Woodford Hall

The grounds in which the NMC stand today once formed part of a small estate. If you have attended the NMC for sometime you will remember, prior to the extension work, coming in through red gates and turning right. Woodford Hall and Woodford Lodge (the gatehouse building for Woodford Hall) stood to the left, on what used to be the old school car park. More recently the land from Woodford Lodge Farm and neighbouring Hope Farm was taken up to build the two schools (Hebden Green and Woodford Lodge) and today the NMC is believed to stand on land from Hope Farm, which extended to the driveway of Woodford Lodge - an avenue of trees showed the driveway up to the Woodford Lodge farmhouse.

Woodford Hall by Dr Duncan Pepper.

In writing this blog post, I am grateful to Tony Bostock who has researched the Winsford area extensively and has allowed his work to be used here. Tony's complete work can be viewed  below.
Also to Mike Walker who provided information about the area in recent years (for those who have attended the centre for some time, Mike is Sue Walker's husband and Mike and Sue live close the centre); to Elizabeth Robinson from  Robinsons Transport at Woodford Hall and to Matthew Lanham and Dan Cundall from the centre for sharing their knowledge too.

Woodford Hall took its name from the family who resided on the site in the mid 13th century. The  Woodford location from which the family took its name, is situated further south and was part of the manor of Darnhall which, along with the manor of Over, was owned by the Norman Earls of Chester.

The maps below show the location of the NMC today and show how it was built between Woodford Hall and Woodford Lodge.

1836 tithe map showing site boundary and buildings.


1898 tithe map showing site boundary and buildings.

1066

Prior to the Norman conquest of 1066 the area called Over had consisted of four small unnamed Saxon manors, two of which were thought to be Over, ‘the settlement on the ridge’ and Darnhall. During the 13th and 14th centuries the manors contained a number of other dispersed settlements - Merton, Swanlow, Mers, Woodford, Hepden, Blakeden and Bradford. Also within the parish bounds lay the manors of Wettenhall and Budworth which are specifically mentioned in the survey, as is Connersley, then part of the manor of Weaverham.

The actual Domesday entry for Over gives little away. The entry refers to the four unnamed Saxon manors. However prior to the conquest the four unnamed manors are known to have been held from the Earl of Mercia by four anonymous freemen. There was enough arable land for five plough teams (about 600 statute acres) though only enough land for one plough was being worked and this by an individual described as a 'radman' (a person who performed services on horse back for his lord.) It seems that between 1066 and 1086 the Saxon population of the four manors had moved away for some reason leaving one individual, who presumably had a family and servants, to make what he could of the available land.

The Domesday entry for Over. Translated and expanded it reads 'The same earl holds OVRE. Four freemen held it as 4 manors. There 1 hide pays tax. Land is 5 carucates. There 1 radman with 1 plough. Woodland half a league long and as wide. Value was 6 shillings, now 5 shillings.

Much of Over was wooded and it is believed there was a wood half a league (about 1200 yards) long and the same wide. (In reality the woodland would not have been rectangular and the measurements would have been a general approximation.) The lack of resources and population is reflected in the value of the manor. Originally, (that is prior to the conquest), the four small manors had been worth six shillings a year but by 1086 the value of the estate was worth five shillings.

The Earls of Chester

 Woodford was a regular source of income for the Earls. Records show the lease of the lands generated an annual income of five shillings and a ‘reasonable’ pig. The money was paid annually in equal instalments at Christmas and on 24 June. The pig was given on 11 November. However, there are also references in contemporary documents known as ‘the Pipe Rolls’ to the Earl of Chester renting, for his own use, two salt houses in Middlewich which were owned by Robert de Woodford suggesting that the family were a not an insignificant one.

Hugh d‘Avranches (1st Earl of Chester)

During the Norman period the lord of the manor of Over was the Earl of Chester, Hugh d‘Avranches, commonly known as Hugh Lupus (the Wolf) or Hugh the Fat. He was also a cousin to William the Conqueror and was granted the whole of  Cheshire together with a substantial portion of North Wales as an important frontier fiefdom.

Earl Ranulph III

Lands at Woodford feature in two of Earl Ranulph III’s (1181- 1232) charters.

The location of 13th century Woodford. The area bounded by the Ash Brook and the ditch was once Woodford and became the parklands of Darnhall. The Woodford family were moved further north near Hepden, where they established their house known as Woodford Hall.

