The Birchenoughs of Sandbach – a brief history

Sandbach is a bustling market town in Cheshire, six miles from Crewe. In 1579 a Royal Charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth I for a Thursday Market, still in existence, which attracted traders and shoppers from across the whole county and established Sandbach as a major market town. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries Sandbach was noted for the production of fine worsted yarns and malt liquor. During the 19th century the town produced silk, boots and shoes and enjoyed extensive trade with its corn mills and salt works along the Trent and Mersey Canal.

As we study the early census documents it is easy to get lost in the minutiae. But from them a broader picture emerges. On one side we see the “Ag Labs” (agricultural labourers) trickling off the fields of Shropshire into town. On the other side we see the arrival of the Birchenoughs as cordwainers (hand shoemakers). As mechanization displaces the shoemakers we see them gravitate to the silk mills, principally the one at the bottom of Union Street In 1836 Sandbach silk mills employed 554 people, including 98 boys and girls under 12 years old (some of whom can be seen in the Census returns herein). That too was soon destined to die. Our intrepid Birchenoughs had to look elsewhere for work. We need to take a brief look at the industrial backdrop which led the employment for our more recent Birchenough kin.

Brunner Mond were also a major employer, dating back to 1873 when Ludwig Mond and John Brunner obtained a license for manufacturing soda ash (used in making soap, paper, glass, textiles and washing soda) from brine, limestone, ammonia and coke with plants in Middlewich and Sandbach. Grandpa Herbert Evanson worked for them, mauling great lumps of soda ash from the canal barges onto lorries.

In the early 19th century, Sandbach was an important coaching halt on the road from London and Birmingham to Liverpool and Manchester. However, the building of the railway station on the Manchester-Crewe main line effectively brought coaching to an end. In 1900 the only way from Elworth to Sandbach other than walking was by the stage coach. Here it is fully loaded coming from the station along Middlewich Road heading to drop its passengers of at the Wheatsheaf in the centre of town. On the opposite side of the street would be the ERF factory, now demolished. Nancy Birchenough was the telephonist/receptionist at ERF in the 1950s. John Minshull collection

Engineering at Crewe

Until the middle of the 19th century the community who lived in Monks Coppenhall (now Crewe) and the surrounding area of South Cheshire were mainly farmers. A railway line had been laid in 1837 by the Grand Junction Railway Company passing by Crewe Hall and a small railway station was built where the railway crossed the turnpike from Nantwich to Sandbach. Difficulties in access to the railway works at Liverpool forced the directors of the Grand Junction to move their works and in 1840 they chose the hamlet near to Crewe Hall as the most satisfactory site being at the centre of a triangle of railway lines between Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.

1843 saw the opening of the Crewe Railway Works which became world famous for the quality of its steam locomotives. In 1864 the first ever plant for manufacturing steel by the Bessemer process was built in Crewe and it enabled the works to provide all the steel for locomotive production and to manufacture the rails for the LNWR. The town became a magnet for men with engineering skills. 1938 saw the construction of the Rolls Royce factory which produced the by then world famous Rolls Royce motor car.

Vehicle manufacturing

The turn of the century saw the upsurge of the heavy vehicle manufacturing industry. The early years saw the huge success of the Foden Steam Wagon which attained a worldwide reputation for economy and reliability. Since the early 1930s the industry concentrated on diesel powered heavy goods vehicles which were produced in the factories of both ERF and Foden.

Edwin Foden was born on 5th August 1841 in the nearby village of Smallwood. The son of a shoemaker, he was apprenticed to the agricultural engineering firm of Plant and Hancock in 1856. Ten years later through diligence and hard work he was made a partner. Although Plant and Hancock manufactured steam engines, due to the restrictive legislation of the time these were only portables. By the time Edwin Foden had assumed control of what was now Hancock and Foden he was already thinking about self-propelled steam engines and during the 1880s began manufacturing agricultural steam engines.

A new company was formed in 1887, Edwin Foden Sons & Co Ltd, and development work commenced on Edwin's idea of a superior steam wagon. This took longer than anticipated but by the 1901 war office trials a design had been produced which was to set the standard for steam wagons for the next twenty-five years. Edwin Foden died on 31st August 1911, being succeeded by his sons William and “E.R.”

