tarboat's photos with the keyword: kerridge

Delivery note for six pairs of gateposts from Endon Quarry, sent to Mr Richard Carter at Little Budworth, who I thnk was a land agent. The goods were despatched for William Clayton of Swanscoe who was the quarry owner as well as operating the Swanscoe Colliery. Transport would have involved being brought down from the quarry on Clayton's tramroad and inclined plane to the canal where it was loaded onto a narrowboat for shipping to Middlewich Wharf on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Onward carriage was by cart via Winsford. The signature at the bottom is that of the Middlewich wharfinger who took delivery from the boat two days after it was loaded at Kerridge. Each post weighed just a little less than half a ton so I suspect that the wharf crane was in order to offload them.

This shaft, with the trees growing out of the top, is a bit of a mystery. It is clearly a coal shaft but I cannot find any information about when it was worked or by whom. I suspect that this is a ventilation shaft rather than one from which coal was drawn and it may have been connected to a shaft which stood against the left hedge in the distant field (centre left). It does not show on any of the maps from the 19th century and it is probably related to 18th century workings in this part of Bollington

William Clayton bought the Endon Estate at Kerridge after the termination of his lease of the Poynton Collieries in 1832. He subsequently built Endon Hall as his residence and developed coal mining in the area. He marketed the product as ' Swanscoe Sweet Seam Coal ' . Whilst the mines were quite small and insignificant compared to those at Poynton, Clayton still erected this grand ventilation chimney which could easily have graced a much larger venture. To ensure that everyone knew who was responsible his initials are picked out above the pseudo loophole overlooking the Cheshire Plain.

A recent discovery at Endon Wharf, Kerridge, is a piece of fishbelly rail from the tramroad built by William Clayton in the later 1830s to carry stone from his Endon Quarries to the sawmill by the Macclesfield Canal. The rails are 6ft long and fixed into the chairs with an iron pin as a wedge. The chairs were mounted onto the stone sleeper blocks using two spikes. Excavation of some track left in situ has revealed that the gauge of this tramway was 3ft 6ins.

The last rays of the sun catch Clayton's chimney on Windmill Lane, Kerridge, after one the the finest October days I can remember.

Whilst out and about one evening the light caught this old graffiti carved into a coping stone on Victoria Bridge over the quarry inclined plane at Kerridge. There is only one family called Jardine listed in the census as living in this area in the late 19th century and the likely culprits are Mary Jardine (born 1879) or Margaret Jardine (born 1874).