Most of you will have read the story of Ellen Yates. If so, it is not one that is easily forgotten. 
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Click here to read the original story of Ellen Yates.

As we know, Ellen lost both of her parents, James and Margaret Yates, within a few weeks of each other, in early 1870.
​The next we know of Ellen is the April 1871 Census, where she is still at home with her brother James as the head of household. 

She must have been in a state of distress and confusion during the time of the census, as just four months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. The girl was born at Hop Yard Farm, Croft and was named Margaret. 
No father is on the birth certificate, thus no baptism is registered.

​Margaret had been born prematurely and sadly only lived for one month.
​Ellen's brother James registered the death.

​James registered the death on 9th September, stating it had happened that day, but the burial register for Croft Unitarian Chapel says that she died on 7th and was buried on 8th September. I can only assume that she was buried in the family grave, though the name is not on the stone - perhaps because she was illegitimate.

​Somehow, Ellen struggled through the next three years, but must have been overwhelmed with emotion on the weekend that would have been her daughters third birthday. After work on Saturday 8th August 1874, she drowned herself in a marl pit and was found the next day.

IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH

The Buildings of England is an unrivalled series of comprehensive architectural guides covering every English county all periods from prehistoric times to the present day.
​The South Lancashire volume was first published in 1969.

Atherton (Chowbent)

UNITARIAN CHURCH, Bolton Old Road. Built in 1721 as a Presbyterian chapel. Enlarged in 1901. Brick with arched windows in two tiers. Nice open cupola. Bulgy stone gatepiers.
 
Cadishead

ST MARY, Liverpool Road. 1891 by J. Lowe. No tower. The W end is incomplete.

WESLEYAN CHAPEL, Liverpool Road. 1873-4. Red brick with a pedimental gable. Italianate, if anything.

On the W side of the road is one three-bay Georgian house with a column-porch.

Croft

CHRIST CHURCH, Lady Lane. 1832-3 by Blore, a Commissioners’ church. It cost £1457. Red sandstone, S W steeple with wholly incorrect spire of quite an enterprising design. Lancet windows and short chancel. The galleries have been removed.

ST LEWIS (R.C.), Little Town. 1826-7. Brick, to the E the church, to the W and flush with it the priest’s house. The latter has a chequer front and a doorway with recessed columns, the former arched windows and a W pediment and pedimented W porch. The E wall inside is distinguished by pilasters, as the Catholics liked it.
 
Culcheth

HOLY TRINITY, Newchurch. 1904-5 by Travers & Ramsden. Incredibly retardataire. This brand of neo-Norman might be 1850. – BRASS. A brass inscription to Elizabeth Egerton 1646 is signed John Sale sculpsit – an oddity of the first order.

LITTLE WOOLDEN HALL, 1 ½ m. WSW. Brick, c.1800. A seven bay front with the three middle bays a little recessed. Niches l. and r. of the doorway.
 
Glazebrook
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STATION. With gables with divers patterns to the bargeboards. The water basin with dock leaf is dated 1872.

Glazebury

ALL SAINTS. 1851 by E. H. Shellard.

HURST HALL. Mr Jeffrey Howarth allowed me to mention the barn, which must have been the hall of a house and seems to date from the C15. It has heavy timbers: tie-beams on arched braces, cusped kingposts and cusped raking queenposts, and three tiers of quatrefoiled wind-braces.

LIGHT OAKS HALL. The E side is spectacular, evidently possible only if the house was originally much larger. It consists of a five-plus-five-light transomed window on the ground floor with the doorway close to it, a window of the same size above the other, and five-light windows with transoms further on on the r. There is a date 1657 inside and that suits the façade fragment. See image above.

Hollins Green

ST HELEN. 1735 the body of the church, and perhaps the cupola. All other detail 1882.

Irlam

ST JOHN BAPTIST. Liverpool Road, Jenny Green, Higher Irlam. 1865-6 by J. Medland Taylor. Small, with a crossing tower with broach spire, very short transepts, and an apse. The W wall has a most unorthodox rose-window. Internally the Taylor touch is the crossing arches of voussoirs of alternating thickness – just as in certain Georgian door surrounds. And whereas this motif is used simply and straightforwardly in the arches of the S windows, in the crossing arches it is done in two orders. Inside the roof timbers start very low, and the church is made lighter by dormers in the roof.

