Ryley’s Castle Parkgate
The home of actor Samuel Ryley (c1756 – 1837)
Welcome to NestonPast.Com
Email: info@nestonpast.com
HomeTown Heroes
The Stories of the Casualties of War of Neston and Burton
1914 – 1921
by
Ian L. Norris
Covid -19
The regular monthly meetings and talks programme is currently cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. However, the Society is now offering an alternative talks programme via zoom from February to June. The talks are on the second Thursday and fourth Thursday of each month at 8pm. Members will be sent a zoom link in advance by e-mail.
Next talk: Thursday 22nd April, 8:00 pm Neston Female Friendly Society (Ladies Club) by Stella Young.
If you would like to attend one as a visitor/guest, please email Burton and Neston History Society for a zoom link.
For information on how to join Click here
George Edward (Ted) Pearson (1915 – 2003)
George Edward Pearson was born 11thJuly 1915 in Neston, the son of George Pearson and his wife Susie (nee Chrimes). As a member of the Territorials he was mobilised at the start of the war and was serving as a Sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corps when he was sent to ….read more
Edward ‘Marlow’ Jones (1889 – 1966) by Ann Jones Billings
I’m so enjoying Neston Past, I wonder if I am in the unique position of being the daughter of a Little Neston miner born in 1889, at Number 3 New Street, and still in control of most of my faculties at 75...read more
The Railway at Parkgate: a brief history by Alan Passmore
It is now well over 60 years since the last passenger train steamed through Parkgate, and recollections of the time when trains chuffed between Hooton and West Kirby are now a distant memory for those Nestonians who once travelled on this route. The first railway on the Wirral peninsula was the Chester & Birkenhead, constructed between the city of Chester and the then quite infant town of Birkenhead (for Liverpool); it was opened to traffic in September 1840 with its first terminus at Grange Lane, extended in October 1844 to a riverside station at Monks Ferry...
Neston (Wirral) Colliery by Phil Pritchard
The Neston Colliery (later known as “The Wirral Colliery”, and then even later as “The Wirral Colliery (1915)”), was situated on the eastern coastline of the Welsh Dee estuary, at the end of Marshlands Road (previously known as Colliery Lane) in Little Neston, Cheshire West, using a site that was made vacant by the demise of the Anglican Smelting Company…read more
Charles Roscoe of Neston – A Remarkable True Tale of Tragedy at Sea and Divided Love by Anthony Annakin-Smith
There are many interesting gravestones in Neston churchyard but one that is particularly unusual is that of Charles Roscoe – it bears what is probably the most detailed image to mark any grave there. The image, cast from a mould, is of a ship and is still fine in every detail ...read more
Not in our Name: the Slave Ship ‘Neston’ by Anthony Annakin-Smith
Residents of Nesto
n may be surprised to know that, of the many slave ships that sailed from Liverpool when it was at the forefront of the transatlantic slave trade, one was a vessel named after the town...read more
Vizcachani, the Barber family and Neston’s South American Links. by I. Bushell
Approaching Neston from the A540 down Hinderton Road, on the right-hand side where the road narrows lies a substantial Edwardian family house bearing the name Vizcachani at its gate. An unusual name, given by the house’s first owner John Lionel Barber in 1907...read more
The Anglican Smelting, Reduction and Coal Company by Anthony Annakin-Smith.
The story of the A
nglican Smelting, Reduction and Coal Company Ltd. offers an intriguing footnote to Neston’s industrial history and forms an unlikely link between the area and gold deposits 4,500 miles away...read more
Commander John Monk, R.N. (1791-1880) by Simon Brown
John Monks’s path in l
ife took him across most of the seas of Europe, fighting Napoleon with the Royal Navy and then trading with Mediterranean ports as a merchant captain and ship owner…read more
A Few Memories of Thornton Hough by Eric Richard Brassey
In 1908 Harry B
rassey was born at number 4 Manor Road, Thornton Hough. He was the youngest of three brothers – Tom, Dick and Harry. Harry was my Father …read more
Learning the Ropes: Parkgate, Rope-making and The Ropewalk by Anthony Annakin-Smith
Many people wonder about the origins of The Ropewalk – the long straight footway in Parkgate .This article looks at the history of rope-making in the area and the background to the path…(read more)
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Neston Parish Church
The postcard is dated 7th July 1913. The message was ” Visited this church with Mr R. Howick who played the organ for me”. It is addressed to Miss M Phizackerley, Chester. It was unposted and with an incomplete address so possibly it was her memento of the occasion. Richard George Howick, originally from Chester, was the organist at Neston Church for a few years, until 1918 when he left to take up another position (in London?). He was the son of Walter Howick who had a music shop in Chester and was organist at Backford church. Miss Phizackerley was probably Muriel Phizackerley, daughter of George Thompson Phizackerley, District Superintendent of railways. They lived at Fairfield, Kilmorey Park, Chester
