Landscape History Today:

the Bulletin of CSLH

January 2014 Number 54

Dairy Farm, Weobley Contents

Chair’s Message 3

I do like to be beside the seaside ... 4 Church Open! 15 Follow the Arrow, the Lugg and the Wye 18 Restoring Blanche 27 The Year Ahead ... 30 Nantwich - then and now 39

Dates for the diary

Members may be interested in the following event ... Saturday 26th April 2014 - Cheshire Archaeology Day Centre for North-West Regional Studies, Lancaster University Programme of events 2014 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/cnwrs/events/index.htm

Editor: Dr. 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

Welcome to the January edition of the Bulletin. First of all, a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who renewed their CSLH membership at the November lecture. This is a really great help to the Society enabling us to keep stationery and postage costs down to a minimum. Autumn 2013 was a busy time for the Planning Team, putting in place a varied programme of lectures, visits and events for 2014. As you will be aware, there has been a ‘cabinet reshuffle’ amongst Planning Team members with Diane Johnson becoming Lectures organiser and Gwilym Hughes organising and overseeing our field visits programme. In recent months, Diane and Gwilym have been working closely with Mike (H) and Mike (T) to ensure a seamless handover. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, there will be no residential break this year. We know this will be a great disappointment to many members, but rest assured, plans are already well underway for 2015! However, we are running an additional event this year. Entitled ‘Nantwich Then and Now – Discover, Discuss and Dine’ we are attempting to combine ‘in a day’ elements of a residential and field visit alongside an opportunity to socialise. Intrigued? Well, turn to page 39 for further details. CSLH is very fortunate to have such a talented membership. As you will be aware, the Planning Team will be losing three valuable members at the forthcoming AGM in February. Mike Taylor as well as Jennifer and Mike Kennerley have decided to ‘step-down’ from their organising roles. I am sure everyone would like to thank them for what they have done for the Society over the years and I hope they continue to enjoy the Society’s events ‘from the other side’. Meetings will not be the same without Mike K’s little anecdotes and stories! If anyone is interested in joining the Planning Team at the AGM, please let us know. Finally, on behalf of the Planning Team, I would like to wish you all a very happy new year. We look forward to seeing you at one of our Spring lectures.

Sharon Varey

Page 3 I do like to be beside the seaside ...

... the early days of Llandudno and its suburbs

Sea-bathing was good for your health. As a result it became fashionable as a leisure activity, spreading down through the social classes with the arrival of the railway. So runs the conventional account. In 1795, though, Joseph Hucks, visiting Abergele, described as ‘a small watering place’, was surprised tosee that ‘the inferior orders of people commonly bathe, without the usual precautions of machines and dresses’.1 This sounds as if they were simply taking a bath (and having fun) rather than seeking a health cure. They certainly hadn’t come by train.

Figure 1 Location map showing areas mentioned in the text © OpenStreetMap and contributors, under an open licence

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Figure 2 Llandudno

Every foundation needs a foundation myth. Llandudno’s is well known. Edward Mostyn promoted the Eglwysrhos, Llandudno and Llangystennin Enclosure Act,2 which was passed in 1843. The accompanying Award, which allocated the majority of the common land of Llandudno (832 acres or 337 hectares) to Mostyn, was delivered in 1848. Between these dates, in 1846, the Anglesey surveyor Owen Williams visited the area for a meeting of the shareholders of the Great Orme copper mines. He mentioned to John Williams that the low-lying tract of marshy and sandy ground between the Great Orme and the Little Orme, on a peninsula with beaches facing in two directions, would make an ideal site for a seaside resort. John Williams was secretary to the Ty Gwyn mine company, but also Edward Mostyn’s land agent. Mostyn and Owen Williams met in the spring of 1847. They sheltered from the rain in a boatman’s hut as they planned the new seaside resort. An auction of land was duly held at Plas Mawr, Conwy, on 28 - 29 August 1849. It was rather a flop for only seven plots were sold on the first day.3

Can we believe that the idea of creating a new resort had not occurred to Mostyn and his henchmen before the lightbulb flashed above Owen Williams’s

Page 5 head? Like most people living near the coast of north Wales, the local people had scraped a living from the meagre resources of their environment - generally poor land, the sea, and mineral resources. Limestone outcrops on the headlands in this area and has been extensively quarried, but the most valuable resource was the copper ores buried under the Great Orme. As is now well known, these have been mined extensively since the Bronze Age.

In the mid-nineteenth century, however, things were not going well with the copper mines of the district. The Old Mine had the highest recorded production figures of any copper mine in Snowdonia, but the Llandudno mines were never highly profitable. Continuous investment was needed to prevent flooding. The Old Mine levels flooded in 1853, and the Ty Gwyn mine flooded in 1844 and again in 1850.

The two decisive events that shaped the early rise of Llandudno occurred in the late 1840s and the mid-fifties. The Chester and Holyhead Railway Company opened the line from Chester to Bangor in 1848. Edward Parry published his Railway Companion from Chester to Holyhead the same year. In his second edition of 1849 we read ‘Llandidno of late years has become a favourite resort for strangers during the bathing season’,4 suggesting that tourists were visiting Llandudno before Owen Williams met Edward Mostyn in 1847. In fact, the advertisement for the auction of 1849 described the offer as ‘eligible building land in that romantic, picturesque, and interesting watering place, Llandudno’. Even allowing for sales hype, this implies that development, or at least commercialisation, had been afoot for a number of years.

The second event was the removal of tariff barriers in the 1850s, causing the bottom to fall out of the copper market. In 1853, miners at the Old Mine went on strike, and many did not return to work in the mine. They clearly saw the possibility of a future income elsewhere.

Llandudno was to be developed as a Mostyn estate town. The two main axes are Mostyn Street and Gloddaeth Street. Lloyd Street is the main subsidiary axis, and minor thoroughfares are called Augusta Street, Vaughan Street and so on. These are all Mostyn family names. Just as significantly, they are all called ‘Street’. Apart from one or two roads on the periphery, the Mostyns had no

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Page 7 truck with Avenues, Crescents, Boulevards and the like (though there were Walks, as we shall see). This was to be a commercial centre as well as a resort. Very little land was sold freehold. It was practically all leasehold (and still is). Detailed building regulations were drawn up. These not only covered general concerns such as the prohibition of cellar-dwellings and court-dwellings that the Victorians saw as quickly degenerating into slums, but went into such detail as the size and shape of windows in different storeys. The streets were laid out broad, and buildings were not to rise higher than the width of the street.