Charter one

 This charter records the grant of lands called Woodford to Robert de Woodford, which his father Thurstan had held. The bounds are given as ‘in length from Assebroke as far as the ditch of Bruere and in width from the ford of Vernun as far as the cultivated lands of Smaldene'.

Generally medieval charter boundaries work by giving the length from south to north followed by the width from west to east. If this is so then the croft has the Ash Brook to the south, a ditch or stream to the north, a water course with a crossing point to the west and arable land to the east. This can only refer to what was in recent times known as Darnhall Park - an area surrounded on two sides by the Ash Brook, a stream to the north which flowed through a series of medieval fish ponds.

The ford from which the locality takes its name is now represented by the bridge at Darnhall. The fields of ‘Smaldene’ were probably part of the larger arable area of the manor in the vicinity of Knobbs Farm, an area once known as ‘Holdene’, or else it refers to the stream that descends into the Ash Brook from behind the Raven Inn.

The 'ford of Vernun' and the original Darnhall, within the woodland from which the Woodford family took its name. The road leads to Wettenhall.

Charter two

The second charter issued by the Earl, granted lands to Robert of Woodford in compensation for the loss of his lands which the Earl had decided to use to create a vivarium (a deer park) or hunting preserve and a hunting lodge, with the meadow being flooded to become a mill pool. The bounds of the new grant of land are ‘from Wyldemareford as far as Heppedene in length and from Heppedene as far as the wytesyche in width and from wytesyche as far as the road of Wyldemareford’. (In the region of Hepden Green, where the present Woodford Hall farm stands.)

With reasonable certainty this parcel of land can today be located around the present Woodford Hall and the area generally known as Hepden. The word Hepden means ‘the valley of the rose hips’. 'Hep' or 'Hip' - for a Wild Rosehip and 'Denu' - Old English for a wooded valley. Hence Hepden 'a valley where Rose hips grow'.

The ‘Wylemareford’ is the crossing point on the Ash Brook, now with a bridge, at Woodford along the lane to Pool Head Farm. The fields on the other side anciently had names alluding to horses. From here the boundary followed the brook north to ‘the valley of rose hips’, then went across to reach a small stream, ‘whytesiche’ which was then followed south to the lane leading to the ford.


Map showing Heppende - the valley of the rose hips.

In considering the two charters it seems that in the area now called Darnhall, Earl Ranulf III created a deer park for himself and those who would follow him as Earls of Chester, with the previous occupants of the land (the Woodford family who had settled there for at least three generations) relocated a little further north, in the region of the present day Woodford Hall.

The Earl then moved his local residence from the manor house, at its traditional place near to the parish church, the original ‘Darnhall’ to this more remote place where he had his hunting lodge. Thus the focus of the manor shifted from the area of the church to the 'new' Darnhall - a place of high status, from where the manor of Darnhall and Over would have been administered for him by his officials. At the new Woodford the lord had his house with servants including hunters, a parker, and gardener - he also had a private chapel here. It is said that this was a favourite place of residence for the Earls of Chester and that the founder, Earl Ranulph, stayed on many occasions. 

As a result of the establishment of the hunting lodge in what had been Woodford, the focus of the manor shifted from the area around the church and the manor house to this new location which from then on became known as Darnhall. The remainder of the manor, where the majority of the peasants would have lived comprised of the village close by the church, known as Chircheton, with the hamlets of Swanlow and Mers and beyond the small hamlets on the ridge - Blakeden, Little Over, Michel Over, Merton, and Helewes. All became known by the collective Domesday name of Over and when Earl Ranulph confirmed his father's grant of the advowson (the right to recommend a member of the Anglican clergy for a vacant benefice, or to make such an appointment) of St Chad‘s church to the nuns of Chester, it was referred to as ecclesiam de Huure - the church of Over.

John le Scot

John le Scot, the last of the Norman Earls of Chester, died at his hunting lodge at Darnhall in 1237 without any children - it is alleged he was poisoned by his wife. It was as a result of this death that the earldom became annexed to the Crown by King Henry III and became vested in his eldest son, Lord Edward, Prince of Wales and also therefore Lord of Darnhall and Over.

