Domesday Book: Cheshire (Chichester, 1978), 267d and 368d. 17 R.J. Jones, Valleys of the Poets - A History of the Landscape and People of the Elwy and Aled Valleys (Chester, 2005), 135. 18 D. Pratt, ‘Anatomy of conquest: Bromfield and Yale 1277 - 84’, Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society, 56 (2008), 24. 19 D. Pratt, ‘Fourteenth century Bromfield and Yale - lay and ecclesiastical territorial units’, Transactions of the Denbighshire History Society, 27 (1978), 111. 20 A. Gresham, ‘Medieval parish and township boundaries in Gwynedd’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 3 (1987), 146 - 7. 21 D. Pratt, ‘A local border dispute’, Flintshire Historical Society, 21 (1964), 46 - 55. 22 Pratt, ‘Fourteenth century Bromfield and Yale’, 103. 23 A.D. Carr, Medieval Wales (Basingstoke, 1995), 95. 24 J. Davies, A History of Wales (London, 1993), 208. 25 E.D. Evans, ‘The Crown lordships of Denbighshire’, Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society, 50 (2000), 25. 26 Quoted in A.N. Palmer & E. Owen, A History of Ancient Tenures of Land in North Wales and the Marches (London, 1910), 185. 27 A.N. Palmer, A History of the Thirteen Country Townships of Wrexham (Wrexham, 1903), 67-8. 28 C. Hill, Reformation to Industrial Revolution (London, 1967), 47. 29 P.J. Helm, England under the Yorkists and Tudors: 1471 to 1603 (London, 1968), 317. 30 Norden’s Survey 1620 available: http://archive.org/stream/ originaldocument01londiala 31 H.C. Prince, ‘The origins of pits and depressions in Norfolk’, Geography, 49 (1964), 15. 32 R. Muir, The New Reading the Landscape (Exeter, 2000), 64.

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Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I love to find painted ceilings in churches and chapels! Llanrwst, Rhug, Staunton Harold and now St. Mary the Virgin, Bromfield in Shropshire. The latter was painted ‘with robust naivety’ by Thomas Francis in 1672. The ceiling is a heavenly cloudscape of angels with scrolls, the symbol of the Trinity placed centrally above the chancel. ‘A most engaging piece of folk -art’ is how Pevsner describes it, rather patronisingly.

Below this decorated chancel ceiling is a most ornate Triptych, rich in golds and reds, which Pevsner fails to mention. The central panel of the Crucifixion is in the Italian style with side panels Figure 1 Painted ceiling. representing ‘the glorious company of the apostles’ with tiers of evangelists and archangels. So we have the classical and the naive in an intriguing setting.

This is a place of worship that can trace its foundations back to the time of Edward the Confessor (1042 - 1066). Subsequently mentioned in the Domesday Book, it is a re- work of a Religious House of twelve secular canons and Figure 2 Ornate Triptych.

Page 24 later a Benedictine Priory. It has an imposing Gatehouse (now Landmark Trust). The location was ideal for such a settlement with the rivers Teme and Onny providing a good supply of fish and water for orchards and gardens. The watermill can be seen with some difficulty from the churchyard as it is now in private hands.

Figure 3 St Mary the Virgin, Bromfield. Walking round the outside there is evidence of a Norman chancel arch belonging to a much larger cruciform church of the eleventh century. The weight of the tower and its proximity to the river led to the destruction of the tower, sanctuary and north transept. The two Norman arches were blocked to form exterior walls. The entrance to the church is on such a scale it could not be anything other than part of a grand religious building, reached after a long walk from the modern day lytch-gate.

Further on, we see evidence of the priory’s conversion to a residence by one Charles Foxe who took over the buildings at the Dissolution. The standing walls with mullioned windows and steps leading to his door seem incongruous. A fire destroyed the house a century later when the chancel was incorporated back into the parish church in 1658.

