A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHESHIRE HISTORY

 

The following abbreviations are used for libraries which have the main reference books mentioned.

Alderley FHS The reading room of the Family History Society of Cheshire in Alderley.
Congleton Congleton Public Library
CRO Cheshire County Record Office
Knutsford Knutsford Public Library
Macclesfield Macclesfield Public Library
Wilmslow Wilmslow Public Library

 

A.  General History of the County, Country Houses and their Owners
A. Authoritative Works.

1a. Historical Antiquities by Sir Peter Leicester, printed in 1673 is very rare. It is frequently quoted in standard histories of the county. This is a useful source for information on the earlier history of Cheshire landed families. It is based on documents examined by Sir Peter Leicester, including Domesday. The information is incorporated into Ormerod's work as described below.

1b. History of Cheshire containing King's Vale Royal, by John Poole, 1778 (Macclesfield), The information is incorporated into Ormerod's work as described below.

2. Magna Britannia D. & S. Lysons Vol. 2, London, 1810 (CRO) Although this was one of the earlier 19th century works it is generally not regarded as being of the quality of the second edition of Ormerod or Earwaker's work.

3a. The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, by George Ormerod, London, 1819, (Wilmslow, Knutsford, Congleton and Alderley FHS).

3b. The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities, by George Ormerod, 2nd Ed., revised and enlarged by Thomas Helsby, Esq., published by George Routledge and sons, Ludgate Hill, London, 1882. This is now available from the Family History Society of Cheshire on CD ROM. A reprint of the work was published by Eric Morten of Didsbury.

4. East Cheshire Past and Present by J.P. Earwaker, London, 1877 (CRO, Knutsford) This is widely regarded as the best work on East Cheshire of the 19th century. It is useful for family trees of landed families. Now available from the Family History Society of Cheshire on CD ROM .

5. A History of Cheshire, J. J. Bagley, general editor, in ten volumes, published by Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust. Each volume has a different author. This is a useful series for a readable account of events in the history of the county as opposed to family histories and descriptions of buildings. Vol. 9, Cheshire 1660-1780: Restoration to Industrial Revolution, J. Howard Hodson, 1978, ISBN 0 903119 10 2. Vol. 10, Squire and Tenant: Rural Life in Cheshire 1760 to 1900, by Geoffrey Scard, 1981, ISBN 0 903119 13 7.

6. Cheshire Country Houses, by Peter de Figueiredo and Julian Treuhertz, Phillimore, Chichester, 1988.

7. Victoria County History of the County of Chester, 3 Vols., OUP 1987. (Congleton) This is the standard modern work on the county but does not contain the detailed family trees found in Ormerod and Earwaker.

8. The Earl of Chester's Yeomanry Cavalry, 1797-1897, Ballantyne Press, 1898. (Alderley FHS)

9. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition, 1969.

10. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1879. Some of the earlier Burke works are known to be suspect because of the desire of wealthy people to claim aristocratic ancestors unsupported by appropriate research. There were relatively few volumes on the landed gentry as opposed to the baronetcy and peerage.

11. A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles around Manchester, by J. Aikin, 1795, reprinted by David and Charles, Newton Abbott, 1968. (CRO, Wilmslow, Knutsford). Useful for those interested in the late Georgian period.

12. County Families of Lancashire and Cheshire, by J. Croston, J. Heywood, Manchester, 1887, includes details of the families of Stanley, Egerton, Trafford, Warburton, Harrington, Grosvenor, Mainwaring, Davenport. (CRO)

13. Returns of Owners of Land, 1873, HMSO, 1875. (CRO). Shows the acreage and rent income of all landowners in England.

14. Lancashire and Cheshire, Past and Present, by Thomas Baines, 4 vols., William Mackenzie, London, 1873.

15. Old Cheshire Churches, with a supplementary survey of the lesser old chapels of Cheshire, completely revised and enlarged by Raymond Richards, first published in 1947 and reprinted by E. J. Morten, Didsbury, 1973.

16. Cheshire: A Genealogical Bibliography. Vol. 1. Cheshire Genealogical Sources; Vol. 2 Cheshire Family Histories and Pedigrees; both by Stuart A. Raymond, published by the Federation of Family History Societies.

17. The Buildings of England: Cheshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner and Edward Hubbard, first edition 1971, Yale University Press edition in 2003.

18. Cheshire Country Houses, by Peter de Figueiredo and Julian Treuhertz, Phillimore, Chichester, 1988

19. Learned Society Periodicals

There are several major series on the history of Lancashire and Cheshire as listed below. Some are indexed periodically and Cheshire Libraries have many of the articles listed in their computerised catalogue. Macclesfield Library has an incomplete set of volumes but Stalybridge Library and Stockport are among the best endowed local libraries for the first four series listed. There are three good sources in Chester - the County Record Office, the Heritage Library and the City Library. In the latter, for example, there are copies of "Cheshire Sheaf", "Cheshire Notes and Queries" and "Advertiser Notes and Queries" which were popular publications on the history of the county produced about 100 years ago.

a. Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society

b. The Chetham Society

c. Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire

d. Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society.

e. Journal of the Chester Archaeological and Historic Society.

