History of Cheadle, in Staffordshire, and neighbouring places ... With chapters on Croxden Abbey by C. Lynam, and the Cheadle coalfield by W. Molyneux

Preface

. Some towns have derived their pretensions to a certain degree of celebrity by reason of their antiquity; some from the enterprise of their inhabitants in the present or past generations ; and others, it would appear, from the fact of their having been the birth places of great men whose renown has been national rather than merely local. Perhaps Cheadle cannot lay claim to notice on any of these grounds. It may not be so rich in historic incidents as some places; and it may be thought that there are few, if any, individuals who have belonged to the town whose biography would be particularly entertaining. Still it is not without a history ; and as the seat of manufacturing industry, and the centre of a large agricultural district, and of a great extent of mining field, it is not altogether devoid of interestto those who desire to possess local records.

Hitherto the reader of local history might look in vain for anything like detailed particulars of Cheadle, while Stoke-upon-Trent, Leek, Lichfield, Uttoxeter, Burton and other places have had then history related Preface. by townsmen ; and although a county historian (Nightingale) wrote about sixty years ago that " Cheadle has nothing remarkable cither in its history or for its remains of antiquity," the Author hopes he may be pardoned for having made an humble attempt to place together such incidents of the past and such conditions of the present day, in relation to the town and district, as appear to him to possess features of interest, at any rate to those who, like himself, have been born there. The Historv of Cheadle has been produced as a labour of love, and that labour has been performed during moments snatched at intervals from the discharge of the active and not unfrequently embar rassing duties connected with the management of a large business concern.

Strictly accurate compilation, rather than literary display, has been aimed at, and if there are faults of style or arrangement, the Author hopes that readers may be indulgent and not severely critical. Thanks are due to Mr. W. Molyneux, F.G.S., and Mr. Charles Lynam for the chapters bearing thtir names ; to Mr. J. Ingamells, as well as to other gentlemen who have kindly assisted in the production of the work. Cheadle, 1881. Chapter I Totmanslow Hundred — Offlovv, Cuttlestone, plrehill, and seisdon hundreds derivation of Cheadle — Manorial History — The Bassetts and subsequent lords of the manor situa- TION of the Town — Religious Census — Census of the Town, Parish, and Union. 1,^.^-g^ OTMANSLOW, which gives the ■yi^y^s I^TlS*,' name to the Hundred in which 0f£^ ty-f'A Cheadle is situated, is a small hgi^fi, ffM^<M hamlet on a lofty eminence half a i.*;^S_^^Ari->! mile east of the village of Draycot, '■ and in the parish bearing the latter name.

In olden times, when the distinctions of Hundreds or Wapentakes had more significance than now — when an owner of property, sustaining damage to that property by rioters or losing it by thieves, sought his remedy against the Hundred — when, at the assembling of each district for the B administration of justice and like purposes, each ■vassal attended armed and "touched" the spear of rhis overlord, in token of homage — a court baron was held in this little agricultural hamlet. The places from which all these divisions into Hundreds in Staffordshire took their names are obscure and insignificant spots ; so insignificant, in fact, that the farm, hamlet, or village of Offlow is marked on no map and is not alluded to in the county histories; while Cuttlestone, which gave a name to one Hundred, is only known by a bridge over the Penk near Penkridge ; two farms near Aston gave the name to Pirehill Hundred; a hamlet, containing a few houses, as stated above, gave the name to Totmanslow; and Seisden Hundred is so called after a small village near Trysull on the borders of Shropshire.

Most of the names of the places in Totmanslow are of Saxon origin, like that of the Hundred itself, which signifies Deadman's grave. And yet the derivation of the name of the town under notice is not easy to discover with certainty. It has been spelt in various ways at different periods — Ccdda, Celle, Chedull, Chedle, Cheadle. Mr. Francis Redfern, the historian of Uttoxeter, thinks the word was probably derived from Ceorles — merchants or traders — or Ceapan (Saxon, to buy or sell), or a compound of the two, denoting that the place to which it is applied is, or has been, a market town. Then again, it bears a near affinity to "deal," to trade — (Anglo-Saxon, deel). A writer in a local newspaper — the Staffordshire Sentinel — recently without hesitation attributed the origin of the name to Ceorle— merchant, trader, or small freeholder, according to the Saxon tongue.

