Historical notes for a letter to the King

Steven Dowd

His Majesty the King, etc, Duke of Lancaster “Your Majesty,” In all humility and loyalty, certain of your subjects in the district of Burtonwood have interested themselves in completing historical records of their village and environs and contact is being made in this manner with all whose family and ancestral relationships are in any way connected with the story of Burtonwood. It may interest your Majesty to peruse the following historical data which shows the relationship between the House of Lancaster and those who lived literally at the beginning of…

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Burtonwood, a history

Steven Dowd

Transcribed with the help of Andrew Fackey from documents in Chester Archives The information has been taken from Royal Lancaster Forests. Leghs of Lyme by Lady Newton. Annals of Warrington by Beaumont. Copies of charters from Warrington Museum. Information of the Parish from books kept by the Vicars, now in Preston Records Office. Royal Forests of Lancashire.1102-1116. Whilst the honour was in the King’s hands Burtonwood, a dependent manor of Warrington was taken into the Forest even as late as the mid 14th century. The Dukes of Lancaster still claimed…

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BURTONWOOD: TIMBER to be SOLD by TICKET.

Steven Dowd

On Thursday the 8th day of February, 1827, at three o’clock in the afternoon, at the house of Mr. Isaac Turner, the sign of the Ship, at Sankey Bridges, near Warrington, in the following lots, subject to such conditions as may then and there be produced: Lot 1.102 Oak Trees and 16 Cyphers from No. 1 to 102 inclusive.16 Ash Trees from No. 1 to 16 ditto2 Alder Trees No. 1 and 2. This Timber is growing upon a Farm in Burtonwood, known by the name of Causeway Bridges, in…

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Toll Road Improvements

Steven Dowd
Toll Road Improvements, Newton le Willows 1787

Notice is hereby Given, this Tuesday 30 October 1787, That application is intended to be made to Parliament and a Petition presented at the next Session, for enlarging the Term and amending the Powers of an Act of Parliament, made and passed in the first Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, intitled, “An Act for repairing and widening the Roads from a certain Place near Bolton in the Moors to Leigh, and thence to the Guide Post near Golborne Dale, and to the South End of Newton Bridge,…

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1832: Murder at Burtonwood

Steven Dowd
Murder at Burtonwood

LANCASTER SPRING ASSIZES. CROWN COURT, Friday, 13 March 1832. William Heaton, 27, was charged with the wilful murder of John Ratcliffe, at Burtonwood, on the night the 28th of October last. Dr Brown very minutely detailed the facts of the case, and called the following witnesses: James Andrews: I live at Burtonwood. On the morning of the of October last, as was going to my work, between five and six o’clock, with another man, we saw person lying dead. John Ratcliffe. had no hat on. There was a great quantity…

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Six Airmen killed and Eighteen Injured

Steven Dowd
Six Airmen killed and Eighteen Injured

Sunday 6th June 1952. A board of investigation will sit at the American airbase at Burtonwood, near Warrington, to-morrow to determine the cause of the crash on Saturday night between a Neptune naval patrol bomber and a Dakota aircraft in which six airmen were killed and eighteen injured. A seventh airman is missing, believed killed, and last night the wreckage of the burned-out planes was still being searched for his body. The eighteen injured are in the base hospital suffering from burns and shock and one of them is stated…

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The Last American

Steven Dowd

Once the biggest military base in Europe, Burtonwood is now a shadow of its former self. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan C. Lobdell has secured a place in the 50-year-old history of Burtonwood. This spans from the action-packed war years to today, a period marked by the absence of a clear enemy and American budget cuts that are accelerating its decline. Once, the place resonated with the landings and take-offs of great Flying Fortresses. Men worked in the hangars around the clock, seven days a week, fitting communications and armaments to the…

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Burtonwood: Historical Snippets by Year

Steven Dowd

I’ve been trying to put together a year by year snippet history of Burtonwood historical notes, it’s a work in progress, it has errors, and spelling mistakes, these will most likely get edits, names and place names will be edited and checked , I am sure it will have more year snippets added to it and many updates as more documents are read and transcribed by the people helping me 1028 King Canute in his excursion against the Scots boldly made the Norwood road and took measures of common ford…

