Dr Harry Parkin, a senior lecturer in English Language at the University of Chester and editor of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, shares his research on the surnames that reveal Cheshire's history.

The names we are given reveal a huge amount about our ancestors and the areas they came from. The family names found in Cheshire reflect the great cultural and linguistic diversity of the region. Research into their origins tells us about past stages of the English language, and the county’s history, people and identity. The five most common surnames in Cheshire in 1881 were Jones, Smith, Davies, Williams, and Taylor. These are also some of the most common in Britain, and so they do not tell us much about the unique history of Cheshire. Some of the names that are much more common to Cheshire than any other county in Britain include Pleavin, Skellern, Coppenhall, and Pimblott, and it is these which provide more of an insight into the county’s individual identity.

Join us and find out more

NOTE:  This meeting is via Zoom and takes place at 2pm 

This event is for members only and registration is open, please press ‘Register [Individual]’ button below on the left and then click 'Process your Registration, you will receive an email confirmation. Registration will close on 13th October at noon and the links will be sent out that afternoon. 

Find out more about The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain   here 👉https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198868255.001.0001/acref-9780198868255

'In Georgian and Victorian Cheshire, salt was one of the county’s most important exports. In the early 1790s, over 80 Mersey flats were kept busy transporting 58,000 tons of salt yearly to Liverpool. In fact Cheshire had more salt than it knew what to do with, and the manufacturers tried to strictly control output in order to keep prices up.

By 1850, 525,000 tons of white salt and 86,238 tons of rock salt were transported along the Weaver Navigation from the Cheshire salt towns.' 

Join us as we listen to Cheshire author Sue Wilkes, who specialises in family history, social history, industrial history and literary biography, take us through the history of this important Cheshire industry 

Sue's website  👉 https://suewilkes.blogspot.com/

NOTE:  This meeting is via Zoom and takes place at 7:30pm 

To express an interest in joining us please email  putting the date of the meeting in the subject line of the email, the zoom links will be forwarded a day or two before the meeting 

Image: Open pan salt making, Illustrated London News, 24 August 1850

Our annual Christmas Social, with raffle and home made cakes will take place on Tues 9th December starting at 6:15pm at the Wishing Well, our usual meeting venue. 

This will be followed at 7:30pm by our annual quiz, nothing too difficult -  BUT a lot of fun  AND this year you can join us online too 

To express an interest in joining the quiz via zoom please email  putting the date of the meeting in the subject line of the email.

Joining links will be forwarded to you the day before the meeting