Author Archives: Andie

Churton residents in 19th and early 20th Century directories

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Commercial Directories, much like the telephone directories that most over-50s remember, list the names of people and their roles, organized by village or town name.  There are limitations to how useful the information contained in the directories actually are.  They do not, for example, provide the actual postal addresses such as house or road names.  Nor do they contain a complete listing of residents, just those who were deemed to be most relevant to community, commerce and local government.  In villages, these included, for example, gentry, clergy, businesses (including shops, joiners, wheelwrights, carriers and farms) and Post Offices.

To actually make use of such information, directory information needs to be tied into data supplied by other resources such as the national census, registers of births and deaths,  property deeds, local newspapers (both articles and adverts) and any surviving relevant accounting records.  But it seems worth including it here as a resource for anyone who, like me, is just starting out with research into the area, as well as for those trying to trace ancestors.

This is a copy-and-paste job, but  I did visit St Chad’s Church in Farndon and St John the Baptist Church in Aldford to see if I could match up any names in the directories with gravestones, and was able to find a few,  some of which are shown here.

I’ve had to cram in rather a lot of images, so I’ve kept them smallish, but you can click on any to expand them and read the text.

The directories used are  exclusively the ones listed on the Cheshire Directories website, and are as follows:

  • 1789 Cowdroy’s Directory of Cheshire
  • 1822-3 Pigot’s Directory of Cheshire
  • 1857 Post Office Directory of Cheshire
  • 1864 Morris & Co.’s Directory of Cheshire
  • 1871 Worrall’s Directory of Warrington
  • 1878 Post Office Directory of Cheshire
  • 1883 Slater’s Directory of Cheshire and Liverpool
  • 1902 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire
  • 1906 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire
  • 1910 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire

The relevant details from each of the directories are listed below, in chronological order from earliest (1789) to latest (1910).

Cowdroy’s Directory of Cheshire 1789

N/A.  Churton (Churton by Aldford / Churton by Farndon) is not included.  Nor are Aldford or Farndon.

It is, however, an utterly fascinating read it its own right, which as usual contains a history of Cheshire (for f read s):  “THE magnitude and importance of this county will not be difputed, when the reader is told that its circumference is more than ‘200’ miles: To give an idea of its form, Speed has not unaptly compared it to the right wing of an eagle, ftretched forth from the furtheft point of Wirral hundred, and touching, with her firft feather, upon the confines of Yorkfhjre. – In the unhappy days of civil contention when England felt all the: horrors; of internefine feuds and domestic warfare (in the garb of religion) ftlalked over the face of the kingdom, this county was not without its share of the general calamity.”

Pigot’s Directory of Cheshire 1822-3

N/A.  Churton (Churton by Aldford / Churton by Farndon) is not included.  Nor are Aldford or Farndon.

Post Office Directory of Cheshire 1857

p.8
Aldford is a parish, comprising the townships of ALDFORD and CHURTON, and CHURTON HEATH, or BRUERA, BUERTON, and EDGERLEY.
CHURTON-BY-ALDFORD is a township, 2 miles southwest, with 251 inhabitants and an area of 572 acres

p.116-117
CHURTON-BY-FARNDON is a township and small village, partly in the parish of Famdon and partly in that of Aldford, distant 7 miles south-by-east from Chester and 1½ north Farndon; it consists principally of one long straggling street.  The remains of an ancient cross mark the boundary of the two parishes. The population, in 1851, was 148; the acreage, about 430. Major Barnston is lord of the manor; and he, and the Marquis of Westminster, and C. Galley, Esq. of Churton, are the chief landowners.

Private residents

  • Calley John, esq. Churton lodge
  • Parker Mr. William

Commercial

  • Baker James, farmer
  • Baker Moses, beer retailer
  • Barlow Geo, shoemaker & shopkeeper
  • Brown Mary (Mrs.), farmer
  • Clubbe George, wheelwright
  • Harrison Charles, shopkeeper
  • Huxley Joseph, farmer
  • Lawrence Peter, farmer
  • Letsom William, Red Lion
  • Nevell James, shoemaker
  • Parker John, farmer
  • Thomas William, blacksmith

Letters through Chester

Morris & Co.’s Directory of Cheshire 1864

p.45.
CHURTON-by-ALDFORD, is a township in Aldford parish, Great Boughton union containing, by the census of 1861, 217, inhabitants, and 572 acres; in the hundred of Broxton, South Cheshire, 7 miles south from Chester, adjoining Cllurton-by-Farndon, of which manor it forms a part. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel here. The Marquis of Westminster is lord of the manor.

Clergy and Gentry

  • Finley Hugh, Esq., The Lodge
  • Grace Mrs. Ann
  • Shankling Mr. Thomas

Trades and Professions.

  • Baker James, farmer,
  • Baker Moses, beer retailer
  • Ball Thomas, farmer
  • Brown George, farmer
  • Clubbe William, joiner
  • Logan Mr., Inland Revenue officer
  • Nevitt James, shopkeeper
  • Parker William, jun., farmer, The Grange
  • Thomas William, blacksmith
  • Warburton Samuel, baker and shopkeeper

The grave of Churton resident James Nevitt’s wife Mary, who died at the age of 39 in 1846, in the cemetery of St John the Baptist Church, Aldford

p.53.
CHURTON-by. FARNDON is a township in the parishes of Farndon and Aldford, the boundaries of which are marked by the remains of an ancient cross; 1½ miles north from Farndon, and 7 miles south-east from Chester, in Great Boughton union; containing, by the census of 1861, 128 inhabitants, and 432 acres. Major Barnston is lord of the manor.

Gentry

  • Parker John, Esq. Churton Hall
  • Parker, Mr William, Grange

Trade and Professions

  • Baker James, farmer
  • Baker Moses, beer retailer
  • Ball Thomas, farmer
  • Brown George, farmer
  • Clubbe George, wheelwright
  • Lawrence Peter, farmer
  • Nevitt James, shoemaker
  • Parker John, farmer
  • Thomas William, blacksmith
  • Williams Richard, Red Lion Inn

Letters through Chester.

Post Office Directory of Cheshire 1878

p.3. “The following is a list of Poor Law Unions . . .” Tarvin Union, (including):

  • Aldford
  • Churton-by-Aldford
  • Churton-by- Farndon
  • Farndon

p.3. “The following is a list of the hundreds, with the places contained In each:—
Hundred of Broxton (Higher division).— Aldersey, Aldford, Barton, Bickerton, Broxton, Bulkeley, Burwardsley, Caldecott, Garden, Cholmondeley, Chowley, Churton-by-Aldford, Churton-by-Farndon, Clutton, Coddington, Crewe, Egerton, Farndon, Grafton, Handley. Harthill, Horton-by-Malpas, Kingsmarsh, Stretton, and Tilston.”

p.14. Churton-By-Aldford is a township, 2 miles southwest. The Duke of Westminster is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The area is 672 acres; rateable value £935 ; the population in 1871 was 274. POST OFFICE.—Mrs. Hannah Clubb, receiver. Letters through Chester arrive at 7.30 a.m.; dispatched at 5.25 p.m. Farndon is the nearest money order office
Infant School, Miss Annie Jones, mistress

  • Maylor John, Churton lodge
  • Parker Henry, The Grange
  • Parker Thomas
  • Ball Thomas, farmer
  • Brown George, farmer
  • Hughes William ,shopkeeper
  • Parker John, farmer, beer retailer
  • Warburton Samuel, shopkeeper

p.186
FARNDON is a parish, comprising the townships of Barton, Churton-by-Farndon, Clutton, Crewe, King’s Marsh, and Farndon . . .

Churton is a township and small village, in the parishes of Farndon and Aldford, part called Churtonby-Farndon and part called Churton-by-Aldford, 7 miles south-by-east from Chester, a mile and a half north from Farndon and 5 west from Broxton railway station on the east bank of the Dee; it consists principally of one long straggling street. The remains of an ancient cross mark the boundary of the two parishes; the Primitive Methodists have a chapel here. Harry Barnston, esq. is lord of tbe manor for Churton-by-Farndon, and the Duke of Westminster of that of Churton-by-Aldford; the Duke of Westminster, Harry Barnston, esq. and John Maylor, esq. of Churton, are the chief landowners. The area is 432 acres; rateable value for Churton-by-Aldford £1,296 ; rateable value for Churton-by-Farndon £935; the population in 1871 was 123.

Letters through Chester. The nearest money order office is at Farndon INSURANCE AGENT.—Liverpool and London and Globe, Joseph Ball.

p.187

  • Maylor John, Churton lodge
  • Parker Thomas, sea. Churton house

Commercial

  • Ball Thomas, farmer
  • Brown George, farmer
  • Clubbe George, jun. Red Lion
  • Clubbe George, sen. wheelwright
  • Dutton John, joiner
  • Hawkes William, shopkeeper
  • Nevett James, shoe maker
  • Parker Henry, farmer, Grange
  • Parker John, farmer and beer retailer
  • Parker Thomas, farmer, Churton hall
  • Thomas William, blacksmith
  • Warburton Samuel, shopkeeper
  • Williamson Richard, farmer
  • Woolley Thomas, farmer

Slater’s Directory of Cheshire and Liverpool 1883

Churton by Aldford

Post Office, CHURTON-BY-ALDFORD, William Clube, Post Master.-Letters arrive from all parts (via Chester) at eleven morning, and are despatched at six evening.

Alphabetical Directory

  • Brown George, farmer, Churton by Aldford
  • Parker Henry, farmer, Churton, by Aldford
  • Thomas Lawrence, White Horse, Churton, by Aldford
  • Warburton Samuel, shopkeeper, Churton, by Aldford
  • Williamson Richard, farmer, Churton, by Aldford

Farmers

  • Ball Thomas
  • Brown George
  • Maylor John
  • Parker Henry
  • Parker Thomas
  • Williams Richd.

