London Road

Owen’s Corner
On the south side of Acton Avenue in Appleton there used to be a public house here. It is mentioned as the Shovel and Broom on the 1875 map. The house is still on the 1910 map, but not as a pub. On the north side there was a smithy built between 1846 and 1875.  The ‘Owen’ in Owen’s Corner was Lawrence William Owen, a wheelwright born in 1887. The smithy eventually became a garage and Lawrence died in 1949.  In more recent years the cross roads has become a roundabout but the name still remains – even if the apostrophe is missing. 

Stork House /Cottage (485 and 487, London Road)
The tithe map shows the land owned by Thomas Lyon and occupied by John Gibbons and Edward Gleave.  The Gleave family remained there from 1841 for at least twenty years. The second house was occupied by Edwin Ratcliffe and family in 1861.

Stork House 1874 Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the of the Creative Commons Attribution licence

The 1891 census records that the first cottage was occupied by Thomas Cooper and family, and the second by Joseph Smith and his family. The former was the estate gardener and the latter the gamekeeper for the Appleton Hall estate. Thomas Cooper was still living at Stork Cottage in 1901 aged 64 working as an odd-job man at Appleton Hall. Next door was Alfred Holland, a saddler who was born in Stretton.

The cottages were rebuilt in 1904, and the 1911 census shows that the Cooper family had moved to Dingle Lodge in Appleton. Meanwhile Tom Cotterill and family, and John Claydon and his family were resident. The former was an estate woodman – presumably for Thomas Lyon at Appleton Hall. Tom Cotterill was married to Clara whose mother Hannah lived in Common Lane. They had two children – Fred and Frank. There is a photograph of Frank taken at the village school around 1913.  The family were still there in 1920 but had moved away by 1930.

In 1920 Leonard & Mary Ann Duncalf and James Johnson were living at Stork Cottages. Leonard Duncalf died a couple of years later and Mary Ann married Peter Lafferty in 1924 and moved to Shepcroft, Appleton. In 1930 the cottages were occupied by the Broady and Jennings families who remained until the 1960s. William Starkey Broady was a gamekeeper and Thomas Jennings was a gardener. William Broady died just a month or two after the Register in December 1939, but his widow and children remained.

The Shant
This first gets a mention in the 1911 census when the Weir family were living there. Frederick senior was an out of work farmer, together with his wife Elizabeth and four children. Frederick the eldest son was killed in the first World War. The family remained in Stretton until the death of Elizabeth in 1927.

Wicken House (491, London Road)
This house was built  between 1901 and 1911. The Rose family were first recorded as living there in 1911 having moved to Stretton from Warrington in the previous year. John Rose was a manager at a soap factory. The family remained at Wicken House past 1920 until John’s death in 1929. By 1939, the Register shows that John and Robertina Price were in residence. Rev John was a retired vicar and the couple remained in the house until 1962 when Eva Unsworth had moved in, followed by John and Marjorie Johnson.

Stretton Police House (493, London Road)
This was built around 1935 to replace the older police house near the Cat and Lion along Tarporley Road. Walter and Mary Herrity were the first occupants, with Walter being a police constable. The couple remained until the late 1940s when Arthur and Doris Smith moved in for around twenty years.

Milestone

This is dates 1896, made of cast iron., and triangular in shape. The cast lettering  reads CHESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL 1896
GREAT BUDWORTH 5 MILES
NORTHWICH 8
STOCKTON HEATH 1 3/4 MILES
WARRINGTON 3

521- 551 London Road
During the 1930s there were a number of semi-detached house built south from Owen’s Corner at Primrose Hill, these are those houses currently numbered 521 – 551 London Road.

Primrose Hill
The tithes map of 1846 shows five cottages and gardens owned by Thomas Lyons and occupied by: James Allen;  Thomas Cliffe;  Thomas Dakin;  William Pemberton and Richard Wainwright. Thomas Dakin, Richard Wainwright, Thomas Cliffe and William Pemberton had been living in the same houses for at least the previous five years.

In 1861 Richard Wainwright was still living at Primrose Hill with his family. His neighbours included Thomas Eyes; Joseph Ellison; John Walker and Mr James. Ten years later Richard’s widow was still living at Primrose Hill alongside Thomas Eyes, Joseph Ellison and Joseph Bostock.