In 1853, the St George’s Harbour and Railway Company gained parliamentary approval for the development of a harbour that was first intended to replace Holyhead as the main port for Irish traffic and later to export coal from Denbighshire, with Llandudno renamed Port Wrexham. All that came of this was a ‘useless ornament’ of a pier that was built in 1858 and washed away in a storm in 1859.5 Nor did the town grow as rapidly as its developers would have wished. Llandudno was surveyed by the Ordnance Survey at a scale of 1:500 in 1858. The Mostyn MSS at Flintshire Record Office contains a plan at the same scale apparently based on this, showing the names of all the lessees of Mostyn lands.6 Although the land had been let, little of it was built on apart from the area bounded by Vaughan Street and Madoc Street on the east and south. On the third edition of the O.S. one-inch map, surveyed 1903-4, although Gloddaeth Street crosses the isthmus, Trinity Avenue stops at the southern boundary of the town centre - Maelgwyn Road and St David’s Road. Residential development appears to be planned just west of the railway line on the West Shore, as is shown by pecked lines. By the fourth edition (surveyed 1918-19), although Trinity Avenue now crosses the isthmus, little else has changed. The small Afon Creuddyn, which has now been culverted, is still shown sweeping round from Maelgwyn Road to the Links Hotel. Presumably, it was originally one of the waters draining into Y Ffos Fawr (‘the Big Ditch’), which emptied into the sea on the site of Prince Edward Square (and thus followed the line of Gloddaeth Street).

The Baptists claim to have brought the first Cause to Llandudno in 1798, to an inn-yard in Cwlach, the original mining settlement situated on the lower slopes of the Great Orme above the marshy morfa. (Church Walks, the first street of the new development, separates Cwlach above from the resort town below.)

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More nonconformist chapels were built or rebuilt in practically every decade of the nineteenth century. Access to a Church of England church was important for the Victorian visitor, though, and the parish church of St Tudno was not conveniently sited. It was far above Cwlach, a fifteenth-century church near a holy well (grid reference SH770838). It had suffered from neglect partly occasioned by the lack of support for the Church of England in Wales in the early part of the nineteenth century. The roof was blown off in a gale in 1839. The lessees of the Old Mine, using a grant from the newly-established Bangor Diocesan Church Building Society, built St George’s church in Church Walks in 1841 to try and woo the miners back to the established church. St Tudno’s, however, remained the parish church until 1862. St George’s church is now closed, and Llandudno’s main church is Holy Trinity in Trinity Square at the eastern end of Mostyn Street. It was built 1865-74, and is described as ‘plodding’, ‘ungainly’, ‘harsh’ in the Gwynedd volume of The Buildings of Wales.7 It is blessed by present-day shoppers, though, as the extensive churchyard (which never had burial rights) is now a convenient and cheap car park. As might be expected, the succession of churches mirrors the development of the resort, for Church Walks was the fashionable street in the early days, until the focus shifted to Mostyn Street.

The present pier was built in 1876-8 at a cost of £26,000. In 1883, a cast-iron walkway was added running southwards along the cliff face, to link the pier with the Pier Pavilion (which burnt down in 1994). In 1908 the pier was widened and lengthened to 1,234 feet (380m). It stands on cast-iron piles with wrought-iron girders and bracing, and has ornate cast-iron parapets and six pairs of hipped iron kiosks. The overall impression it gives is of mid-Victorian decorative ironwork. The pier affords an excellent panorama of Llandudno’s extensive promenade, with its many cast-iron lamp standards. Each lamp is a separate listed building. These are the features that make Llandudno beloved of makers of period films.

The roadway along the front is formally called The Parade, while the Promenade itself is a very wide walkway on its seaward side. The buildings along The Parade were added as units between the side roads linking it to Mostyn Street. St George’s Crescent runs between St George’s Place and Clonmel Street, with St George’s Hotel (1854) at the western end and the

Page 9 Queen’s Hotel (1855) at the eastern. It’s significant that the deeds of St George’s Hotel refer to the plot as being ‘near Llandudno’.8 Later came Gloddaeth Crescent (the longest terrace on The Parade) between Clonmel Street and Vaughan Street, built in the mid-1860s with the Chatsworth Hotel at one end and the Howard Hotel at the other, together with the Imperial Hotel (1865) on the corner of Vaughan Street. To the east are Mostyn Crescent and Nevill Crescent. (The Earl of Clonmel was Edward Mostyn’s father-in-law and Nevill was the family name of Lady Augusta Mostyn.)

The town’s major public buildings were created at the turn of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. They include Llandudno Railway Station (LNWR) in 1891, the Town Hall in 1899-1901, ‘an early success for the Wren Revival’9, Oriel Mostyn (the Mostyn Art Gallery) in 1901-2 with the General Post Office next door in 1904, and the Public Library in 1908-10 (Edwardian Baroque).

It’s an often overlooked fact that Llandudno is not entirely a Mostyn town. The visitor strolling eastwards along the promenade past Venue Cymru (the theatre and conference centre, 1994) may be taken aback by the architecture of the Washington Hotel -‘like a Latin American bank in white stucco with an arcaded first-floor loggia and a round corner entry with a Palladian first-floor feature and copper dome’.10 Although it has now lost the striking coat of green paint it wore in recent years, it doesn’t seem to fit with the centre of Llandudno. This is because there was a second substantial landowner who was a beneficiary of the 1843 Enclosure Act. Thomas Peers Williams of Craig-y-don, near Beaumaris in Anglesey, owned the house called Marl in Llanrhos parish (grid reference SH798787), and the parish of Llanrhos extended northwards so that it had an access to the coast on the North Shore of the isthmus.

There was little early development of the part of Llandudno now called Craig-y- don. A house called Ascot was built on the seafront in the 1870s, but it stood in isolation until June 1884,11 when the Craig-y-don estate sold the freehold of 2,210 acres (895 hectares) over a period of three days. The Craig-y-don auction, where the property was sold freehold rather than leasehold, ledto rapid development. Within a year, a public tennis court was opened - it is claimed that lawn tennis was invented by Major Walter Wingfield at Nantclwyd Hall near Ruthin in 1873. The street-names of Craig-y-don are the clue to when

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the area developed. Curzon Road, Balfour Road and Rosebery Avenue point to politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the defining event was the visit of Queen Elisabeth of Roumania for five weeks in 1890. She wrote under the name Carmen Sylva, and in Craig-y-don are to be found Carmen Sylva Road, Sylva Gardens North and South, Sylva Grove, Roumania Drive and Roumania Crescent.

