Kelsall Village Family Stories

  Being retired and a dog owner, I do a fair amount of walking and consider myself fairly knowledgeable of the local area, in particular Delamere Forest.   A chance conversation with a friend made me realise there was still more learn.   She asked if I knew about the Whistlebitch Well in Primrose Wood. I told her I’d never heard of it and so she gave me an impromptu history lesson. What made the story even more interesting was her family’s connection to it. I wanted to find out more and found a well documented article written about the ancient well on the internet. It seems that for a short time around 400 years ago the sleepy little village of Utkinton was as busy as any place in England, attracting as many as 2000 people daily.   Details of why the well became a pilgrimage for so many people is contained in a pamphlet published in London in 1600 and written in a letter from a Cheshire man to a Gentleman friend of his on 16 August 1600, headed ‘Newes out of Cheshi...

My mother used to tell me I came from the angels.   I used to think, what is  she talking about? Then, years later when I began to research my family tree, it all became clear.   I knew Mum’s Mum, my grandmother, Harriet, was born in Pembroke Dock, Wales in 1893. Digging deeper I discovered Harriet’s maternal grandmother, Mary Ann, had been born in Plymouth, Devon but moved to Pembroke Dock with William, her seafaring father, and family in the early 1800’s.   Researching William’s line revealed that his mother was called Ann Angell, so Mum had been right about our “angels” connection. What I didn’t discover until later was that this line had links to royalty! Many hours tracing this Angell line further revealed an amazing account of this Angell family. I was to discover that in the 1600s a John Angell held several privileged positions including that of Acatery at Windsor Castle being responsible for purchase and storage of perishable goods such as meat, cheese, ve...

Blog #1 – Whiston Hospital: Tonsilitis – a cruel ending When my sister and I were about 5 and 7 respectively (and living in Kelsall), we were diagnosed with tonsilitis. Personally, I think I had it, and my parents just thought they would go for a block booking to avoid future hassle; so, we were both booked into Whiston Hospital in Prescott. The stay there was unremarkable, apart from a VERY sore throat and the staff being unspeakably cruel before allowing us to leave. On the day we were to be discharged, there was a condition that we had to undergo before being allowed to leave. They insisted we ate an ice lolly first! I remember crying constantly as they effectively force fed me this tortuous concoction, which hurt like hell on my VERY sore throat (I had just had an operation remember!); but after eventually finishing the lolly (about 15 minutes later), they let us go home. Blog #2 – Chester Royal Infirmary: Scarred for Life This picture of the Smithy (next door to Di...

  A prominent feature of Kelsall village is the roadside graveyard on Chester Road, close by, but mainly hidden, is the Methodist Church graveyard and further away is the Delamere St Peters graveyard – drive past, blink and you’ll miss it. Before these existed, the burial grounds for this area were at Tarvin St Andrews. The Kelsall Family History Group – not Kelsall the surname, but people of Kelsall interested in family history - started photographing the Methodist Church headstones a while back and then began adding them to the "Find A Grave" website (FAG)  Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records   The aim for this project is not to just list every burial near Kelsall but to link each grave to family members, parents, children and siblings. Additionally, we add photographs, biographies and locations to complete the story. No living person can be added. Where no gravestone can be found the burial details are taken from the original parish records dating back to 1...

Whilst researching a local family living in Ashton Hayes, as part of my son’s partner’s family tree, I learned that historically Ashton Hayes had boasted two public houses back in the 1800s and two family members I was studying had run one of them. I had been studying a child called Richard, who had been baptised by his parents Edwin and Sarah in Weaverham in 1834. Strangely, Richard wasn’t listed with his parents in the first census in 1841, although he would have been only seven.  I eventually found him living on a farm in Ashton with a couple called Jim and Emma. Why, I wondered? Had his parents died?  But no, Richard’s parents were still living in Ashton with three very small children in 1841.  Some deeper delving into records showed that Emma was Edwin’s sister, so in fact Richard was living with his aunt and uncle, presumably to lend a hand around the farm.  Maybe his mother was struggling to feed and look after three pre-school age children? By 1851 Richar...

MEMORIES OF KELSALL AS A 10 YEAR OLD (1964ish) THE ADVENTURES OF HERBERT, TOM, DICK & HARRY   Names anonymised (to avoid prosecution) –   ‘Elf & Safety are advised NOT to review these Blogs! Blog #1 – Playing in Harry’s Barn.  Harry lived in a small holding, where they also had some cows and chickens. There were various barns, the biggest of which was often our playground. The barn had cross beams in the rafters, but this attic space had no floor. We would scramble up the walls to get on the beams and then if you were feeling brave, you would walk along the beams (probably a fifteen-foot drop to the floor); the less brave would still crawl along the beams. ‘Elf and Safety eat your heart out! Harry’s mum would often provide refreshments.   Blog #2 – Visiting Tom.  Tom lived out in the sticks, so to visit him was a bit of a trek; probably a 3-mile round trip. It was worth it though as his house was surrounded by farmers’ fields where y...

I found my four times Great Grandfather in a gaol in Richmond, Yorkshire in the 1851 census! I was horrified! What was his crime? Were we descended from the criminal class?  Our family was based in Salford, Lancashire and we had never heard stories about criminality. Then I noticed that his family were there too. That was strange! What was going on here? Peter, wife Mary, children Elizabeth, Ellen, Robert, John and Christopher, all there plus “Amos, prisoner”.  Did I have the right family? Yes, that was definitely them.   Took a deep breath and zoomed into the image on Ancestry.com for a closer look at that pencil-written entry, and what followed was a realisation, a moment of clarity – he was the Gaoler, his wife was the Matron, his children just children. Phew! Normal service was resumed, we were innocent!  We had a family visit to Richmond in 2007 and visited the gaol, a tiny place. We took photographs of the building and the front door. We felt connected to them,...