A CINDERELLA tale of a fisherman's daughter who married a viscount is being told for the first time and is on sale at the Northwich home of the couple's descendants.

The Ashbrook family, of Arley Hall, are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the fairytale wedding of Lord Ashbrook's ancestors, a story told in full in a book by historian Julie Ann Godson.

She said: "At dusk on a snowy March evening in 1766 a tired young couple made out the welcoming lights burning in the windows of the creaky old manor house that was to be their home.

"He was William Flower, 2nd Viscount Ashbrook, she was Betty Ridge, daughter of a humble Thames fisherman.

"Earlier that day William and Betty had been married in a little country church, and now Betty was embarking on a new life in the alien world of the aristocracy.

"But how could such an unlikely couple even meet?

"During the 18th century, the Thames was the M6 of its day, crowded with boats carrying people and goods.

"As a commercial fisherman, Betty’s entrepreneurial father Thomas Ridge was ideally placed to exploit his cottage on the banks of the river as an alehouse.

"Thomas obtained his victualler’s licence and set his pretty daughter to work plying the passing river custom with refreshments.

"Aristocratic revellers out for a day’s angling were not unusual at an inn so close to the university in Oxford, but what made William Flower different was that he fell madly in love with the innkeeper's daughter – and he stuck to his promise to marry her in the face of Flower family opposition.

"William and Betty lived a fairytale life in their rambling Tudor manor house.

"They showed no interest in mixing in society, being content to stay at home with their growing brood of children.

"But catastrophe struck when Betty was widowed at just 35 and with six children under 15 years old.

"The challenges this new situation presented for Betty required her to deploy all her characteristic Ridge-family dynamism and adaptability for the sake of her children."

Julie's illustrated paperback, 'The Water Gipsy: How a Thames Fishergirl Became a Viscountess' traces Betty's struggle as a young widow to protect her children's interests in the hostile climate of 18th century Ireland, and her son’s ultimate triumph at the right hand of the king in Windsor and at the Court of St James.

It was a project which culminated in the most glittering marriage in the entire history of the Ashbrook family when Betty’s granddaughter became Duchess of Marlborough and chatelaine of Blenheim Palace.

The book is available on Kindle and in the Arley Hall gift shop.