After this chequered history, the chancel was painted throughout in 1672 at the expense of Richard Herbert of Oakly Park. To Pevsner this was ‘a work of robust naivety’. However, another commentator describes it as ‘the best example of the worst style of ecclesiastical art’. But C. Hodgson Fowler in his thorough restoration of 1889-90 didn’t seek to cover it up but he did design the Triptych! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – and I for one like it!

Maggie Taylor

Page 25 Oliver remembered

Oliver Bott, who died on 5 April 2013 at the age of 84, was a founder-member of the Chester Society for Landscape History in 1986, having been among the first cohort of students on Chester College’s Diploma in Landscape History (forerunner of the MA in Landscape, Heritage & Society) when it was launched in 1978. He served Bristol 2005 on the Society’s Committee from the outset until the AGM of 2012. Over the years he also delivered three lectures to the Society, on his survey of listed buildings in Cheshire, on structural refinements of Gothic Churches and on the listed buildings of Chester itself. In addition, he led four weekend residential visits, to Herefordshire in 1988 - the first one the Society organised - to Hexham and the Roman Wall in 1991, to Bakewell in 1993 and most recently to Bristol in 2005, a visit memorable for the boat trip which he arranged. Goodshaw Chapel, Lancashire, 2009

Page 26 A native of rural Staffordshire, Oliver read architecture at Queens’ College, Cambridge, producing a well-received dissertation on eighteenth-century planned villages. His early career was spent in an academic post at the recently-founded Keele University, with an architectural practice in Macclesfield and in the planning department of Lancashire County Council, before he moved to Cheshire in 1960. Qualified in town planning as well as in architecture, he became an outstanding Chief Conservation Officer for the County: it was under his leadership, for example, that projects for the conservation and presentation of such as Styal Mill, Lands End to John O’Groats, 2003 Stretton Mill and Macclesfield Silk Museum were undertaken to a high standard of design and integrity. In 1975, he produced with Rhys Williams Man’s Imprint on Cheshire, a very informative, well-illustrated and highly readable account, with gazetteer, of significant features in the County’s historic environment. He also oversaw the project investigating ridge and furrow and hedgerows in Peckforton, Haughton, Bunbury and Huxley, which led to the publication of Ploughlands and Pastures: The Imprint of Agrarian History in Four Cheshire Townships in 1982. He undertook a fresh survey of listed buildings in the County between 1974 and 1987 and was responsible for a number of other publications, among Wycoller, Lancashire, 2009

Page 27 them studies of cornmill sites in Cheshire and of silkworkers’ houses in Macclesfield, both of which appeared in Cheshire History.

In his retirement, Oliver remained an active member of local societies, not only our own but also Chester Civic Trust and Chester Archaeological Society. Throughout his life he was a keen walker and he completed the trek from John O’Groats to Land’s End only a few years before his death. He will be remembered not only for his exceptional contribution as a local government officer who did much to ensure the conservation of Cheshire’s historically- and architecturally-important buildings but also as a generous, warm-hearted scholar, a very good friend to the Society who was always ready to share his expert knowledge and give encouragement and advice to others.

Graeme White

Wine and Dine

Come and join us … Thursday 17th October at Trafford Hall

Further details will be available soon (kindly arranged by Linda Wood)

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Field Visit Reports

Chester and the Civil War (2nd May)

A good sized group gathered on a rare fine evening to hear Peter Gaunt from the University of Chester explain some of the effects on Chester of the Civil War whilst walking the walls clockwise from the Northgate to the Roman Gardens at their south-eastern corner above the river.

Peter began by describing Figure 1 Peter in full flow. the early development of the city, its walls and its importance as a gateway to Wales and Ireland. Though Peter’s own leanings are definitely Parliamentarian (he was wearing a Cromwell Society tie!), he gave us a balanced and most informative summary of the trials of Chester during the War, particularly felt towards its end when the Royalist held city was under siege.