ST TERESA (R.C.), Liverpool and Astley Roads. 1903 by Oswald Hill.

Risley

ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY SITE. A Large area with a number of big blocks with curtain walls. 1956 etc. They are by T. L. Viney and R. S. Brocklesby. Two large, six-storeyed office blocks plus laboratories and a reactor.

Winwick

MYDDLETON HALL, 1m. E. Dated 1658, but the gables evidently C19. Brick. The front is symmetrical, with one recessed bay between two projecting bays. Mullioned-and-transomed windows.
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MYDDLETON HALL FARMHOUSE (Or Delph House). Dated 1657. Not symmetrical, with a little raised brick decoration.

​On the 13th instant, one William Higginson, of Culcheth, near Leigh, having charg’d a Gun with an intent to shoot at some Crows, sat down at his Door with the Gun upon his Knees, in order to do something at the Flint, when it accidentally went off, and by recoiling against his Groin, bruised him so much that he died the next Morning.

TRAP ACCIDENT AT CULCHETH –
​A horse and trap belonging to the late Mr. Whiston, of Croft, was standing in the goodsyard at Culcheth Station on Saturday afternoon when the horse got startled by an engine, and it suddenly set off down the yard and got on to the main line, down which it ran to Lowton St Mary’s Station before it was stopped.
Fortunately no trains were running at the time, The trap was smashed and the horse cut.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT - WARRINGTON
Monday Night - A sad scene took place at the Railway station, in this town, this afternoon. The Birmingham train from Manchester brought a young woman, to all appearance in a dying state, who had been run over by the train as it passed the Kenyon Junction, on the Liverpool and Manchester line.

Her left leg was hanging sadly mutilated from her body, one of her shoulders was dislocated, and her head considerably injured. The shrieks she uttered on being lifted out of the carriage will not be readily forgotten by those who heard them; she was evidently suffering the most intense agony.

The moment the train stopped, every assistance was rendered by Mr Rutter, the agent at the station, and the other persons employed there. The sufferer was conveyed to the Patten Arms Hotel, which adjoins the station, and by the time she was got up stairs, Mr Hunt, surgeon, and Mr. Robson, the house-surgeon to the Warrington dispensary, were in attendance.

On examination, it was found that the wheels of the engine had passed along the left leg from the centre of the thigh down to the foot, and that the limb was crushed to a complete mummy.

Amputation was immediately resorted to. The operation was performed by Dr Hunt. The poor woman was insensible during the greater part of the operation; she gradually sunk, and did not survive longer than a quarter of an hour after it had been performed...

From inquiries made since the accident, I learn that the deceased was a hand loom weaver, named Johanna Sankey, of Croft, in this county. She was an interesting, good-looking girl, in the 23d year of her age.

The engineer in charge of the train states that the deceased ran across the rails at the Kenyon Junction just as the train was passing, when it was not more than a few yards from her; that the engine knocked her down, and the whole train passed over her. He stopped the engine immediately, and no medical assistance being at hand, it was deemed advisable to bring her on to Warrington, after a ligature had been applied by a passenger to the bleeding and fractured limb.

She had been to Liverpool to nurse a sick brother, filling the situation of porter at Blezard's liquor vaults. Her brother, it seems, had sufficiently recovered to permit of his removal to Croft, and accordingly they both came to the Kenyon Junction by the first train, leaving Liverpool at a quarter before twelve o'clock.

A spring cart was waiting to convey them to Croft from the station, and just after her brother and his luggage had been got into it, she found that he had left his stick on the opposite side of the rails. This led to her untimely death. She ran towards the stick but had scarcely advanced five yards when the Birmingham train came up and killed her, as a'ready described.

The image above shows just how neatly the burial ground was kept whilst the chapel was open. If you look at the gentleman walking down the path, you can see the two original yew trees next to him.
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All of the trees, plants and grass are immaculate in the few images available from over the years.
​The last 30 years are where you can really see the difference.
​In 1993, you can still see the two trees, though they seem to be growing bigger.

By 2006, the two yew trees now look like one and have grown out in every direction.

By September 2021, the two trees have fully merged into one and have brambles and ivy growing between the branches. They are damaging the graves and the path.