Figure 4 Craig-y-don

Craig-y-don has its own church, St Paul, built 1895-1901 as a memorial to the Duke of Clarence, who died in 1892 of food poisoning, aged 28 (and has been suspected of having been Jack the Ripper).

Although the Little Orme appears to be the natural eastern boundary of Llandudno, it is another natural feature that is the actual boundary. The little Afon Ganol meanders across the golf links of Rhos-on-Sea Golf Club. The course of this stream is ill-defined even today, but in 1284 it was defined as part of the eastern boundary of the Principality of Wales. Its name means ‘the middle river’, and it was part of the county boundary between the historical counties of Caernarvonshire and Denbighshire.12

Page 11 Penrhyn Old Hall dates from the sixteenth century. As the home of the Pughs, a Roman Catholic family, it was a centre for recusants at the time of the persecution of Catholics. It is claimed that Y Drych Cristionogol (‘The Christian Mirror’), the first book to be printed in Wales, was produced by priests with the support of the Pughs in a cave on the Little Orme. Behind the Hall is a derelict sixteenth-century chapel, possibly the Libera Capella Beatae Mariae de Penrhyn mentioned in an inventory of 1535.13

The land where Penrhyn Bay lies formed part of the Craig-y-don auction of 1884, which led to its development as a residential suburb. Before that, the area was exploited for its mineral resources. Sale particulars for the Horton estate in 1902 mention that ‘the stone quarry on the Little Orme affords the best light grey limestone for building in the district; there is a brickyard close to the quarry; there is a sand-pit close to the [recently formed] golf links’.14

Figure 5 Penrhynside

The quarrymen created the industrial settlement of Penrhynside, in colloquial Welsh Yr Ochr (‘the Side’), perched on the eastern side of the Little Orme. The O.S. second edition six-inch map of 1901 shows a number of quarries exploiting

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the limestone that outcrops here. The 1901 census returns for the short-lived (1894-1934) administrative township of Penrhyn shows quarrymen or stonemasons listed in about 70 of the 171 household census schedules.15 If the place of work for the ‘labourers’, ‘engine drivers’ and other occupations were listed, no doubt the proportion would be higher (one person is described as a ‘quarry carpenter’). Outside the settlement of Penrhynside itself, men were generally agricultural workers. The O.S. map shows that the quarrymen of Penrhynside too were well provided with chapels.

The street-names of Penrhyn Bay indicate the resurgence of Welsh national pride in the twentieth century: Min-y-don, Pen-tir, Maes-y-mor. The Trafford Park development to the south of Llandudno Road uses English names, and this caused controversy even at the time it was being built in the 1930s.16

Penrhyn Bay may now seem a quiet place, but near the mouth of the Afon Ganol there was once a harbour, possibly the Aber Cerrig-gwynion (‘river- mouth of the white shells’) mentioned in Leland and sixteenth-century port books.17 As any local will tell you, it was from here that the sadly completely undocumented Prince Madoc sailed to discover America in 1170 and teach Welsh to the Mandan Indians (a story still being pursued by Lewis and Clarke in 180518). A lesser-known but more factual historical event that took place in Penrhyn Bay was the first conviction for exceeding the 30 miles-an-hour speed limit, a few minutes after it came into force at midnight on 17 March 1935. The accused was travelling at 60 m.p.h. (fined £2). It’s still all too easy to absent- mindedly put your foot down on the straight section of the B5115 as it runs past Coleg Llandrillo (the ‘Vicar’s Road’, built by the Rev. W. Venables Williams, the disputatious Vicar of Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, in the second half of the nineteenth century19), so beware!

Mike Headon

References 1 J. Hucks, A Pedestrian Tour Through North Wales in a Series of Letters, ed. A.R. Jones & W. Tydeman (Cardiff, 1979), 29.

Page 13 2 Eglwysrhos, Llandudno and Llangystennin were the original three parishes into which the Creuddyn peninsula was divided. Its subsequent administrative history is complicated. 3 I.W. Jones, Llandudno: Queen of the Welsh Resorts (Cardiff, 1975), 19. 4 E. Parry, Parry’s Railway Companion from Chester to Holyhead (Chester, 1849 (facsimile 1970)). 5 Jones, Llandudno, 36. The storm was the one in which the Royal Charter sank. 6 Flintshire Record Office D/M/4709. 7 R. Haslam, J. Orbach & A. Voelcker, Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd (London, 2009), 65, 409-10. 8 Jones, Llandudno, 28. 9 Haslam et al, Gwynedd, 412. 10 Haslam et al, Gwynedd, 419. 11 Jones, Llandudno, 95. 12 From 1974 to 1996 it was part of the boundary between the counties of Gwynedd and Clwyd. Since 1996, both sides of the stream have been in the unitary authority of Conwy (originally called Aberconwy and Colwyn). 13 Jones, Llandudno, 101. 14 Denbighshire Record Office DD/DM/419/1. 15 The National Archives RG13, piece 5288, folios 91-104. 16 North Wales Weekly News, 3 November 1938. 17 ‘There is northward in Credine a bay or rode very good for shippis, and that greate, caullid Carrig Gonnyon Anglice White Stonys’. J. Leland, The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland in or about the years 1536-1539, ed. L.T. Smith, (1906); ‘From Conway 6 miles to Careckwynion, a small creke. From thense 6 miles to Rudlan’. W.R.B. Robinson, ‘Dr Thomas Phaer’s report on the harbours and customs administration of Wales under Edward VI’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 24 (4), 485-490. 18 Thursday 5-6 September 1805: ‘these Savages has the Strangest language of any we have ever Seen... we take these Savages to be the Welch Indians if their be any Such from the Language’. B. DeVoto (ed.), The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Boston, 1953), 234. 19 N. Tucker, Colwyn Bay: its Origin and Growth (Colwyn Bay, 1953), 19.

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Church Open!

The Churches Conservation Trust cares for more than 340 churches in England. The Trust’s website has an interactive map from which it is possible to download pictures of individual churches along with map references, county by county.

