WE have already looked at the Spinner and Bergamot in Comberbach, originating from 1714 when it was called the Kings Head.

Later The Spinner in recognition of the spinning loom between Pickmere and Wincham. But a little more about this ancient pub.

In 1762, the Smith-Barry family favoured the inn as their local to such an extent that John Smith Barry named one of his racehorses, The Spinner, after it.

Later his son James Hugh Smith-Barry bought the inn himself and added a new name of - Bergamot - to the pub’s title after his horse Bergamotte. But let us look at another interesting story about the pub.

A few years ago I was contacted by a nice gentleman called Raymond Jones from Wrexham who when browsing my book, Villages of Mid Cheshire Through Time, came across the photo of the Spinner and Bergamot wedding shown here.

Raymond is the great-great-grandson of the licensee shown in the photograph, Albert Isaiah Coffin Lees, and the wedding is that of his daughter Edith, Raymond’s great-grandmother.

The bride had a child who was then three years old and was illegitimate.

This child was Raymond’s grandmother Gertrude Lees. Gertrude was a pretty and happy little girl who was a favourite with the locals, but because of the strict puritanical Victorian prudery in vogue at the time, she was barred from the wedding ceremony by her mother.

But if you look at the photo carefully, you can see the top window is ajar, and it is from there that the child was permitted to observe the scene.

Gertrude went on to lead a long and fruitful life in Wheatsheaf Lane Antrobus where she and her husband brought up five children; she was also very active in the community.

What untold stories these old photographs contain and how bringing these stories out is so interesting.

By writer and historian Paul Hurley