Lawrance Thomas of Churton, who died 15th December 1881, aged 23.  It is impossible to know, at this time, whether this was the Lawrance Thomas who is listed as being based at the White Horse, or a father or son.  At the age of 23 he seems young to have been the pub landlord.

Shopkeepers

  • Clube, Wm.

Taverns and Public Houses

  • White Horse, Lawrance Thomas

Dissenting Chapels

  • Methodist (primitive)


Churton by Farndon

Nobility, Gentry and Clergy

  • Maylor William, Esq. Churton lodge, Churton

Grocers and dealers in sundries

  • Warburton Samuel, Churton

Farmers

  • Ball Thomas
  • Brown George
  • Clubbe Thomas
  • Clubbe Williams
  • Parker Henry
  • Parker Thos. Junr.
  • Thomas Abraham
  • Williamson Richd.

p.216:  “Farndon comprises the townships of Barton, Churton by Farndon, Clutton and Crew and Farndon township.

 

Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire 1902

CHURTON-BY-ALDFORD is a township, on the road from Chester to Malpas, 5 miles south from Waverton station and 5 north-west from Broxton station, both on the Shrewsbury and Crewe section of the London and North Western railway. The Duke of Westminster is lord of the manor and principal landowner.  The area is 558 acres; rateable value, £928 ; the population in 1901 was 223.
Public Elementary School (infants), built in 1864 by Richard, and Marquess of Westminster, for 48 children ; average attendance, 20; Miss Mary Meredith, mistress; the school is in part supported by the Duke of Westminster
Post Office.—Joseph Smith, sub-postmaster. Letters through Chester arrive in summer at 7 a.m.; winter, 7.30 a.m. and dispatched at 6.10 p.m.  Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.  Farndon is the nearest money order and telegraph office, 2 miles distant.

  • Maylor, Mrs., Churton Lodge
  • Parker Thomas
  • Alwood John Farmer
  • Barlow Charles Shopkeeper
  • Parker James Beer Retailer
  • Smith Joseph Shopkeeper, Post Office
  • Warburton, Miss, Shopkeeper

George Clubbe died in 1841 and was buried in the cemetery of St Chad’s in Farndon. In the 1910 directory he is listed as a shopkeeper.  Edward Clubbe, presumably a close relative, is listed as a farmer.  The Clubbes appear in directory after directory for Churton, the earliest (from 1857) being William Clubbe, wheelwright.

CHURTON is a township and small village, on the east bank of the river Dee, in the parishes of Farndon and Aldford, of which part is called Churton-by-Farndon and the rest Churton-by-Aldford; it is 5 miles west from Broxton railway station, on the Shrewsbury and Chester section of the London and North Western railway, 7 south-by-east from Chester and a mile and a half north from Farndon. The village consists principally of one Iong straggling street. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel here, erected in 1833. Harry Barnston esq. M.P. who is lord of the manor of Churton-by-Farndon, the Duke of Westminster G.C.V.O. and Mrs. Maylor, of Churton, are the chief landowners.

The gravestone of Joseph Bartlem Edwards, who died in 1915 at age 54, and his wife Mary Elizabeth who died in 1958, age 84. The directory lists Joseph as simply Joseph B. St John the Baptist, Aldford

The area of Churton-by-Farndon is 445 acres; rateable value, £928; the population in 1901 was 126. Churton-by-Aldford township is given with Aldford.

  • Jackson Thomas Sibbersfield Hall

Commercial

  • Bellis bros farmers and fruit growers, Churton Hall and Farndon
  • Clubbe Edward, farmer
  • Clubbe George, Shopkeeper
  • Dutton Joshua, Joiner
  • Edwards Joseph B. farmer
  • Williamson Richard farmer
  • Williamson Samuel Holland farmer

Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire 1906

A sad gravestone. The children of beer retailer James and Martha Parker died in succession, Amy aged 16 in 1913, Elizabeth aged 32 in 1919 and Norman in 1922 aged 26. James and Martha themselves died in 1922 and 1928.

CHURTON-BY-ALDFORD is a township, on the road from Chester to Malpas, 5 miles south from Waverton station and 5 north-west from Broxton station, both on the Shrewsbury and Crewe section of the London and North Western railway. The Duke of Westminster is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The area is 574 acres; rateable value, ;£928 ; the population in 1901 was 223.

Public Elementary School (infants), built in 1864 by Richard, and Marquess of Westminster, for 48 children ; average attendance, 20; Miss Elizabeth Draper, mistress; the school is in part supported by the Duke of Westminster

Post Office.—Joseph Smith, sub-postmaster. Letters through Chester arrive in summer at 7 a.m.; winter, 7.30 a.m. and dispatched at 6.10 p.m. Farndon, 2 miles distant, is the nearest money order and telegraph office

  • McKindlay Andrew
  • Maylor Mrs. Churton lodge
  • Parker William,
  • Alwood John, farmer
  • Lawrence Thomas, shopkeeper
  • Lewis Edwin, farmer
  • Parker James, beer retailer
  • Powell Samuel, shopkeeper
  • Smith Joseph, shopkeeper. Post office

Gravestone (at St Chad’s Farndon) of Richard and Elizabeth Williamson. Richard, a farmer, is listed in the 1906 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire.

CHURTON is a township and small village, on the east bank of the river Dee, in the parishes of Farndon and Aldford, of which part is caUed Churton-by-Farndon and the rest Churton-by-Aldford; it is 5 miles west from Broxton railway station, on the Shrewsbury and Chester section of the London and North Western railway, 7 south-by east from Chester and a mile and a half north from Farndon. The village consists principally of one long straggling street. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel here, erected in 1833. Harry Barnston esq. is lord of the manor of Churton-by-Farndon, and the Duke of Westminster, Harry Barnston esq. and Mrs. Maylor, of Churton, are the chief landowners. The area of Churton-by- Farndon is 445 acres; rateable value, £928; the population in 1901 was 126. Churton-by-Aldford township is given with Aldford.

  • Grossmann Alex, Sibbersfield Hall

Commercial

  • Bellis Bros, farmers & fruit growers, Churton Hall and at Farndon
  • Clubbe Edward, farmer
  • Clubbe George, shopkeeper
  • Dutton Joshua, joiner
  • Edwards Joseph B. farmer
  • Williamson Richard, farmer
  • Williamson Samuel Holland, Red Lion P.H

Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire 1910

CHURTON-BY-ALDFORD is a township, on the road from Chester to Malpas, 5 miles south from Waverton station and 5 north-west from Broxton station, both on the Shrewsbury and Crewe section of the London and North Western railway. The Duke of Westminster is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The area is 574 acres; rateable value, £928 ; the population in 1901 was 223.
Public Elementary School (infants), built in 1864 by Richard, and Marquess of Westminster, for 48 children ; average attendance, 26; Miss Elizabeth Draper, mistress; the school is in part supported by the Duke of Westminster
Post Office.—Joseph Smith, sub-postmaster. Letters through arrive at 7.15 a.m. ; sunday, callers only & dispatched at 7.40 p.m.; Sunday, 7.40 p.m. Farndon, 1¼  miles distant, is the nearest money order and telegraph office

  • Carr Austin Cooper, Kingsmead
  • McKindlay Andrew, Churton house
  • Maylor Mrs. Churton lodge
  • Allwood John, farmer
  • Lewis Annie (Mrs.), farmer
  • Parker James, beer retailer
  • Powell Margaret (Mrs.), shopkeeper
  • Smith Joseph, shopkeeper. Post office
  • Thomas Lawrence, shopkeeper
  • Thomas William, blacksmith

CHURTON is a township and small village, on the east bank of the river Dee, in the parishes of Farndon and Aldford, of which part is called Churton-by-Farndon and the rest Churton-by-Aldford; it is 5 miles west from Broxton railway station, on the Shrewsbury and Chester section of the London and North Western railway, 7 south-by-east from Chester and a mile and a half north from Farndon. The village consists principally of one Iong straggling street. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel here, erected in 1833. Harry Barnston esq. M.P. who is lord of the manor of Churton-by-Farndon, the Duke of Westminster G.C.V.O. and Mrs. Maylor, of Churton, are the chief landowners. The area of Churton-by-Farndon is 445 acres; rateable value, £928; the population in 1901 was 126. Churton-by-Aldford township is given with Aldford.

  • Bellis Brothers Limited, farmers and fruit growers, Churton hall; and at Farndon
  • Clubbe Edward, farmer
  • Clubbe George, shopkeeper
  • Dutton Joshua, joiner
  • Edwards Joseph B. farmer
  • Williamson Richard, farmer
  • Williamson Samuel Holland, Red Lion P.H.

Source:

Cheshire Directories. Working in Partnership. Cheshire East / Cheshire West and Chester
http://cheshiredirectories.manuscripteye.com/index.htm

Object histories in my garden #4: A Dinky Toy SEPECAT Jaguar

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Not an adjective but a brand name, in this case dinky refers to Dinky Toys, a range of miniature toy vehicles, everything from engineering marvels like fighter planes such as this one, to life-like lawnmowers.  Dinky Toys were the brainchild of Frank Hornby, who was the innovator behind Hornby Trains and Meccano.  The Dinky Toys were made by Meccano Ltd.  They were produced in England between 1934 and 1979 at Meccano’s Binns Road factory in Liverpool.  They pre-dated other well known diecast brands, including the now better known miniature Corgi and Matchbox brands.

This particular object is a model of an Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar fighter plane, model number 731. The fighter on which the toy was modelled came into service in 1973, and the toy version was one of a series capitalizing on a new interest in modern warplanes.  It was one of the many curios pulled out of my garden during its ongoing revamp.  Most of the garden relics consist of fragments of decorated ceramic, but one or two are of particular interest (garden finds link).  Most of the later 20th Century items that we have found have been true rubbish, and every  object that we have found has been broken and was almost certainly dumped.  At first I thought that this toy was probably lost during play rather than deliberately disposed of, but on closer inspection it too is broken.