The maintenance of the graveyard is the legal responsibility of Warrington Borough Council, but as you probably know, they do little more than cut the grass every six weeks or so. Despite bringing this to their attention, they have done nothing different.

Thankfully, Croft Parish Council were willing to listen and to help. They have agreed to pay for a specialist landscaping team to cut back the yew trees to two individual trees at a managable size and also to clear the remaining weeds and overgrowth around the grounds.

​Work is due to begin soon. Thankyou, Croft Parish Council!

Those who have read the sad story of Ellen Yates will know that she was employed as a mill hand in Birkenhead, according to her death certificate.
I had assumed she must have travelled there by horseback, or even walking. Somebody else suggested that she may have had lodgings in Birkenhead, which is also possible.

It is unlikely we will ever know for certain how she travelled to work and how often, but I wanted to look further into it.

I came across an advertisement in a copy of the Leigh Chronicle from 1856 showing train times and prices.

Leigh would probably still have been too far out for her to walk, though she did have family in Leigh at the time.

Culcheth Station wasn’t opened until 1884, after her death, which ruled out her travelling from there. I then found that another local station, Kenyon Junction Station, had been open to the public from 1831.

An estimate of the distance from where she lived (Hop Pole Farm) to Kenyon Junction is about two and a half miles, which she could have easily walked.
The train journey took one hour and forty minutes, meaning a long day for her if this was the method she used.
The Kenyon Junction Station was on the Liverpool to Manchester Line and there were many routes to Birkenhead mills available from Liverpool Crown Street Station.

Listing marks and celebrates a building's special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system, so that it can be protected for future generations.

The older a building is, and the fewer the surviving examples of its kind, the more likely it is to be listed.

Historic England makes recommendations to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and they make the final decision as to whether a building should be listed or not.
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• Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest, only 2.5% of listed buildings are Grade I
• Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.8% of listed buildings are Grade II*
• Grade II buildings are of special interest; 91.7% of all listed buildings are in this class

As well as listed buildings, there are Local Listings and Local Heritage Assets and Historic Environment Records.

Local listing helps to raise the profile of local heritage by identifying heritage assets that are of greatest importance to local people. 
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Local heritage assets can range from buildings, designed landscapes, archaeology and elements of the natural environment. 

The Historic Environment Record (HER) is the record of all known designated and non-designated archaeological sites and historic landscapes.It includes sites dating from prehistory through to the military remains of the more recent past.

There are 13 listed buildings in Croft, all of these are Grade II.

There are 7 Historic Monument records in Croft, 3 of these being the sites of the accomodation for the Royal Ordnance Factory at Risley. These are now the Emerald Drive estate, Taylor Business Park and HMP Risley.
The site of HMS Ariel is another listing. The former Croft Unitarian Chapel and its burial ground are both listed.
​The final one is a ditched enclosure at Southworth Hall Farm.

There are 19 local listings in Croft.
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• The former Croft School
• Milestone opposite Rowe Farm
• Rowe Farm
• Oven Back Farm
• 143 Mustard lane
• Highfield, Kenyon Lane
• Yew Tree House
• Heath House
• Beech Farm
• Plough Inn
• Bradley House (115 Stone Pit Lane)
• Turret Hall
• Kenylo Bridge
• Southworth Hall
• 60/62 New Lane
• 52/54 Smithy Brow
• 18 Dam Lane
• Horseshoe Public House
• 18 Lord Street

DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY.
 
On Sunday week thousands of people assembled in Risley and Croft to witness a military funeral in the graveyard attached to the local Unitarian Chapel. The people had come from many miles around, scores on bicycles and motor cycles, others in motor car, carriages, cabs and wagonettes, to say nothing of hundreds of pedestrians from Glazebury and the surrounding districts.
The fallen soldier - Rifleman Harold Houghton came of a well-known Risley family, Mr. and Mrs. Houghton, the parents, having for a number of years kept the Noggin Inn.
Mr. Houghton, the father, like his father before him, was an ironworker, who used to walk daily some five miles to work at the Vulcan Works, Earlestown.
Mr. Houghton had a family of eight boys and girls.

ENLISTED WITH A BROTHER.
 