Cottages at Primrose Hill 1874 showing the Post Office. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence

By 1901, the cottages were occupied by James Lightfoot; Robert Kerr; Joseph Bostock and George Bostock.

Joseph Bostock was a farm labourer from Whitley. He married local girl Mary Ann Holland and moved to Stretton around 1879.  Together they had 12 children of whom four died at a young age. His eldest son George married Mary Alice Cotterill in 1894 and by 1901 was living next door to his parents.

By 1911 both Bostock households were still at Primrose Hill although Joseph, Mary Ann and son John would all be dead within three years. Tragedy would strike again in 1918 when the eldest son of George Bostock (Jack) died at the end of the first World War. George Bostock and the remainder of his family moved away from the village within a few years. The only remaining male member of the Bostock family was George’s brother Frank who lived at Primrose Hill with his wife Alice before moving to Roadside Cottages, Hatton Lane in the 1930s. Next door was Ann, the widow of Robert Kerr and Thomas Dooley and his family.

By 1915 Thomas Dooley had died at the young age of 43 and Amy was left a widow with a young family to raise. Next door was Frank Bostock and further along was his sister Emily, who married Tom Bate.

Primrose Hill 1908; published 1931. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence

By 1939 there were new occupants at Primrose Hill cottages: John and Harriet Davenport; Edward & Annie Lafferty and their children; John and Mary Lawson, and Henry and Harriett Smith. In 1945 all families were still there but sadly one of the children had been killed. Ann Lawson, the two year old daughter of John and Mary Lawson was killed in a bombing raid in September 1940. Despite the tragedy John and Mary, who both had their sight severely affected by the blast, remained until their deaths in the early 1990s. In 1947, Edward and Annie Lafferty had moved on.

The post office was originally at Primrose Hill and is clearly shown on the map of 1874 above. It later moved to the Beehive, Tarporley Road.

Road Side Farm
This is one of the oldest farms in Stretton. According to the Land Tax Returns of 1780 the farm was owned by Thomas Eaton and occupied by Isaac Thomason. The land ownership then changed to Samuel Okell, as did the occupiers from 1787 when the Woodward family farmed until just after 1810.  Following ten years of occupation by Joseph Okell the Bolland family moved in James, Sarah and two children: John and Mary. The Bollands and the Okells were related through marriage.

At the same time, Thomas Lyon from Appleton Hall was increasing his land ownership in Stretton. Around 1829 Samuel Okell sold his farm but the Bollands remained in occupation. In 1834 and 1835 respectively James and Sarah Bolland died.

The 1841 census shows John and Mary Bolland were farming at Road Side Farm. Also living at the farm was Martha Okell (one of their cousins) and Edward Marsden the unmarried curate at St. Matthews.  According to the tithes map of 1846 it was owned by Thomas Lyon and occupied by Mary Bolland.

Edward Brocklehurst, who farmed at Appleton Cross, married Mary Ann Ditchfield in 1875 and the couple moved to Road Side Farm. They had at least eight children. Edward continued farming until his early death in 1895, aged 45, when his second eldest son, Herbert, took over. Herbert married Bertha Whitlow from Hatton and they had two daughters.  Herbert’s elder brother Charles moved to Winwick in 1901, but according to the Elector’s Register he was back in Stretton by 1920. Meanwhile Herbert had moved from Roadside Farm to Mosswood Hall.

Charles Brocklehurst and his wife Mary (née Winstanley of Dorothy Farm) remained at Roadside Farm until their death in 1954 and 1957 respectively. The farm then passed to John and Brigid Radcliffe.

The farm was put up for sale in January 1959 with just over 60 acres and a further eight acres along Hatton Lane. In the early 1960s Mr Eric Parr and family moved into the house, and according to the Christine Anderton (née Parr) below, the farm and surrounding fields were owned by Harry Winstanley of Whitley. Mr Parr worked for the Prudential and is fondly remembered. The Parrs stayed at Roadside Farm until 1982, after which part of the house was used as the doctor’s surgery.