A promotional image of the Meccano Ltd. factory at Binns Road, Liverpool, taken from the back cover of the 1927 Hornby Book of Trains. Source: Brighton Toy Museum

The Dinky Toys company was the creation of Frank Hornby, whose name is forever associated with model train sets.  Hornby originally began with a vision of educating children wishing to teach  basic mechanical principles, which he translated into construction kits for children, the first of which were patented in 1901.  As Oliver Wainwright puts it,

“With his “Mechanics Made Easy” sets he gave the system ultimate flexibility by punching holes on a regular grid across all of the pieces, allowing the parts to be bolted together as well as providing bearings for axles and gear shafts. Sold with a range of brass wheels and pulleys, gears and shaft collars, any number of complex mechanisms could be dreamt up – from bridges to cranes, to devices to ambush your unsuspecting sister.” 

The Meccano brand was launched in 1907, and went from strength to strength.   Hornby’s model train series came next, accompanied by all the accessories required to give them a real-life context.  The Hornby railway models, both mechanized and static, were so popular that Hornby’s next idea materialized itself as his Dinky Toy company, which was set up in 1934 to produce realistic model vehicles.  Wainwright again:

“The things he made didn’t look like toys, but precise versions of the real world, manufactured with exacting detail. His products were not packaged with the amoebic forms and infantilising colours of today’s toys, but gained their magical quality simply from taking things of fascination – industrial machines, trains, boats and planes – and shrinking them to the scale of 1:48, reducing the entire world to something that can fit in a box.”

The Dinky Toys were made from die-cast ZAMAK. Die casting is a manufacturing process that can be used to make geometrically complex metal parts in reusable molds called dies.  ZAMAK is a form of zinc alloy, described as follows on the DECO website:  “ZAMAK is a type of zinc alloy that consists of aluminum, magnesium, copper, and of course zinc. This alloy family contains copper, but is spelled with a K. This is because the acronym ZAMAK uses the German spelling: Zink, Magnesium, Aluminum, and Kupfer. That being said, ZAMAK is some times spelled ZAMAC with an English spelling. ZAMAK alloys are a separate family from the zinc aluminum (ZA) alloys although they both maintain a consistent composition of 4% aluminum.”

The Jaguar is 18cm long from nose to tail.  Although most of it is metal it also has small black plastic parts under the tail.  The top layer of paint is a fairly deep royal blue, and has slowly peeled off during its afterlife in my garden, revealing an undercoat of pale blue and the core dark metal grey beneath both. Comparing it with surviving examples online, it would have been painted with camouflage and other markings.  The whole thing is satisfyingly heavy to hold.  The canopy was spring-loaded to make it a moving part when depressed, and originally a plastic fighter pilot was positioned inside.  When the canopy spring was activated, it ejected the pilot.  Only a tiny piece of the canopy remains in situ, but the spring, a piece of cleverly bent metal, is intact and can be operated.  The plane once stood on three wheels, but all three wheels, plus the struts connecting them to the rest of the plane are now missing.  Two hollow spaces sit where the rear wheels would have been fitted.  The wheel struts were hinged so that the wheels could be folded into the main body of the plane.  There is a metal flap on the underside of the cockpit that may preserve the front wheel in situ, but cautious work to loosen it has failed and I really do not want to snap it.  The nose cone, originally black plastic, is missing.

Now if the garden would magically produce a Dinky Toy model 749, the delta-winged Avro Vulcan bomber (1955), I would be so happy.  I saw the XH558 Vulcan flying at Farnborough Airshow in 2014, and it was love at first sight.  Since then, I have fallen in love with the Vulcan all over again at Cosford Royal Air Force Museum, twice.  Irrespective of its ultimate purpose, it is a thing of awe and beauty.

For anyone new to this occasional series on objects extracted from my garden during everyday gardening activities, see the History in Garden Finds page.  These are not objects used in the garden, but objects, usually fragments, lost or disposed of in the garden and found during digging, troweling and planting.

Sources:

Books and articles

Wainwright, O. 2013. Frank Hornby:  The Man who put the World in a Box.  The Guardian, 15th May 2013
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/may/15/frank-hornby-meccano-dinky-toys

Websites

Custompart.net
Die Casting
https://www.custompartnet.com/wu/die-casting

DECO
What is Zamak?
https://decoprod.com/zamak/

Dinky Site
Digital Museum
https://www.dinkysite.com/rare-dinky-toys

Wikipedia (very well referenced page)
Dinky Toys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinky_Toys#CITEREFGardinerO’Neill1996

Adventures with Churton Honesty Eggs – Ham Horns

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In a previous post I talked about the super honesty system in Churton that enables local people to buy free range Churton eggs from a barrow by the side of the road.   On that post I showed photos of how I used one of the eggs in a Middle Eastern lamb baharat, and another two to make a lovage and lime mayonnaise.  On this occasion it is all about ham horns.

This is the weather for al-fresco dining, and I love to eat outdoors so today I made a ham horn with salad for lunch.  The ham horn was an invention of my Mum’s and quite apart from the fact that I like to use Mum’s inventions, it is very easy to make and amazingly filling.  So filling, in fact, that I had to change my plans for my evening meal to something significantly smaller than originally planned.

A ham horn is quite simply a tube of ham stuffed with chopped eggs (and herbs if you fancy them) in mayonnaise.  Sometimes the simplest things are the most delicious.  The ham horn is supposed to be wider at one end than the other to give it the horn shape, and Mum’s were always proper horns, but mine always come out uncompromisingly pancake-shaped.

You can make ham horns with mayo from a jar, of course, but there is nothing that you can purchase in a supermarket that looks or tastes remotely like home-made mayonnaise, especially when additional flavours are added to give it an extra hit of something special.   Unlike the supermarket white mayo, a home made one based on eggs yolks, which are of course deep yellow, transforms the ingredients into a lovely primrose colour.  Mayonnaise is so quick and easy to make that it is well worth taking out five minutes to do it.  If you want a herb mayonnaise, the herbs have to be fresh; dried ones simply don’t work.  The only exception I have found is dried tarragon, which can be soaked in vinegar to release the flavour, and then both the vinegar and the dried tarragon can be used as part of the base for the mayonnaise.  Another way of adding flavour is to used flavoured oil, which can be home made.

I do my mayonnaise in a mini food processor.  Most mini processors have a hole in the lid for precisely this purpose, but mine is ancient and I had to drill a hole into it.  I know that some people use plastic blades for mayo, but I’ve never had any trouble with a metal blade.  I start with a good dollop of Dijon, Senf (German mustard) or tarragon mustard, with a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice or white wine vinegar (depending on what it is to accompany).  On this occasion it was Dijon mustard and lemon juice, with a good turn of black pepper and a sprinkling of sea salt.

The eggs are separated and the whites retained for a future use (and can be frozen).  I have the whites earmarked for a tempura dish, but they are also great for souffles and meringues.  I then chuck the eggs into the bottom of the food processor with the mustard, lemon juice and seasoning and give it a quick spin.  The trick, and it’s the only serious trick, is to add the oil terribly, terribly slowly.  I was using a  Filippo Berio “mild and lighter in colour” oil into which a few weeks ago I had added some sliced lemon, chilli, garlic and lovage, and was a gorgeous shade of sunshine yellow.  If you are new to making mayonnaise, I would suggest that you use olive oil (any) or sunflower oil rather than rapeseed, as the latter is much more difficult to emulsify (thicken).

When you begin to add the oil, the mix in the bottom of the food processor is a dark yellow (thanks to the yolks and mustard).  As you add the oil, in a very slow, very thin stream, the oil and egg yolks gradually emulsify and the dark yellow starts to lighten as the mayonnaise thickens.  This lightening process is the emulsification taking place.  The more oil you add, the thicker it gets.  I have occasionally become so engrossed in adding the oil that I’ve forgotten to stop now and again to check it for thickness, and have ended up with something that can be carved like butter!  On this occasion I stopped on time, with a nice, soft texture to which I added chopped herbs to the food processor and gave it a good pulse.

If, after tasting, you find that you want to add more lemon juice or wine vinegar to add a bit more acidity, just be aware (the second trick) that this will loosen the emulsion, so unless it was already very stiff, you may have to add more oil.  You can also add salt to help thicken it up (the third and final trick).  Do this incrementally so that it is not over-salty, and keep tasting as you do it, but it works.

You can use any herbs that you like, of course (parsley, spring onions, chives and dill are all good options, and tarragon is terrific), but I have recently discovered that lovage and coriander, both strong, highly  aromatic herbs, go superbly together in some contexts.  I’ve always been a fan of coriander in egg mayonnaise, ever since buying a gourmet sandwich in a Turkish café on Leather Lane, near where I worked in Clerkenwell (London), but the idea of lobbing in some lovage was new, and I was so pleased when it worked so well. Lovage is very powerful so be a bit careful with it.  In the mayonnaise, the flavour of the herbs is brought out by the lemon juice (or vinegar if using that instead) in the mayo.

To prevent the top forming a skin, I store my mayo in the fridge with the clingfilm actually resting on the surface until it is needed.  An hour before I am ready to assemble the ham horn, I take the mayonnaise out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.  This is because it becomes more solid in the fridge, and at room temperature it loosens back to the original texture that it had when scooped out of the mini processor.   Just before assembly I peel the egg, chop it up and stir it into the mayo.

The ham I had to hand was thinly-sliced Italian porchetta, which has a lovely flavour but is ultra-thin and very difficult to extract in one piece from the wrapping.  A thicker ham would have  been better, but I didn’t have one.  So instead of a smooth, elegant horn, I ended up with a battered and patched flattened tube.  Still, it tasted delicious.