The earldom of Chester has ever since been a title held by the eldest son of the Sovereign. In September 1241, King Henry was in residence and his son visited the manor in the summer of 1256 and on a number of other occasions when in Cheshire. In the mid 1260s he gave the dual manors to the Cistercian monastic order for them to establish a monastery in the heart of Cheshire. Initially they took over the hunting lodge for their abbey but some year later they transferred to ‘Conersley’ (Whitegate) where they built Vale Royal. It is about the time of the change of lordship from the Crown to the monks that the Woodford family seems to die out or else the family were dispossessed for some reason by the abbot and moved away from the area.

William Woodford: 1303

 In 1303 William Woodford was a tenant of the abbot of Vale Royal - he was fined for allowing his animals to escape into Delamere Forest.    

Philip Egerton: 1329

 On the Feast of St Martin, 11 November 1329, Philip Egerton did homage to the abbot of Vale Royal in the court house at Over to acknowledge that he held his lands from the abbot for the annual service of rendering five shillings and a hog.

William Egerton: mid 14th century

During the mid 14th century Philip’s descendant, William Egerton of Bulkeley, was recorded as having held twenty acres of arable land and an acre of meadow from the abbot of Vale Royal for five shillings a year and that the estate was worth twenty shillings.

John Warde: 1429

 William was succeeded by John Warde who did homage to the abbot in 1438 - 1439 for the estate.

Thomas Holcroft: mid 1500's

 With the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536 - 1541) and the seizure of Vale Royal by crown officials, Woodford became the property of Thomas Holcroft who resided at Vale Royal.

John Starkey: late 1500's

 Thomas Holcroft farmed Knights Grange and Woodford out to John Starkey of Oulton and in 1591 Randle Stanley, was John Starkey's tenant. From August 1609 Hugh leased Knights Grange and lands in Woodford to Thomas Wright and Randall Vernon at a peppercorn rent. When Thomas' son Hugh married Dorothy Brooke Knights Grange and Woodford were settled on the couple for their lives according to a settlement dated January 1596. It remained with the Starkey family for a few generations until Hugh Starkey died leaving two daughters, Dorothy aged eight years and Margaret six years. According to his inquisition post mortem  in 1611, it seems that the Starkey family sub let Woodford - Hugh is known to have resided at Darley in Oulton and at Knights Grange.

The Blackamore family: early 1600's

 Following the Starkey family, likely early tenants are the Blackamore family. At some time during the Tudor period a Roger Blackamore resided at Woodford. His grandson Raffe and great grandson George were during their life times mayors of the Borough of Over. Raffe occurs as an archer in a muster of 1544 and may well have served in Henry VIII’s or Edward IV’s campaigns against the Scots. George Blackamore is recorded as tenant to Edmund Pershall the Lord of the Manor of Over and paid 13s 8d a year rent for his estate at Woodford and an extra shilling for a parcel of land on Blakeden Moss. 

Thomas Maisterson: mid 1600's

 The property was sold by the descendants or trustees of the Starkey family to Thomas Maisterson of Nantwich. Thomas Maisterson resided during the time of the Civil Wars and suffered for his support of the King. His home was looted by Parliamentarian soldiers billeted in the town, of whom some actually lodged at the hall.

In items of plate, presumably silver, he lost £40 worth to soldiers serving under a Captain Whalley along with various weapons, equipment, saddles, horses, cheese, oats, peas, and a carpet: in all he claimed losses amounting to just over £71.5. In providing accommodation and food to soldiers and their horses he claimed Parliament had cost him a total of nearly £31. On one occasion a lieutenant and a man serving with a Captain Buckley spent two weeks living at the hall during which time they were fed along with their three horses.

Another time five men and five horses stayed for ten nights. Thomas also stated that in addition to £20 paid to the cause at Nantwich he paid  a further £50 which should have been returned but never was and then he paid a total of £120 to county officials. Despite all this, and in addition he was formerly accused of providing the King’s army with a man and a horse and for being in Chester during the siege of the city and was declared a ‘delinquent’ and had his estates sequestrated.

In defence evidence to the Parliamentarian authorities Thomas stated that he had lost his home in Nantwich it having been commandeered by the State for a gunpowder store and neighbouring houses pulled down to create defences for the town; he had also lost 140 of his trees and had land near his salt works spoiled. Despite his mitigation he was fined 1/6th of the worth of his estate which amounted to £630.

