Barthomley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barthomley is a village and civil parish in the Crewe and Nantwich district of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 202. The village is situated near junction 16 of the M6 motorway and by the border with Staffordshire. It is about three miles south-west of Alsager.

From an article by Jan Roberts, Crewe Chronicle, 30th August 2006:

'At the centre of Barthomley is a group of Jacobean cottages and a fine timber-framed pub, the White Lion.

The church at Barthomley is called St Bertoline's. It stands on a mound called Barrow Hill, which covers an ancient burial mound. St Bertoline was an 8th century Mercian prince. He lived on an island in the River Sow near Stafford, where he performed a miracle.

The present church dates from the 15th century, although there was a church there in Saxon times. Various modifications include a Norman doorway with zigzag mouldings and a sympathetic Victorian restoration. The Marquess of Crewe added a new chancel as a memorial to his heir, the Earl of Madeley, in 1925.

The ancient Crewe family of Crewe Hall are linked to the church: Sir Ranulphe Crewe, Speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of 1624, is buried there.

The church was the scene of a massacre during the Civil War in 1643 when 20 villagers who had fired on Royalists hid there. They were 'smoked out' and attacked. 12 were killed and the rest were badly injured.

The last wolf killed in England, locally believed to have been hunted in Barthomley Wood, is commemorated in the name of the stream running through Barthomley - Wulvern Brook.'

The White Lion is a fine old building, with open fires and stone floors. Part of the wattle-and-daub structure of one wall has been exposed and framed in glass. You'll love the skeleton of the rat!