I made a salad from three types of lettuce that I grow in pots on the patio, and lots of herbs, again from patio pots, chosen with care because I didn’t want an unholy clash with the lovage and coriander in the mayo.  Parsley, oregano, sorrel, and mint accompanied the lettuce and were joined by some delicious little oval yellow tomatoes that Dad gets for me (brand name Natoora), that are tart instead of sickly sweet, and full of amazing flavour.  I like them straight from the fridge, ultra cold.  A dampened piece of kitchen roll laid over the top keeps everything fresh.  I always have a jar of home made French-style vinaigrette in the cupboard (mustard, white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic clove, freshly ground black pepper, all given a seriously good shake), and I served that on the side to be stirred in at the last minute to prevent the salad going soggy.

When I had finished, and took it all out into the garden on a tray, I had a ham horn, a herb salad and chilled yellow baby tomatoes on a plate with the vinaigrette in a little dish on the side and a tall glass of lovely still lemonade, very cold (not home made but divine).  It was all rather delightful.

The Churton egg continues to rock.
If you want to check out more of my Churton egg adventures, click on
the Churton Eggs label in the right hand margin.
More will be added soon 🙂

Aldford and Churton-by-Aldford: The Talbot Hound and the Wheatsheaf

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Wandering around Churton when I first arrived in the area, I was surprised to see the Talbot Hound on a number plaques.  In the village of Aldford to the north the Talbot hound is a very familiar character, shown on signage all over the village of Aldford, as it has been a symbol of the Grosvenor estates, of which the Eaton Hall estate is the family seat, since the late 16th Century.

In Churton, several examples of Talbot Hounds are to be found on the Churton-by-Aldford side of the village.  Churton-by-Aldford was affiliated to Aldford and the Eaton Hall estate.  At the same time, both the hound and a wheatsheaf can be seen incorporated into the the old school house wall, carved out of red sandstone in high relief.  The school house,  at the top end of Stannage Lane, was built in 1864 and paid for by the Eaton Hall estate,.

The boundary between Churton by Aldford to the north and Churton by Farndon to the south..  Click to enlarge the image.

So why was an Aldford emblem dotted around Churton?  Up until 2015 Churton was split into two townships, with Churton-by-Aldford to the north of Hob Lane and Pump Lane, and Churton-by-Farndon to the south of that line.  I will be posting about how this division arose shortly, looking at what it meant in everyday terms and how it is visible on maps and on the ground, but the short version is that Churton-by-Aldford was once a part of the Eaton Hall estate (some parts still are) and Churton-by-Farndon was not.  The Talbot hounds are one of the easily identifiable differentiators between the two halves of the village.

Talbot hounds are now extinct.  The hounds  were white, and characterized by large paws and a tail curled over the lower back.   They were used as hunting dogs, but is unclear exactly what prey they were employed to retrieve.  There is a lot of speculation about whether or not they were introduced by the Normans, where the name originated and whether they may have contributed some genetic material to modern hunting breeds, but most of this appears to lack any supporting data.  What seems to be without dispute is that the Talbot hound first appears on the Grosvenor family’s coat of arms in 1597.

The school was donated to the village by Robert Grosvenor, first Marquess of Westminster, 1767-1845 as a gift from the Eaton Hall estate.

The legend/text around the Talbot hound is centred within an oval frame that is sculpted into a garter with a buckle at its base, the Order of the Garter, which always reads HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE,.  This is Old French.  Broken down, the text can be translated as follows:

  • Honi – Old French conjugation of modern honnir, to shame, or to be contemptuous of
  • Soit – subjunctive of être, “be”
  • Qui – relative pronoun, “who”
  • Y – adverbial pronoun, “it”

the sense of which can be roughly translated as “shame on whoever thinks bad/evil here/there”  The Order of the Garter dates to Edward III (1327-77).   The Order was created when Edward III founded the college of St George at Windsor, reputedly modelled on the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table.  The new Order was associated with a small group of 25 knights headed by the king, each of whom was provided with a stall in the chapel, entitled the Order of the Garter.  It is unclear what the garter actually was, but one theory is that it was a device used to connect pieces of armour, and it was worn by all the knights concerned. The order is headed by the current sovereign (Sovereign of the Garter) who, since 1946, personally selects Knights of the Garter to honour those who have contributed to the nation or who have performed a particular personal service for the Sovereign.

The Talbot hound and the emblem of the Order of the Garter are topped with an earl’s coronet, showing four strawberry leaves and four silver balls or pearls above the rim, clear representatives of which are shown on the carving shown above.

The  Grosvenor family coat of arms already included a wheat-sheaf or Garf prior to the addition of the Talbot hound, probably from the 14th Century.  The Grosvenor family shares the wheatsheaf  symbol with the City/Palatine of Chester, where it refers to the Earls of Chester and to Cheshire.  It does not, as far as I know, appear on any other Churton buildings.

Sources:

Websites

Churton Parish Newsletter, September 2019
http://www.churtonparishcouncil.co.uk/Newsletter%20Sept%2019%202-3%20(1).pdf

College of St George, Windsor
https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/history/the-order-of-the-garter/

Grosvenor Estate
History Timeline – 1385-1390, 1597
https://www.grosvenorestate.com/about-us/heritage/history-timeline.aspx

Internet Archive
The institution, laws & ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter : work furnished with variety of matter, relating to honor and noblesse by Ashmole, Elias, 1617-1692
https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012878183/page/n9/mode/2up

Lawless French
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/expressions/honi-soit-qui-mal-y-pense/

London Remembers
Statue: Robert Grosvenor statue
https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/robert-grosvenor-statue

Royal.uk
Order of the Garter
https://www.royal.uk/order-garter

 

Cheshire Proverbs 2: “Holt Lions, Farndon Bears, Churton Greyhounds and Alford Hares”

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“Holt lions, Farndon bears
Churton greyhounds and Aldford hares”

J.C. Bridge  no.190, page 73

Joseph Bridge devotes over a page to the content of this very local proverb, but he focuses exclusively on the Holt lions and by the end of it neither he or I are any the wiser about what the bears, greyhounds and hares refer to, or what the overall meaning might be.

Title page of Ray’s “A Collection of English Proverbs.” Source: Royal Society.

Holt was originally in Cheshire, an English borough in Wales, so although it was the only of the villages to the west of the Dee, it was not entirely the odd one out in this list of local place-names. 

Previous writers suggested that the Holt Lions might refer to Roman tile and pottery works to the north of Holt.  John Ray’s A Collection of English Proverbs (1670), quoted in Bridge (p.x) provides a plausible if completely unverifiable example:  “I conjecture that the Roman name had been Castra Legionis, and the Welsh Castell Lleon, or the Castle of the Legion;  Because it was garrisoned by a detachment of the Legion at Chester.  The English borderers might easily mistake Lleon for the plural of Llew, which signifies a lion, and so call it the Castle of Lions.”  Bridge provides a convincing list of references that associate the two during the Middle Ages. The Reverend R.H. Morris’s The Diocesan  of History 1895 reinforces this message, saying that as late as the Elizabethan period the alternative name, Castrum Leonum or Castle of Lions was in general use and that its seal incorporated a Lion Rampant, suggesting that there was a heraldic link between Holt and lions.

None of this, however, accounts for the greyhounds, bears and hares, although Latham speculates that these too might have been associated with family coats of arms, now lost.  I originally wondered if the Churton greyhounds might refer to the hounds shown on Aldford road and house signs, but only a few of those are in Churton and are, anyway, much later in date.  Latham adds “It can be said in support of this suggestion however that the base of the font in Holt church, which dates from 1490, includes what appear to be carvings of all these
creatures.  This was examined by Mr. E. E. Dorling in 1908, and his findings were published in Vol. 24 of the Transactions of the Historical Soc. of Lanes. & Cheshire. He mentions a hart’s (not a hares) head with reference to the house of Stanley, and considers that the collared hound sitting in a panel on the font is ‘none other but the greyhound badge of King Henry VII’.”

Any ideas?  If you have more information, please get in touch.

For more about this Cheshire Proverbs series, see Cheshire Proverbs 1.

 

Sources:

Bridge, J.C. 1917. Proverbs, sayings and rhymes connected with the city and county palatine of Chester. Phillipson and Golder.

Latham, F.A.  1981. Farndon. The History of a Cheshire Village. Local History Group

 

Cheshire Proverbs 1, Introduction: “Old proverbs are the children of truth”

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Frank Latham’s 1981 book Farndon mentions a Cheshire proverb about local place-names that he said was quoted in Joseph C. Bridge’s Cheshire Proverbs and Other Sayings and Rhymes Connected with the City an County Palatine of Chester, published by Phillipson and Golder (Chester) 1917.   That sounded like a great book  to have on hand, so I checked online.  It cost next to nothing, so I ordered one.  It has been a lot of fun since it arrived, although I continue to puzzle over what some of the proverbs and sayings actually mean.  Most of the proverbs are English, but as Bridge points out, the border along the Welsh Marches was fluid, and language, including proverbs and sayings, passed seamlessly between England and Wales in both directions.

Most of the proverbs have nothing to do with the Churton/Farndon/Holt/Aldford area, of course, but they are all fascinating and I thought that it would be fun to include some of them here from time to time.  In the subject heading I will number them in the order in which I post them but I will also include Bridge’s numbering and the page numbers on which they appear.   

Joseph C. Bridges was a conscientious researcher.  Professor of music at the University of Durham and organist of Chester Cathedral, he was anxious to preserve traditional aspects of rural language in Cheshire: 

“The spread of education in our country districts is very rapid, and the rustic population is undoubtedly ceasing to use homely dialect and wise saws.  It seems to me, therefore, that it is desirable, before it is too late, to collect together in handy form the concentrated shrewdness and sit of old Cheshire, especially as many of the sayings are merely colloquial, while others are scattered among books, some of which are out of print and difficult to obtain.”