His wife Mary travelled to London in July 1646 to make an appeal to reduce the fine to a 1/10th on the basis that Thomas was infirm and they had eight children to support and that he had given at least £20 to the Parliamentarian cause. She said he had remained at home until April 1645 and then only went to the city to see a doctor with whom he remained all the time. She also produced a certificate signed by the minister at Little Budworth that her husband had taken the National Covenant in defence of the Presbyterian religion (essentially an oath of allegiance to Parliament) before the congregation in the church on 22 March 1646. The appeal was dismissed.   

Sir John Booth: 1664

According to Randle Holmes’ Survey of Cheshire, 1671, Sir John Booth (son of Sir George Booth of Dunham Massey) purchased the Woodford estate from Maisterson, in fact by 1664 the house and lands were owned by him and he paid hearth tax on five fireplaces in the house.

Sir John was born in 1602 and as Colonel John Booth he served with distinction on the Parliamentarian side. He was knighted at the time of the restoration of King Charles II and in 1661 was granted the offices of ‘prothonotary and clerk of the crown of Cheshire and Flintshire’ for life.

John died in 1678, having married firstly Dorothy, daughter of Sir Anthony St John, brother of the Earl of Bolingbroke (by whom he had children George, Sir John Booth of Chester, Thomas and others) and secondly in 1659 to Anne the widow of Thomas Legh of Adlington. Whilst occupying the hall Sir John was charged by the court of the Borough of Over in 1664 with neglecting to have work done to repair Chester Lane along a stretch for which he was responsible.

An image of Sir John Booth can be found in the National Trust Collections.

George Booth and Sir George Prescot: 1700's

 George Booth of Woodford died in 1719 aged 84 years. During his lifetime he was ‘prothonotary’ of Chester, translated the works of the ancient Greek historian Diodores Siculus and was the author of a treatise on ‘the nature and practice of real actions’. His brother Thomas was executed for murder in 1687 as a result of the political differences between King James and John’s cousin Lord Delamere. 

The second volume of the Magna Britannia states 'The parish of Over comprises the townships of Oulton Lowe Swanlow and and part of the township of Over the manor of Over which had been of the possessions the abbot and convent of Vale Royal was granted by King VIII in the year 1546 to Sir Thomas Holcroft it is now the property of Cholmondeley Esq of Vale Royal MP whose ancestor of the same name it of the Pershall or Peshall family about the middle of the 17th century Hall and demesne in the township of Over which had been before in Starkeys m was purchased of the Maistersons of Nantwich by Sir John Booth son of Sir George Booth the first baronet of Dunham Massey his son Booth Esq the translator of Diodorus Siculus left Woodford Hall to his Catherine who married James Howard grandson of the Earl of Berkshire the Woodford Hall '.

By his will dated January 1706 and proved in October 1719 he charged his estate at Woodford and property in Chester with £500 to be paid to his daughters and their children. George left three daughters, Elizabeth Tyndale of Bathford, Somerset, Elizabeth wife of Thomas Tyndall and Catherine, wife of James Howard of Boughton, Chester, a relation of the Earls of Berkshire.  

Following George Booth’s death the Woodford estate was then sold to Sir George Prescot, baronet, under whom Philip Acton was tenant here in the 1790s.

19th century:

Thomas Prescott was the next owner with Thomas Ravenscroft as tenant in the first decade of the 19th century. Thomas Prescot sold to a Mr Broadhurst, whose relation, Richard Dutton of Waverton, managed the estate and is recorded as the proprietor during the mid 19th century. It was then again sold to James Cookson of Utkinton. 



Woodford Hall estate circa 1840. 


Richard Dutton: 1845

The tithe map of about 1845 shows the Woodford Farm as containing about 266 acres, 115 of which lay in Whitegate parish. At the time the owner, or proprietor is given as Richard Dutton and the occupant farmer as Joseph Slater, born about 1806, who had eight servants living with him. In 1851 he employed nine labourers, many of whom lived on the premises along with Elizabeth Adderley, the housekeeper. Ten years later she was still there and that year Joseph was mayor of the Borough of Over. Then Slater employed six men and three boys as well as his housekeeper and a housemaid who all lived in along with Slater’s niece and four visitors on the night of the census, Sunday 7 April 1861. Slater was still there in 1881, now said to be 73 years old and living with a lady called Annie who was styled as his wife. He was again appointed mayor of the borough in 1881 and 1882. Joseph passed away in July 1889 and was buried at St Chad’s aged 83 years.

