What the Dickens is author's connection with mid Cheshire? (From Northwich Guardian)

What the Dickens is author's connection with mid Cheshire?

10:30am Sunday 5th February 2012 in News By Gina Bebbington

LITERARY links in mid Cheshire have piqued the interest of Guardian readers who have great expectations of their inspirational heritage.

A number of associations have emerged between Victorian author Charles Dickens and the Vale Royal area, including the connection between Stanthorne Grange and the most famous jilted bride in literature.

Middlewich man Alan Langley wrote to the Guardian with a tale told he was once told by his mother that Miss Havisham, a central character in the novel Great Expectations, was inspired by the sad history of a woman from Stanthorne Grange.

He asked readers if they knew the story or could shed any more light on it and we have received a number of responses.

Marian Field, of Chester Road in Middlewich, said: “Some eighty years ago I heard the story just as he repeats it from an aunt of mine who was born in 1890.

“I have nothing to add to it but at the time I heard it I believe it was commonly thought to be true.”

Alan Ravenscroft, the treasurer of Winsford History Society, said Dickens lived in Swanlow Lane, in Winsford, for a short while and it is thought he heard the Stanthorne bride story there.

“A family named Joule lived at Stanthorne Grange and their daughter was betrothed to a gentleman living at Stanthorne Hall,” he said.

“On their wedding morning the gentleman eloped with another lady leaving his fiance so distraught she flipped mentally, her father had the room closed off and it was never used again by the family.

“Stanthorne Hall was rebuilt in 1804 and the Leicester family lived there from the 18th century to the early 19th century.

“At the time of Charles Dickens’ visit to mid Cheshire a farmer named Dutton was living in the hall.

“The man who jilted Miss Joule has not yet been identified.

“The story was well authenticated at the time of his visit.

“When Stanthorne Grange was run as a restaurant up to 1982 there was a room dedicated to the event.”

He also said that Dickens’ grandparents were steward and housekeeper for Lord Crewe at Crewe Hall.