He not only worked rigorously through previous books of English and Cheshire proverbs and glossaries to find local words and terms, but reviewed them in detail in the introduction to Cheshire Proverbs and Other Sayings, giving appreciative credit where it was due, while annihilating others.  Of the four main glossaries that he uses, he comments approvingly that they are “a perfect crescendo of good things” but of Robert Nixon’s Sayings and Prophecies he states curtly “I do not believe in them, and we have no proof that any such person ever existed.”  Some of his sources are remarkably early, including Heywood’s Dialogue of 1562 and Camden’s Britannia of 1586, both broadly contemporary with the very earliest buildings in Churton and Farndon.  Throughout the book Bridge refers back to those sources in which he has confidence for additional details and clarification.  At the end of the book the proverbs are listed in alphabetical order, by first word.  There is also an index of place names at the end.

The saying in the title of the post, “Old proverbs are the children of truth,” is from the Welsh “Plant gwirionedd yw hen diarebion“, and appears on one of the title pages, page viii.  The saying is one of those that is thankfully fully self-explanatory.  It is a rather nice one to start with here, particularly as Bridge used it to kick off his book. 

In another publication, an edition of the 19th Century journal Cambro-Briton dating to 1820, an anonymous author used the same proverb as a title for his thoughts on the role of proverbs:

Among the literary stores, so various and interesting, with which the Welsh language abounds, it cannot be deemed surprising that it should contain a valuable collection of proverbs.  This is a species of learning, which must have taken early root in most countries;  and it may be considered as embodying the most approved and current wisdom of the various nations, where it is found to prevail.  Its concise and sententious method of conveying instruction was also peculiarly adapted to that channel of oral tradition, by which it was anciently retained.

The study of proverbs is paremiology, a field of endeavour that was a new one on me:

The problem of defining a proverb appears to be as old as man’s interest in them. People who consciously used them or began to collect them in antiquity obviously needed to differentiate proverbs from other gnomic devices such as apothegms, maxims, aphorisms, quotations, etc. Not only did such great minds as Aristotle and Plato occupy themselves with the question of what constitutes a proverb, but early Greek paremiographers in particular wrestled with this seemingly insurmountable task as well. (Wolfgang Mieder).

Bridge clearly believes that some of the proverbs and sayings speak for themselves, but I really cannot make any sense at all of some of them.  I am hoping that others out there will have something to offer on the origin and meaning of some of these sayings when I post them.

To see the other proverbs in the series, which will be ongoing, you can click on the Cheshire Proverbs category in the right-hand margin.

Sources

Anonymous, 1820.  Plant gwirionedd yw hen diarebion. Welsh Proverbs.  The Cambro-Briton and General Celtic Repository, volume 1, p.130-131

Bridge, J.C. 1917,  Cheshire Proverbs and Other Sayings and Rhymes Connected with the City an County Palatine of Chester Phillipson and Golder (Chester)

Latham, F.A.  1981.  Farndon. The History of a Cheshire Village. Local History Group

Mieder, W. Popular Views of the Proverb. De Proverbio
https://deproverbio.com/popular-views-of-the-proverb/

The 1858 Barnston Memorial, incorporating more than a hint of ancient Egypt

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There is a lot of information about the Barnston Memorial, both in print and online, and writing about it here might have been redundant given that every historical fact has already been squeezed out of it, but I haven’t yet seen anything that tackles the ancient Egyptian component that defines the memorial.

Before exploring the ancient Egyptian aspect, I should mention that I have a long-standing affection for the memorial, and would consider the blog incomplete without giving it a post to itself.   I first saw it a couple of decades ago.  I was living in London, but my parents lived not far away and we must have passed it on the way to somewhere else.  That first sight remains with me.  I was struck then, and still am whenever I pass it, by the sense of grief and loss that this soaring, lonely monument imparts in its isolated position on the edge of the empty field that stretches behind it.

The monument was erected in 1858 as a memorial to Lieutenant Colonel Roger Barnston Esq (1826-1857) who was just 31 He was one of Roger Harry Barnston’s seven children, three of of whom went into the army.  He was brought up at Crewe Hall in Crewe-by-Farndon.  He served in the 90th Light Infantry and was fatally  injured in one of the sieges of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny in 1857, a horror story, and he died of his injuries at the garrison town of Cawnpore (Kanpur).  Kanpur, on the River Ganges, was a major crossing point on which a number of important roads converged.  It was defended by sepoys (Indian soldiers employed by the army to reinforce garrisons) but in June 1857 the sepoys rebelled and attacked the British garrison. It was carnage.  By then, Roger Barnston had already survived the Crimean War, seeing action at Sebastapol.  He must have seen some appalling horrors during his short life.  He was recognized as a Knight of the Legion of Honour and was awarded the Order of Medjidie.  He was buried at Kanpur.

The memorial stands just outside Farndon on the Churton Road, overlooking the Welsh foothills to the west.  It is on the edge of a field that still belongs to the Barnston Estate.  A competition was organized to attract design ideas, and the memorial was paid for by public subscription, a common way of securing public monuments and buildings.  The competiton was won by Edward Arthur Heffer (1836-1914) at a cost of £400.  This equates to around  £32,074 today according to the National Archive currency convertor, a sum that could also buy you 26 horses, 74 heads of cattle or 2000 days of wages for a skilled tradesman. 

The memorial consists of an obelisk (tall tapering four-sided column terminating in a pyramid-shaped top called a pyramidion) that stands on a plinth, surrounded by four recumbent lions.  A plaque on the south face of the obelisk commemorates Roger Barnston. The corresponding panel on the east, facing the road, consists of an ornamental swag and blank medallions.  The other two faces are plain.  The wall once had iron railings, which have since been removed, set into a short kerb that surrounds the base.   The memorial is made of yellow sandstone, which Latham says was from Cefn, presumably Cefn Mawr.  Although usually vulnerable to erosion, the Cefn Mawr sandstone is fine-grained and well cemented and has proved to be very resilient.  Much of the monumental architecture in Wrexham and its environs are built of yellow sandstone quarried from Cefn Mawr, including Wrexham’s Catholic cathedral.  The Barnston Memorial is still in excellent condition as a result, its edges still clearly defined.  It is rather greyed due to traffic emissions, but would have been a clean and attractive pale yellow when first erected.  

Front page of Description de l’Egypte. Source: Wikimedia

A few years ago I visited the memorial to take photographs when writing an article for an Egyptology magazine about the use of ancient Egyptian themes in Victorian monuments and buildings.  Following Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, 19th Century Britain became obelisk-obsessed.  Driving past Toxteth Park Cemetery in Liverpool not long ago, hopelessly lost as it happens, I was absolutely staggered at the number of obelisks that dotted the place, rising well above the level of the other memorials.  They combine to provide something of a memorial to the British Egyptian Revival, which manifested itself in a variety of interesting ways, some more successful than others, but became dominant in cemeteries and as memorials.   

Any wealthy traveller and his mentors undertaking the Grand Tour in the 18th Century might have seen the obelisks imported into Rome and elsewhere by Roman emoerirs following their invasion of Egypt, but Egypt first fully imprinted itself on western European imagination following the publication of  Baron Dominique Vivant-Denon’s 1802 “Voyage dans la Basse et Haute-Egypte” (Travels in Lower and Upper Egypt), translated into English in 1803, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s infinitely more remarkable “Description de l’Egypte” of 1809-1829. Universally referred to today as “Description“, it was published in several volumes.  One has to hand it to Napoleon for having had such a classy attitude to war.  When he took an invasion force to Egypt, he also equipped it with 178 scholars, scientists, engineers and artists and  called “savants,” who were given the job of capturing every aspect of Egypt in word and illustration.  

“Vue de Obélisque dite de Cléopatre à Alexandrie,” by Vivant-Denon 1798. The upright obelisk is now in New York’s Central Park.  The fallen obelisk at its feet was transported to England and now stands on the Thames Embankment, where it was installed in 1878. Generally known as Cleopatra’s Needle, it was actually erected by Thutmose III.  Source:  V&A Museum.

Vivant-Denon was one of those savants sent by Napoleon to Egypt, employed as an artist for the expedition, and pipped Napoleon to the post with a much shorter, punchier and very popular book of his own story about the campaign and his experiences in Egypt, published seven years before Napoleon’s first volume, first in French in 1802 and then translated into English in 1803.  Between them, these two publications spread widely, and found a particular following in Britain, where numerous Egyptian motifs found their way into art and architecture.  

European scholars began to arrive in Egypt as soon as Napoleon departed in 1801, but it was not until 1922 in the reign of King George V that archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun, 65 years after the erection of the Barnston Memorial.

Of course, Napoleon’s savants and troops also ransacked the art works of the countries occupied by Napoleon for French museums and universities.  In 1803, the Louvre in Paris, the main recipient of this policy, was renamed the Napoleon Museum.  Britain was not innocent of this practice either, as a trip around the British Museum would confirm.  The British Museum was perfectly happy to purchase objects from men who were very little better than legitimized tomb robbers, such as former circus strongman Giovanni Belzoni.  One of the British Museum’s prizes, the Rosetta Stone, was transferred from Napoleon’s cache of Egyptian heritage to British possession when Nelson triumphed at the Battle of the Nile.  This transfer of big chunks of Egypt’s heritage was formalized in articles of the Treaty of Alexandria, 1801.  Amongst the confiscated pieces now at the British Museum were also two obelisks dating to the reign of Nectanebo II.

Obelisks at the New Kingdom temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt.

Certain motifs seemed to resonate with Victorian sentiments, and obelisks became particularly popular, especially in cemeteries.  This is perhaps because they were so easy to replicate, but I suspect that it also had a lot to do with the sense that obelisks reached for the heavens, something to which the ancient Egyptians also aspired.  Although the term “obelisk” derives from Greek and unimaginatively means “pointed implement or pillar,” the ancient Egyptian word was “tekhen,” meaning “sunbeam.”  In ancient Egypt, the whole thing was quarried out of fine southern Egyptian granite as a single piece .  The tip of the obelisk, the pyramidion, was often encased in gold or the gold-silver alloy “electrum” to capture and reflect the early morning sunrays.  Each face was carved with hieroglyphic inscriptions giving the name and titles of the king who had erected it within a temple precinct, and was often dedicated to a particular deity, usually the state deity Amen (or Amun).  None of these characteristics were translated into the Victorian version of the obelisk, which was usually made of soft stone, in this case yellow sandstone, and was unadorned with either hieroglyphs or gold.  Larger obelisks like the Barnston Memorial were composed of blocks, not made of a single piece, and the pyramidion was unadorned with any form of metal casing.

