An Alsager woman with a thirst for knowledge has launched a website delving into the town's history and piecing together why roads have certain names. 

Historian Isobel Watson has always loved finding out about the places where she lives and jumped at the chance of researching Alsager's history. 

Isobel started researching the town's history before lockdown and took the chance to start piecing the results together during lockdown. 

Since then, the fascinating information has formed the basis of her website, 'Alsager Places' about the town's history after the railway arrived.  

The interactive website - 'Alsager 1848-1939: buildings, places and some history' link here is a font of knowledge. 

Isobel recently gave a talk to the Alsager group of the Family History Society of Cheshire explaining the website and some of the information contained in it.  

"Until the railway arrived in 1848, Alsager was no more than a hamlet near the Cheshire boundary, between Sandbach in Cheshire and Audley in Staffordshire," said Isobel. 

"Crewe had not yet achieved its later significance. Alsager consisted of a few houses and a handful of scattered farms.  

"To save residents trekking to the parish church at Barthomley, the ladies who owned the manor opened the fashionably Georgian Christ Church in 1797, and local Wesleyans added their own small chapel on the road to Hassall some forty years later.  

"After the railway came, the township developed on the northern side of the tracks, in fits and starts. If it hadn't been for the railway, it would all look quite different today." 

Churches in Alsager also get a mention in Isobel's informative website. (Image: Isobel Watson)

Isobel said she wanted to find out how and why this had all happened, who built existing buildings, most of them since the railway and for whom.  

Isobel, who lived in London and did a similar exercise there, spent hours researching Alsager history through records in Chester. In total her research amounted to 30,000 words on her laptop.  

The retired civil servant said Alsager became a place to move to after frequent visits to see her mother at Lawton Manor.  

"We just fell in love with it, it's such a fantastic place to live and has everything you need or want," said Isobel.   

The website, with sections including history, places and streets, stops at the start of World War Two, a period which brought about big changes, as did the M6.  

Various well-known streets and roads in the town are noted, including Chancery Lane which Isobel has suspects has something to do with the three solicitors living in the area and its London namesake.  

Isobel fell in love with Alsager. (Photo: Nub News)

Alsager is well-known for its links with pottery owners, many of whom would catch the train back to Alsager after a day's work in the Potteries. Alsager's connections with the likes of Adams, Beswick, Dudson, Eardley, Goss and Maddock are all detailed. 

The town's pubs also feature in the website which reveals the oldest – The Plough, licensed in 1787. The Mere Inn, named after the town's mere, is first noted in 1870, Isobel thinks it must have been built in the previous decade.  

Isobel says she has done her best to piece together what she can. 

"There are gaps, as there are gaps in the records, so if premises aren't mentioned, it's probably because their origin hasn't been securely identified. 

"If you know anything relating to this period about buildings or places mentioned – or which should be mentioned – please get in touch."  

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