Back To My Roots

Last Saturday I drove over to Cheshire for an Open Day at the Old Medicine House near Goostrey. Very close by stands the Jodrell Bank telescope which is the third largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. On the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing there was a huge screen at Jodrell Bank where people could go and watch events as they happened and I was one of those who was there on the night of July 20th 1969. It was so much more exciting than just watching at home on TV.

This is The Old Medicine House, it's an early 16th century timber framed house which originally stood at Wrinehill about 17 miles away. It was derelict and about to be demolished when the author Alan Garnerand his wife Griselda bought it for £1! They had it dismantled, repaired and re-erected next to their home Toad Hall at Blackden near Goostrey.The two buildings are linked by a connecting passage.

This is Sue Hughes with a wonderful display of herbs showing their uses in cooking, medicine, dyeing and folklore. Along with Elizabeth Musgrave she will be tutoring a herb day that I'm attending at the Old Medicine House next month and this display has made me even more keen to go.

These quatrefoil symbols are on the gable end of the house and were put there to repel witches!

This shows both the Old Medicine House on the right and Toad Hall on the left. Toad Hall is medieval three bay timber framed house and is original to the site. The Old Medicine House gets its name from the fact that it was built originally for an apothecary. Intriguingly in the spring following the move to Blackden various wildflowers and herbs started to appear round the house having been dislodged from the cracks in the old timbers during the move. As a result the Garners decided to plant an Elizabethan herb garden around the Old Medicine House. There will be a post about this after my herb day:)

About three miles away from Blackden is the village of Over Peover. My great grandfather was born there and so were at least six previous generations of my family so I decided to combine my visit to the Old Medicine House with a visit to the church of St Lawrence, Over Peover. The idea was to try, armed with the grave number, to find the grave of my 6xgt grandfather Edward Wright. The photo shows Peover Hall which was the home of the Mainwaring family. It's other claim to fame is that during the Second World War this was General George Patton's HQ in the lead up to D-Day.

Over one entrance to the Hall is a stone carved with the coat of arms of the Mainwaring family and the date 1585 which is when the house was built. If you click and enlarge it the date is quite clear.

Over the main entrance is a stone relief of an ass's head and a coronet. Apparently a Mainwaring fighting in the First Crusade at the Siege of Jerusalem had his horse shot from under him and the only replacement he could find was an ass which he promptly mounted saying 'Devant Si Je Puis' which became the family motto. At that point in time of course the aristocracy spoke Norman French:) The words mean 'Forward if I can'.

This is the stable block, on the far left are the Carolean Stables which were built in 1654 (Carolean refers to the reign of Charles II though the stables were built a few years before he was restored to the monarchy in 1660). The newer stables and the coach house on the right date from 1760.

The church of St Lawrence taken from the garden of Peover Hall, originally this was the private chapel of the Mainwaring family.

The font is 15th century and this is where William, William, Joshua, Isaac and Edward Wright were all baptized. For some reason my great grandfather Arthur was baptized at the nearby Chelford church although his two elder brothers were baptized here.
On the wall behind the font are the Royal Arms of Charles II, from the Restoration until the 19th century all churches were required to display the Royal Arms as a sign of loyalty to the Crown.

The three arches are the entrance to the mortuary chapel of Sir Philip Mainwaring, it was built in 1648 by his widow Ellen and has never been used for services. Originally there was a wall with small iron gates between the chapel and the church but this was knocked down and replaced by the arches in 1884.

The marble monument shows Sir Philip in the full plate armour which he would have worn as Captain of the Light Horse of Cheshire. Can you see that his head is pillowed on an ass? The second photo gives a closer look at Sir Philip and his wife Ellen. I couldn't do any better than this without either standing on a chair or being a foot taller:)

Hanging on the wall of the mortuary chapel is the actual armour that belonged to Sir Philip, I don't know whether the swords were his or not but it seems likely that they were.

On the opposite side of the church stands the South Chapel built in 1456 as a chantry chapel for Sir Randle Mainwaring . The story goes that Sir Randle wished to be buried in the churchyard and his widow Margery carried out his wishes and then built the chantry chapel over the tomb! They both lie in the tomb surmounted by life size effigies and Sir Randle, like Sir Philip, has an ass as a pillow.The chapel was originally joined to the church but not part of it.

The stained glass in the windows is medieval and this image shows St Thomas Becket in the robes of a monk, he is the figure on the left. This is very rare indeed as Henry VIII considered Becket to be a traitor and ordered all windows depicting him to be destroyed and only a very few survived.

A 15th century preaching cross stands in the churchyard, the base is original but the cross itself dates from 1907.

I was remarkably lucky to visit when I did, Peover Hall is never open on Saturday as a rule but May 19th/20th was their annual opening for the National Gardens Scheme. Apparently if the house is closed then the church is locked too so I wouldn't have been able to go inside and I wouldn't have found the kind gentleman who took me into the vestry to show me the graveyard plan. Without that plan I would never have found grandfather Edward's grave. As you can see it's covered with moss and much of the inscription is hidden. However once I knelt down and looked closely I could just make out ..ward Wri... and by tracing the shapes with my finger I could make out the complete name. The whole inscription reads:

Jeffrey Wright of Over Peover April 9 1639 left £10 the interest to be paid to the Minister of Over Peover for ever. Also Edward Wright of Over Peover May 19 1767 aged 77. Also Martha Wright of Over Peover 14 December 1835 aged 71. Also Peter Wright husband of the above April 26 1837 aged 77.

I haven't discovered who Jeffrey was yet but I think he must be Edward's gt-grandfather as there is a gap of one hundred and twenty nine years between the two burials. Peter Wright is Edward's grandson though a different line to me. I think grandfather Edward has been looking over my shoulder and helping things along here and it hasn't stopped as earlier this week I found the burial entry of his wife Catherine in 1776, much later than I expected. If she was around the same age as Edward who was born in 1690 then she must have been around 85 when she died. I'm rather hoping that Edward is going to continue nudging me in the right direction:)