After the war broke out, two of the boys, Harold, who was 24 years of age, and Fred, who is 15 years old, and who were both mechanics, determined to do what they could to help their country, so enlisted seven months ago, in the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, and in due course, after receiving training, were drafted away to France together, and ultimately fought together in the same trench, in the historic battle of Neuve Chapelle.
All went well with them until a week ago last Thursday, March 18th, when Rifleman Harold was shot in the head and his skull fractured.
His brother assisted in his removal from the trench.
 
SHOT IN THE HEAD IN A BAYONET CHARGE.

He received his hurt when taking part in a bayonet charge levelled at the German advance trenches. After being taken to hospital he was sent to England, arriving in Norwich Military Hospital on Friday night, March 19th. He never complained of pain, and had nothing but praise to utter concerning the hospital arrangements He said that nothing more could be done for him than was actually done. It was apparent, however, that he was dangerously hurt.
Since their sons enlisted Mr. and Mrs. Houghton had removed to Rochdale.
Mrs. Houghton, on hearing of her son's misfortune, went to the hospital at Norwich to visit him, and remained at his bedside until death took
place on Wednesday, March 24th.

WELL-KNOWN LOCAL FOOTBALLER.
 
Rifleman Harold Houghton was an Oddfellow. The members of the lodge to which he belonged held their meetings at the Noggin Inn. He was also a footballer, and played in the Leigh and District Sunday Schools League, and more recently in the Warrington and District League. He was also a popular member of the Risley Institute.
 
The body was removed from Norwich on Thursday, and arrived at the house of his eldest brother. Herbert, at Risley, on Friday. Mr. James Henshaw, a local undertaker, carried out the funeral arrangements.
The gallant Rifleman was buried with military honours.
 
AN IMPRESSIVE FUNERAL.

The military authorities sent a detachment of nine soldiers belonging to the 6th Manchester Regiment, now stationed at the Leigh Camp, acting a guard over the prisoners of war interned there, and also twelve men and two non-commissioned officers of another regiment to make up a firing party. A bugler and a drummer were also in attendance.
 
The funeral cortege, which formed up shortly after three o'clock, reached the burial ground about 4:30, and was headed by the Glazebury Brass Band, who played funeral music en route. Beside the family mourners, the members of the Oddfellows Lodge to which the deceased belonged, and many old friends followed the remains to the grave. The coffin was met at the chapel by the Rev. J. J. Wright, of Atherton. The service in the chapel began with the singing of the hymn " Oh, God, our help in ages past."

PASTOR'S PANEGYRIC.

After reading the Unitarian funeral service - for the deceased and all the members of his family were members of this denomination – the Rev. Wright said that 'courage' and 'comfort' were the two passwords for them that day.
Comrades and relatives, to whom the deceased was most dear, had gathered together to perform the last offices to one they know and loved.

As a boy, Harold Houghton was a prize taker in the Sunday school and a regular attendant at the chapel. When the call came for young men to serve their country he and his brother heard it, and obeyed, and they were fighting together in the same trench when the first notes of a still higher call reached the ears of him whose loss they, that day, deplored.
He had passed from them, but they believed that all was well with him-he had gone to receive the Great Prize, the reward for duty faithfully done.
Those who remained behind prized the honour of having known him; of having been acquainted with one who had made the greatest sacrifice that a man could make for his country.
As he lay dying, he said to his mother "I am not afraid!"
He had done his duty and he had no fear of the hereafter, and be now lived with God.

CLOSING SCENES AT THE GRAVESIDE.
 
As the coffin was being removed from the chapel to its last resting place, Mr. T. Whittle played the voluntary " For ever with the Lord."
Three volleys were fired over the grave, and the buglers sounded "The Last Post" after which the band played "The Penticost."
Some beautiful floral tributes were placed on the coffin, which was covered with the Union Jack for a pall.
The breastplate bore the simple inscription: "Rifleman Harold Houghton. aged 24; 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade."

Floral tributes were sent by: The Father, Mother and family, the wreath bearing the inscription "He died a hero”, Sister Jane, Jim and Dick, his brother Tom, the Risley Institute Football Club, His fellow workers, A few friends at the Horseshoe, Mr. and Mrs. Collier and family, Herbert and Lizzie, the members of the Risley Institute and the Risley Ladies' Sewing Class and Vulcan Foundry.