This view is not entirely supported nor is it disproved by the documents given by Omerod in the History of Cheshire with regard to the origin of Cheadle in that county. " It is clear from a deed by Dr. Williamson, in the Vill-Cestr, that Cheadle [Cheshire] was held directly from the Earl of Chester in the lime of Hugh Kevelioc (1150 — 1180), as that Earl quitclaimed to Robert de Chedle 'four porkers, which he used to pay the Earl by agreement, made in loVe before his barons.'" The same was supposed to have been brought in marriage to Geoffry, son of Hugh de Dutton, ancestor of a family " which assumed the name of Chedle and were settled here and at Clifton." Cheadle Hulme is termed a "moiety of the manor of Cheadle in the Inquisition, being that portion of the original vill of Chedle which passed with Clemence, daughter and coheiress of Roger of Chedle to William de Bagalegh."

Again, " Cheadle and Wimslow were erected on lands separated from the domain of Earl Edwin." But the manor of Cheadle in Staffordshire is two generations older than the date named by Omerod, and possibly the Cheadle family he names may have possessed lands in Staffordshire and either taken their name from or given it to the town under notice. The Manor of Cheadle, like that of other places, is in reality a freehold estate held by the Lord of the Manor, who is entitled by immemorial custom to maintain a tenure between himself and the copyhold tenants. Copyhold is technically expressed as " tenure by copy of court roll, at the will of the lord according to the custom of the manor," which means that it is tenure of land, being part of a manor, and the right of the owner being in conformity with immemorial customs of the manor, Manors originated in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, the vills and places mentioned m Domesday being so designated.

The Conqueror divided his kingdom into knights' fees. Such of the barons as had extensive fees or possessions adjacent united them into one manor for the convenience of holding their courts, and granted out the lands to their tenants upon rents and services to be rendered at the Manorial Court. Subinfeudation was prohibited by statute in the reign of Edward I, and no manor could be created after that date. It follows that all existing manors must trace their origin from feudal times and that copyhold estates are a relic of ancient feudalism. They now form an exception to the general rule in England, where freeholds constitute the highest kind of estate known to the law. The lord of every manor is now authorised to enfranchise or convert into freehold the copyhold lands by agreement with the holders.

According to the Blore mss., in the William Salt Library, in the 20th year of the reign of the Conqueror, Robertus held Celle of Robert Baron de Stafford. In the 22nd year of the reign of Henry II., Osbertus Basswynne held Chelle or Cheadle and gave the same to William Bassett, younger son of Richard Bassett and Maud Riddell, Richard being the younger son of Ralph Bassett, of Drayton. This William Bassett was also seated at Sapcote, in the county of Leicester, and in the 9th year of the reign of Henry II. executed the office of Sheriff for the counties of Warwick and Leicester, as deputy to his brother Ralph. In the following year he executed that office for Leicestershire for himself, a*ul from the nth to the 15th inclusive and half of PIistory of Cheadle. 7 the 16th of Henry II., was himself Sheriff for both of those counties.

It appears from the great roll of 20th Henry II., that during his shrievalty he added two Knights to the five Knights and ten sergeants who before had kept guard in Warwick Castle pursuant to an order of the Barons of the Exchequer, and about the 16th and in the 26th and 29th of Henry II. , he was one of those Barons himself (Madon's History Exchequer). In the 19th of Henry II. on an inquisition by commission concerning all the Sheriffs of England, he paid a fine of /"ioo for some transgression in that office. Two years later he was one of the justices itinerant in Yorkshire, as also in the 24th of the same King. In the 23rd year of Henry II. he executed the office of Sheriff of Lincolnshire for one half of that year, and from that time to the 30th of that King's reign inclusive. He had issue Sir Simon, his successor Ralph, ancestor to the Bassetts of Blore, and a daughter Emma; who was married to Sir Robert de Grendon, of Grendon, Warwickshire, Knight.

This Simon, in the 6th year of the reign of Richard I., married one ofthe daughters and co-heirs of William Averill, of Haddon-in-the-Peake, Derbyshire, and was living in the 20th year of the reign of Henry III. He built a college for a warden and priest at Sapcote, and had issue Ralph, who married Millicent, one of the daughters and co-heirs to Robert de Chancumbe about the 15th of Henry III. This Ralph gave to Ralph Bassett, his cousin german — namely, the son of Ralph — the Park Hall in Cheadle. He had the shrievalty of Lincolnshire from the 25th to the 29th of Henry III. inclusive, and in the 32nd Henry III. went on a pilgrimage to St. James's in Gallicia. In the 42nd of Henry III., he received command to attend the King at Chester, well fitted with horse and arms to restrain the incursions of the Welsh, and the same year was made governor of Northampton Castle.