On holiday in Lincolnshire recently, it was a joy to find so many little chapels and churches in their care were open - even a church in the middle of fields, the last remaining structure on the site of a deserted medieval village! People often think of Lincolnshire as a flat and uninteresting landscape. It is certainly a heavily depopulated one. In parts it is a prairie-like place of huge skies, but the sight of a tall spire on the horizon like a ship’s sail in a sea of arable land can be a magical sight. Sadly, the mist and cloud never cleared the day we tried to take just such a photograph of the spire known as the Queen of the Marsh - St Peter’s at South Somercotes. It was also closed, awaiting a visit from the structural engineer.

Despite the efforts of the Trust, the future of some of these beautiful churches must be in doubt. The leaning tower of Lincolnshire at Saltfleetby All Saints is a case in point - a place of great beauty with huge cracks in the masonry letting in light as the tower slides away from the chancel roof! Inside the bells stand on the stone floor for safekeeping and a delicate medieval screen hints at former glories with faint traces of Figure 1 The leaning spire of Lincolnshire

Page 15 the pigments that had once covered it.

The Trust offers clear, simple guides to special features inside - a gallery perhaps, the font or a monument. At St Michael’s, Buslingthorpe we found knights recumbent in chain mail, another in plate armour. St Lawrence, Snarford, revealed a treasury of spectacular Tudor memorial sculptures. The chancel and side chapel were taken up by colourful power statements of many a richly dressed husband and wife, with their numerous offspring who pre- deceased or outlived them.

I mentioned a church in the middle of fields - the last remaining structure on the site of a deserted medieval village. This was the first church we visited - a red brick chapel of St George, Goltho near Wragby. We were charmed by its isolated location. A spot of fieldwalking up to the wooded site yielded a couple of interesting pot sherds. Once inside we climbed the narrow wooden stairs to the rustic gallery and later ventured into the two-decker pulpit taking many photographs. The interior was a touch Farrow and Ball, since it had been used to film the wedding scenes for the latest ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. St George, Goltho, is on the front cover of Church Poems (1981) by Sir John Betjeman in which he lamented the dilapidated state of religious buildings. This book followed the publication of Lincolnshire Churches - their Past and their Future (1976) edited by Henry Thorold (with some beautiful illustrations by

Figure 2 Church of St George, Goltho

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John Piper) which helped to raise the profile of redundant churches in the county. So this little church has a special place in the historic and cultural landscape of Lincolnshire and in our own memories of the summer of 2013. Imagine our great sadness on opening the paper some weeks later to find that this gem had been razed to the ground by fire ‘seemingly struck by lightning’. The site will be made safe, but it is unlikely to be restored - a great sadness.

Figure 3 Church of St George, Goltho after the fire

We have the Churches Conservation Trust and their volunteers to thank for keeping so many of these special places open. Where a church is locked there are usually named key holders with instructions on how to find them, but if pressed for time, a peep through the windows is often enough to sense the unique qualities of a place.

So have a look at The Churches Conservation Trust at visitchurches.org.uk/ welcome. We think you’ll be surprised at what you can find on your travels.

Maggie and Mike Taylor

Page 17 Follow the Arrow, the Lugg and the Wye

Our residential visit this year took place on- 10 12 September and centred on the Hereford area.

Our journey to our meeting point at the Riverside Inn at Aymestrey took us through some interesting Shropshire landscapes and fascinating places like Leintwardine and Wigmore. We met at the inn alongside the River Lugg where we explored the banks of the river and the herb garden at the inn. This was followed by an excellent lunch in the barn adjoining the inn, after which we ventured to Hereford Waterworks Museum on the outskirts of the town.

Figure 1 Hereford Waterworks Museum

The museum was established in 1974 within an existing Victorian water- pumping station and tells the story of drinking water. Herefordshire lacks any large lakes, reservoirs or significant underground aquifers, so the River Wye was seen as the only effective water source. Hereford, like many towns and cities, suffered from epidemics of water-borne diseases. In response to this, the

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Hereford Improvement Act of 1854 enabled the City Fathers to provide paved streets, gas lighting and a piped supply of drinking water.

The Broomy Hill station was constructed in the mid-1850s and pumped water from the River Wye to a treatment works on the top of a nearby hill. The museum has on display working engines and allied machinery dating from 1850 to 2000. Virtually every type of power source is shown working: steam, hot air, gas, electric, wind and water.

We met in the East Hall, which serves as a cafe and shop, where the treasurer Derek Duffett gave us a talk on the history and background of the museum. Following this introduction we were split into groups, each accompanied by one of the museum’s volunteers, to guide us around the museum.

There are some amazing pieces of machinery, all lovingly restored by a team of enthusiastic volunteers who are happy to explain the workings of their pride and joy. The South Hall contains the hot air engines, known as Stirling engines, and also the gas engines. These engines were developed to alleviate the problem of boiler explosions which was the curse of steam engine development. As with the rest of the halls the museum tried to have as many exhibits running as possible for our visit. We were told that the drums next to each machine contained floor polish which was used as a lubricant for the various machines.

Adjacent to the South Hall was an extensive workshop which our guide informed us was a necessity as ‘nobody ever gives us anything that’s in full working order’.

We saw an early Simpson Beam Engine (c.1851) built and developed specifically for waterworks use. This engine was originally installed at Ely Wells in Cardiff. Its job was to pump clean water after polluted water from the River Taff had led to an outbreak of cholera in 1850 which killed one in fifty of the population.

The final exhibit in the main building was the treasure of the collection, the oldest working triple-expansion steam pumping engine in the UK. It stands two-floors high, is awesome in operation and on the day of our visit the

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operator was struggling to keep it from running out of control! This engine was capable of pumping one million gallons per day and supplied Hereford with water from 1895 until 1952. Its original steam plant, a Lancashire boiler, remains on static display in one of the preceding rooms.

Figure 2 One of the many exhibits

The range of engines and pumps on display is unique and some of the machines are the last examples of their kind working anywhere in the world. It is no wonder that this historic Victorian water pumping station is truly a celebration of water engineering. Understandably, it has been classified by English Heritage as ‘a site of clear national importance’.

Alongside the museum facility stands the existing waterworks, surrounded by high security fences and, we were told, well protected against terrorist attack.