B. Popular Works on Cheshire Topics

1. Bygone Cheshire, by William Andrews, Phillipson and Golder, Chester, 1895. (CRO)

2. Memorials of Old Cheshire, by Barton and Ditchfield, George Allen and Son, London, 1910. (CRO)

3. Cheshire Village Memories, by Federations of Cheshire Women's Institutes, 1952. (CRO)

4. The Cheshire Village Book, by Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes, 1990. (CRO and Knutsford)

5. Picturesque Cheshire, by T. A. Coward, Sherrat and Hughes, Manchester, 1903. (CRO)

6. Romantic Cheshire by T. Cumming Walters, published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1930.

7. Historical Sites of Lancashire and Cheshire, by James Croston, Heywood, Manchester, 1883 (CRO)

8. Cheshire by Fred H Crossley, Trinity Press, London 1949. (CRO, Knutsford)

9. Old Cheshire Families and their Seats, by Lionel M Angus-Butterworth, Sherratt and Hughes, Manchester, 1932, reprinted by E. J. Morten, Didsbury, 1970. (CRO)

10. History of Cheshire by J. H. Hanshall, 1823 (CRO, Macclesfield).

11. A Guide to the Country Houses of the Northwest by John Martin Robinson, Constable, London, 1991

12.  Agriculture of Cheshire, with observations drawn up for consideration of the Board of Agriculture, by Henry Holland, T. Gillet, 1808. (CRO)

13. County Families of the United Kingdom, by Edward Walford, Robert Hardwicke, London, 1860. (CRO)

14. Vale Royal, A History of the Abbey and nearby Villages in the Ancient Forest of Delamere was written by a team of local historians, edited by Frank A. Latham and published privately in 1993, (ISBN 0 9522284 1 1)

15. Pilgrimages in Cheshire and Shropshire, by Fletcher Moss, Didsbury 1901.

16. Discovering Cheshire Churches, produced by Cheshire County Council Heritage and Recreation Service, 1989, ISBN 0 906759 57 9 and available for purchase at Cheshire Libraries.

17. A History of Cheshire, by Alan Crosby, published by Phillimore, 1996, ISBN 0 850339322 4.

18.  Lancashire and Cheshire from AD 1540, by C. B. Phillips and J. H. Smith, Longmans, London and New York, 1994.

19. The King's England - Cheshire by Arthur Mee, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1938, fully revised and edited by E. T. Long in 1968, SBN 340 00075 9

C. Some Books on Towns, Villages and Families in East Cheshire

1. There is a good series of books on Cheshire Villages, some written by Frank A Latham and others produced by teams of local historians working under his leadership. They are as follows.

By Frank A. Latham: Alpraham 1969; Tilstone Fearnall, 1970; Tiverton 1971.

By Local History Groups edited by Frank A Latham, Tarporley, 1973; Cuddington and Sandiway,1975; Tattenhall, 1977; Christleton, 1979; Farndon, 1981; Barrow, 1983; Tarvin, 1985; Frodsham, 1987; Bunbury 1989; Delamere 1991; Vale Royal 1993

2. History of Sandbach, by J. P. Earwaker, private publication, 1890, reprinted by E. J. Morten of Didsbury in 1972.

3. The Manor of Gawsworth, by Raymond Richards, Ancient Monuments Society, 1957.

4. The Parish of Prestbury, by George Y. Osborne, published in Macclesfield in 1840 and reprinted by Silk Press in 1998, ISBN 1 902685 00 8.

5. An History of the Ancient Town and Borough of Congleton, by Samuel Yates, published in 1821 and reprinted by Silk Press in 2000, ISBN 1 902685 05 9.

6. Knutsford, its Traditions and History, by Henry Green, Smith Elder and Co., 1859, reprinted by E. J. Morten, Didsbury, 1969.

7a. The Stanleys of Alderley, family letters from 1851 to 1865, edited by Nancy Mitford, Hamish Hamilton, 1939.

7b. The Stanleys of Alderley, 1927-2001, A Politically Incorrect Story by Thomas, 8th Lord Stanley, AMCD Publishers Ltd., PO Box 182, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA15 9UA. ISBN: 1 897762 35 6

8. The Ladies of Alderley, correspondence of Maria Josepha Stanley and her daughter in law, Henrietta Maria Stanley, 1841-1850, edited by Nancy Mitford, Chapman Hall, London 1938.

9. The Early Married Life of Maria Josepha Lady Stanley, with extracts from Sir John Stanley's Praeterita, edited by one of their grandchildren, Jane H Adeane, Longmans, Green and Co. London, 1899. (Although this book has a ponderous title, it shows that Maria Josepha was a very perceptive and erudite woman with a great wit. She knew Edward Gibbon, the author of 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.)

10. The House of Stanley from the 12th century, by Peter Edmund Stanley, Pentland Press, 1998, ISBN 1 85821578 1

11. A Journey through Time: Holmes Chapel, Cotton and Cranage, by Annabel Capewell, Rosemary Dear, Patricia Dingle, Rodney Smith, Terry Taylor and Janet Yarwood was published by Intec, Goosetrey, Cheshire in 1996.

12. Holmes Chapel, A Stroll Through the Past, by John Clowes, Rosemary Dear, Patricia Dingle, Brian Sankey, Rodney Smith, Terry Taylor, Janet Yarwood and Geoff Ashmore (Holmes Chapel History Research Group), Intec Publishing Ltd., Goosetrey, Cheshire, 2001, ISBN: 1-899319-19-0

13. History of Sandbach and District, by Cyril Massey, first published 1958, enlarged edition 1982.

14. Holmes Chapel Parish Church, by Rosemary Scott, published by Eachus and Son, Sandbach, Cheshire, 1974.

15. A Short Description of St. Mary’s Church, Sandbach, by John Minshull, published by the Parochial Church Council, 1974, revised in 1990.

16. The House of Lyme from its foundation to the end of the 18th century, by The Lady Newton, published by William Heinemann in London in 1917.

 

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