The Little Book of Cheshire (eBook)

Roger Stephens (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
The History Press (Verlag)
978-0-7509-8963-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Did You Know? - In medieval times, Cheshire was a County Palatine with its own independent parliament. - The village of Willaston hosts the annual World Worm Charming Championships. - With 86,000 ponds, Cheshire claims to be the pond capital of Europe. - Cheshire cheese is the oldest named cheese in England. The Little Book of Cheshire is a fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information no one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and hundreds of other facts, plus some authentically bizarre bits of historical trivia. This is an ideal book to have by your bedside or to while away the hours on a long train journey. And if you like to take part in pub quizzes - or set them - then you will find this book a veritable treasure trove of useful information.

ROGER STEPHENS is a local author and illustrator who has also worked as a tourist guide for over 20 years. His knowledge of Cheshire is superb and he gives talks on local and natural history. His illustrations have appeared in local books and magazines, as well as on display boards for nature reserves and visitor attractions. He lives and works in Chester.

Textauszug

1

HISTORY

BOUNDARY PEOPLE

It could all have turned out so differently.

When, in ad 79, the Roman army reached the mouth of the Dee it must have seemed like the ideal place to establish a fortress. Not only were they driving a wedge between the northern Brigantes and the Cornovii of the Midlands, but they would also control important trade routes and have a port for Ireland and beyond. Dewa (later to become the city of Chester) was built, like other Roman strongholds, in the shape of a playing card, but this one was significantly larger than the standard size. The buildings inside the wall were more imposing than those of other forts, while outside the wall, they erected an amphitheatre grand enough to keep a large population entertained. London’s Royal Albert Hall can accommodate 5,272 people, but in this arena 8,000 or more could sit and watch gladiatorial combat while munching on fast food. It’s true – archaeologists have dug up part of a gladiator’s sword and discarded chicken bones! The amphitheatre, too, is the biggest yet found in Britain.

Why such overblown dimensions? No one knows for sure, but a look at the map gives us a possible clue. If you were an invader planning to conquer the entire British Isles and create a new province, where would you place the capital? A centrally-positioned port would be ideal; where better than Chester? Some historians have dared to suggest that the Romans intended Dewa to be the capital of Britannia. Had it retained that status, Britain, with a centralized capital, would have developed very differently.

The Angles, when they began to settle the region in the seventh century, probably found the old fort in ruins. It was absorbed into the great midland kingdom of Mercia, forming its insecure, underpopulated north-west corner, always neurotic about invasion by the Northumbrians or the Welsh. The name Mercia means ‘boundary people’, after all. In the late ninth century, this area found itself sitting on a new and more dangerous boundary; that between the English and the Danes. King Alfred and his son Edward the Elder eventually swept the invaders out of west Mercia and introduced the West Saxon shire system to the region. The once-proud kingdom was cut up into shires, each governed, on behalf of the king, by a sheriff. Legeceasterscir (‘shire of the city of legions’) was first drawn onto the map around ad 920. In time, when the legionary connection had been forgotten, the name was shortened to ‘Cestrescir’ and later slurred into ‘Cheshire’.

The Normans became acquainted with the county in 1069, when they came to quell a serious rebellion. Their punishment was brutal and unforgettable: everywhere, dwellings were destroyed (200 in Chester alone), crops burned and people made destitute. A fertile land was turned into a desolate one. To rub it in, two-fifths of the county was afforested; in the great forests of Wirral, Mara, Mondrem and Macclesfield, the welfare of deer came before that of human beings.

In the Domesday Book (1086), Cheshire’s western frontier was not the Dee, as today, but the river Clwyd. For over 500 years, between the reigns of King Offa of Mercia and King Edward I, a great slice of land that now belongs to Flintshire and the county of Wrexham, was in England. And what about that wiggly tail of land on the north-east that appears to have been added on as an afterthought? Why did Cheshire need an appendix of desolate moorland reaching out to the Yorkshire border? That is Longdendale, which had a good road across the Pennines. It may have been added at the insistence of mid-Cheshire salt traders who needed a direct route to Yorkshire, avoiding the tolls that were charged when crossing a county line.

The county’s boundary saw little further change for 700 years. Its position on the Welsh border ensured that its people – largely Britons by blood but English in language and culture – were not destined for a peaceful history. On the contrary, they would win military glory both at home and abroad that would make them, of all people in England, ‘midst proudest, proud’.

THE EARLS OF CHESTER

Having brought the English to heel, the Normans now turned their attention to the Welsh. The towns of Hereford and Shrewsbury had already been made into Marcher Earldoms (military buffer zones that dominated the Welsh border), and Chester now became the third. Successive Earls of Chester were given the task of holding the line against Welsh intrusion, but most of them also took part in military campaigns all over England and across the Channel, usually, but not always, in the service of the king. The Earls held Cheshire and North Wales in an iron grip for 167 years.

At the entrance to Grosvenor Park, Chester, there is a pretty, half-timbered lodge (designed by John Douglas in 1866) whose gables are adorned with carvings of William I and seven of the Earls. They are dressed in chainmail with tunics of red, blue or gold, crowns on their heads and swords in their hands (some now broken or lost). Their coats of arms are shown beneath their feet.