Very few Victorians were able to resist the impulse to provide decorative settings for obelisks, even original ones imported from Egypt, because they are otherwise rather plain.  The Barnston Memorial is no exception.  The result is a cornucopia of different cultural motifs.  The lions that surround the base of the Barnston Memorial are nothing to do with Egypt.  Lions, as a traditional symbol of England first adopted by royalty in the Middle Ages, became associated with ideals of courage, strength, loyalty, military domination, patriotism and justice.  It is a powerful emblem.  In the setting of this and other funerary memorials, the lion also suggests protection.

The Victorians were enthusiastic appropriators of other motifs from other periods.  Other themes, mainly derived from Classical contexts that had become standard features of English architecture, are the oak leaf swag with decorative ribbons and the oval motif on the east side.  A  simplified version of egg-and-dart moulding and a twisted rope effect (with acanthus leaves at each corner) circle the base of the obelisk.  Oak has much in common with lions as a symbol, incorporating ideas of strength, and endurance.  Acanthus was a dominant and powerful theme in Classical architecture, symbolizing healing, long life and long life, immortality and rebirth.  It was popular for Victorian tomb decoration, where it is directly associated with mourning.  Each lion rests on a false chest-type tomb that was particularly in vogue in cemeteries during the Victorian period.  The memorial is a characteristic Victorian combination of motifs from ancient cultures with traditional British themes.

There is something inevitably colonial about the memorial.  It is a grandiose statement, a chaotic mix of poorly understood imagery from different cultures all plonked with considerable ceremony into a rural context for which it is really rather ill-suited, and carried out with the solidly unassailable self-confidence and sense of entitlement of the era.  It carries with it echoes of the chutzpah that drove the East India Company’s systematic annexation of India.  But it still pulls firmly at the heart strings, and those lions are absolutely wonderful.

The inscription of the memorial reads:

Erected in memory of
ROGER BARNSTON ESQ
of Crewe Hill, Major and Brevet Lieut. Colonel
of Her Majesty’s 90th Light Infantry C.D.
and Knight of the Legion of Honor and of the Order of the Medjidie:
by his tenants and friends.
He served in the Crimean War from the 5th December 1854,
and was present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol,
and also in the Indian Mutiny Campaign in 1857
in which he received a severe wound whilst gallantly leading an assault
at the relief of Lucknow on the 16th November 1857
from the effects of which he died at Cawnpore on the 23rd December 1857
aged 31 years.
and was interred in the military cemetery at that station.

In ancient Egypt, commemorative inscriptions were important because it was believed that as long as the name of the dead continued to be spoken by the living, they would live on in eternity.  Memorials serve a similar function, preserving the memory of the dead amongst the living.  The memorial to Roger Barnston has secured him a place in the communal heritage of the area.

Latham gives its vital statistics as follows: “Greatest diameter, 23 ft.; length of needle, 40 ft.; width at top, 2 ft. 3 ins.; at bottom next pedestal, 3 ft. 9 ins. The width of the base for pedestal is 9 ft. The lions are 6 ft. long, and the total height of the memorial from the ground is 55 ft.”  It has been Grade II listed since 1984, list number 1279425.  It bears a bears an Ordnance Survey bench-mark, 96 ft above sea level, and a white lightning conductor runs up the west face.  The view over the Welsh foothills to the west was probably uninterrupted when the memorial was built.

Work has now begun on a “natural burial ground” on the land immediately to the south of the memorial, Monument Meadow, which belongs to the Barnston Estate:

Design of the natural burial ground by Land Studio. Source: Chester Standard

“Monument Meadow Natural Burial Ground, which will be built on one of the estate’s fields, will replace the burial ground at St Chad’s in Farndon village. It will also be made available for residents of surrounding villages. Designed by Chester-based Land Studio, a specialist landscape architect, the Barnston Estate says the environment will be kept as natural as possible with a wildflower meadow and ornamental trees. With its timber framed pavilion, circular layout and views stretching across the Clwydian Range, it has been designed to be a peaceful and beautiful place to visit, they add. . . . the burial ground is intended to be a natural one with caskets made of natural materials with no formal markers.” (Chester Standard).

It seems a very suitable use for a field that might, otherwise, have been used for housing development.  The timber pavilion has been erected and the car park laid out, surrounded by saplings, at the time of writing.

Details of the lion stonework


SOURCES

Books

Curl, J.S. 1982. The Egyptian Revival. George, Allen and Unwin.

Elliott, C. 2012. Egypt in England. English Heritage

Latham, F.A.  1981. Farndon. The History of a Cheshire Village. Local History Group

Morris, E. and  Roberts, E. 2012, Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside (excluding Liverpool). Public Sculpture of Britain. Liverpool University Press, p.112–113

Taylor, R.2004.  How to Read a Church.  Random House.

Websites

BuildingConservation.com
Churchyard chest tombs by John Taylor
https://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/chesttombs/chesttombs.htm

Chester Standard
Barnston Estate near Farndon to build burial ground
https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/18611529.barnston-estate-near-farndon-build-burial-ground/

Historic England
Barnston Memorial
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1279425

Landed Families of Britain and Ireland
Barnston of Churton Hall and Crewe Hill
https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2020/01/403-barnston-of-churton-hall-and-crewe.html

National Army Museum
‘The Chamber of Blood’, Cawnpore, 1857
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1992-10-18-1

Royden History
Farndon Local History
http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/farndon/buildings/barnston/barnston.htm

Vivant-Denon, D. 1803 (in translation and without the illustrations from the French editions)
Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt: During the Campaigns of General Bonaparte in that Country; and Published Under His Immediate Patronage
Volume 1
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=M2kTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR71&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Volume 2
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=imUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA131&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Wrexham County Borough Council
Cefn Mawr
http://old.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/planning/landmap/7b.pdf

Object Histories in my garden #3: The head of a small figurine

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Digging up big parts of the garden to add a small orchard, shrubs and flowers for all round colour have been given a added frisson of interest by finds of pottery sherds and glass.  As an activity, collecting these fragments it is very far from anything resembling archaeology, as deposition is almost completely random, and unearthing them is a far from delicate process, but these finds are still something of a link between the property and its past, and have charm.  I have already posted about two 19th Century bottles, one from the J.F. Edisbury Co. pharmacy in Wrexham and another from the Chester Lion Brewery, but two weeks ago we found something completely new.

I decided to dig out a perennial flower border that was full of lovely plants but hopelessly infested with coarse and deep-rooted couch grass, the roots of which snap when one tries to pull them out, and go on to fight many other days.  Having dug out and potted up the plants, I was left with a ghastly bare bed that looked as though the gophers had been at it, but it was then ready to be prepared for a useful life.  My gardener Joe began to turn it over, digging in fertilizer, and this little object turned up during that process.

This is a tiny male head, about 4cm tall, in white ceramic, completely hollow, with a seam line running along both sides.  The face seems child-like, the hair very curly, and the hat slightly out of place on such a young head.  The overall effect is slightly humorous.  The best guess proffered so far amongst those I have asked is that it was designed as a support for a pie crust.  Apparently white figurines of this size with flat-topped hats and hollow interiors were produced in the early 20th Century for this purpose and were not uncommon.

It seems like a plausible explanation.  I’ve had a hunt around the part of the garden where he was found, but so far have not found the rest of him.  It seems likely that if the head was chucked into the garden, the rest of him would have been thrown nearby, so we will keep an eye or two open.

For other objects in the series,
see the History in Garden Objects page

Churton Honesty Eggs

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When I first started working in the garden at Churton, one of the truly delightful sounds was the brash crowing of a cockerel somewhere to the northwest of my house.

A few weeks later I was walking to the White Horse, which had just re-opened (prior to closing again during the pandemic), and found that at the end of the super row of late 19th Century terraced houses, Rowley Place, there was a wheelbarrow full of eggs in pre-used boxes.  It is an honesty system and lots of people in cars pull up alongside to pop the required coins in the lock box and take away their fresh eggs.  Since the beginning of the pandemic I had fallen out of the habit of using cash, so the first time I bought my eggs there I had to rifle through various jacket pockets and the eternal chaos at the bottom of my handbag to find the right amount of coinage (£1.30 per half dozen or £2.50 for a dozen, at time of writing).  There’s a separate tub on the side for unwanted egg-boxes that are used for boxing up the new eggs.  The sign says that they are mixed sizes, but they have all been of a good, usable size to date, the smallest of them on the larger size of medium and the bigger ones large.  I started to buy them and cook with them, and they now make up my occasional “Adventures with Churton Honesty Eggs” recipe posts.

A couple of months ago my neighbour told me that she and her other neighbour had found hen eggs buried in their gardens.  Both her research and mine suggested that they were deposited by foxes.  I have never found any buried eggs, but twice this spring I have found broken hen eggs in the middle of my lawn.  It does beg the question why the fox might steal the egg and not the chicken.  It turns out that I know remarkably little about chickens.  Another scoot around the web delivered me to the American Chicken-Keeping Secrets website, which informs me that free-range chickens roost overnight in the hen-house but can lay their eggs wherever they feel comfortable at the time, so even though the hens themselves may be resting safely behind fox/coyote-proof barriers at night, the eggs may not be:

“For a long time we kept our chickens in a run due to coyotes in the area. At some point we decided to let them out to roam the property.  The longer they were out, the fewer eggs we found in their nesting boxes.  Each day we’d all have to go out searching for eggs. We found them in the dog house, under the children’s slide, way down at the bottom where the slide and the ground meet, inside a cabinet in the woodshop where a cabinet door had been left open  . . . our chickens were creative.”