We then made our way to the Three Counties Hotel in Hereford where after our evening meal we listened to a presentation about the meadows of Herefordshire by the Kennerleys and a short brief about the restoration of Blanche Mortimer’s monument by Mike Taylor in preparation for the following day. Mike Johnson

We began our second day at Swarden Quarry to see the water meadows along the Rivers Lugg and Frome. Unfortunately the maize in the adjacent field had

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grown so high that the near view was obscured. The distant view was impressive and we could picture the meadows with the ‘eye of faith’.

Then we travelled onto St Bartholomew’s Church in Much Marcle. Here we were privileged to see, and learn about the restoration of the Blanche Mortimer memorial from the conservator himself, Michael Eastham. Rising damp has caused the plinth of the tomb to decay and collapse. The figure of Blanche was painstakingly removed to an adjacent chapel for stabilising work to be carried out. Parts of the memorial can now be seen for the first time since it was completed and we were fascinated to learn what has been achieved so far. Blanche, who died in 1347, aged 31, is beautifully carved with some fine detail. Her figure is curved Figure 3 Blanche Mortimer giving the impression that she is relaxing.

Remaining in Much Marcle we visited a most interesting and historic house known as Hellens. In ownership of virtually the same family since the Middle Ages, and still in use as their home, we were shown around by a very entertaining guide. Features of architecture recording the development through the ages; snippets of family history including the room where an errant daughter had been imprisoned for thirty years and of her two mad brothers who died in infancy, probably from something like epilepsy; gifts from Charles I and Ann Boleyn - a relatively small house packed with interest. There were some unexpected gems of art including a Van Dyke, Hogarth’s portrait of 'The Toast of Drury Lane' and, amazingly, an album at the foot of a bed containing

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several watercolours by Dürer.

Figure 4 Hellens, Much Marcle

After lunch, which some of us took at Weston’s the local cider producers, we made our way to Brockhampton to see the first of two small but contrasting churches. Built in memory of her parents by Alice Foster in 1902, the church is a fine example of the Arts and Crafts style. The architect Arthur Lethaby produced a building with a wealth of detail but an overall simplicity, using a range of materials: wood, stone, glass, cement and thatch. The wooden carving of flowers has been copied by local embroiderers to decorate seat pads, hymnbook covers and wall hangings.

At Kilpeck Church we met James Bailey, the churchwarden, who was to act as our guide. He began by expressing his fears for the future, as only four people seem to care about this historic building and he has been unable to recruit anyone else from the village or the surrounding district. There was so much fascinating detail we could have continued to listen to him well into the evening. The church is famous for the surround to the door with intricate carving. There is also a range of intriguing corbels. Different features were pointed out and their possible origin explained. Once inside the building our guide speculated on a possible Saxon church incorporated into the Norman

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one. More carving on the chancel arch was discussed as we moved to the apse that was simple and light.

We had little time to view the surrounding area but were able to note the castle fenced off while excavation is carried out and the presumed site of the deserted village - scope for much further research.

After dinner we learned more about the Hereford School of Sculpture from Duncan James who was to be our guide around the black and white buildings of Weobley the following day.

Jan and Richard Hore Figure 5 Kilpeck Doorway

We travelled through the ‘old Herefordshire countryside’ of former hop fields protected by tall hedges (now sheltering vineyards), and apple and pear orchards. This county is where much of the UK’s fruit is grown and is the biggest user of the ‘Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme’ with more than 3,000 work cards issued in 2012. Passing through villages with medieval centres, we reached our destination - Weobley - where we were welcomed by Duncan James.

Weobley (its Anglo-Saxon name Wibbaley) is mentioned in the Domesday Book, developing at the north end of the castle, now a ruined late eleventh century motte and bailey built by the de Lacey family. The township grew up around a market place that received its charter during the thirteenth century, and extends down to the church of St Peter and St Paul with its fourteenth century 185ft spire. This church is the second largest in Herefordshire and undoubtedly

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replaced an earlier building. The surviving houses are those of the more wealthy people (wool merchants, ale brewers) and include eight of a type known as half Wealden, some hidden behind later brickwork. These are the only ones to be found in Herefordshire!

We viewed The Old Vicarage, fifteenth century in date. It contains the most complete axial hall in the village with an inserted upper floor and two later wings. Alongside is the now converted Tithe Barn, originally used for storing and threshing corn, and further on, Dairy Farm, a fifteenth century hall with a massive cruck frame. We looked at The Manor House with its cross passage and added-on chimney, one example of the half Wealden houses, with a culverted stream beside, linking with the millpool near the castle.

Figure 6 The Manor House

Behind the Red Lion Inn there is another cruck-framed building - the remaining structure being the two central hall bays of a medieval house which was later converted to stabling. The old coaching inn, The Unicorn, was visited by Charles I after the Battle of Naseby in 1645, and so was renamed The Throne. It is now a private house, and there is a later seventeenth century replacement Unicorn.

There are medieval shops around the marketplace, one group featuring

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doorways with two windows alongside that would have had shuttering, while a fourth had a more modern shop front. On the other side of Broad Street are two more half-Wealden houses hidden behind a later brick façade. Today one of these is a butcher’s shop; we went in to see the wooden framing.

Figure 7 Medieval Shops

At the castle end of the marketplace is Corner House, a building containing an undercroft and possibly used as a prison. It seems likely this building may have originally been part of a gatehouse to the castle. Nearby a modern black and white sculpture - a magpie!

We also saw the former Grammar School, built by John Abel in about 1660 (he built the Market Hall in nearby Leominster) featuring a porch with excellent carvings, a passageway separating two classrooms, while above was the Master’s accommodation and a dormitory for pupils.

Weobley is a black and white masterpiece! There is so much to see that it is impossible in one visit - a place featuring on our ‘must see again’ list!

We left Weobley to go for lunch at Westonbury Mill Water Gardens. We explored the three acre site (opened in 2001) with its streams, spiral mound, a

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Monet style bridge, domed bottle grotto with ferns, cuckoo clock, and a stone tower with water-spouting gargoyle. Gunnera, red lobelia, mimulus, arums, persicarias were amongst the hundreds of plants and dragonflies, comma, painted lady and tortoiseshell butterflies and a moorhen chick among the wildlife. Once again YOU need to visit!

