About
Welcome to the blog and news site for the website that I am creating for family and local historians with an interest in the townships of Heaton, Rushton James and Rushton Spencer which formed the Chapelry of Rushton Spencer in the Parish of Leek in the North Staffordshire Moorlands in England. The aim is to make information such as Parish Registers, Census Returns, Memorial Inscriptions and any other information that I find in my research that I believe will be of interest, freely available.
My interest in these three townships arose through research into my family history, it soon became obvious that my maternal great grandmother`s line (the Buxton family) could be traced back to Rushton James and Heaton where they lived from at least the early 1600s until the early 1900s. One farm in Rushton James, Wolf Dale, was in the family for 200 years.
It was during my research into the Buxton family that I started to notice the same families would keep reappearing in census records and parish registers, and it was this that sparked the interest in the history and genealogy of the area, and the desire to share my research by creating a website.
If anyone has any information that they would like to share, or just make a comment please contact me through this site until I go live.
Martin
7 comments so far
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Dear Martin,
I found your site by chance a few days ago and have been using it for the births/marriages/deaths records, in the hopes to leap some of my family tree back a few more generations.
I am slowly finding bits more, but it’s become much more difficult. My family tree has the surnames Hammond, Shufflebotham, Smith from Rushton in the 1800s, and since 1930 my family have lived in Rushton, and i was born in the village.
Anyway I wanted to say the site is very good, and really well presented.
If you ever wanted to add more, my dad has written some short stories (recollections) from his life in Rushton set when he was an infant (1940’s), which someone in the village has typed up for him and put in old parish magazines.
Let me know if you are thinking of adding any further facets, such as old photos, as I’d help if I could.
All the best
Sarah Brown.
hi martin
my mothers grandfather was james kenneley brn buglawton 1872.
his mother was sarah kennerley single woman . who married thomas bailey 1876 .son of charles & ellen .charles was son of thomas & margaret who lived @ wolflowe
sue
Hi Martin,
Fantastic website – found it by accident. I am related (on my mother’s side) to Goodfellows and Bowlers, and also to many others. I think there will be quite a number of people in the area who will be interested in such a site.
Andy
Well done. A really good site.
At last – I think I’ve found the elusive Elias Doorbar/Durber (transcribed as Dunbar) baptised at Rushton in 1786. He was the head of the Wood Lane branch of the Durber family.
hi, i came across your site and blog via google. ah, the wonders of google. my mother’s maiden name is stoddard and we trace our ancestry back to rushton spencer…through some rather interesting paths. i don’t have a lot of info. i’d like to get my hands on a copy of ‘the stoddards of rushton spencer’ but we have very few and no one in my family is willing to part…
Thank you, I am very grateful indeed for all your hard work. My maiden name is Armitt. Abraham Armitt (born 1842 in Heaton village) is my great great grandfather. My father has a photo of Abraham, with a long white beard looking like an old testament prophet. Abraham left Heaton sometime in his 20s, when he is said to have walked to Derby (30 miles away) to apply for a job on the railway. He spent the rest of his life in Normanton, Yorkshire, working as a railway signalman. It must have been one huge step for Abraham to leave Heaton.
Heaton looks as if it is the ‘cradle of the Armitts’ for my family. I am fascinated by the memorials you put on-line.
My sister has the marriage certificate for William and Mary Armitt nee Smith (Abraham’s parents). Mary signs herself ‘X her mark’ so probably couldn’t read or write.
I am trying to work out how all the Armitts of Heaton and Rushton are interrelated, and I am looking forward to seeing your remaining transcriptions from the Parish Records on-line.
Best wishes,
Gillian
What a joy finding your website. it is such a help to come across it. I did lots of Family History in the early 1980s and have now returned to it on my retirement. My maiden name was Dale and my Grandfather was George Dale who was born at Moss Cottage. My father Thomas Edward – known as Ted (since deceased) who lived in Congleton and during my researches in the 1980s he took me to Heaton and showed me the area and also he hand copied a lot of the information you have transcribed. Would love to hear from anyone who thinks they have information to assist me in my endeavours.