The Dangers of Level Crossings

Steven Dowd
St. Helens Examiner - Saturday 23 December 1882

Saturday 23 December 1882 The enthusiasm which the new Ship Canal has evoked in commercial circles, having extended to Newton, naturally caused the mind to turn for a time to the “Sankey Canal” by way of antithesis. Not that this was the first canal made in England by any means, for the Romans, during their residence in England, cut a canal from the vicinity of their metropolis, the city of York, as appears from Drake’s Eboracum. In the year 1121, Henry I made a navigable canal of seven miles in…

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A Fortunate Newtonian: “Struck Oil” in Texas

Steven Dowd
St Helens Examiner 1901

St. Helens Examiner – Friday 06 December 1901 Information has just reached Newton that Sam Crowther, whose parents once managed the Old Crow Inn on Crow Lane in Newton about 25 years ago, has suddenly become one of the richest men in Texas. Raised in Newton at the Old Crow Inn, Sam Crowther experienced his formative years and early adulthood there. After his father passed away, his mother remained a widow for several years before remarrying Mr. Joseph Shona, who still resides at the Old Crow. Following their mother’s death,…

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Burtonwood tenants in ye year 1700

Steven Dowd

A survey of several Tenants within ye manner of Burtonwood in ye year 1700 belonging to Peter Bold Esq. (&) John Howasdon, Thom. Chorley Burtonwood James Travers of mess & tenement:1 acre, 1 Rood, 0 Perch || £2, 16 Shillings, 0 Pence Wm Lawton of mess & tenement:31 acres, 2 Roods, 0 Perch || £19, 10 Shillings, 0 Pence Mary Holt widow of mess & tenement:15 acres, 0 Roods, 0 Perch || £7, 0 Shillings, 0 Pence John Bay for Godshouse land of mess & tenement:1 acre, 0 Roods, 0…

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Burtonwood Township 1210 – 1939

Steven Dowd

St. Michael’s Church, Burtonwood. 1716 – 1939 This Book is dedicated to the Glory of Almighty God as a special means of expressing the grateful thanks of the Parishioners of Burtonwood, for the realisation of their desire in the completion of the Restoration and Enlargement of St. Michael’s Church on St. Michael’s and All Angels Day, 1939. St. Michael’s ChurchRESTORATION AND ENLARGEMENT COMMITTEE, 1939. Chairman: The Vicar, Rev. Thomas Cowing, M.C., M.M.Treasurers: Thos. Forshaw, Esq., John Gleave, Esq.Secretary: C. V. Smith, Esq., M.M.Architect: E. J. Dod, Esq., A.R.I.B.A. Diocesan Surveyor,…

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THE FEE OF MAKERFIELD. Part II.

Steven Dowd

By William Beaumont, Est/.(published and read 20th March, 1878.) On a former occasion, when I had the honour of reading before this Society u paper on the above title, I intimated that l might on some other occasion, if I had time and you had patience, be led to continue the subject. In mv former paper I traced the Barons of Newton through the successive lines of the Bannstres and Langton’s, and ended it when, the latter family becoming extinct by the death of the last Sir Thomas Langton, Newton…

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Burtonwood: Historical Snippets by Year

Steven Dowd

I’ve been trying to put together a year by year snippet history of Burtonwood historical notes, it’s a work in progress, it has errors, and spelling mistakes, these will most likely get edits, names and place names will be edited and checked , I am sure it will have more year snippets added to it and many updates as more documents are read and transcribed by the people helping me 1028 King Canute in his excursion against the Scots boldly made the Norwood road and took measures of common ford…

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A HISTORY OF BURTONWOOD CHAPEL.

