Knutsford Historical Society

Doug stepped in for the original speaker, Brian Hallworth who was unable to attend.

Members were very grateful to Doug, whose talk was entitled ‘The Impact of Landed Gentry Estates on our County’.

Doug is a retired farmer who has devoted his time to researching the history of our county and the families who dominated it.

The story goes back to 1066, a time when Cheshire was forested but more importantly it had a good port in Chester, a direct route to Ireland.

The natives however were troublesome, so as was his practice William gave large tracts of land to his knights.

Their names still resonate today, such as Grosvenor, Legh, Egerton, Davenport, Crew, and Cholmondeley.

These families were among those holding the largest tracts of land, but there were many more that benefited from William’s largesse.

Through marrying strategically they retained their estates intact for several hundred years.

Doug worked through many of these dynasties, the towns and villages they established and the varying styles in the farmhouses and cottages they built, still being identified by their design and emblems today.

His many illustrative slides depicted a comfortable lifestyle which couldn’t have reflected real life in past centuries.

The next meeting will be the last of the season on April 17.

Heather Ghent will be guest speaker, with her subject ‘Alarms and Excursions of being a Land Girl’ at 8pm, but prior to that the annual meeting will be held at 7.30pm.

The venue is the Methodist Church, with the entrance at the rear.

Please come early for refreshments.

Mary Lipyeat