To celebrate these splendid local eggs, here are two examples of how I have used them.

Lamb baharat with Churton honesty eggs

First, a picture of Thursday’s Middle Eastern lamb baharat, slow-cooked with baharat spices supplemented on this occasion with fresh red chilli and wild garlic (ramsons), both from my garden, spinach, tiny preserved lemons and the Churton eggs, which are hard-boiled and have gorgeous deeply- yellow centres (and I promise that no Photoshop tweaking was employed).  It is superb with okra if you can find them (sometimes available at the Sainsbury’s in Wrexham and the Waitrose in Chester). Hard boiled eggs are traditional in some Indian curries and essential in the fabulous traditional Doro Wat and Sega Wat (Ethiopian curry, chicken and beef respectively).  The edible flowers on top of the dish, as well as some of the green leaves, are ramsons from a pot in my garden, and the puddle of sauce next to the plain white basmati rice is Greek yogurt with a good squeeze of lime together with chopped garden mint and chives.  I’ve had the Churton eggs soft-boiled, poached and as a French fennel and cheese omelette, but this dish showcases my first hard-boiled ones, which flaunt the deep yellow yolks, a much richer colour than any I have ever bought in supermarkets, and they have a fabulous flavour.

Lovage and lime mayonnaise made with Churton honesty eggs

The second is a mayonnaise made of a single Churton egg yolk, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, fresh lovage (which I grow in a pot on my patio), sea salt, lime juice and mild-flavoured olive oil.  Unlike the ivory-coloured Hellman’s this was a beautiful primrose yellow before I added the herbs and lime, which turned it green.  I like Hellmans and always have a bottle of it in the fridge, using it splurged on sandwiches or on the side of a quick salad as a guilty kitchen essential like HP sauce and Heinz ketchup, but it has precious little relationship with either the appearance or flavour of real mayonnaise.  The process of emulsifying egg with oil lightens the colour, but it is still unmistakeably yellow.  How can mayonnaise possibly be ivory-white, when based on egg yolks?  Nowadays, the relevant shelf in a supermarket is full of copycat bottles of white emulsion.  Unilever (the producer of Hellman’s) must be grinning from ear to ear, but it somewhat reminds me of the  futuristic film Demolition Man, in which our hero from a previous century, having been invited in hushed tones to dine in the restaurant Taco Bell in gratitude for a life-saving act, is informed that “Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the franchise wars. Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.”

Churton honesty eggs

Object Histories in my garden #2: A bottle by J.F. Edisbury and Co. Ltd. (Wrexham)

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Damaged J.F. Edisbury bottle found in my garden

Last week I posted about a Chester Lion Brewery Co. bottle that we found in the garden, dating to the final years of the 19th Century, one of two bottles that were found in a part of the garden that was completely invisible beneath a tangle of dead trees, shrubs and weeds.  On the right is the second one that we found, labelled J.F. Edisbury and Co. Limited, Wrexham.

The J.F. Edisbury and Co. Ltd bottle is made of clear green-tinted glass, with seam lines running up each side.  The text “J.F. EDISBURY & CO. LIMITED WREXHAM is embossed in raised glass on one side of the bottle, as is the trademark, consisting of two crossed foxes within a frame in the shape of a shield.  The shield shape was a traditional frame for displaying the name of ingredients on jars that lined the shelves of pharmacy shop interiors.  The base has some slight damage, obscuring some raised text, but appears to end in the numbers 80 (or to start with the numbers 08).  Opposite it, on an undamaged section of the base, more raised text is clearly visible, and appears to read, C.S. and Co. Ltd. on one side of the base, about which more later.  Unlike the Chester Lion Brewery bottle, for which I could find no duplicate online, there are plenty of examples of Edisbury bottles of this type, with the same long necks.

James Edisbury , father of James Fisher Edisbury

The Edisbury family has a long connection with the Wrexham area, and the name pops up repeatedly, mainly because of Josiah / Joshua Edisbury, High Sheriff of Denbighshire, who was responsible for building the earliest version of Erddig Hall c.1684 overlooking the river Clywedog.  He went bankrupt in the process of building it.   The Dictionary of Welsh Biography says that Edisbury’s brother John Edisbury (c.1646 – 1713), ruined himself by misappropriating funds to help his brother. In 1716 Erddig was sold to a successful London lawyer Sir John Meller who bought out the mortgage and debts that Edisbury had incurred, finished the work and added two wings that remain today.

Bersham Hall, Wrexham, which is still standing. Source: Francis Frith Collection

The owner of J.F. Edisbury Co. Ltd., to whom the bottle belonged, was James Fisher Edisbury,  born in 1837.  His father James was very commercially successful first as a retailer in Holywell and then in Wrexham as an auctioneer.  James Edisbury senior was born in 1803, and in 1829 married Elizabeth Walker Ratcliffe, eldest daughter of the late Henry Walker Ratcliff, a grocer.  She died in 1832 and James was remarried in 1834 to Sarah Ratcliffe.  In the 1835 North Wales Directory for the Holywell & Bagillt areas,  James Edisbury is listed as “High St. Grocer &/or dealer in sundries, and tobacconist:  Tallow Chandler, Wine and Spirit merchant.”  A daughter, Emily Walker Edisbury, was born in 1834  and James Fisher Edisbury was born in 1837.  Emily died in 1839  and Sarah died a year later in 1840.  James Edisbury had more than his fair share of loss.  At some point before 1855, when he is next recorded, he made the decision to move to the outskirts of Wrexham, purchasing Bersham Hall, which sat in 11 acres of land.  In 1857 he decided to move into the town for business reasons, letting out Bersham Hall. He appears to have had a major career change, becoming an auctioneer and appraiser, living and working at Brook Street in Wrexham.  He died on 21st September 1859, leaving Bersham Hall to his son James Fisher Edisbury.

The pharmacy business in the 19th Century

Jacob Bell, founder of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1841. Source: Pharmaceutical Journal.

Pharmacies began to rise in importance in local communities as scientific research into the relationship between diseases, ailments and potential treatments began to make real improvements to medical knowledge in 19th century Europe.  The Pharmaceutical Society was established in 1841, which moved to establish schools to standardize training and to regulate the sale of pharmaceuticals, but apprenticeship remained the principal form of learning until the end of the century.  Synthetic drugs were being developed, but traditional remedies based on herbal preparations were still dominant.

Pharmacists combined the roles of chemists, health consultants and dispensaries.  They worked alongside and often in competition with physicians to develop treatments for an enormous range of real and imagined conditions, frequently undercutting their more formally trained and qualified colleagues.  As the adverts on this page demonstrate, the public were becoming increasingly interested in their own symptoms and any treatments that might alleviate them.  Ailments at all levels of society represented lucrative business opportunities.

A recreation of a 19th Century chemist at the York Castle Museum’s “Kirkgate Victorian Street,” York. Source and copyright: Crinoline Robot, Miriam McDonald

Every town had at least one pharmacy, sometimes more.  For example, as well as J.F. Edisbury and Co., another Wrexham pharmacy Francis and Co., with premises at 53 Hope Street and 22 Town Hill in Wrexham.   The shops were lined with shelves and cabinets that held clearly labelled glass and ceramic jars full of the raw materials for the manufacture of pills, potions, gels, ointments and medicines, looking much like a traditional sweet shop.  A workshop in the rear usually contained the equipment for assembling these products.  The above photograph by Miriam McDonald shows a recreation of an actual pharmacy in contemporary York, giving an excellent idea of what sort of experience a customer would have had when they walked through the door of a British pharmacy in the 19th Century.

James Fisher Edisbury, chemist and pharmacist 

In this 1916 family photograph published in the Wrexham Leader, James Fisher Edisbury is at far right, four years before his death. Source: Wrexham History website

Top: 3 High St, Wrexham. Bottom: 4 Grosvenor Road. Source: Google Maps.

James Fisher Edisbury established himself as a pharmacist at 3 High Street, Wrexham.  The building is a remarkable survivor sandwiched between two deeply unattractive modern buildings.  By 1861 he is recorded as a master chemist and pharmacist in Wrexham.  James Fisher Edisbury married Harriet Jones in 1863.  She gave birth to a stillborn child in May 1864 and died herself two weeks later.  James Fisher remarried, to Minnie Jones, in 1867 and the couple lived in Bersham Hall, now sitting in only in 4.5 acres of land.  Like James Senior, they moved their home to Wrexham for business reasons, letting out Bersham Hall and settling at 4 Grosvenor Road.   In total they had seven children, one of whom died, and Minnie herself died at the age of 35 in 1882.   

These two generations of family history highlight the risk of death for mother and child during childbirth, as well as the high ongoing risk for babies and toddlers, demonstrating one aspect of how improved medical assistance was very much required.  For a long time the medical profession had been little better than the provision of quackery, but during the second half of the 19th Century health care was beginning to develop in new and eventually more scientifically exacting directions.

(Thanks to Annette Edwards for her article on the Wrexham History website for the information about two generations of the family’s history – please see that page for more James Fisher Edisbury’s family details).

James Fisher Edisbury’s business interests were embedded in the pharmaceutical industry, and he was a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, (M.P.S.). The fascinating advert to the left gives a very comprehensive idea not just of the products that he was selling but the high quality of customer service that he offered to his valued customers.   The pharmacy offered a 24 hour service.  Although the shop was shut at night, those in need could obtain the services of the pharmacist by ringing the doorbell.  I don’t know what Chinese Floating Soap might be, but I want some!

According to his advertising, at some point in the late 1870s or early 1880s J.F. Fisher  and Co. became the proprietors of the North Wales Mineral Water Factory at Horse Market, Wrexham and seem to have owned the Penadur Spring Works also in Wrexham, perhaps towards the end of the century.   The company may  have bought the business from R. Evans and Co., as one advert refers to “J.F. Fisher and Co. (Late R. Evans and Co.)”.