Steven Dowd

The Chapel of Burtonwood was founded by Thos. Bold Esq., by a deed of feoffment, dated 27th, Sept. 1605. He conveyed a portion of land in trust from the Waste In Burtonwood, 40 roods In length and 20 roods In breadth. The rent charge to be one penny annually to him and his heirs on the Natal feast of St. John the Baptist. It appears by the proceedings of a Commission AD.PIUS.VSUS. before John Bishop of Chester on an inquisition taken at Wigan March 28th, 1627 That Thomas Darbishire of Burtonwood Yeoman…

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Historical notes for a letter to the King

Steven Dowd

His Majesty the King, etc, Duke of Lancaster “Your Majesty,” In all humility and loyalty, certain of your subjects in the district of Burtonwood have interested themselves in completing historical records of their village and environs and contact is being made in this manner with all whose family and ancestral relationships are in any way connected with the story of Burtonwood. It may interest your Majesty to peruse the following historical data which shows the relationship between the House of Lancaster and those who lived literally at the beginning of…

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Burtonwood, a history

Steven Dowd

Transcribed with the help of Andrew Fackey from documents in Chester Archives The information has been taken from Royal Lancaster Forests. Leghs of Lyme by Lady Newton. Annals of Warrington by Beaumont. Copies of charters from Warrington Museum. Information of the Parish from books kept by the Vicars, now in Preston Records Office. Royal Forests of Lancashire.1102-1116. Whilst the honour was in the King’s hands Burtonwood, a dependent manor of Warrington was taken into the Forest even as late as the mid 14th century. The Dukes of Lancaster still claimed…

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BURTONWOOD: TIMBER to be SOLD by TICKET.

Steven Dowd

On Thursday the 8th day of February, 1827, at three o’clock in the afternoon, at the house of Mr. Isaac Turner, the sign of the Ship, at Sankey Bridges, near Warrington, in the following lots, subject to such conditions as may then and there be produced: Lot 1.102 Oak Trees and 16 Cyphers from No. 1 to 102 inclusive.16 Ash Trees from No. 1 to 16 ditto2 Alder Trees No. 1 and 2. This Timber is growing upon a Farm in Burtonwood, known by the name of Causeway Bridges, in…

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Toll Road Improvements

Steven Dowd
Toll Road Improvements, Newton le Willows 1787

Notice is hereby Given, this Tuesday 30 October 1787, That application is intended to be made to Parliament and a Petition presented at the next Session, for enlarging the Term and amending the Powers of an Act of Parliament, made and passed in the first Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, intitled, “An Act for repairing and widening the Roads from a certain Place near Bolton in the Moors to Leigh, and thence to the Guide Post near Golborne Dale, and to the South End of Newton Bridge,…

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Murder at Burtonwood

Steven Dowd
Murder at Burtonwood

LANCASTER SPRING ASSIZES. CROWN COURT, Friday, 13 March 1832. William Heaton, 27, was charged with the wilful murder of John Ratcliffe, at Burtonwood, on the night the 28th of October last. Dr Brown very minutely detailed the facts of the case, and called the following witnesses: James Andrews: I live at Burtonwood. On the morning of the of October last, as was going to my work, between five and six o’clock, with another man, we saw person lying dead. John Ratcliffe. had no hat on. There was a great quantity…

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Six Airmen killed and Eighteen Injured

Steven Dowd
Six Airmen killed and Eighteen Injured

Sunday 6th June 1952. A board of investigation will sit at the American airbase at Burtonwood, near Warrington, to-morrow to determine the cause of the crash on Saturday night between a Neptune naval patrol bomber and a Dakota aircraft in which six airmen were killed and eighteen injured. A seventh airman is missing, believed killed, and last night the wreckage of the burned-out planes was still being searched for his body. The eighteen injured are in the base hospital suffering from burns and shock and one of them is stated…

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The Last American

Steven Dowd

Once the biggest military base in Europe, Burtonwood is now a shadow of its former self. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan C. Lobdell has secured a place in the 50-year-old history of Burtonwood. This spans from the action-packed war years to today, a period marked by the absence of a clear enemy and American budget cuts that are accelerating its decline. Once, the place resonated with the landings and take-offs of great Flying Fortresses. Men worked in the hangars around the clock, seven days a week, fitting communications and armaments to the…

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A History of Burtonwood.

Steven Dowd

Burtoneswod, 1228; Bourtonewod, 1251; Burtonwode, 1297; Bortounwod, 1337. This township, of 4,192½ statute acres, (1) was long purely agricultural in character. The population has recently increased at a rapid rate, and in 1901 numbered 2,187 persons. The country is extremely flat, with much reclaimed marsh or mossland, drained by ‘cuts’ into the Sankey Brook, which, winding from north to south-east and south, forms the boundary of the township on those sides. It yields crops of wheat, clover, and hay, and some potatoes and turnips on a clay soil; but on…

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