New material on the Archive

There is a host of new material on the Archive, found by clicking on the banner on the Homepage.

Amongst recent material loaded by the Audlem District History Society, who are building and maintaining the Archive, is a letter from King George VI to Audlem School in 1945 after the Second World War had been won.

Going much further back, from 'Records of an old Cheshire family' by Sir Delves Broughton is the following entry: "John de Delves (1446-1471) in 1451 purchased 10 acres of land in Buyrton from Richard de Birchare of Hunsterston."

The Delves Broughton family, who have lived at the Doddington Estate near Bridgemere for 650 years, were later featured in the book and film 'White Mischief', set in Kenya in the 1940s about an infamous and unsolved murder, while a later generation, also in Kenya, featured more recently in another murder trial.

The film features a number of bored British aristocrats living dissolute and hedonistic lives in a region of Kenya known as Happy Valley, drinking, drugging and indulging in decadent sexual affairs to pass the time.

In 1941, Josslyn Hay, the philandering Earl of Erroll, was found dead in his car in a remote location. The Earl had a royal pedigree but a somewhat sordid past and a well-deserved reputation for carrying on with other men's wives.

Diana Delves Broughton is one such woman. She was the beautiful wife of Sir John Henry Delves Broughton, known to most as "Jock," a man thirty years her senior.

After Errol is found dead, shot in his car, Delves Broughton stands trial. There are no witnesses to the crime and the physical evidence that appears incriminating is also circumstantial. He obviously had the motive and means, but is found innocent.

While the film concludes with Delves-Broughton shooting himself, in reality he returned to Britain and was found dead at Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel, apparently a suicide.

Amazingly, two generations later, another member of the family, Tom Cholmondeley, was accused of killing a black poacher and tried for murder in Kenya. He was found guilty of manslaughter and freed from jail five months after being convicted.

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