An interview with Margaret Crisp (née Woodvine) by Joyce Hopkins and Ruth Rowley Margaret was born in the bedroom above the Post Office (now Briar Cottage), Hill Ridware, in 1915 and lived there until she was about 18 years old. Margaret’s mother was born in Acton Trussell and was cook to a German doctor who… Continue reading The Post Office in Hill Ridware between the Wars
Category: Stories
Churchwards of Hill Ridware Hall by Helen Sharp
If only walls could talk… In Hill Ridware, tucked down Wade Lane, which was anciently called Watery Lane on account of its propensity to flood, stands a red brick Georgian house built between 1790 and 1800. It was reputedly built for Charles Chadwick, the Lord of Mavesyn Ridware Manor, as a ‘Hunting Box’; that is… Continue reading Churchwards of Hill Ridware Hall by Helen Sharp
Dorothy Grimley’s life story as written by her daughter Nellie Garner
Dorothy Grimley was born in Stoke on Trent in 1916. She came to live in Hill Ridware when her father, Samuel Smith, took over the tenancy of the Chadwick arms public house. She was 15 years old. Before then she had lived for four years in Armitage with her Granny Davies, as the country air… Continue reading Dorothy Grimley’s life story as written by her daughter Nellie Garner
From Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire to Memphis, Tennessee:
The Orgill Brothers of Rough Park In the early 1800s two brothers, Thomas and William Orgill, came from Burton-upon-Trent to Hamstall Ridware and both became tenant farmers on Lord Leigh’s estate; Thomas at Rough Park and William at Bancroft Farm. Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth (née Bladon/Bladen), already had two young children when they arrived… Continue reading From Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire to Memphis, Tennessee:
The Fitzherbert Family of Norbury and the Hamstall Ridware Connection
The Fitzherbert family were a Norman family who came to England at the time of the Norman Conquest and were staunchly Roman Catholic. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert of Norbury, Derbyshire, was born c.1470 during the year-long second period of King Henry VI’s reign. During the turbulent times of the War of the Roses he was to… Continue reading The Fitzherbert Family of Norbury and the Hamstall Ridware Connection
A cheese factory in Hamstall Ridware
Pencil sketch and water colour of Hamstall Mill by William Boden c.1912 Over 30 years ago, c.1988,local resident and amateur local historian, the late Ron Elton, wrote a book on the history of Hamstall Ridware. He wrote of a cheese factory in the village on the site of the old corn mill by the River… Continue reading A cheese factory in Hamstall Ridware