THE ancient great families of Cheshire were not that many in number and tended to use marriage to extend their property and land ownership.

In doing so they provided a lot of the names for our towns and villages.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Hugh de Runchamp acquired the manor of Lostock between Knutsford and Northwich and his great-grandson was Gralam de Lostock. (Hugh was also an ancestor of Princess Diana).

Gralam in turn married Lettice de Morton and thereby an interest in Little Morton Hall, one of the most famous antiquities in Cheshire.

The estate changed hands many times and in 1763 Edward Townshend was the incumbent at Wincham Hall.

He built the Slow and Easy on Manchester Road at the crossroads.

On the other side of this road stood the old Black Greyhound.

In this photograph from the 1890s of the Four Lane Ends crossroads, the Black Greyhound can be seen on the right and across the junction is the old Slow and Easy, named like a lot of pubs in the area after a horse or in this case two horses.

The pub had existed since 1763 but was demolished in 1937 when a new Slow and Easy was built set back from the road.

Later the Black Greyhound pub would be demolished and is now a car sales premises. A new Black Greyhound was built in 1938 at the Wincham crossroads, also now closed.

By writer and historian Paul Hurley