Cheshire History Day

Cheshire History Day was held in Winsford on October 25th. This annual event is a gathering of societies and individuals with an interest in Cheshire's history.

Several items this year overlapped with Audlem History Society's activities.

I heard that there had been a private airfield at Combermere Abbey. I knew that the owner Sir Kenneth Crossley was involved with aeroplanes in the 1930s but it was a shock to see that Google Earth showed remnants of a building and runways. His only son was killed in an aeroplane crash off the coast of Denmark in 1939.

Winsford History Society had a story which caught my eye as it involved a family with Audlem connections – the Knight-Armstrongs of Wharton Hall, Winsford – one of the last members of this line, Mrs Marion Newall, lived and died at Greenbank Audlem (at the junction of the Whitchurch and Market Drayton roads).

The story was about her only son, Jack Newall, killed in WW1 whose medals got separated from the family, turned up on the isle of Islay in Scotland and finally have been put safe in Wharton Church – they don't know how they got to Scotland, surely his mother would have kept them by her in Audlem?

She died age 102 in 1961 (see plaque in Audlem church in photograph).

Elizabeth Davey of the Wirral Historical Society is continuing to research Dr Poggi who came from there to be headmaster at Audlem. She recently gave a talk at Wallasey where he is little known today.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.