He explained that the defenders built extensive earthwork defences to the north and east of the city walls and an outlying fort to the south of the river in Handbridge. However, there is little trace of any remains. Virtually all the existing suburbs to the north of the walls were destroyed to give the defenders a clear line of fire, so explaining the lack of any early buildings there today. It was certainly news to me that the platform on the walls west of the Northgate now often called ‘Morgan’s Mount’ is actually a later built viewing point and

Page 29 that the real ‘Mount’ was an earthwork artillery structure outside the walls nearby.

As we reached the end of the walk, Peter told us of the extensive destruction of buildings within the walls during the later period of the siege in 1645-46 and pointed out the repaired section of the wall in the Roman Gardens which Figure 2 Roman Gardens. marks where the attackers finally broke through the defences. Though the breach was successfully defended the outer defences remained lost and the attackers were thereafter able to direct cannon fire inside the walls from the tower of St John’s Church. The city was the city surrendered soon after, the last sizeable English settlement to do so.

We finished the evening with very welcome refreshments at the Methodist Church in St John Street. Julian Tweed

Walking through the past - a geological trail around Farndon and Holt (19th May) Within thirty minutes of accepting Mike’s ‘invitation’ to write up this field trip I began to wonder what the chances were of getting a bursary to complete a PhD – so much information was pouring our way!

We met our leader, Professor Cynthia Burek, at Farndon Bridge, alongside Dee Cliffs, a SSSI and one of the most important geological sites in the country.

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It had been a long journey across several millennia from the Triassic and thousands of miles from somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees north. The several sections we viewed were formed mainly as a result of water, as vast abraded rivers flowed, carrying the debris we see today as solid rock.

Figure 1 Rock Strata.

Quarry sections displayed evidence of past environments such as cross- bedding, dipping and pebble beds. Massive sandstone blocks were found to be suitable for building. Perhaps the finest examples being the churches in both Farndon and Holt and, of course the magnificent bridge connecting England to Wales, or if you prefer, Wales to England.

Two areas in Holt are designated as RIG sites (Regionally Important Geodiversity sites). These are Holt castle quarry and the river terraces.

A walk in the village highlighted the use made of local stone. One garden had its own complete rock garden in situ. A visit to St Chad’s Church in Farndon revealed the use of both Figure 2 All is revealed. local and imported stone in

Page 31 the construction of graves. Sadly however, the church was closed. Kerbstones were examined and we learned which side of the track had been moved to widen the road by the change of material. Cynthia pointed out that this had not been written up– so please note – you read it here first!

One important point learnt was that Geodiversity underpins Biodiversity – ie. rocks came before plants. We learnt this by rote! Many thanks to Cynthia for a very enjoyable afternoon.

Peter Roberts

Great Orme (9th June)

18 members assembled at Llandudno on a bright and clear morning. Most made their way to the summit of the Great Orme by means of the tramway of 1902; others did the short sharp climb on foot. There were beautiful views of the Conwy Valley, Snowdonia and Anglesey and in the other direction we could see the blades of the wind turbines rising out of the haze over Liverpool Bay.

We were met by Sally Pidcock, Great Orme Country Park Warden, who led us on a walk around the perimeter of the headland, a distance of about two miles. There was something to interest geologists, botanists, ornithologists, entomologists, historians and archaeologists.

Sally explained the special habitat of the Orme to us. The headland is largely limestone containing seams of copper ore. The central portion is private farm- land but the perimeter with its network of paths is open to the public apart from some areas that are fenced off to enable renewal. The boundary is defined by a wall built in local stone which contained brachiopod fossils.

The first object of interest was a medieval quarry from which stone had been extracted to build the Bishop of Bangor’s palace of the late thirteenth/early fourteenth centuries; the overgrown remains of which were still visible on the cliff edge.

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During the day Sally pointed out several noteworthy plants such as Hoary and Common Rockrose, Common Milkwort, Common Spotted Orchid, Heath Speedwell and White Horehound. A pair of chough was also seen foraging in an adjacent field. The area is home to a number of rare and endangered butterflies such as the Silver Studded Blue and also to a colony of glow-worms. Sadly, we did not catch sight of the herd of feral Kashmir goats that live on the headland.

