GAWSWORTH

[Birtle]

Hi Pat13,
From Joseph Leah's will I've just confirmed his place in my family tree, so your post about Gawsworth has become of some considerable interest to me! I don't know if it takes what you've found out much further, but the County series OS map 1:2500 of 1871 locates 'Gardens' (no more, no less) directly south of 'Brownels'; it's also thus named on an 1897 map. Both maps (though 1871 is a bit indistinct) seem to show nothing more than two buildings side by side, and they're small when compared to the footprints of those at Brownhills and Dalehouse. Gawsworth itself is due south of Gardens. I don't have access to any earlier maps.
Kind regards,
Birtle
PS I've just taken another squint at the 1871 map. It's possible that there was just the one property at the time, but its footprint is apparently identical to that in 1897. However, in 1897 there is clearly a line midway through indicating division into two dwellings.
Trounble is, in 1871 there is a plot number partially obscuring my (myopic) view.

[Pat13]

Hello Birtles....nice to meet you! If you have a copy of Joseph's will you will see what I mean about him seeming quite affluent and not the sort to be living in a small cottage. I can only assume that at one time there was a substantial house there which was demolished at some time.Going through the census returns there are usually two or three families living at Gawsworth Gardens so there must have been more than one property there. We went to see the current house which was supposedly built to replace two cottages which had been on the site but looking through the front door the inside seemed to be a lot older. Unfortunately the present owners were not very forthcoming!
The Leahs were far from rich and I am wondering if the money came from Joseph's second wife.
Where do you fit into the Leah line?
Pat

[carol8353]

Try the Family History Society of Cheshire for Macc and Gawsworth info and their research rooms at Alderley Edge.

http://www.fhsc.org.uk/

Carol

[Birtle]

Hello Pat,
I know very little about Joseph Leah at the mo (let alone his ancestors) as I'd been red-herringed for ages by the 1851 census record for Mary and hubby James, in whose household was a 'niece' Ann Leah aged 16 etc etc. In taking that for gospel I just could not see where Mary fitted into any Leah family. But having at last splashed out on his will it's clear that she was his dtr. That then leads me to believe that Ann was her younger sister, and 'niece' in 1851 was an archaism for 'young sister-in-law' to James.

The Leahs were far from rich and I am wondering if the money came from Joseph's second wife

As for where the money came from, Mary and James were living in Pierce St in 1838 if not before, and I imagine they might have occupied one of Joseph's properties. If so, and if I'm not mistaken (?) that would be during the lifetime of his first wife. So perhaps he was a man of (some) property even then? But that's all speculation on my part.

Where do you fit into the Leah line

I'm descended from Joseph through the female side.
Kind regards,
Birtle

[Pat13]

I must admit I haven't done a lot of work on Joseph either as he isn't my direct line. I got more intrigued with the house actually and the mystery of where he got his money! I'll have to have a proper look at his family and see if it throws up any clues.
He is buried in Gawsworth churchyard with one of his daughters (forget which one, would have to look it up). I suppose there could be more people in the grave but they are the only ones on the headstone.

[Birtle]

Maria (Nixon) is the dtr mentioned on the gravestone. Ann is probably bur in Buxton; Mary in Wilmslow. I'm still working on the others, now that i know which line of Leahs to concentrate on.
 

[Pat13]

I've just unearthed the file so that I can see where I was up to with it. I have his children and seem to have followed them through to 1901. Martin and his children I followed through to 1911 so I will bring the others up to date. Martin's children all seemed to move over to the other side of Manchester, apart from Ernest Albert who moved to Blackpool. Anyway I'm probably teling you stuff you already know.
Are you in the area?
Pat

[Pat13]

Now that I have had a look through the file I see that the 1841 Tithe map distinctly shows a large building and two smaller ones.

[Birtle]

Greetings from Oxfordshire, Pat. I've just looked at the tithe map and again at the 19thc maps. My mistake, there are indeed 2 small separate structures to the south of the larger structure in the 1871 parish view map. What may have prompted me to discount them previously is that this 1871 map seems to locate the 2 small structures in a separately numbered plot from that for the main structure, whereas the tithe map - now I've come to look at it -  lumps all three structures together within the one plot. The 1897 parish view map shows only the main structure (bisected with a line apparently indicating division into two properties) and just one small structure to its south; again they are located in differently numbered plots.
A shire map from the early 1880s also seems to show only 1 small structure (ie in addition to the large one), so presumably the other disappeared late 1870s-early1880s. Later maps confirm that only one of the smaller structures remained, and this seems possibly to have disappeared in the 1950s.
But what to make of Bryant's 1831 map which again seems to show the main structure divided in two, just as in 1897... 
Btw (back to the tithe map and its apportionments) I see where you're coming from with regard to Joseph's perhaps coming into property through his second wife.
Birtle