TATTENHALL. Being a sketch of the Village of that name near CHESTER. Together with some accounts of Historic events relating to the City and County of Chester. From Notes and writings By the Late R.O. ORTON. Foreword. Having found the following notes on Tattenhall’s village and neighbourhood among my late father’s papers, and also that the reading of them considerably interested many friends, I decided, at their request, to place them in book form before the public, hoping they will meet with the same approval by the Tattenhall folk, as they have privately. I would also like to add that in the arranging and compiling of these notes I have been very cheerfully and ably helped by Mr. Alec C. Reid, a very old friend of our family. D. M. O. Bank House. Tattenhall. 29th February, 1908. Introduction to a short sketch of Tattenhall. It has been thought that it would not be uninteresting to the parishioners of Tattenhall, if a few notes were to be published of some of the changes in that time, in its appearance, and on its various inhabitants, their habits, customs, and traditions. It is not intended to write a history of the parish but merely to jot down such notes as may have been culled by the writer from various sources, or may have come down to him, as tradition, from some of the old inhabitants, long since dead. If any apology is needed for the writer venturing to publish this pamphlet, containing such jottings, it may perhaps be found in the fact that in these days of rapid progress, people are apt to forget or neglect the past history of their country, and whilst enjoying the countless privileges which they now have, fail to appreciate the greatness of those privileges, by not comparing them with the few advantages enjoyed by their forefathers. In these days of railways and steamers, electric telegraph and penny post, of cheaper newspapers and books, and above all, when compulsory education has enabled everyone of these means of knowledge, even in Tattenhall a working man may sit down after his day’s work and read in his halfpenny newspaper what has happened that morning in France or in America, or what is going on in China or Australia. People are now more inclined to live in the present, taking as a matter of course every addition to their privileges which any fresh discovery in science may give them, and forget what their ancestors were, and what they would still have been, but for these wonderful discoveries. In the Law of Moses we read, (David. xxvi. 1-11), that when an Israelite brought his basket of first fruits as a thank-offering before the Lord, year by year, he was instructed to look back to, and confess the weak and helpless condition of his forefathers, and by this act of confession, increasing as he must have done, the gratitude which he felt for his own mercies. In like manner, one cannot but feel that a review, however slight, of the past history of even ones own neighbourhood, should increase our gratitude for, and make us more content with what we have, than many amongst us are inclined to be. Another reason why a slight sketch of the parish should be attempted now is that as education advances and the old generation who could not read is dying out, our oral traditions are being forgotten. Local history is made up largely of tradition handed down from one generation to another. If these are not preserved it will be impossible almost to write anything of the past condition of any parish. If, as has been said, history is merely a register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind, or if, as we used to imagine in our school days, it was chiefly a record of battles, sieges, and wars, then indeed our parish has little worth writing about. But if, as we would fain believe, the true history of a nation, as of every part of that nation, is the record of the material, moral, and intellectual progress of the people who inhabit it, then I think that we may well say that Tattenhall has a history. Although none of the so called great ones of the earth have perpetrated their crimes, or suffered their misfortunes here, and no great battle has perhaps made the name of Tattenhall famous, yet- “Beneath those spreading elms, that yew trees shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep”. ...of whom it may be said, “Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke, How jocund did they drive their team afield, How bowed the wood beneath their sturdy stroke”. If we may truly say, that he who cultivates the soil, and makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before, has been a far greater man than he who simply devastates and lays waste the land by war, then we may claim that the forefathers of our parish who lay under the old elms in our God’s acre, have done something, each in his own way, to help forward the material progress of this country, and make the history of England that of which today we are justly proud. Tattenhall. Part 1. When we stand on the highest ground of Tattenhall at the foot of the Burwardsley Hills, and look over the fertile fields, and mark the many neat and comfortable houses and farmsteads, which form now what we call our parish, or if we walk through it, along its well kept roads, and notice how carefully every roadside waste, even every rough and straggling fence has been re-claimed and made productive, it becomes difficult to picture it to ourselves as it must have appeared to our first Saxon forefathers. Still, we have data to guide us in a rough or general description of what was the general appearance of our country. Had the first settlers coming westward through the pass, now called Fowler’s Bench, looked down from the slopes of the Burwardsley Hill, he would have seen before him in general contours, as we see it now, the western portion of the great plain of Cheshire. But instead of green fields and hedgerows he would have seen the hillsides on either hand covered with broom, heather and furze, which, unchecked by the improving hand of man grew luxuriantly, mixed with hawthorn and other bushes and trees, along the hilly land on his left hand, as far as the eye could reach, that is, under Harthill and Bolesworth as far as the wild moor between Tattenhall and Handley. To his right stretched far away from the foot of the hill on which he stood, he would have seen what centuries after as still known as Tattenhall Wood, but then was a portion of the primeval forest running along the foot of the hills and on to Beeston Rock, and covering with its grand old oaks, ashes, elms and undergrowth, all that part of our parish which is known as The Lanes, together with part of Newton. Immediately in front of him, down in the plain and valley, he would probably see what would be more attractive to him seeking for a ham or home, an abiding place, the gleam of water and the green tints of grass mixed with the brown colour of the heather. Making his way down the slopes. or as he would still call it, the “Halla”, he would emerge upon the plain and find that he was not disappointed, but that the grassland was rich and good, as the marks of the roe and the fallow deer which fed upon it told him. Going on still further he would reach the water, and find that what looked to him perhaps like a river, was really a shallow lake, or marsh, caused by the overflowing water from a little stream, which being stopped continuously in its course, by reeds etc, had overflowed and turned what is now our meadow land, lying between the higher land on each side, into a marshy swamp, (sometimes covered with water, sometimes partially), in which grew plenty of reeds and rushes, alder and hazel bushes. Here our Saxon ancestor fixed his home, and by the marshy lake, sheltered by the hills and forest land from the cold north and east winds, and open to the west and south, he built his house of timber, wattle, and mud, thatched with rushes, using most likely for that purpose the oaks of the adjacent forest, the hazel and alder branches of the marsh, and the clay which he found so abundantly all around. The sheds for his cattle would be built of the same material as his house, and placed close to, the whole probably being surrounded by a fence of stakes or wattles, as much as a protection against savage invaders, as against wild beasts, and as a fold for his cattle, sheep or swine. In course of time other settlers followed the first one, liking the sheltered spot, and built their thatched, mud houses near. But these would mostly be dependent in different degrees on the first one, who, having taken the precaution to mark out his manor, or demesne, by the natural boundaries of woods, or hill, or stream, suffering the rest to settle on what he would consider his land, only on condition of service of some kind rendered.