Ellen Yates was born on 24th April 1852 in Culcheth, Lancashire. In 1874 she was a dye worker at a factory in Birkenhead and she lived with her brother James and his wife Mary Ann at Hop Pole Farm, Croft.

In January 1870, her parents had died within weeks of one another, her mother from Bronchitis and her father from Insanity and atrophy of the liver.

In 1871, Ellen was a witness at the wedding of her brother James to her friend and cousin Mary Ann Whittle. This wedding was held at Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel and not Croft, possibly because they were cousins. 

We know nothing more about Ellen's life after that apart from the fact that she must have been desperately unhappy. She felt so low that on this day, 8th August in 1874, she decided to take her own life.

Her body wasn't discovered until the next day, Sunday 9th August in a Marl Pit in Croft where she had drowned herself.

An Inquest was held on 13th August and a verdict of 'suicide due to temporary insanity' was given as the cause of death.

​Ellen was buried at Croft Unitarian Chapel in grave C6 with her parents and her younger sister Hannah, who had passed away before Ellen was born.

The gravestone reads 'In the midst of life we are in death'.

I purchased this old photograph recently and assumed it was a view of the Noggin in Risley. However, when i compared the building with what is there today I realised that it couldn't be the same place. 

I know from past research that there have been two Noggins, but I had always assumed that the 'Old' Noggin Inn was long gone and the one we see today is the newer one.

Thanks to the available maps of the district I realised that the one still there is the original 'Noggin Inn'. The 'New Noggin' was across the road on the corner of Cross Lane (Now Cross Lane South).

The photograph is from between 1900 and 1910 (estimated). I went through all of the maps with enough detail through the years to find something that hasn't changed.

If you look to the right of the photo, you can just make out a wooden fingerpost or guide post. This is marked on every map with enough detail and is on the crossroads, to the left of the Old Noggin Inn, if you were stood facing it to take a picture.

I realised that if you were to stand at Cross Lane Farm looking at the New Noggin, the post would be on the right as it is in the photo.
Therefore, I believe the photo is of the New Noggin, which no longer stands. 
​
The below newspaper extract confirms further details on the two Inns.

Valuable Freehold Estate at Risley and Rixton-with-Glazebrook, in the County of Lancaster.

A Valuable FREEHOLD ESTATE, commonly known as the Risley Estate, late the property of Richard Watson Marshall Dewhurt, Esq., deceased, consisting of the manor or reputed manor of Risley, with numerous farms, a licensed inn or public-house, a beerhouse, and several cottages and gardens, comprising in the whole 1,274a. 0r. 25p. statute measure, or thereabouts, nearly all in a ring fence, situate in Risley, in the township of Culcheth, parish of Newchurch, and county of Lancaster, except the part described as lot 9, which, with the exception of one field, is situate in the adjoining township of Rixton-with-Glazebrook.
 
The whole estate will in the first instance be offered in one lot, but if not sold the same will immediately afterwards be put up in the
following or such other lots as may then be determined, namely:-
 
Lot 1. All that Old and Well-accustomed PUBLIC HOUSE, known as the Noggin Inn, with the Farm Building and excellent Farm Land adjoining thereto; together with a Public Weighing Machine, comprising in the whole 17a. 3r. 36p. in the occupation of Mr. John Sankey, as tenant thereof.
The house is situate at the junction of the highways from Warrington and Winwick to Leigh, and with the land is enclosed within a ring defence. The house possesses the only spirit license within a considerable distance.

Lot 2. TWO COTTAGES and GARDENS, with additional land allotted thereto, adjoining the highway from Warrington to Leigh, and near to the Risley schools, in the occupation of Mr. Richard Bate and Catherine Ryley, respectively, containing 30 perches.

Lot 3. All that PUBLIC BEERHOUSE known as the New Noggin Inn, with the Shop, Bakehouse, Shippon, Piggeries, Garden, Orchard, and Pasture Land adjoining, situate at the junction of the roads
from Warrington to Leigh with that to Winwick, in the occupation of Mr. Hamblet Jackson, and containing in the whole 2a. 2r. 33p.

The simple answer is that I don't know for sure. The earliest detailed map is the one above from 1849, on which they are both present. There is a lovely older map from 1786 which refers to the whole area as 'Noggin Hillock'. Unfortunately, not many buildings are shown.