He received the same appointment five years afterwards. But in the 48th of Henry III., he sided with the rebellious barons, and was then in arms with them at Northampton. And soon afterwards, the King being taken prisoner at Lewes, and the barons having consequently all in their power, he was the first person by them summoned to the Parliament which they held in the King's name (49th Henry III.), and the first person ever called to Parliament by writ of summons. He was afterwards with the barons at Evesham Castle, where they were totally overlhrown. He had issue Ralph Lord Bagot, Baron of Sapcote (living 24th Edward I.), who by Elizabeth his wife, the daughter of Roger Lord Colville, left issue Simon, who amongst other great men of that time in the month of June, 1294 (22nd Edward I.) had summons to attend the King wheresoever he should be to advise touching the weighty affairs of the realm, and shortly afterwards he was commanded to attend at Portsmouth well furnished with horse and arms thence to accompany him into Cascoigne.

By Isabella his wife (daughter of William Lord Boteler of Wem), who survived him, he had issue Ralph Lord Bassett, who in the 4th of Edward IL, was in the expedition to Scotland, and was commanded to go to Newcastle-upon-Tyne well provided with horse and arms to march against the Scots. He subsequently joined the army of Edward III., whom he accompanied into France to raise the seige of Aquillon. He fought at the memorable battle of Cressy, and took part in many other engagements against the French. During his absence from England Robert, the son of Walter de Colville, died without issue, and it was found by inquisition that his inheritance descended to him (Ralph Bassett). After all his military employments, he founded a chantry in the church of Sapcote for three priests to celebrate divine service "for the health of his soul," and endowed the same with lands of good value.

Dying soon after — namely, on the Sunday preceding the feast of St. Margaret, 2nd Richard II., seized of the manor of Cheadle, besides considerable estates in the counties of Lincoln, Northampton, and Leicester — he left two daughters his co-heirs — namely, Alice has elder daughter, then married to Sir Robert Moxen, of Peckleton, and Elizabeth his younger daughter, married to Richard, grandson of John Lord Grey, of Codmore. Upon the partition, tire Manor of Cheadle came to Lord Grey. He was a very active man in the wars with France in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V-, and died about the 6th year of the reign of Henry V-, his wife Elizabeth surviving. Failing male issue (the name of this once powerful family of Bassetts having become extinct) the manor came to Lord Zouch, I__ord Grey's kinsman; but the estate was, before the death of Elizabeth, settled on the Duke of Somerset and some others, to the intent that out of the revenues thereof they should discharge the debts and funeral expenses of Elizabeth and her husband; that she should be buried by her husband, at Aylesford in Kent ; and that they should " sind a priest to sing there for the soules of her said husband, her children, and herself for seven years, and to pay to the fryars preachers at Stamford, ten pounds per annum for the like service; which, being perform'd, she settl'd this manor upon John, the son of William Lord Zouch."

The manor subsequently changed hands several times by purchase. In the early part of the eighteenth century it was sold by Edward Lord Harley, and his wife Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies Harley (daughter of Henry late Duke of Newcastle, who was only son and heir of William first Duke of Newcastle, by Elizabeth Duchess of Newcastle, his wife, who was daughter and sole heiress of William Bassett of Bloor in the county of Stafford) to Mr. Penniston Lamb, of Lincoln's Inn. In 1719 it was again sold by Mr. Lamb to Mr. Joseph Banks, of Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, grandfather of Sir Joseph Banks, to whom reference will be made hereafter. It remained in this family till 1 791 ; when it was sold by the trustees of Sir Joseph Banks, to Mr. John Holliday, of Lincoln's Inn, to whose exertions many of the hills and valleys in the neighbourhood of Cheadle and Dilhorne owe their present picturesque appearance.