Volume two, part two of the Magna Britannia states 'Woodford Hall and demesne in the township of Over which had been before in the Starkey's and was purchased of the Maistersons of Nantwich by Sir John Booth youngest son of Sir George Booth the first baronet of Dunham Massey. His son George Booth Esq the translator of Diodorus Siculus left Woodford Hall to his daughter Catherine who married James Howard grandson of the Earl of Berkshire. The Woodford Hall estate is now the property of Mr Richard Dutton of Waverton by purchase from the Prescots who bought it of one of Mr Howard's co heiresses. Woodford Hall has been taken down and a farm house built on the site.'

George Slater: 1891

By 1891, 75 years old, retired land agent, George Slater lived at the farm with his nephew Cyrus Dunkirk Slater, the farm bailiff, and niece Laura Reynolds along with seven servants. The image below shows an advert that was placed in the Wellington Journal. asking for a working housekeeper who must be able to cook and make cheese if required.



Wellington Journal 18 October 1902.

Cyrus Dunkirk Slater: 1911

In 1911 George was succeeded as householder by Cyrus, then 48 years old, who lived here with his wife, Annie, and two female servants. The 1911 census records him as  farmer born in Sandbach, Cyrus and Annie both appear to have died in 1935.

Edward Oswell: mid 1930's

The 1939 register shows that Edward F Oswell, a dairy farmer lived at Woodford Hall at this time with his wife Ethel and three sons described as a cowman, a horseman and a cheesemaker. The map below shows the location of the Oswell household. U.D. refers to Winsford Urban District. It was created in 1894 and abolished in 1974 when it was absorbed into the Vale Royal district. In the same area, records can also be found for Woodford Hall Cottages - the cottages appear to have been lived in by families who worked on the farm. 



Map showing the location of the Oswell household.

The newspaper archive also has articles which record Edward showing cows at various shows around the UK during the 1940's and 1950's, including the Royal Show, an annual agricultural show held by the Royal Agricultural Society of England every year from 1839 to 2009.



Cheshire Observer 12 June 1948.

1974 

In 1974 Mike and Sue Walker moved into Woodford Hall Cottages. Woodford Lodge High School had been built in the late 1960's and when Mike and Sue moved in, Hebden Green school was just being completed. Mike remembers that the original building was an external classroom of Woodford Lodge High School, possibly a technology classroom.


Image showing the location of the NMC.

My understanding of Woodford he says was literally the ford by the woods. Down the side of Hebden Green was a small stream which passed under Woodford Lane, went along the side of our old garden, passed under Blakedene Road, then went down the fields to Fenney Wood and joined Chester Lane Brook.  I was told but never found any evidence that there used to be a hamlet down in that direction. When we first moved into Woodford Hall Cottages, during the winters you could clearly see the shadows of the old strip method of farming in the fields going down Blakedene Lane.

The front buildings at Hebden Green school were the original Hope farmhouse and across the driveway there was a small brick built barn, which had possibly been a dairy. The Hebden school caretaker lived in the old farm house.

Stanley Cook farmed Hope Farm and Clifford Booth farmed Woodford Lodge Farm. In 1974 Teddy Oswell had Woodford Hall Farm - he rented it from Silcock's an agricultural company known mainly for feeds. When Teddy Oswell retired the other cottages were sold off, one to the Weedall family who had a grocer shop on Delamere Street, one to David Salt a blacksmith from Eaton and another to Noel Woodward. Noel was also offered the field but declined and David salt bought it.

In 1974 our house was one of the replacements built in the 1960's, the remains of the old cottages were still standing and the foundations are still there. We bought the first cottage to be released and the other three had farm workers living in them. The Woodward's next door lived in theirs from new, next to them was Gus Stubbs and at the far end was the Hulse family. When Gus left and went to work on the Darnhall estate the Hulses moved into his house, at one time they also lived in our house with nine children.

1984

Since 1984 Woodford Hall has been occupied by Robinsons Transport.  Elizabeth Robinson from the company believes the land originally belonged to the Verdin Estate with the overspill taken by a family called Yearsley who farmed there and says the house and some of the building can be seen as you go into Hebden School entrance​.  

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