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Burtonwood Air Crash U.S. Airmen Killed

Steven Dowd
Burtonwood Air Crash U.S. Airmen Killed

Friday 11 January 1952 Seven U.S. airmen were killed, and one seriously injured when two planes collided at the U.S. air base, Burtonwood on Saturday evening. The planes crashed on the runway, with the result that both planes were set on-fire. One plane, a Neptune. was just returning to the base after a trip to Iceland, and the other machine a Dakota was just leaving for a flight to Manston, Kent. After the crash there was a series of explosions, which was believed to have been ammunition aboard the Neptune.…

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Winwick : It’s History and Antiquities

Steven Dowd

By WILLIAM BEAMONT. Second Edition, 1878 Time, that great clock which requires no winding up, and possesses what so many dreamers have sought for and sought in vain—the secret of perpetual motion—has also, like other clocks, from time to time, but at longer intervals, its striking times which summon attention and invite us to pause and look back, promising in return something which from the past shall teach the present how to improve the future, and instruct while it amuses us. CONTENTS. Part 1. Etymology of Winwick. Part 2. Oswald,…

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Burtonwood Dahlia Queen Crowning Ceremony

Steven Dowd
Burtonwood Dahlia Queen Crowning Ceremony 1952

Friday 08 August 1952 Threatening clouds affected the crowds attending the annual Burtonwood Dahlia Queen celebration on the Chapel Lane field on Monday afternoon. Up to 2 p.m. the arrivals were very thin, but afterwards when the clouds dispersed, the crowds began to arrive though not in sufficient numbers to create a record. As usual all the fun of the fair was available, and everything went according to plan. The procession through the village was just as colourful as ever, with gay tableaux, mounted characters and decorated horses. The streets…

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Earlestown’s Brunswick Road Mission

Steven Dowd

From Mission to Church The City Mission Movement: it was discovered that the poor would listen in great number’ provided they were not asked to enter a church” (Owen Chadwick, The Victoria Church, Part Il, P .286). Our Church has its origins in the City Mission Movement of the last Century. The Town Mission in Earlestown began in 1875 as an outreach from the Manchester City Mission. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, great cities, like Manchester, mushroomed with vast working populations overnight. The whole social structure of Britain was changed…

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The Irish Club, Earlestown, ’50 Years’ Golden Jubilee 1888-1939.

Steven Dowd

We go back fifty years. From the four Provinces beyond the sea have come exiles of Erin, settling in and around the district of Newton-in-Makerfield. They are not here of their own desire. They have been forced to leave their native land to earn a livelihood. Strangers in a strange land, they are God’s creatures, with the right to live. They are the poorest of the poor in this world’s goods, but in their poverty they are richly endowed with the spirit of faith, self-sacrifice, and affection, one towards another.…

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Newton-le-Willows 1821-1851

Steven Dowd

The impact of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on: Newton-le-Willows 1821-1851 Newton le Willows is situated on the lowlands of south Lancashire, on the route to the north by way of Warrington, Wigan and Preston. From Saxon times until 1830 the village of Newton was in the east of the township, situated on an inlier of bunter sandstone overlooking a crossing place on the River Deane; this sandstone area provided a dry site and a water supply from shallow wells. The remainder of the township is a broad spread of…

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Haydock: A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4.

Steven Dowd

In history Haydock has been named as Hedoc, 1169; Heddoch, 1170; Haidoc, 1212. and then recently called Haydock This township has an area of 2,409 acres. (fn. 1) From its situation between Newton and Ashton it seems to have been cut off from the former township. Clipsley Brook separates it from Garswood in Ashton, and Sankey Brook forms the south-west boundary. The population in 1901 numbered 8,575. Haydock is varied in its natural features, sometimes undulating, sometimes flat. On the west the surroundings are unpicturesque but typical of a colliery country, scattered over…

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