On leaving the gardens we followed the River Arrow to Eardisland, a beautiful village built on both sides of the river, and cared for by a ‘weekly meeting band of volunteers’. There is the fourteenth century Staick House, a yeoman’s hall, restored in the twentieth century but retaining most of the original doorways, windows and early fireplaces. Medieval cottages, many still thatched, lead one to the church of St Mary the Virgin, of Norman origin with a timber framed roof above a thirteenth century nave. Nearby is the seventeenth century Manor House; in the grounds is an unusual four gabled dovecote now housing the village store. In the Cross Inn car park is one of the oldest AA boxes in England which originally stood at Legion’s Cross and was rescued from demolition by a local AA man.

And so - after a wonderful trip, a smooth journey home. We must thank the organisers: Jennifer and Mike Kennerley, Maggie and Mike Taylor. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the visit and we all appreciate all the hard work preparing for it.

Katy and Bob Percival

Memorial Lecture

Just to let you know that the CSLH Planning Team are currently liaising with the Chester Civic Trust to organise a joint memorial lecture in honour of Oliver Bott. We are hoping this will take place in the Spring. More details will follow as soon as they are confirmed.

Page 26 Restoring Blanche

As part of our Study Break in Herefordshire, we visited St Bartholomew’s Church at Much Marcle to hear about the restoration of a fourteenth century memorial. The monument commemorates Blanche Mortimer who was the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st earl of March and Joan de Geneville. Roger Mortimer had been de facto ruler of England until he was executed in 1330. His wife, Joan, was the 2nd Baroness Geneville, one of the wealthiest heiresses in the Welsh Marches and in County Meath.

Blanche was born c.1316 at Wigmore Castle and she married Piers de Grandison before 1330. Blanche died in 1347, aged about 31, and is buried beneath the chancel in Much Marcle church in the Grandison tomb. The memorial to Blanche is situated close-by in the north wall of the chancel and it was probably carved before she died. The body is displayed in a recess with the statue resting on a chest-type plinth decorated with coats of arms. Blanche is carved in Painswick limestone, a very fine-grained stone, in the ‘French manner’ i.e. the body is curved, rather than straight.

Figure 1 Blanche Mortimer’s Memorial

Page 27 It is interesting to note that there are two memorials in Abergavenny church that are carved in Painswick limestone. It is not inconceivable that these memorials may have also been carved by the same unnamed but highly gifted sculptor. Painswick quarry is now closed which means that any new stone that is needed for restoration must come from elsewhere unless it can be recovered from parts of the memorial that are normally hidden.

Repair to the memorial became necessary because rising damp and settlement caused the plinth to decay and begin to collapse. One of the most skilful conservators in the UK, Michael Eastham, has dismantled and is currently restoring the memorial. He has been working on it for about a year. He gave our group an absorbing account about dismantling the memorial, how he eased Blanche from the alcove where she has lain for the past 650 years so that she can lie safely in a corner of a side chapel and dry out while Michael rebuilds the plinth. So, before she is returned to her alcove, we were able to admire her in her entirety- something that will probably not occur again for centuries.

Figure 2 Close up of Blanche

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Originally, Blanche was coloured and traces of paint can still be seen in crevices especially on the wall-facing surfaces which have been shielded by the alcove. Flecks have been analysed to determine the colour scheme of both the statue and plinth.

Pevsner describes the effigy as ‘outstandingly beautiful and interesting’. He expands this with: ‘The head is strikingly beautiful and realistic, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. Beautiful hands with long fingers.’ Note the rosary she is holding. Simon Jenkins in England’s Thousand Best Churches (2000) says of her: ‘an image as lovely as any bequeathed us by a medieval church’.

Hearing and seeing the work being undertaken to preserve Blanche’s memorial was one of the high lights of our trip to Herefordshire. We left Much Marcle with the highest regard for Michael Eastham’s achievements.

Mike Taylor

Are you the missing piece?

Required  Suduko Expert  Someone with a love of numbers We can offer  Good promotion prospects  Friendly banter and high quality biscuits  No remuneration  Free calculator

If this is you, please consider becoming our next treasurer. Speak to Sharon or Mike H. before the AGM (24th February 2014)

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The Year Ahead ...

Lecture Programme

27 January 2014 Victorian Villa Estates Elizabeth Davey

Elizabeth Davey’s involvement with landscape history began as an undergraduate and developed when she enrolled as one of the first of Graeme White’s students on his landscape history course at Chester College. A well- known and respected speaker, she continues to lecture on the local history of Cheshire and Merseyside. In October 2013, the History Press published a new edition of herBirkenhead - A History, first published in 2009.

She has a particular interest in the built environment and her talk on Victorian Villa Estates will reflect her detailed knowledge of the townscapes of nineteenth century Merseyside. Her talk will trace the development of nineteenth century villa estates on both sides of the Mersey. These estates or ‘parks’ were built for the prosperous middle classes and consisted of substantial individual properties, set back from tree-lined streets. They were often laid out behind gates with lodge houses at their entrance. Many are now conservation areas and though some have not withstood the test of time, it is still possible to appreciate their varied townscapes and the aspirations of their original owners.

24 February 2014 Excavations at Holt Castle Steven Grenter

Stephen Grenter has worked extensively on excavations throughout Wales and became Assistant County Archaeologist for Clwyd County Council in 1987,

Page 30 becoming County Archaeologist in 1992. In 1996 he was appointed County Archaeologist at Wrexham County Borough Council and then Heritage Services Manager in 2002, responsible for museums and archaeology services. He has recently project managed the Museum refurbishment and is currently working on a project to excavate, conserve and interpret Holt castle.

Holt Castle should be renowned as one of the finest castles in Wales; instead, the remains are rarely visited and poorly understood. However, over the last two years the castle has seen the subject of a programme of conservation and excavation by Wrexham Heritage Service which has revealed significantly more of the castle's structure and former glory. The results of the work to date will be described, together with an overview of the castle's surprising history as a treasure house of King Richard II.

24 March 2014 Surveying the Landscape Mike Blackburn

Mike Blackburn’s extensive knowledge of the landscape stems from his work with the Ordnance Survey. He has worked closely with environmental agencies, forestry, coastal protection and land registration. Mike is interested in local history and in particular the effects of human occupation of the landscape. Amongst other things, Mike is also interested in mountaineering.

Entitled ‘Surveying the Landscape,’ his talk will focus on the geology, geography and history of the land using maps, air photography and historical documents relating to the history of Britain through the centuries.

