Cheshire

by Charles E. Kelsey

The Courts could not be held in the plague-stricken city; the Exchequer Court was removed to Tarvin, and the Assizes were held at Nantwich. The annual fairs were abandoned to prevent the spread of the disease. Numbers of victims were carried out from the city and hastily buried in the 'Barrow Field'. Other Cheshire towns suffered severely. On the hills, near Macclesfield, are many gravestones of the victims of the plague; two gravestones near the Bowstones on Disley Moor tell the same tale.

Some of the English nobles had residences in Chester. The city gates were confided to noble families for safe keeping. The East Gate was guarded by the ancestors of Lord Crewe. The 'Bear and Billet' Inn in Bridge Street belonged to the Earls of Shrewsbury, who were Sergeants of the Bridge Gate. The Earls of Derby had charge of the Watergate. The North Gate, however, the most important entrance to the city, was entrusted to the mayor and the citizens.

A narrow court in Watergate Street leads to the Stanley Palace of the Earls of Derby; the gardens extended down to the river-side. The architecture is very similar to that of the old timber halls described in the last chapter, but the row of round-headed panels tells us that people were beginning to imitate in their timber decorations the round-headed arches of the Italian style.

As early as the reign of Henry the Seventh, English architects were beginning to study the remains of ancient buildings in Rome, and Italian architects were brought over to England. Henry the Eighth invited a builder named John of Padua, who designed the north side of Lyme Hall. The Italians despised the Pointed styles of English architecture, calling it contemptuously 'Gothic', from the name of the barbarian Goths, who overran the Roman Empire in the third and fourth centuries.

Many of the Cheshire gentry left their homes in the towns to live in new houses in the country. The old hall of the Sandbach family is now the principal inn of the town of Sandbach; the ancient home of the Ardernes in Great Underbank, Stockport, is now a bank; and the house built at Nantwich by 'Richarde and Marjery Churche' has been turned into a ladies' school. The Mainwarings lived in a fine house in Watergate Street, Chester, until a number of little shops were allowed to block up the front of their home. The Wilbrahams moved from Nantwich to the spacious Elizabethan hall at Dorfold.

When the monasteries were destroyed, a large number of people were thrown out of work, especially in the country districts. The distress was so great in Queen Elizabeth's reign that Parliament passed a 'poor law', by which the inhabitants of every parish were compelled to pay taxes for the support of their own poor.

This did not, however, prevent rich and charitable men from devoting a portion of their wealth to the building of hospitals and almshouses, where the aged poor could live in comfort. In Commonhall Street, Chester, are the old almshouses founded by Sir Thomas Smith in 1532, and there are almshouses at Acton, Little Budworth, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Tarporley, Sandbach, and Stockport, though some of these were built in later reigns. Nantwich was particularly favoured by benefactors, and possesses four separate sets of almshouses.

Sometimes sums of money were left to be spent on providing bread for those who were unable to work. In the churches at Little Peover, Mottram, and Woodchurch, you will see some wooden shelves fixed on the wall near the porch. On these were placed the loaves which were distributed after the Sunday services. At Bebington and Woodchurch sums of money were given by a family of the name of Goodacre for the purchase of bullocks to draw the ploughs of the poor peasants of Wirral.

Certain days of the year were set apart as public holidays. Every parish had its 'wakes' or festival of the dedication of the parish church. These were held on the feast-day of the saint after whom the church was named. Another festival was that of the 'rush-bearing'. In a former chapter you have read of the rushes that were spread on the floors of churches. They were gathered from the fringe of a stream or mere, and tied into bundles and placed on the rush-cart, which was gaily decked with ribbons and flowers. A procession was then formed of the villagers, who accompanied the cart to the church, where a special service was held. There are still rush-bearing services at Farndon, Aldford, and Forest Chapel, but in many villages the merry-making too often ended in disorder and drunkenness, and the custom has been allowed to die out.

An Elizabethan writer tells us that the people of Nantwich visited the brine pits on Ascension Day and decked them with flowers and garlands. Then they offered hymns and prayers of thanksgiving for the blessing of the brine, on which the prosperity of their town depended.