The Drovers' Road Thursday 24 January

The next talk is by Welsh author Idris Evans. 

His talk is based on his book 'Hard Road To London'. This is a story of the cattle drovers who walked their animals over three hundred miles to the markets in London. A trade that had gone on for over one thousand years but it was through discovering coins with a metal detector that he discovered a world that had been forgotten.
This led to a feature on Country File with Adam Henson and a series on BBC 2 called 'British Foods'




Usual time and place - 7:30 pm at the Tiverton Village Hall. All are welcome.

Support for Tarporley British Legion

Tarporley Allotments Society are organising a fund-raising event for the local British Legion. Mark Bevan (a regular speaker at TB&DHS) will be talking about the history of Oulton Park and memories of Cotebrook on Friday, 1st February, 7:45 at the Legion. Tickets will be available from the Legion, Tarporley DIY, Swaffields or organiser Ken Warburton (732598).
Please come along and support this good cause.

Chester Castle 13 December

The dozen or so Society members who braved Christmas shoppers and the weather were warmly welcomed by Major John Ellis at Chester Castle. Highlights of the morning were conducted tours of the Cheshire Military Museum and Agricola's Tower. A visit thoroughly enjoyed by all.

For others, like myself, who couldn't make this outing, I recommend the Museums' website to see what you missed.

22 November 'Maps of Cheshire'

These days, we take maps for granted. With the internet and tools like Google maps, we can quickly find and view places anywhere in the world from the comfort of our homes. Jonathan Pepler, recently retired as head of Cheshire Record Office, gave us an insight into a time when maps were just starting to evolve. He described the development of maps from 16th to 19th centuries, showing examples of early British and Cheshire maps. Jonathan also introduced us to the first map makers such as Christopher Saxton and Cheshire born John Speed. Much of the initial detailed surveying was sponsored by landowners wanting to define their estates.
One significant historical event was the publication of 'Tithe Maps' in the early/mid 18th century. These maps were produced to show the owners and occupiers of land in English and Welsh parishes as part of the change from paying tithes in produce to paying in cash. Pioneering work has been carried out by Cheshire Records Office to make the Cheshire tithe maps available online as a resource to the public and historians. Please visit Tithe maps for a fascinating browse.

Getting to know the Record Office

The October meeting of our society took place as usual at the Tiverton Village room on 25th, the fourth Thursday  in the month. Our speaker was Lisa Greenhalsh from the Cheshire Record Office and her talk with powerpoint presentation was entitled, “Getting to know the Record Office”. All of us, including those who use the record Office extensively found it most interesting and helpful, and could recommend her and her talk to anybody. She portrayed the Office  as a truly massive store of knowledge and we all learned much about how to use that facility.
Doug Haynes

A new season starts

The Society's 2012/13 season started on 27 Sept with Mark Bevan telling us about Tarporley races. As usual Mark gave a polished talk explaining how horse racing first started locally in the late 17th century on a course to the south of Delamere forest. From the mid 18th century, races were organised by the Cheshire Hunt and took place on land north of Cotebrook. In the 19th century, the race course moved to Rode St, Tarporley, on what is now the Tarporley Tractors site. Mark painted a picture of wealthy horse owners, young bloods, extravagant wagers, crowds streaming to the race days and all the fun of the fair. Sadly this all came to an end in 1939 when the course was requistioned by the army and later turned into a prisoner of war camp.

Welcome to our new season

Sadly it seems that summer (what summer?) is finally coming to an end. So as the nights draw in, it must be the start of the Society's new season. The first talk, to be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday 27th September at Tiverton Village Hall, will be Mark Bevan telling us about 'Tarporley Races'. Everyone welcome.

See the Events page for the full year's programme.

At the meeting we will also launch our research project on local schools. We are starting to compile a list of active and closed schools. See Schools Project page for more details.