28 April 2014 Derwent Valley Heritage Site Mark Suggitt

Mark Suggitt is currently Director of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. He has a background in Museums, Galleries and Culture having held positions in Bradford, St Albans, Yorkshire and Salford. Mark has a degree in

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History, a Masters in Museology and is a Fellow of the Museums Association. He has published numerous articles and reviews, and lectured widely on cultural management within the UK, Russia and Eastern Europe.

The Derwent Valley Mills were inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2001. This placed a Derbyshire valley in the same league as the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. The site was recognised for its importance as one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution - a process that was to spread throughout the world. As Director of the Site, Mark will explain how and why it became so important, how it operates and the challenges and opportunities it faces in the future.

29 September 2014 The Landscape of the Staffordshire Hoard Dr Della Hooke

Della Hooke is an Honorary Fellow in the University of Birmingham (with a PhD in historical geography) and has published widely on the Anglo-Saxon landscape: The Anglo-Saxon Landscape: the Kingdom of the Hwicce (reprinted 2009); The Landscape of Anglo-Saxon England (1998); various books on pre- Conquest charters, and most recently Trees in Anglo-Saxon England - Literature, Lore and Landscape (2010).

Her talk will concentrate upon the Staffordshire Hoard that was originally found by a metal detectorist in a field in Ogley Hay, near Brownhills, in 2009, and which has proved to be one of the most magnificent collections of Anglo-Saxon metalwork ever found. She has made a special study of the landscape of the region in which the hoard was found (which co-incidentally was the neighbourhood where she actually lived as a child). She will also discuss the unknowns: What is the hoard? Who put it here, why and when? And why in this location?

Page 32 27 October 2014 Gwrych Castle, Abergele Mark Baker

Mark Baker is an architectural historian and author of several books on country houses in Wales. He is actively involved in the protection and restoration of several important buildings in Wales, notably Gwrych Castle. He is a member of The National Trust Advisory Board for Wales.

Gwrych Castle, Abergele is a building of nationally recognised architectural and historical importance, represented by the building’s Grade I Listed status and the park’s Grade II* Listing. It was one of the first castellated mansions to be newly built in Europe and is magnificent in both its scale and design. It tells the story of one of the great gentry families of North Wales and so occupies a special place in the history of the area. Gwrych has a broad historical narrative, being a battleground of early-medieval Wales and part of story of the evacuation of Jewish refugees during WWII. The gardens and parkland are of exceptional beauty and significance, for both their aesthetic and ecological value, being situated in the Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-Foel SSSI, which includes ancient Yew tree woodland, a rare variety of Cotoneaster, and habitat for the protected Lesser Horseshoe Bat.

24 November 2014 The Mapping of Mold Mountain Kevin Matthias

Kevin Matthias is a lecturer of forty years’ experience specialising in local archives and documentary sources. He is the former county archivist and heritage officer for Denbighshire. He was responsible for the archival collections and the county’s museum service. During his period in office he managed two major lottery funded projects: the restoration and adaptation of Ruthin Gaol as a heritage attraction and record office, and the restoration and development of the gardens and historic landscape at Plas Newydd, Llangollen. He edited the Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions and the Clwyd Historian and has written and contributed to many local history publications in north east Wales. Kevin has chaired various archives and heritage related

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bodies, including Archives and Records Council Wales, and Capel, the Welsh Nonconformist heritage society. Since his retirement, amongst other things, he catalogues archives part-time, having recently completed the catalogue of the Ruthin Castle estate papers, and is the chairman of the Daniel Owen Festival, a bilingual arts, literature and heritage community festival in Mold, Flintshire.

The archives which record the dividing of the area described as ‘Mold Mountain’ in Flintshire in the first decade of the nineteenth century have survived in more detail than in many other places which the same process affected. Using these local documentary sources, this talk illustrates the bureaucratic machinery of the enclosure of waste and common land, the historical background in north east Wales and the resultant violence. By looking at some of the colourful individuals involved, an idea of ‘winners and losers’ can be seen, if such generalisations are possible. The interpretation of simple Welsh place-name elements shows how enclosure has left us more than its effects on the landscape alone. Field Visits Programme

Our field visits programme this year starts on a Bank Holiday weekend and extends into mid-July. We have tried to offer a balance in terms of landscape, geographical location and level of activity.

After working together for the last few months, I am delighted that Gwilym Hughes has offered to take on the role of Field Visits Organiser from January 2014. He and his wife Jan will be ready to welcome you on the visits you choose. Rest assured, the programme will be in very good hands.

Maggie and I would like to thank members who have helped us organise the programme over the last few years. Your helpful suggestions, support on the day and friendship have meant a lot to us.

Mike Taylor

Page 34 If you would like to join us on one or more of the visits please use the Field Visits application form to register your interest. These should be returned to Gwilym Hughes, 17 Fairacres Road, Bebington, Wirral CH63 3HA by Saturday 8th February 2014.

Saturday 3rd May 2014 The Weaver Valley Landscape and a Manorial Estate Leaders: Mike and Maggie Taylor (day or half-day visit)

St Peter’s Church, Aston by Sutton, will be our base for a day with something for everyone. This field visit is a ‘two-parter’: there is a morning’s walk for the more energetic where as the afternoon offers a more relaxed half-day visit. All are welcome for this gentler option of a talk and amble round the hamlet followed by tea and scrumptious cakes!

The morning’s walk is four-miles, easy going (2.5 hours), down into the Weaver Valley exploring the history and landmarks of the Weaver Navigation, including Dutton Locks. Bring your binoculars, bird and flower books.

In the afternoon, there is a talk by local historian, Philip Littlemore, about the manor and church of Aston by Sutton (Sir Thomas Aston led the Royalists in Cheshire during the Civil War). This will take place in the Grade I listed Georgian Church - no need for PowerPoint as the memorials are all around you! The talk will be followed by the opportunity to explore the graveyard and surrounding hamlet - a totally untouched manorial estate. Our afternoon will end with tea and cakes.

This is a day for a walk and/or talk with a social twist. Lunch can be taken picnic style or at one of the local pubs. For this visit there is no limit on numbers. However, there will be a modest extra charge on the day.