Our attention was then drawn to the imposing houses we could see below on Marine and Llys Helig Drives, popularly known as Millionaires’ Row. Marine Drive continues around the perimeter of the Orme. It was built as a toll road in the 1870s with toll houses at each end.

An area of Second World War remains was visible at Figure 1 Exploring the Great Orme. the north west corner of the headland. The Coastal Artillery School was relocated to North Wales from Shoeburyness in 1940 and concrete roads, hut bases, ammunition stores and other relics are still visible.

An ecologically important area of limestone pavement was noted at the northern end of the Orme. The north east corner is dominated by a collection of seemingly man-made stone structures which are mostly natural features such as erratics. Sally pointed out to us the Free Trade Rock, which has now become known as the Hamburger Rock because of its supposed resemblance to that delicacy.

A number of natural wells are present on the Orme and in particular we passed by the Roman Well (Ffynnon Llety Madoc). The Welsh name translates as the well of Madoc’s lodging although there is no obvious indication of a dwelling in

Page 33 the immediate vicinity. Water from Ffynnon Gogarth seen earlier in the day was used to power a drainage system for the copper mines via a series of A frames and Brammock rods and three of these have now been reconstructed.

We continued past the church of St Tudno visible below us on the east side of the Orme. It is believed that there may have been a church here since the sixth century and parts of the existing structure date back to the twelfth century.

After lunch we were shown around the Great Orme copper mine by the manager Nick Jowett. Figure 2 Listening intently. Mining work in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had exposed evidence of previous quarrying but its significance had not been realised at the time.

Surveying works for a proposed new car park in 1987 located obviously ancient workings and tools, which radio-carbon dating identified as going back to 1,500 - 2,000 BC. According to Nick these discoveries revolutionised the then current view of Bronze Age technology in Britain. Previously it was believed that bronze goods had been produced in Europe and imported into Britain but the discoveries at the Great Orme showed that the converse was probably the case.

After Nick’s talk the party visited the two top levels of the workings that are open to the public; although a further seven levels lie below them. Glimpses of them were visible through the occasional grids in the walkway and gave some idea of the scale of the enterprise; an operation that is believed to have been carried out over a millennium and to have produced in the region of 1,800

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tonnes of copper ore, all excavated by hand in near darkness using stone and bone tools. Also visible was the 470 feet deep Vivian shaft, dug when mining was revived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an 832 yard long drainage channel leads from it to the sea at the West Shore.

Nick pointed out that much more may lie undiscovered under the currently undisturbed areas of waste and that exploratory works on the site will continue.

Thanks to Sally, Nick, Mike and Maggie for organising such an interesting and varied trip.

Gwilym Hughes

President’s Visit to North Shropshire (22nd June)

Those who have been on one of our president’s visits will know that they are often characterised by copious notes, hand-outs and a generous dose of summer sunshine with the familiar sight of Graeme’s straw hat. As we drove into Shropshire, the skies were grey and the weather was distinctly cool and damp. However, within a few minutes of our arriving in Audlem, the rain stopped and our visit began …

‘Audlem’ is recorded in Domesday as Aldelime which means ‘formerly in the Lyme’. It was a medieval market centre, having received a market grant in 1295, and was allowed to hold a three day fair in July. Graeme suggested that the relatively late grant was possibly merely formalising the situation in reality. The triangular market centre shape was bounded by three streets: Stafford Street, Cheshire Street and Shropshire Street.

Audlem highlights include the present market hall or ‘Butter Market’ which dates from the early eighteenth century - a structure which Pevsner describes as ‘a very superior bus shelter’; the parish church of St James which overlooks the former market area – its circular shape suggesting it could be of early

Page 35 foundation; the mid- seventeenth century brick Grammar School located in School Lane - a lane with a characteristic reverse S bend - and the Shropshire Union Canal. One of the last canal projects to be constructed, the canal carried cheese, butter, coal and stone from Nantwich to Wolverhampton, and formed part of the Figure 1 Audlem Grammar School. Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal. The wharf area at Audlem included a lock keeper’s cottage, warehouse and inn, and a later mill. Time did not allow us to visit all 15 locks!

