About Us
The archive collection is presently housed in Goostrey Village Hall, and is in the long and laborious process of being catalogued by the team of current archivists, who also put together regular displays and presentations.
They meet most Tuesdays in the committee room (behind the stage) from 14:00 to 16:00. Please feel free to call in or even better get in touch if you are able to offer us any help, support or articles for the collection.
If preferred, photographs and documents can be scanned and returned, and artefacts can be photographed at the archive or in situ.
Current Archivists
Roger Burgess
Roger Burgess was born in Allostock and, five years later, moved to ‘half’ of Barnshaw Hall Farm, when his father became tenant of the County Council 50 acre small holding. He attended Goostrey Primary School and local secondary schools. Following his university education he became a mathematics teacher. He taught in secondary comprehensive schools in Cheshire, Botswana and Staffordshire, eventually retiring from the role of headteacher of a large 11-18 comprehensive school in Warrington.
He and his family have always been involved in village activities. Currently, Roger leads Goostrey Guild, is Deputy Chair of Goostrey Parish Archive and plays the organ at St Luke’s Church. An interest in local history may come from the fact that he can trace the Burgess ancestry to Mobberley in the 1570s. The family has moved nine miles in four and a half centuries!
Stewart Smallwood
Stewart Smallwood was educated at Goostrey Primary and Sandbach Grammar Schools, spending his childhood and teenage years enjoying the simple aspects of village life including fishing, building tree swings in The Bongs, racing go-karts down Church Bank, playing football and attending Peover Cubs and 1st Chelford Scouts. Stewart lived with his parents Colin and Jean, brother James and grandmother Lydia at Smallwood’s General Stores and at Rose Cottage in Goostrey, from the late 1950’s.
Following weekend and holiday work on local farms, and at The Crown Inn in the 60’s and 70’s, Stewart fulfilled a global career in the hotel and catering industry working in 39 countries. In 2015 he returned to 300 year old Rose Cottage in Goostrey.
Stewart’s family history reveals continuous ancestral residence in Goostrey, Twemlow and Blackden since the16th Century, with ancestors working as blacksmiths, sextons, church wardens and shopkeepers. Stewart’s parents were keen local historians and in 2000, they published a book about life in the village entitled ‘Goostrey Remembered’. Stewart has continued the family tradition and is a keen archivist for the Goostrey Parish Archive; a member of the Goostrey Gooseberry Society; and a Trustee of The Blackden Trust.
Derek Hardacre
Derek Hardacre is the archive's "eyes and ears" since many items in the collection result from his tenacity in following leads of material of local interest about to be lost due to bereavement.
He often arrives at meetings with photographs and artefacts that otherwise would have been skipped. A founder member, he settled in Goostrey with his wife, Linda, in 1966 after they married, living first at Cot In The Field and moving to Bank View when a family came along.
The Manchester-born time-served motor engineer was the RAC's main breakdown man based in the village for 23 years. His wife, a leading light in Goostrey Players, has sadly passed away.
A long-term treasurer and member of Goostrey Gooseberry Society, Derek is also a regular winner of trophies and prizes in the annual show at The Crown Inn.
Roger Bennett
Roger arrived in Goostrey in 1968 direct from his honeymoon. Born in Stoke on Trent, educated in Newcastle Staffs and later Manchester qualifying as an Architect in 1969. On the arrival of two children he soon became involved in village activities including: coaching the Cubs football team and the Rose Day, his late wife Margaret was President.
Greater responsibilities followed, a number of years on the Parish Council and as Church Warden at St Luke’s, plus a brief period as a Borough Councillor. The interest in Village history began when researching and writing a history of St Luke’s. This was then expanded to the Clergy from 1220 and to the memorials inside and outside the Church. This one source provides a window on living history, the past is always present and the War Memorial erected in 1922 is a great example of this. As an extension of this interest Roger contributed to “A Directory of the War Memorials in North East Cheshire“ published to commemorate the 100 years since the end of the Great War.
Although now living in Holmes Chapel Roger continues to support St Luke’s church, Goostrey Bowls Club and of course, The Archive Group.
John Williams
John Williams was born Stockport, Cheshire, but has lived and worked in the Goostrey area as a journalist for national and regional newspapers since he was eighteen, starting as a cub reporter with the Congleton Chronicle.
He has been a resident in Goostrey since 1969, first in Mill Lane and from 1974 in Blackden Lane in a cottage recognised as the first Meeting House of early Methodism in Goostrey.
He was educated during World War II, (interrupted by five years of enemy activity in a semi-rural area near Manchester), the University of Life and various private institutions. He joined the archive at the behest of the late Graham Lenihan. His love of local history began as a boy when he roamed ploughed fields near his home looking for artefacts where Danish invaders settled.
