of Mr. Chancellor Trevor Parkins, to whose help in revising these chapters I owe so much. The Village Green, on the north of the church, has been much diminished by successive encroachments. It formerly included the ground on which the hearsehouse and adjoining cottages now stand. And in 1831 a large portion of the Green was added to the churchyard. The Almshouse, to the north of the church, but outside the churchyard, was built under the direction of Dr. Robert Wynne, Chancellor of the Diocese, and for fifty-three years vicar of the parish. There is a stone on the front of it with this inscription Hospitium Invalidorum A.D. 1725. Thoma Pate The Gresford register records, on 5th November, 1769, the burial of "Dorothy Jones, of the Almshouse, aged 106 years." The school which adjoins the Almshouse, and forms one row of buildings therewith, was also built in 1725. A tablet on the front of it commemorates the benevolence of Lady Strode : Scholæ Eleemosyna Dn Margaretae Strode. Ad Pauperes ejus sumptibus erudiendos. Margaret, Lady Strode, elder daughter of Colonel John Robinson, of Gwersyllt, and widow of Sir George Strode, died in 1715. She left by her will £500 to trustees, to purchase lands and "apply the rents and profits of the lands so purchased" to the education and placing-out of three poor boys and three poor girls. 6TH SER., VOL. IV. 21 Additions were subsequently made to the school built in 1725; and in 1838 two large schoolrooms at the back of the original building were erected at a cost of £607 10s., towards which the Lords of the Treasury contributed £100, and the National Society £30. An infant schoolroom was added in 1854. The handsome boys' school and master's house, to the south of the churchyard, and separated from it by a lane, were completed in 1874, at a cost of £2,000. They were the munificent gift of Archdeacon Wickham to the parish. On the porch of the school is the inscription following: These school buildings were erected by relatives Thomas Vowler Short, late Bishop of St. Asaph, CHAPTER V. MARFORD AND HOSELEY. The two townships of Marford and Hoseley composed the manor of the same name, and comprised in all, until 1884, 604 acres. It would have been quite easy, one might suppose, when the Ordnance Survey was made, to have set out the boundary between Marford and Hoseley. This, however, was not done. In the rate-books the tenements in the two townships were carefully distinguished until the end of the eighteenth century. But Mr. Chancellor Trevor Parkins tells me that Mr. Charles Davies, the overseer of Marford and Hoseley, as well as of Allington and Gresford, "who knows more about these townships than anyone else," has tried to make out the boundaries. of Marford and Hoseley, and "failed to distinguish between the two, although he took much pains to do so." Nevertheless, this we know, that the southern part of the main portion of the manor is Hoseley, and the northern part Marford. This main portion lies between Allington on the east, Burton on the north, Gresford on the west, and Burras Hovah on the south. There was, until 1884, a curious detached portion of Marford and Hoseley, containing 15 acres, which included the Lower Rossett (or Marford) Mill, and reached nearly to Trefalyn Hall. The mill named was the lord's custom mill, and formed part of the demesne land of the manor, although separated from it, during the last few centuries, by an intervening tract of land belonging to Allington. I have inserted this saving clause because there is good ground for believing, as I shall show in the Allington chapter, that Marford aforetime extended further north, so as to take in the "boardlands" of Burton and Allington, and the district now called "Rossett." It must have been some tradition, prescription, or custom of this sort which led Sir John Trevor, in 1634, to claim suit from "the inhabitants of Allington alias Trevallin." Such suit was due from a part: that part probably which had formerly belonged to the larger Marford, and Sir John therefore claimed it from the whole. I have shown in the introduction that in the fifteenth century half Allington and all Burton and Llai were annexed to Hopedale, in Flintshire. I take the claim of 1634, the alteration of the bounds of Marford, and the aggrandisement of Allington, to be results of the changes made in the fifteenth century. The whole manor of Marford and Hoseley, although surrounded by Bromfield, county Denbigh, belonged to the hundred of Hope and county of Flint; but in October, 1884, by a Local Government Order, the detached portion above named was merged in the township of Allington, and added to the county of Denbigh. On the other hand, to the main portion of Marford and Hoseley, which still remained attached to the county of Flint, were added a detached bit of Allington, containing the Rofft Mount, on its western border, and a detached bit of Gresford, containing the old vicarage, on its southern border. The area of Marford and Hoseley was thus raised to 750 acres. The older form of the name "Marford" was "Merford." In the rate-books the present spelling appears for the first time in 1805. In "Merford' In "Merford" "Mere" is either "mere," a lake, or "mere," a boundary, probably the latter; so that "Merford" would mean the boundary ford. Merffordd" was a name which was invented by sixteenth and early seventeenth century genealogists, and was unknown to people on the spot. The explanation of the old and well-attested name of the township is to be sought in the English, not in the Welsh language. Whatever the first component of "Merford" stands for, there can be no mistake as to the second; it designates the old ford over the Alyn where Marford Bridge' now is; but it was only a small detached bit of Marford which reached the Alyn. The main portion of the township did not for centuries touch the river. Yet it must once have done so. How, otherwise, could it have acquired its name? The conclusion is that Marford, as a whole, must once have extended to the ford. We shall find other reasons hereafter (in the present chapter, and especially in the chapter on Allington) for concluding that Marford at an earlier date had a larger area than it now has. 66 Both the mills by Marford Bridge, although sometimes known as "Rossett Mills," are generally called Marford Mills," which indeed is their proper name; yet only the Lower Mill, burned down in 1791 and since rebuilt, was in the detached part of Marford above named. The upper Mill, as already has been said, is not in Marford at all, but in Burton. Nevertheless, "Merford Mill" appears to have been its ancient name. It was certainly so called in 1620. However, it stands 1 By' "Marford Bridge" here I mean the bridge over the Alyn by the Upper Mill, of which I give an illustration from a photograph by Mr. C. G. Caldecott. Notice the footpath under the nearest arch. The more southerly Marford Bridge spans the mill leat. |