What benign-looking chaps they are! Starting at the far left, we find King William, who has evidently usurped the place of the first Earl, Gerbod the Fleming. Gerbod, who may well have been in the fight at Hastings, was thrown into the job in 1070, and he had his hands full, controlling both the English and the Welsh. He soon gave it up and sailed off to France, where he was captured in battle and imprisoned, leaving the Earldom vacant.

To the right of William, in a blue frock emblazoned with a wolf’s head, is Gerbod’s replacement, Hugh d’Avranches, another possible Hastings veteran. Born in the small town of Avranches in Normandy, he ruled in Chester for thirty years, and subdued North Wales with such merciless efficiency that he became known as Hugh Lupus (Hugh the Wolf). In middle age, he enjoyed the good things in life, siring many illegitimate children and developing his waistline to such an extent that he could barely walk. When his final illness set in, he decided to repent his sins and become a monk. Four days later, he died, and is buried in Chester Cathedral, under the floor of the Chapter House. Not a nice man.

Next along, with no beard, wearing a little red number, again emblazoned with a wolf’s head, is Hugh’s son Richard d’Avranches. Why no beard? Because he was a teenager when he became Earl. At the age of 26, he lost his life in the White Ship disaster of 1120, and as there was no issue, the title passed to his cousin Ranulph le Meschine (‘the Younger’) the following year. During the interim, Welsh forces swarmed across Cheshire, killing, looting and burning down castles.

Furthest right, looking gorgeous in gold, is Ranulph himself, who held the title for nine years. Cheshire was, at this time, one of the most impoverished counties in England, so as compensation, other estates, scattered all over England and Wales, were added to the Earl’s possessions. No surprise, then, that Ranulph, one of the most powerful magnates in England, spent little time in the county.

Turning to the east-facing gable, we meet his son, Ranulph de Gernon, who was Earl for twenty-five years, during which time England was torn apart by civil war. The Earl, fearful of losing some of his northern estates, rose in arms against King Stephen, then changed his mind and swore fealty to him, then rebelled again. He died in great agony, aged 54, when his host served him poison. And he looks so cute up there.

Ranulph’s son Hugh de Kevelioc was the first Earl to be born on this side of the Channel – in Wales, as his name suggests. Like his father, he could be wayward in his loyalties. He joined a revolt against King Henry II and was captured and imprisoned, but within a few years his estates had been restored to him and he was happy to fight for the king in Ireland.

Hugh’s son, Ranulph de Blondeville, also born in Wales, succeeded him at the age of 11 and held the Earldom for over half a century. Unlike his two predecessors, he had the good sense to remain in the king’s favour and went on to become one of the greatest barons in England. He witnessed the signing of the Magna Carta and, since Chester was a Marcher Earldom, not covered by the document, he drew up a Magna Carta of Chester to appease his own barons. Small in stature, he nevertheless distinguished himself in battle at home and abroad, went on the fifth crusade (1218–20) and built Beeston Castle. Thanks to his dashing reputation and romantic name, he has often featured in novels set in the reigns of King Richard I and King John.

Notice, below the figurine, Ranulph’s coat of arms: three golden wheatsheaves on a blue ground; add a sword and we have the modern coat of arms of Cheshire. Wheatsheaves! Not the most appropriate symbol for such a pastoral county!

Furthest to the right is the last Earl, Ranulph’s nephew John the Scot, son of Prince David of Scotland. He married the daughter of Llywelyn the Great, but died in 1237 at the age of 30, leaving no heir. He had four sisters, but King Henry III quickly stepped in and grabbed the Earldom for himself, ‘lest so fair a dominion should be divided among women’. He gave it all to his son Edward, and, after 1254, ‘Earl of Chester’ became a title given to the heir to the throne. King Charles was created Earl of Chester when he was 9 years old.

The Cheshire motto, Jure et Dignitate Gladii, means ‘By the law and dignity of the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.11.2018
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Freizeit / Hobby ► Spielen / Raten
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Schlagworte: cheshire facts • cheshire gift book • cheshire history • cheshire trivia • Chester • chester, city of chester, roman chester, roman amphitheatre, chester roman amphitheatre, tudor chester, tudor cheshire, roman cheshire, willaston, nantwich, world worm charming championship, chester racecourse, historical cheshire, • chester, city of chester, roman chester, roman amphitheatre, chester roman amphitheatre, tudor chester, tudor cheshire, roman cheshire, willaston, nantwich, world worm charming championship, chester racecourse, historical cheshire, lbo cheshire, cheshire history, history of cheshire, cheshire facts, facts about cheshire, cheshire trivia, quirky guide, reference, local gift book, cheshire gift book • chester racecourse • chester roman amphitheatre • city of chester • facts about cheshire • historical cheshire • history of cheshire • lbo cheshire • local gift book • nantwich • quirky guide • Reference • roman amphitheatre • roman cheshire • roman chester • tudor cheshire • tudor chester • willaston • world worm charming championship
• ISBN-10: 0-7509-8963-7 / 0750989637
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7509-8963-3 / 9780750989633