In memoriam – Crows Nest Farm, Daresbury. One of the oldest farms in the historic parish. The earliest record of the farm is the mid-18th century, when it was farmed by George Gleave, who had the canal bridge adjacent to the farm named after him. During the construction of the Bridgewater canal, many of the bridges were built for the simple purpose of providing farmers with access to their fields which were split in two by the new waterway. George died at Keckwick in 1794 and is buried at All Saints’ Daresbury. At that time the farm was owned by Henry Harvey Aston, of Aston Hall in Aston-by-Sutton, and 100 years later the records tell us that it was owned by Sir Richard Brooke of Norton Priory. The majority of the farms in the area of East Runcorn changed hands between the two estates over the course of several centuries. The farm went through a number of names and families over the course of the 19th century, when it was renamed Norwood farm, and Northwood farm over the course of its tenancy under the Tickle family.

The Brooke family eventually left Runcorn, and at the time during the 1921 census there were just 12 households in the township. There were four farms - Crow's Nest, New Farm, Poplar farm and Village Farm. Most people worked on the land, but in addition there was a book keeper, a dredger man, a plate layer, a joiner, a plumber and a bricklayer. When the Brookes estate began to dwindle as the region became more industrial, leading up to when they left Cheshire, much of the land began to change hands in a way that would permanently reshape the rural parishes. Crows Nest Farm was originally 160 acres, but by 1881 the acreage is given as just 73. William Tickle was then employing five agricultural labourers from Ireland living in the ‘shant’ attached to the farm, as the 1901 census states that ‘George Wallworth is the farm manager and employs 5 men to help.’ It is quite possible that they had previously been navvies on the Ship Canal. Many of those who came to the area during the construction period stayed on and found work on the local farms. In the final years of working under the Brookes estate Alfred Broome was the farmer, and in the 1939 register, in the farms early years of private operation, a Samuel Bowden is a cowman on the farm whilst 3 of his sons are horsemen.

Over the course of the remaining the years the acreage became less and less, and the surrounding fields were farmed in conjunction with Poplars farm, who together with the residents at Crows Nest who had lived there since 2002, completed the sale of the surrounding land to Redrow around 2018, and vacated the property in 2021. The children of the family appear to have left their marks on the windows on the final day before leaving their home. The application for housing that soon followed showed the farmhouse, which we know to have been structurally sound, and being part of the plans for the surrounding development, however in March 2022 the bulldozers moved in and in the blink of an eye this beautiful historic home was gone. The majority of the field in which the farm stood for several centuries now forms a site that has been named Gleaves View after the Gleaves family, with only their bridge having survived the remodelling of the farm. 

My images were taken in 2021, the final summer before the farm was demolished the following March. An asbestos inspector was working at the farm as I passed by and after a quick chat allowed me to take a look around. He was very open about the fact that there wasn’t much at all wrong with the building, other than needing a good modernising inside. As you can see from my images there were several relics inside which most certainly held either financial or sentimental or even historical value. Including paintings and an exquisite cabinet, along with what I’m told was a very limited edition ‘world cup’ whisky in the kitchen which had been bagsied by the Redrow site manager. At the time of my visit I was not entirely aware of the imminent plans to demolish Crows Nest, due to the plans clearly including it in the surrounding developments, but with the looming prospect of the sale of the building to one of Britain’s most destructive forces against green spaces and heritage, who ironically have now proceeded to construct their 'heritage collection' adjacent to the rubble, the possibility was always inevitably high.