Mr. Holliday died in 1801, and left the manor to his grandson, John Buller Yarde-Buller, who was afterwards raised to the peerage as Baron Churston. Sir John Yarde-Buller was born April 12th, 1799; was educated at Oriel College, Oxford ; succeeded his father, Sir Francis Buller Yarde-Buller, as third Baronet in 1834. He represented South Devon in Parliament 1835-58. He married on the 24th of January, 1823, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas Wilson Patten, of Bank Hall, Lancashire, and had issue John Buller, born 1823 ; educated at Eton and St. Mary's Flail, Oxford; appointed Lieut. -Col. of the South Devon Militia, 1863, and was Deputy- Lieut, of Devonshire ; married 1845, Charlotte, daughter of the late E. S. Chandos Pole, of Redbourne Hall, Derby; had with other issue, John, born 1846. His daughter Bertha, born 1825, married 1854, Sir Matthew Lopes, Bart., M.P. The Baronetage dates from 1790.

In 1858, Sir John was created Baron Churston in the peerage of the United Kingdom. His Lordship's first wife died 1857, and he married, secondly (in 1861) Caroline 3rd daughter of the late Sir Robert William Newman, ist Baronet, and her ladyship died in 1866. He was brother to Sir Edward Manningham Buller, Bart. Arms. — Quarterly: ist and 4th sable, on a cross, argent, quarterly, pierced, of the field, four eagles displayed of the first, Buller ; 2nd and 3rd, argent, a chevron, gules, between three water bougets, Yarde. Crest. — A Saracen's head, couped, proper. Supporters. — Dexter, an ostrich, proper, in the beak a horse shoe, or; sinister, an eagle sable. In the old arms of the baronetcy there is no motto ; but in the arms of the barony of Churston is the motto adopted by Sir E. M. Buller, Bart., — " Aqyila non capet muscas" — The eagle does not catch flies.

The first baron died in September, 1871. He was succeeded by his grandson, John Yarde-Buller, who was born October 26th, 1846. The Manor of Cheadle was purchased from the executors of the first Lord Churston by Mr. Alfred Sohier Bolton, of Moor Court, in 1872. The old manorial residence once stood on the Park Hall estate. The moat and portions of the foundation of the old building remain. At the present time Park Hall is owned by Mr. Almond. The town is situated on the northern slope and base of a hill rising out of the centre of a valley, the summit of the hill, called the Park, considerably b higher than the houses, affording a wide and pleasant prospect. The ridges which bound the view from Cheadle on the south east and the west are now clothed with fir plantations, forming an ornamental feature in the landscape.

The town is about midway between the Churnet Valley line and the main line of the North Staffordshire Railway running from Stoke-upon-Trent to Derby. It is intersected by the roads from Newcastle to Ashbourne, and from Leek to Uttoxeter. There are four main streets, irregularly built of bricks, but containing some good houses. Cheadle is a parish 6701 acres in extent, a market town, head of a union, petty sessional and county court district, and a polling place for North Staffordshire. It is distant about ten miles from Leek, Uttoxeter, and Stone; about the same distance from the centre of the Potteries, and 147 miles from London. Amongst the manuscripts collected by the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, which are preserved in the William Salt Library at Stafford, is one evidently written in the time of Queen Elizabeth, setting forth the number of houses in various parishes in Staffordshire, including Cheadle, 195; Cheddleton, 203 ; Caverswall, 274; Draycot, 84.

Allowing five for each house (the average at the present time) the population of Cheadle parish in the 16th century would appear to have been 975; Cheddleton, 1015; Caverswall, 1370; Draycot, 420. Kingsley is mentioned in connection with other places beyond the limits of the Hundred of Totmanslow. In 1676 a Religious Census of the Province of Canterbury was taken, the Bishops in the different dioceses employing their ministers and churchwardens of the several parishes to " give an account of the Inhabitants, Papists, and other Dissenters." A copy of the Census in ms, is in the William Salt Library. At the time the Census was taken Cheadle union was all included in the then extensive Deanery of Uttoxeter. The following figures are taken from the volume : — Taking the whole of the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield the Nonconformists were less than five per cent, and the Roman Catholics a fraction over one per cent, of the population.

