Welcome to NestonPast.Com
Email: info@nestonpast.com
Burton and Neston History Society
Meetings
The Society’s next meeting is on Thursday 12th December 2019 at the Gladstone Village Hall in Burton at 8:00pm, doors open 7.30pm
Welsh Copper: the making and mining of copper in Wales, a talk by Reg Toomey
A talk covering copper mining in Wales from pre-history to the present day.
Non-members are welcome free of charge on the first occasion.
Click here for information on how to join.
New Book
‘The Neston Collieries 1759 – 1855: An Industrial Revolution in Rural Cheshire’ by Anthony Annakin Smith
Published by the University of Chester Press £19.99
The book gives a comprehensive account of every aspect of the early Neston collieries – not just a detailed review of how the mines operated but also, for example, covering the social background of the colliers and their families including their health, mortality, education and living conditions, and the operation of the land and sea trades which saw Neston’s coal shipped as far as the Americas. Other topics include the many accidents at the works and the use of child labour. Events are placed in the context of the profound changes which were affecting Britain during the Industrial Revolution.
There is also an accompanying website which provides further information about the collieries, including a database of miners and their families – The Neston Collieries, 1759 – 1855
The book may be bought from The University of Chester Press , online from Amazon UK or from local shops: Nicholls, The Parade, Parkgate; Paisley Gray, High Street, Neston; Goredale Garden Centre, Chester High Road, Burton.
Alfred Jellicoe (1878 – 1917)
by Ian L. Norris
Alfred Jellicoe died at Passchendaele on 23rd September 1917, aged 39… Read more
Childhood Memories of Little Neston in the 1950s and 60s
by G.T
SALEM HALL – A PLACE OF WORSHIP
Morning and evening services were held there and there was also a Sunday School. The Plymouth Brethren, I believe, may have owned the building which appeared to be built as a place of worship…read more
May Time in Neston
The traditional British celebrations associated with the 1st May, dancing around the maypole, morris dancers, the crowning of a May Queen have their origins in the Ancient Roman feast Floraliana and the Celtic celebration of Beltane…read more
Thomas Crimes Ashbrook (1877 -1942), railway man, and the Great War
By G.T.
Tom Crimes Ashbrook was born 17th March 1877 in Little Neston the son of William Ashbrook, who farmed the Colliery Farm Neston, …read more
Featured Topics
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