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Saturday 17 May 2014 Parkgate: Port and Resort Leader: Anthony Annakin-Smith (afternoon visit)

Parkgate has had a very varied history - as a medieval deer park, as England's leading port for Ireland during the eighteenth century and as a seaside resort for over two centuries. On this circular tour, Anthony will talk about the village's fascinating history and look at surviving signs of its past in the landscape. There are still some uncertainties about aspects of the story - perhaps Society members can help solve them? The walk is about 2.5 miles in length and will last about two and a half hours. The terrain is level and firm except for one descending flight of steps. There are numerous choices for refreshments before or after the walk - but ice cream is obligatory! Meet on the marsh-side pavement by the Old Quay pub (CH64 6QJ) on The Parade at 1.30p.m.

Saturday 7 June 2014 Up the Elwy Valley and Over the Denbigh Moors: a scenic drive with glimpses of an early Medieval landscape Leader: Ray Jones (full day visit)

Ray will show us some of the beautiful places along the Elwy Valley inspiring pilgrims and poets that are described in his book*. Narrow roads and very limited parking at sites mean car sharing on this full day visit so we will start and end at a long-stay car park in St Asaph/Denbigh (tbc).

Our journey takes us via a planned eighteenth century landscape and mill to the medieval St Mary’s Well and Chapel at Wigfair. Abandoned following an edict from Henry VIII, the site is both evocative and romantic - a hidden gem of the North Wales countryside.

We drive on to Llanfair Talhaearn for a comfort stop at this bridging point on the lively Elwy before moving westwards for lunch at the next village of

Page 36 Lllangernyw. Here we are in a medieval settlement at a meeting point of several roads with a market site in the churchyard. Walking through you will notice a very ancient yew tree on the north side with ancient stones onthe south side, marked with a cross. The church interior is beautifully decorated.

Our final stop is near the source of the Elwy at Gwytherin, an early medieval site with strong links to the cult of St Winifred who was originally buried here. The church has ancient yews, a churchyard brewery, and a line of standing stones c. fifth or sixth century, one of which is inscribed in Latin.

We return home via a mountain road leading us past a twenty-first century re- use of ancient seasonal pastures with (weather permitting) stunning views across the Conwy valley to Snowdonia. We follow the old turnpike road over the Denbigh moors noting the old quarries, lakes and reservoirs and a haunted hunting lodge!

*Ray Jones, Valleys of the Poets: A History of the Landscape and People of the Elwy and Aled Valleys (Chester, 2005).

Sunday 22 June 2014 President’s Visit: Landscape Planning along the A41 Leader: Professor Graeme White (full day visit)

This visit explores several examples of deliberate landscape planning - in the context of towns, villages, fields, roads, canals - along the corridor of the A41 south-south-east of Chester. We begin at the furthest point, Newport (Shropshire), which is about 45 miles from Chester, and work back to take in places including Whitchurch (Waterways Country Park), Malpas and Aldersey (Cheshire). We meet at Newport at 10.45 a.m. There is a limited amount of walking at each site, but in each case it is possible to appreciate their principal features from a single location. Refreshments and toilets are available (even on a Sunday!) in Newport and Malpas. Estimated return time to Chester, 5.30 p.m.

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Saturday 5 July 2014 Buckley Heritage Trail Leader: Peter Lewis (afternoon visit)

Buckley Heritage Trail was started by a partnership between the Flintshire County Council and the Prince’s Trust; it was also supported by many local organisations. The trail of 2.8 miles (with some stiles and kissing gates) visits many of the sites of Buckley’s rich industrial past, but the landscape has changed considerably and physical evidence of the pottery and brick-making heritage is limited. The route links ten pieces of sculpture which attempt to capture the industrial past of the area and give insights into its history.

The secret of Buckley's successful pottery and brick making industries results from the local clay and coal deposits which have been extracted since medieval times. These three industries (potteries, brickworks and collieries) fashioned the Buckley landscape and was the basis of the town’s prosperity.

Nineteen potteries have been recorded in the area, the first from the mid 1400s and the last being Lamb’s Pottery which closed down in 1945. Changing tastes after the Second World War resulted in a reduction in demand and the industry declined. In the 1970s and early 1980s, a dedicated group of archaeologists excavated and preserved the richness of the pottery and brickwork heritage throughout Buckley and valuable work took place to record and retain as much of the historic detail as possible before it disappeared under housing and other developments. The last chimney in Buckley was demolished at Lane End Brickworks on the morning of Friday 26 November 2004. It marked the end of a 250 year era of robust and prosperous industry for the town.

Saturday 19 July 2014 Lion Salt Works - one for the seasoned traveller Leaders: Gwilym and Jan Hughes/Ranger Service (full day)

Cheshire is of course well known for the production of salt and the Lion Salt Works at Marston, near Northwich was the last one to use the open-pan process to extract salt whereby brine was pumped out of the ground and dried in pans to yield the finished product. The works closed in 1986 and are

Page 38 currently being restored. They are due to be re-opened as a museum in summer 2014.

We will explore the site and the restored buildings, find out how the process worked and learn about the impact of the salt industry on Cheshire’s people, economy and landscape. There will be an additional entrance fee on the day.

Following our visit, lunch should be available at the museum’s café or the adjacent Salt Barge pub. Alternatively, members might like to picnic at Marbury Country Park, although no guarantees can be made regarding the suitability of the weather!

In the afternoon, as a contrast from seeing Cheshire’s industrial heritage, we will explore how nature has reclaimed the neighbouring wasteland. Nantwich - then and now

Looking ahead to 2014 surely we are due another ‘Discovery Day’? These informal events are held on a Saturday and offer an enjoyable chance to combine two to three self-guided walks with keen observation of the historic environment. Sharpen your skills!

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Nantwich in south Cheshire will be our case study. It makes an ideal venue with lots of terrain, multi-period architecture and curious street-names for us to make meaningful connections. Active landscape history in a compact yet complex town - perfect.

As with previous Discovery Days assorted maps, briefing notes and planned routes will stand ready at our initial session. Then it’s a purposeful wander either singly, in pairs or groups. Reporting back to base at lunch and again at day’s end we can then share findings, discuss outcomes and maybe solve some apparent mysteries or unearth more!

But 2014’s event brings us added value! Provisionally arranged for Saturday 4 October we hope to have use of the private room of a centrally-located local business for a touch of Nantwich’s café culture. An early evening social meal will round off the day, and can be booked separately.

Any of our keen re-attenders will find new routes and intrigues incorporated. Further details and booking forms will be available nearer the time. However, in the meantime, do think about joining us next October for Nantwich Then and Now – Discover, Discuss and Dine. Julie Smalley

© Chester Society for Landscape History, 2014

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