Our second stop was Market Drayton. Some similarities in town planning were evident; a medieval market centre complete with nineteenth century butter market in close proximity to Stafford Street, Cheshire Street and Shropshire Street, the town having been granted a market charter and three day fair in 1245. Considerable infilling of the medieval market area has taken place over the centuries, with the majority of surviving timber framed buildings dating to the years after 1651, the year in which a serious fire damaged the town. Unlike Audlem’s, the parish church is located a short distance away at the head of the High Street. Although mainly Victorian, there is architectural evidence to suggest that the building originated in the twelfth century. It would therefore seem likely that the origins of the settlement probably lay close to the church. Market Drayton similarly boasts a Grammar School, the present brick structure dating to c.1700.

After lunch we assembled at Moreton Corbet castle. The present structure, originally known as Moreton Toret castle, dates to the thirteenth century. When the castle was inherited by the Corbet family in 1235 its name was changed to Moreton Corbet. Described by Leyland as ‘a fair castle’, the

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structure was inhabited by the Corbet family until 1578. Following Sir Andrew Corbet’s death, his son Robert constructed a grand house of brick with a stone façade and formal garden. Camden described Moreton Corbet as ‘a most gorgeous and stately house after the Italian model’. He qualified his comments by adding that it was constructed ‘in a most barren place’! It is unclear whether the house was actually finished as Robert intended, for he died from the plague just five years after inheriting the estate. However, records reveal that the house was inhabited by the Corbet family in the early seventeenth century. The house contained a long gallery which stretched the entire length of the building (some 60 paces). During the Civil War the castle was under siege and the house was attacked by Parliamentarian forces on more than one occasion. Moreton Corbet was re-occupied by the Corbet family in the latter part of the seventeenth century but the buildings fell into disuse during the eighteenth century and were partially demolished.

The Corbet family crest shows a raven or crow derived from the French ‘corbet’ meaning crow. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the family had adopted the elephant and castle, a double symbol of strength, which is thought to derive from the Corbet family’s defeat and subsequent acquisition of the Oliphant family castle. Figure 2 The Corbett crest.

Our final stop of the day was Ellesmere where we visited the remains of the motte and bailey castle. At the time of the Domesday survey, Ellesmere was the most valuable manor in the county outside of Shrewsbury. The castle is located close to the mere, the largest of nine glacial lakes located in this part of north Shropshire. This was a good defensive site because of the extensive marshland which lay at the edges of the mere. It seems likely that the medieval

Page 37 town would have been located close to the motte due to the presence of the marshes. Ellesmere was granted a weekly market in 1221 and by 1247 had a borough charter. By 1280, 59 burgage plots were recorded, suggesting Ellesmere was a settlement of considerable size. It seems likely that the castle was constructed of wood, Figure 3 View of Ellesmere. for no evidence of building structures has been discovered. The motte at Ellesmere is substantial with a base diameter of 80 metres and it is eleven metres in height. Since the eighteenth century its summit has been crowned by a bowling green.

Upon our descent, a number of our party adjourned to the nearby lakeside café for tea, coffee and cakes. Many thanks to Graeme for another ‘master class’ - quite simply it was a great day out!

Sharon Varey

Holywell and the Greenfield Valley (13th July)

We were certainly blessed with a perfect summer’s day for our ‘pilgrimage’ to St Winefride’s Well and the immediate surrounding area. Holywell, or Treffynnon, meaning ‘settlement of the well’, in Welsh, has been a place of pilgrimage since Norman times, though legend would suggest from much earlier. In 660 AD, Winefride’s head was cut off by a local chieftain Caradoc, after rebuffing his advances. A spring gushed forth where her head had fallen, and her uncle, Beuno, miraculously restored her to life. The spring quickly became known for its healing properties and during the sixteenth century a fine

