Recently in 1500-1799 Category
A HISTORIC Cheshire water mill has been closed due to funding cuts in United Utilities.
Bunbury Water Mill in Mill Lane ended its working life in 1960 but since then it has operated as a museum with fully working machinery.
Thousands of schoolchildren visited the site each year to see the mill producing wholemeal flour and oatmeal made from locally grown milling grain.
But the mill, which usually opens between March and October, will not reopen this year as United Utilities have decided to stop funding it. They hope to find another organisation to take it over.
The same site has been used for the corn milling for the past four centuries but the current mill was rebuilt after the previous one burnt down in 1844.
Thomas Wilson acted as Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man in the seventeenth century, which was reputedly the poorest bishopric in Europe at the time. Despite this circumstance, he went on to found a free school in his home village of Burton on the Wirral.
Wilson was born in Burton in 1663 and his family had lived in the area for many generations. He attended the King's School in Chester and went to Dublin to study medicine at Trinity College. On returning from Ireland in 1687, he acted as curate to his uncle Richard Sherlock at Newchurch Kenyon, near Warrington.
One of Congleton's most famous sons was John Whitehurst, who gained fame for his skills as a clockmaker, engineer, scientist and geologist.
He was born in the town in April 1713 and was the son of a clockmaker. Because of the proximity of the Peak District, John took advantage of the opportunity to explore the countryside and gained a lifelong interest in geology.
NEW lock gates are being installed on the Llangollen Canal near Nantwich.
It is hoped it will improve the Swanley Locks, where more than 10,000 boats pass through annually, many on their way to visit the newly crowned World Heritage Site of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales.
AN EXHIBITION on the former collieries at Neston returns to the town this week, telling the story of the local coal mines which opened 250 years ago.
The exhibition received much acclaim when it opened for six weeks earlier this year, and has since been used by several local schools.
HOTELS have played a vital part in attracting people to the Chester area for hundreds of years, writes Arianna Vaccaro.
With the opening of the canal in 1779 and coaches running from London, more people started to visit Chester.
The Royal Hotel, opening in 1785, was the city's first hotel, but was replaced in 1866 by a bigger building which became The Grosvenor Hotel.
ROYAL Navy officer Bob Ratcliffe, who regular readers will know from previous stories on this page is serving aboard the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, is currently researching the Ratcliffe family history and would welcome readers' help.
The family history centres around the names White and Clarke as well as the Ratcliffe connection.
MORE than 100 people at Nantwich Museum celebrated the unveiling of an oil painting from 1781 which is believed to be the only known illustration of Nantwich Races.
Entitled Mr Walsh's Perdita, with jockey up, on Nantwich Racecourse, it is by Benjamin Killingbeck, who specialised in painting horses and dogs.
The unveiling formed part of a cheese and wine evening organised as a fundraising event to help the Pillory Street museum pay for the painting.
This pub, situated across the A494 from Loggerheads Country Park, was originally called the Three Loggerheads Inn.
The origin of the unusual name is believed to be a dispute between a local vicar and landowner in the mid-eighteenth century. The landlord of the inn invited the two parties to the inn in an attempt to broker an agreement. This led to the common usage of to be 'at Loggerheads' to mean a disagreement.
EVER thought how Ellesmere Port evolved?
As a comparatively new town, we have - unlike much older towns - an exact date to go on: July 1, 1795. And it's all to do with transport writes Laurie Stocks-Moore.
On July 1, 1795, the Ellesmere Canal, now the Shropshire Union, opened for business between Chester and the Mersey.
It had been cut through a valley running from near the Dee at Chester to the marshes of the Gowy on the Mersey shores. It was the canal company that built it which gave the town its name.
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