By 1881 the company was producing mineral waters in Llangollen in a building adjoining the Cambrian Hotel, a coaching house in Berwyn Street, called the Mineral Water Manufactory.  Late Victorian Llangollen was enjoying an economic boom building on its existing stone and slate quarrying, manufacture of woollens and fabrics and tourist industry.  The canal network, the arrival of the railway and the construction of Telford’s Holyhead road all contributed to the success story, The Mineral Water Manufactory was a soft drinks business, which produced  aerated (fizzy) versions that were something of a late 19th Century novelty.  Edisbury bought the mineral drinks operation from Zoedone, together with nine vans, which delivered throughout Wales and had depots at Chester, Oswestry, and Birmingham.  In 1903 the Cambrian Hotel, Cambrian House and the mineral water factory premises were sold at auction in Llangollen but I do not know what happened to the drinks business, which may have moved elsewhere or have been absorbed into one or other of the Wrexham operations.

Back in Wrexham, adverts placed in various newspapers indicate that James Fisher Edisbury had a cure for just about every ailment from corns, warts and bunions to shortness of breath, bronchial problems, nervous afflictions and neuralgia.  An advert dating to 1883 indicates that he had also diversified into animal cures as the agent for a farm suppliers:  “IMPORTANT TO FARMERS. -J. F. EDISBURY is the authorised agent for the Pix Compo, Down’s Farmer’s Friend, and manufactures the celebrated Wheat Dressing for destroying slug, grub, and wire worm, and preventing the ravages of birds, 3, High-street, Wrexham.”  He also sold personal grooming and bathing products, such as hair brushes, tooth brushes, nail brushes, sponges and sponge-bags.  In one 1885 advert advertising sponges and gloves, there was also the mention of Cyprus Insect Powder as “the best exterminator of moths, beetles, fleas, &c.-non- poisonous and effectual, in Id, 2d, and 3d, packets, 6d and 9d tins.”  Another advert lists the “paints, oils, colours and varnishes” available to purchase from 3 High Street.

In 1887 J.F. Edisbury and Co. purchased a ginger beer company, A1 Stone Ginger Beer.  On last week’s post about the Chester Lion Brewery the topic of trademark infringement came up in connection with beer sales, and here is a similar example, with the company placing a notice in a local newspaper warning that the firm’s bottles were being used to pas off “very feeble and unpalatable imitations.”  A reward was offered to anyone bringing examples of such fraudulent products to the factory for testing.

In 1895 Ellis and Son from Ruthin ran a large advert in the Wrexham Advertiser and North Wales News advertising their own mineral waters.  They were mainly advertising their own operation in Ruthin, but in smaller letters also featured J.F. Fisher and Co. as an outlet for their products.  In the same newspaper, and next to the Ellis and Son advert, J.F. Fisher and Co. also had a large advert, focusing on their North Wales Mineral Water Co, which sold Penadur Spring Waters.  The latter advert mentions that the water had been exhibited in the Paris Exhibition and the London International Exhibition of 1891, reinforcing the sense of high-tech novelty.  At the same time, it emphasizes that this new product was very accessible, available not only via retail outlets, but also at railway station buffets at Chester, Birkenhead, Chester and Ruabon.  By diversifying, Edisbury may have been looking for a competitive edge to consolidate his position as he was not the only pharmacist operating in Wrexham in the late 19th Century.

Edisbury was also involved in the Aerated Water Manufacturing Company, which appears to have been another profitable Wrexham-based business.  The company’s Third Ordinary General Meeting in 1891 was held at the Wynnstay Arms, a few doors down from Edisbury’s premises at 3 High Street, and was reported in the Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register.  It was announced that the company was doing well. “On the year there was an increase, and due care having been exercised in the matter of expenses the net profit had proved to be in excess of what was stated in the prospectus. . . . That would be satisfactory to the shareholder.”  At the same time, it was revealed that “the Company had commenced the manufacture of British wines under Mr Hutchinson, who had special experience in the work, and he thought the wines produced were of high quality.”  These wines were medicinal rather than epicurean.  By 1895 James was selling the wines in his Wrexham premises:  “MEDICATED WINES.  J. F. Edisbury, M.P.S., 3, High-street, Wrexham. Coca Wine @ 2s 6d per bottle; Extract of Meat. and Malt Wine, ls 6d per bottle.”

James Fisher had a very strict record system for the supply of bottles of his products to customers, some of which were very expensive to manufacture, as explained in the second page below, taken from a J.F. Edisbury Co “pass book.”  The first and last pages of the pass book provided details of some of the company’s products, and the rest of it was a record of a customer’s account, tracking product deliveries and returns. You can flip through the pages of the book on the Internet Archive website here.  The outer envelope and cover of beautifully preserved pass book from the National Trust’s Erddig is shown below.

This sort of bottle return policy operated by Edisbury and other drinks suppliers probably accounts for why only two 19th Century bottles have so far been unearthed in my garden.

Green leatherette account book in a red leather-covered cardboard case. The account book is marked dated on the first page 1871.  Source: National Trust Collections

There are plenty of references to James Fisher Edisbury in the Wrexham local newspapers in the context of a number of civic activities.  He was a Justice of the Peace, was on a committee to organize the planning and building of a new retail arcade, which still stands, and was a Provincial Grand Officer of the Freemasons.   As well as a successful business entrepreneur and a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, (M.P.S.), with fingers in several pies, he was clearly a solid and influential pillar of the Wrexham community.  James Fisher Edisbury died on 20th October 1920 at the age of 83.

Back to the bottle

J.F. Edisbury and Co trademark.

The bottle from my garden was unlikely to have been used for one of the aerated drinks, because these, being fizzy, had special storage requirements.  They were delivered in bottles with pointed bases that had to be laid horizontally, ensuring that the liquid inside would prevent the cork from drying out, ensuring that the gas was retained in the bottle.

This bottle, with its flat base, was not one of those  and could have contained any number of other J.F Edisbury products.  A the moment there it has not possible to narrow down which of the various wines, oils, medicines, tonics, and other potions that it may have contained.  Nor has it been possible to narrow down a date for the bottle.

Markings on the base of the bottle

The crossed foxes trademark is very distinctive and appears on many of J.F. Edisbury and Co. bottles and jars.  I was unable to find out where it came from or what, if anything, it refers to, but Adam Mercer, from the Wrexham Antique Bottles website (which launched in spring 2022) suggests that the crossed foxes were derived from the family crest of the Williams-Wynn family of the Wynnstay Estate, with the cross foxes coming from the Williams side.  I was also unable when I first posted this to discover what the markings on the base might refer to.  My guess that it was a bottle manufacturer was turns out to be correct.  My thanks to both Adam and to Maurice Handley for letting me know that C.S. and Co on the base stands for Cannington Shaw of St Helens.  Malcolm says that this was, at the time, the world’s largest makers of bottles during the late nineteenth century.  It as established in 1866 and amalgamated with other bottle makers to form United Glass Bottles or UGB.  For more about Cannington Shaw see https://www.canningtonshaw.org.uk.

The shape of the bottle, the presence of the cross-foxes trademark and the quality of the glass itself might help to narrow down a more specific date range for the bottle.  I do hope that some of these details will eventually emerge, and if you are reading this and have more information please get in touch.

Final Comments

This is a rather different story from the one I told last week about the Chester Lion Brewery bottle, and not merely because of the contrast between health drinks and beer.  Last week’s bottle was the story of big factory-style breweries, big investments in future technologies and large ambitions, and even a case of minor trademark fraud.  The Edisbury bottle, by contrast is the story of high street retail where success was achieved by offering wide product ranges and providing excellent customer service.  James Fisher Edisbury’s advertising speaks of a man who was highly organized, ambitious and driven to look for new ways to use his skills to find new markets, or to find new products for existing markets.  Where expedient he joined forces with other companies to retail their products and he invested in new infrastructure when required.  He saw the potential for health drinks and invested heavily in providing this to families who wanted to improve the quality of their lives and their overall well-being, and were attracted by novelty.  Looking around today at the proliferation of health-food stores and the growing interest in vegan diets, it is a far from unfamiliar story.

For other objects in the series,
see the History in Garden Objects page

Sources:

Books and papers

Robinson, J. 2016. Looking back at 175 years of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. The Pharmaceutical Journal April 15th 2016, Vol. 296, No.7888, p.296
https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/feature/looking-back-at-175-years-of-the-royal-pharmaceutical-society

Wilson’s Trades Directory of Wales, 1885. William Wilson & Sons.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/community.30136288

Cadw 2016. Llangollen. Understanding Urban Character.

Websites

Wrexham History, founded by Graham Floyd
James Fisher Edisbury, by Annette Edwards, August 2019
https://www.wrexham-history.com/james-fisher-edisbury-2/ 
Francis The Chemist by Annette Edwards, October 2018
https://www.wrexham-history.com/francis-chemist/ 

The Internet Archive
The North Wales Mineral Company. Pass Book
https://archive.org/details/b3047775x/mode/2up

The National Trust
Erddig, The Whole Story
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/erddig/features/erddig-the-whole-story

Welsh Newspapers Online.  National Library of Wales
https://newspapers.library.wales/

History Points
Former Cambrian Hotel, Berwyn Street, Llangollen
https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=former-cambrian-hotel-llangollen

The Dictionary of Welsh Biography
EDISBURY family, of Bedwal, Marchwiel, Pentre-clawdd, and Erddig (Denbighshire)
https://biography.wales/

Gravestones.info
J.F. Edisbury and Co.
https://www.gravestones.info/data/edisbury-j-f-co/ 

Center for the History of Medicine
Jars of “Art and Mystery”:  Pharmacists and Their Tools in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 
https://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/exhibits/show/apothecary-jars