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chapel was built over the spring. The Reformation failed to quell religious attachment to St Winefrid’s well, and indeed, in spite of later troubled times, the site has been visited continually up to the present day, by the devout for healing purposes. The chapel, not usually open to the public, is a perfect example of early sixteenth century architecture. Figure 1 Holy waters Elaborately ornamented stone work with light flooding in from the elegant traceried windows above and a fine oak ceiling. Some rather risqué carved figures were spotted by the eagle eyed! We were unexpectedly invited to view St James Church, originally dedicated to St Winefride, but the name changed when it became the (Protestant) parish church. This building, in contrast to the chapel, appeared gloomy, with light being restricted by an overpowering balcony, and some unfortunate restoration work retracting from its charm. The congregation, unable to hear the church bells, owing to it being in the valley, were alerted to services by a gentleman who walked with a bell, the ‘walking steeple’ up to the town.

A welcome coffee break in the Arts and Craft Mill Café, gave a boost to the local economy, and fortified us for the next leg of our visit. Basingwerk Castle was probably built in the Norman period to protect the lucrative pilgrim trade. It can be accessed on foot, but requires agility and determination to penetrate the undergrowth! Amongst the wooded slopes can be seen the remains of lead ore workings. A grill at the side of the path leads to the now defunct Holway ‘boat level.’ Begun in 1774, it was designed to drain the lead mines, but provided access for workers and for lead being taken out by barge. Later in the eighteenth century it turned into a tourist attraction. In 1897 the Milwr Sea -level tunnel superseded it, but unfortunately this caused the water for St

Page 39 Winefrid’s well to dry up! Alternative water is now provided from the boat level.

We drove down to Greenfield Dock and luckily, the tide being out, we could immediately see the reason for its demise. Just a very narrow channel remains open, the rest being silted up preventing any access for boats. There is evidence of Roman activity, fishing, the conveying of pilgrims and the slave trade between Liverpool and Figure 2 Greenfield Dock. Greenfield. Huge quantities of black manillas (made of drawn copper and coated with lead) were shipped out to Africa and became currency. Large copper vessels known as ‘Neptune cups’ were sent out for the purpose of extracting salt from seawater. Goods such as these were taken to Liverpool, then to Africa and exchanged for slaves who in turn were taken to America and exchanged for raw cotton. Some of the cotton when reaching Liverpool came in through Greenfield Dock to the cotton mills in the Greenfield Valley. As the Dee silted up a mechanism for flushing out the silt in Greenfield Dock was devised, but proved inadequate. A canal was built as well as a railway for transporting goods. Once the roads and railway became efficient, the dock went out of use and was sold in 1901.

Our lunch was taken amidst the picturesque ruins of Basingwerk Abbey. It was founded in 1132 by the Cistercian Order. The monks were the first to harness the power of the Holywell Stream, using it for mills, grinding corn and treating wool from their large flocks of sheep. The monks were driven out after 400 years, when Henry VIII dissolved the monastery in 1536.

The latter part of the day was dedicated to the industrial history ofthe

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Greenfield Valley. This industrial site would never have been established were it not for the powerful spring water that gushed out from the rocks and into St Winefride’s well. A series of reservoirs, built utilising the spring water, were vital for powering the disparate mills. Today, they are maintained as tranquil lakes supporting a variety of wildlife. On foot we visited Figure 3 Basingwerk Abbey. five distinct factory sites. The first (now a car park) had been the copper works of the Parys Mountain Company. Built in 1787 by Thomas Williams, it was for the manufacture of copper sheathing for boats and copper bolts. Williams was a great success and became known as the ‘Copper King.’ The Abbey Wire Mill manufactured both copper and brass wire. A large water wheel, since removed, would have driven the machinery.

Lower Cotton Mill was powered by Holywell Stream. Built in just ten weeks, in 1785, the mill was originally six stories high. Although considerably reduced in height, one still has the impression of its enormous size. The remains of the water wheel pits and culverts can be seen. We were reminded of the miseries of working conditions with a heart felt Figure 4 Industrial remains - Greenfield Valley.