The two foregoing statements are not incon sistent with each other. It may be that the figures were based on slightly different boundaries, and while one shows approximately the population of Cheadle and district in the sixteenth century the other indicates the dominant religious feeling in the next. It is represented that Draycot contained 84 houses in the sixteenth century and only 100 inhabitants in the seventeenth, which may have been the actual numbers. Various causes may have operated to reduce or increase the population of any given place in days long since passed away as well as at a more recent period ; and even in Place or Township. Conformists. Papists. Nonconformists. Draycott-in-ye-Moors Chedleton Dylhorne Croydon (Croxden ?) Alveton Carswell Ipstones Chedle Checkley Kingslegh 88 300 352 129 400 205 403 1000 473 399 o 6 2 O 14 15 12 4 39 1 12 20 II O 2 7 73 i 6 the decade ending April 1871 there were some remarkable fluctuations, from causes presently to be explained from official sources, in places in the Cheadle Union.

Precise and reliable information is now obtainable as to the population, though Cheadle itself is one of those towns which have no recognised boundaries that are deemed suitable as a basis for a return of population. In each such case the superintendent registrar distinguishes the houses which in his opinion may properly be considered within the limits of the town. In the town of Cheadle the superintendent returned the population in 1871 as 2929, and the inhabited houses 645, while no less than 51 houses were uninhabited, a decrease of 56 inhabited houses and 262 persons since 1861, when the figures were — 701 inhabited houses, and a population of 3191. But to take a defined boundary, it appears from the official census that the population of the parish (which includes the hamlets of Freehay, Cheadle Grange, Cheadle Mill, Brookiston, Huntley and part of Oakamoor) has increased from 2750 in 1801, when the first regular census was taken, to 4492 in 1871, the date of the last census.

While the increase had been slow but regular each decade from 1801 to 1861, during the ten years ending 1871 there was a decrease of 311. The Registrar General's returns give the following as the census of Cheadle Parish. 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 2750 3191 3862 4iig 4399 4681 4803 Superintendent Registrar's District. (st) The decrease of population in the parish of Cauldon and in the township of Alton is considered to have been caused by the Registrar's Sub-district Parish, Township or Place, Area in statute acres Inhabit 1S,,I Houses I 1 871 1 Popu I 1861 [lation Alton. Cauldon (a) Parish Alton Parish : Alton Township) Upper and Lower Cotton . .Township I Farley Townships Denstone Township ) Bradley-in-the-Moors Parish Kingsley Parish ; (b) Kingsley \ Whiston Township )" Ipstones with part of Foxt hamlet (e) Parish Part of the parish of Checkley with part of Cheddleton Parish : [Foxt Hamlet Cheddleton and Rownall . .Township) Cunsall Township I Basford Township ) Caverswall (d) Parish Dilhorne Parish : Dilhorne fe) ) Forsbrook Township) Draycott-in-the-Moors Parish Cheadle (w) (f) Parish Part of Checkley (g) Parish H58 77 73 400 I 1871 365 Ipstones. 7379 j 253 88 82 253 95 95 53 11 1173 446 390 241 43 1074 477 421 263 5<> 650 53 11 47'4 | 291 137 373 259 141 34' 1332 708 | 1904 ; 1196 I 689 6490 Dilhorne. 393 9080 \ 24 301 49 76 609 21 312 45 72 789 124 1374 248 428 3046 ng 1502 226 53oo 37o 4082 Cheadle. 3648 3690 6701 5643 55146 *74 162 89 1034 507 154 187 87 981 5i8 4487 849 724 45i 4803 2304 I 20988 734 802 j 43o ! 4492 I I 2234 | 1 21190I Total closing of some paper mills.

Cauldon parish includes the town ship of Cauldon and the village of Waterhouses. (*) The decrease of population in the parishes of Kingsley and Ipstones and in the township of Basford, is attributable to exhaustion of iron mines in the locality and the migration consequent thereon. (c) The hamlet of Foxt is partly in Ipstones parish and partly in Checkley parish. The remaining part of the parish of Checkley is in the Cheadle sub-district, {d) The progress of the staple (pottery) trade of the district is assigned as the cause of the increase of population in the parish of Caverswall, a portion of which adjoins Longton. Caverswall parish includes the hamlets of Cookshill and Mear Lane, Dividy Lane. Werrington, Mear, and Adderley Green. (e) The decrease of population in Dilhorne is attributable to the exhaustion of collieries and the dispersion of workmen and their families.