By the late 1920s it was becoming obvious that however excellent the product, steam was giving way to the internal combustion engine. This was a difficult time for Fodens which resulted in E. R. Foden leaving to establish a rival commercial vehicle manufacturer – called “E.R.F.”

The Birchenoughs of Sandbach

The saga of the Birchenoughs in Sandbach is a story of ordinary people overcoming grinding poverty to make their way in the world. People had moved from the land to search for a better life in the towns. The rapid pace of technological change made this no sinecure. Many of the early Sandbachians worked as shoe and clog makers. That work soon dried up as mass produced shoes became the norm. The rapid growth of silk mills in the Macclesfield area reached Sandbach and Brook Mill was built with a packed terrace of worker’s cottages called Union Street. When the silk industry died the men sought work on the railway at Crewe and after the turn of the century in the engineering factories of Fodens and ERF at Sandbach.

In many ways this is a story with Union Street at its heart. The struggle for existence meant that many families lived in a single house. Despite that the families were large. How they managed is a source of wonder.

In those days society was highly stratified into the haves and the have-nots. The haves received a proper education. The have-nots could not afford education and were forced to start work as early as 9-years-old; consequently few could read and write. The Birchenoughs were firmly in the have-nots camp. Sarah Birchenough, for example, could neither read nor write. Yet somehow they survived and eventually were to prosper.

Edmund Finney

The Spirit of Sandbach (a poem for the Millennium)

There’s an old town in Cheshire called Sandbach
That is well known for all sorts of things,
Such as lorries, brass bands and silk stockings,
And rolls of drawn wire from Prings.

The stockings were made at Heath’s Silk Mill,
And Conlowe’s too, had a mill,
It was just behind ‘Wakefield’s the Butchers’
On the street which leads down to the Hill.

There was Palmer Mann’s Salt Works at Elworth,
Where old ‘Sifta Sam’ made his name:
Nearby were both ‘Glacia’ and ‘Shaka’
Which added to Sandbach’s fame.

The famous brass band known as ‘Fodens’,
Won contests at th’palace you know:
Not at Buck House, but Crystal in London
And brought back the trophies to show.

There are black and white buildings to look at
Like ‘The Old Hall’ and ‘Ye Olde Black Bear’.
The old Parish church of St. Mary’s
Can be seen from the town’s cobbled square.

The town holds a market each Thursday,
Over four hundred years I am told.
People visit from neighbouring districts,
It’s where all sorts of items are sold.

The town is well known for its ‘Crosses’,
They are Saxon and so very rare;
Knocked about by Oliver Cromwell-
They can be seen on the town’s Market Square.

The town has a crier called Dennis:
He summons the crowds with ‘Oyez’.
In his costume he stands so resplendent
As he reads out the news of the day.

All the salt works that flourished are gone now:
The silk mills that prospered, closed down:
Fodens are still making lorries
Which can only be good for the town.

Through the years the town has seen changes,
Some old ‘Famous Names’ now are gone,
But in spite of its changes in fortune,
The Spirit of Sandbach lives on!

What’s in a name?

Birchenough: One rather romantic definition of the name reckons that it is Old English for a steep hill with birch tree woodland on it, 'Birchen clough' (old Saxon cloh) and clan seems to originated within the forest between Sandbach and Macclesfield at a place now called Wildboarclough. In winter the hill, now called Birchenough Hill, is bleak indeed. The theory is that the Birchenough family went north and south along the road between Staffordshire and Lancashire, and a few went west into Cheshire. Those near Chapel-en-le-Frith went into millstone production; at Leek into pottery, and many headed to the 'dark satanic mills' of Manchester.

The picture shows the milestone on Birchenough Hill, also the site of a tragic Flying Fortress crash; the remains of the plane still lie as a memorial at the top.

Common variations on the Birchenough name

Birchenhough, Birchall, Birchell, Burtchell, Burchell, Burchenal, Berchell, Birch, Burchel, Birchie, Birchill, Bourchell, Burchill, Burchell. The use of the middle h in Birchenhough seems to have died away in the mid 1880s. Considerable angst was caused to your researcher due to the arbitrary substitution of Birchell or Birchall.

“use of Birchenough, Berchenough and Birchall is not down to your relatives, but to the vicar who married them.”

Many ordinary people could neither read or write, hence there was no way they could check what had been written on the certificate or census form.