Page 41 poem by John Jones, who in 1796 at the age of eight, was apprenticed as a cotton spinner. Meadow Mill was originally built in 1787 to produce rolled copper sheets for Thomas Williams’ companies, copper nails and rollers for printing patterns onto cloth. Latterly those buildings seen today were used for small industries, including a tin plate works. Greenfield Mills, established in 1776, was a Battery Works and employed local people to shape pots and pans from brass sheets held beneath heavy tilt hammers. Goods were exported to Africa through the port of Liverpool and exchanged for African slaves. The launders, which brought the water to turn the water wheels, the pits in which they turned and the marks they scored in the brickwork can all still be seen. A reminder of the importance and innovation of the Indies in the Greenfield Valley during the eighteenth century, were emphasised by a visit there from an industrial spy in the mid-1750s. Reinhold Rucker Angerstein was commissioned by the Swedish Government to travel abroad and find out about the latest ideas and technology. His diary of his trip to Britain is extraordinarily detailed in his observations and impressions of industrial operations.

Monty was thanked for his prodigious, thorough and innovative research; thereby helping to bring to life the different aspects of the Greenfield Valley’s long history.

Beverly Webber

A big thank you ...

Mike and Maggie Taylor would personally like to thank all the members who ‘so kindly acted as greeters and back markers’ earlier this year and all those who agreed to write field visit reports.

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Publications

Preservation and Progress: The Story of Chester since 1960

Peter de Figueiredo and Cyril Morris, edited by Stephen Langtree Chester Civic Trust (2012). ISBN 978-0-9540152-1-3

As the title implies this book sets out to provide an account of how Chester has changed (or in some places not changed) in the post-war period. Both authors are well qualified to write it, having respectively been Head of Conservation and Design for the City of Chester from 1989-99 and Director of Technical Services for Chester City Council from 1974-89. Although titled ‘since 1960’ the book considers the period post 1945 and the then City Engineer’s plan for redevelopment, which identified Chester’s continuing dilemma of whether it was to re-develop itself as a modern city or to base its future on its picturesque appeal. This dilemma is a continuing theme through the book.

The text is written in a clear, comprehensive and accessible manner and is accompanied by a large number of interesting photographs that show both what has been lost and what has been successfully retained although it would be wrong to give the impression that it is a coffee-table book; it is far more than that.

Page 43 The authors emphasise the importance of Donald Insall’s report ‘Chester: A Study in Conservation’ in 1969. This led to a huge shift in the City Council’s attitude towards conservation and the funding of conservation works. This was supported vigorously by the Civic Trust and other organisations.

Important issues such as the Inner Ring Road, the Forum, the Grosvenor Precinct, the Amphitheatre and Police Headquarters site are dealt with in detail. Proposals that failed to materialise such as the proposed ‘glass slug’ development at Gorse Stacks and the re-design of Town Hall Square and Cathedral Quarter are also covered.

Retail business is obviously vitally important for Chester and it is interesting to note that in 1984 the city had risen to 14th in the ranking of UK shopping centres, up from 34th in 1971. However, by 2009 it had fallen back to 35th from a peak of 5th in 2002. The authors quote the Urban Land Institute’s perception that the city had ‘rested on its laurels’ while Manchester and Liverpool had reinvented themselves.

The main body of the text is interspersed with forty insets that set out the history of the Civic Trust’s first fifty years from its formation in 1960. Its achievements such as various campaigns and award schemes, involvement in the Chester Photographic Survey and practical works such as the conservation of its own premises in Bishop Lloyd’s Palace are comprehensively described. These insets, although colour-coded for clarity, do disturb the flow of reading to some extent and could confuse a prospective buyer at first glance. Despite this, the publication will undoubtedly interest those interested in the history of Chester and the conservation of historic towns and cities.

Gwilym Hughes Diane Johnson

© Chester Society for Landscape History, 2013

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