Dilhorne includes Boundary and Daisy Bank. (/) The decrease of population in the parish of Cheadle is attributed to the partial exhaustion of the iron mines in the neighbourhood, and to the temporary closing of a factory. (g) This part of the parish of Checkley includes the villages of Lower Tean and Checkley. The remainder of the parish is in the Ipstones sub-district. Population of Sub-Registrars' Districts. Marriages, Births, and Deaths In Cheadle Superintendent Registrar's District, which is identical with the Poor Law Union. Place. 1801 1811 1821 1831! 1 1841 1851 1861 1871 Alton ' 1964 Ipstones ; 3351 Dilhorne \ 2330 Cheadle ' 4124 2298 3765 2620 4SS9 2604, 4270' 30701 5932 2813 4464 3256 6366 2788 4831 3602; 6638 274° 4826 i 37i6 6806 2693 61 18 5070 107 2650 5775 6048 6726 Total in the Union. 11769 13572 15876 16899 17859 18088 20988 2 1 199 Population Registered in the ten years 1861-70.

Excess of registered births over deaths 1861-70 Increase of population between censuses of 1861-71 1 861 1S71 Marriages Births Deaths aogSS 21199 1606 7713 4427 32S6 The small increase of population notwithstanding the large increase of births over deaths is accounted for by the natural migration of the inhabitants to large centres of industry. Chapter II. Wakes — Fairs — Customs — Agriculture of the District — County and Cheadle Societies — Turnpike Roads — Trees, &c. .-. aa:*-.^^ e, '-*, H E A D L E, it may appear, has not '*vffiirt'\i^A- Pr°gI'essed so rapidly as some iy3 v\%$fixA' othei places, but it is not difficult ;-"«vv Vj^i'&ii to f-nca reason f°r this- It must i^-u^x^s-ircrsls* not* however, be inferred that no - — - — _. ■_______. advance has been made, and that the external appearance of the town and the habits of the people have not been improved.

Within little more than a quarter of a century the parish church has been rebuilt and the approaches to it have been improved ; a Roman Catholic edifice has been erected from the designs of one of the country's greatest architects, and fitted up with lavish splendour ; while commodious places of worship have been provided by the Nonconformists, and schools of all kinds abound. It is true that the feast of the dedication of the parish church (the wake) is annually observed during the week which commences on the Sunday next St. Giles's Day, the first of September ; and that the f_yrs are held on the festivals of the Epiphany (January 6th), the Annun ciation (March 5th), the Ascension and St. Luke (October 18th); also on May 6th, July 6th, and August 21st, the latter being called " mellow pear fair."

And it is also true that exceptions might be taken, occasionally, to the manner in which some of these celebrations are carried out. But in this respect there has been a change and an improvement, in testimony of which a quotation may be made from a letter written in 1875, by Mr. W. H. Keates, a native of Cheadle, then residing in South Devon : — " Since I was a boy the festivities of the people have greatly changed. Sixty-five years ago, bull baiting was the great sport of the wakes ; and on the Wakes Sunday morning the bull or bulls to be baited were led about the parish, and collections were made towards the expenses ! Football was played on Shrove Tuesday in the main street of the town, when shopkeepers put up their shutters, it being held that they had no remedy for broken windows on that day."

These and many other objectionable practices, including cock fighting, were continued to a much later period than sixty-five years ago; but such barbarity and lawlessness are now numbered with the past, never again to be revived. In olden times the system of "gooding" was carried on at Cheadle as well as in other parts of Staffordshire at Christmas time; and not only old men and women, but representatives from every poor family in the parish, made their rounds in quest of alms. During their peregrinations it was customary for the recipients of money to present to their benefactors a sprig of misletoe. It was also a practice here and at other places at one time for sums of money to be collected from the wealthy inhabitants and placed in the hands of the clergyman and churchwardens, who on the Sunday nearest St. Thomas's Day distributed it in the vestry under the name of St. Thomas's Dole. c " Whether the mummery of 'guisers' (disguisers)," writes Mr. Keates, "who went about the parish at Christmas when I was a boy, do so still, I do not know.

The church singers and ringers went about the parish making collections for their services. Christmas waits or musicians, who for a month previously had gone about the parish giving night serenades, on Christmas Day and following days called on the parishioners with their music and made collections." Opinions are much divided on the subject of waits. There are those who charac terise nocturnal musicians as nuisances and their music as a barbarous relic of a byegone age. On the other hand, others profess to love "sweet music in the stillness of the night." The practice has not been discontinued altogether, nor is it a nuisance of an intolerable character, if a nuisance at all, at Cheadle, and will only die out altogether when a period is put to the almsgiving by which it has hitherto been supported.