Burleydam WI hear about the landed gentry's impact

Burleydam and District WI had an interesting recent meeting when speaker Doug Hayes spoke on 'the impact of Cheshire landed gentry on the landscape of Cheshire'.

He spoke of times when, to quote a saying from those days: "There were More Leghs than Fleas, more Massies than asses, more Crewe's than crows and more Davenports than dogs tails'.

In 1873, when a return of Owners of Land was required to be drawn up – a latter day Domesday Book – the largest landholdings were those of the Tollemache family of Peckforton. Inter-marriage between the families brought wealth and land with it. At its peak the Delves-Broughton estate at Doddington rivalled that of the Tollemarche's and the Barbour's, who bought Bolesworth in 1856 and were just beginning to make their mark on the landscape of Cheshire.

The talk by Doug Hayes included slides of farms and cottages, which each had their own unique style, whether in the design of the windows or the size of the chimneys. Today, only a few of the estates remain, much reduced in size.

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