His interest continues today as a keen but not too successful metal detectorist mentored by archivist Michael Burt, now sadly deceased. His role in the parish archive includes publishing its activities and publicity. He established the Town and Country Post newspaper in Goostrey in 1982, which circulated for 20 years until the title was sold.
Apart from the archive, John’s interests include writing and editing Country Post and County News and Pictures, a Facebook group in Goostrey.
Jenny Walker
Jenny Walker is an artist and researcher, who has lived in Goostrey since 2014. Several years ago, when visiting a Christmas Fair at the village hall, she stumbled across the archive room, which had opened its doors for the event. Having utilised many valuable archival collections as part of her arts practice, her interest was immediately peaked. With a fascination for history, archaeology and all things old since childhood, she immediately felt at home .
Jenny started her creative career as an object maker, having trained in craft and jewellery making, before becoming a lecturer in design at Manchester School of Art (2006-2016) As a freelancer Jenny writes engagement projects for cultural organisations which explore the relationships between heritage, place, and creative interpretation. You can read more about one of Jenny’s research projects here: https://www.wallpaperhistorysociety.org.uk/bursary-recipient-2018
The love of solving historical mysteries through site specific investigations extends to her own house, which is one of the oldest in Goostrey. The building has been much altered through the centuries but with the archive group’s help we strive to understand its many iterations.
Jenny is the current Chair of Goostrey Parish Archive and brings exhibition design and visual communication skills to the group having curated and installed multiple small exhibitions herself, not to mention 10 years’ worth of Art School degree shows!
Other Contributors
Marion Hooley (nee Marlor) - Early Beginnings
Miss Marion Marlor (1899 – 1988) grew up in Goostrey living at The Ash opposite the Manor House. In 1907 with her friends Emily Cumberbirch and Margaret Worth, Marion put on the first ever ‘Rose Festival’ where she herself was Rose Queen.
A Bible signed by the President of the year was, and still is, given to the queen. One of Goostrey Parish Archive’s most treasured possessions is a signed and dated bible for Emily, rescued from a barn by Nic and Val Hassall in 2020.
In around 1913 Marion hand-wrote ‘The History of Goostrey’ (click to view) after leaving Crewe Secondary School and before starting a course at Crewe Teacher Training College.
Miss Marlor was given access to Ormerod & Earwaker’s records which were held at The Shooting Box, New Platt Lane, Allostock, the home of the Armistead family. Access was also given to records at St. Luke’s Church and the school.
Miss Marlor took up teaching duties at Goostrey School and was its first fully certificated infant teacher. She began teaching in September 1918. In 1926 she married John Hooley of Peover.
Goostrey WI Scrapbook
In 1950 various members of Goostrey WI volunteered to collect information and to help compile a history of the village. This was completed in 1951 and is included in a County Book of the WI. 300 copies of the Goostrey Scrapbook were produced without pictures for local sale. This booklet was reissued later with the permission of Goostrey WI by the Goostrey Local History Group. A copy is in our collection.
Goostrey History Society (incorporating Blackden and Twemlow)
The history society was formed in around the 1960’s and the work involved gathering and recording information about the history of our village. This was before the internet and ‘Google’, so research involved interviewing local people and numerous visits to the County Archives in Chester.
The records and materials collected, along with many photographs by Jean Smallwood and others formed the basis of the current Goostrey Parish Archive.
Contributors to the History Society included:
Colin and Jean Smallwood
Margaret Kettle
Ruth Hough
Arthur Burgess
Eileen Everett
Graham Lenihan
Rev C H Huggill
Also worthy of mention is Rev C H Huggill for the work he did in producing copies of the Parish Registers, copies of which are in the archive along with many other notes re St Luke’s Goostrey.
Jean and Colin Smallwood - Goostrey Remembered
After almost fifty years gathering a huge collection of photographs, documents and artefacts relating to Goostrey, in 2000 Jean Smallwood – supported by her husband Colin and sons James and Stewart, published a book about Goostrey entitled ‘Goostrey Remembered’. Local author Alan Garner remarked that the book was “one of the most important records of village life ever written”.
The Medicine House (The Blackden Trust)
At one time, the archive was stored at The Medicine House (The Blackden Trust) with the kind permission of Alan and Griselda Garner.
Along with some of the current volunteers and those mentioned above, contributors included:
Sue Memmott
Christina Burgess
John Edwards
Marion Edwards
Shirley Collins
Lesley Edwards
Pat Schofield
Helen Rose
John Hopkins
Phil Hulley and Bethan Wiggett, work experience students from HCCS
