| Potts is a very common family name in the Wilmslow, Alderley, Congleton and Macclesfield area and so far I am unable to trace Edward Potts’ place of birth with any certainty.The family connection with the Salthouse family is, sadly, very short; Lucy Salthouse, who was born in Nether Alderley, married Edward Potts and they lived in Welsh Row with their son Herbert Edward Potts. Herbert Potts was killed in France in 1918 and I am not aware of any more family. | |
 ‘Annie’s shop’
St Mary’s Church, Nether Alderley
Priests’ House at Prestbury
School house at Nether Alderley |
Edward Potts was born c1865, in Over Alderley, Cheshire. When he was 15 he was working as a Farm Servant at Gately Green Farm, which is on Welsh Row near Sand Lane. Looking at the 1881 census records for the area it seems to have been common practice for sons to work on other farms in the area and so the description ‘farm servant’ could mean ‘farm worker, living in’, or Edward could have been taken in by a relative because his own family had died.At the other end of Sand Lane is the Wilmslow to Congleton Road (now the A34) and the centre of the small village of Nether Alderley. As Edward came onto the main road he would have seen Nether Alderley Mill with the mill pond, screened by trees, behind it. Behind the mill pond, like a moated house, were the remaining buildings of Lord Stanley’s former Alderley Hall.
Almost directly opposite the Mill was a row of cottages; the end cottage on the corner of Main Road and Church lane was the village shop run by Annie Salthouse and her younger sister Lucy Salthouse. In 1881 Annie was the shopkeeper, grocer and dressmaker and Lucy, who was 22, was the assistant shopkeeper. Annie and Lucy’s father, John Salthouse, had died in 1871, their mother, Lucy Walters, died in 1875; the surviving brothers had left the area – John Salthouse moved to Manchester where he married Fanny from Warrington, William Salthouse moved to Liverpool where he married Janet Braidwood. Edward and Lucy Salthouse married in Nether Alderley in 1895. they had a son, Herbert Edward Potts, in 1898. They lived at Gately Green Farm, Welsh Row, where Edward was a ‘farmer on his own account’. As there is no mention of any other family living in that house, Edward and Lucy must have taken over the rent. Occasionally Annie and Lucy had visitors from Liverpool – their brother William’s son, Jim (James Thomas Salthouse) remembers visiting Alderley as a young boy and said what a beautiful estate it was and how he would like to go back there. In 1906 Annie Salthouse died. It might have been at this time that Edward and Lucy moved into the shop at Church Cottages, though Edward may have continued to farm whilst Lucy kept the shop. The Great War of 1914-1919 took many young men from the village, including Herbert Potts. Herbert enlisted with the 9th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and went to fight in the trenches in France. By March 1918 he was a Corporal. On March 21st the Battle of St Quentain began when the Germans began a new offensive, pounding the British troops with heavy artillery fire and shells for over 5 hours, the British responding with artillery fire of their own. The firing stopped overnight. The morning brought thick fog but, when it cleared, the Germans resumed their offensive. Herbert Potts was killed on this day, March 22nd, 1918. He was 20 years old. So far as I know, he was the only child of Edward and Lucy. Lucy and Edward stayed at Church Cottages and kept the village shop. Edward Potts was a bellringer at St Mary’s Church at the end of Church Lane. Lucy attended to the customers in the shop. Lucy died on January 24th, 1934, aged 75 and was buried with her father John, mother Lucy, brother Samuel and sister Annie at St Mary’s Church. Edward Potts married Alice Simpson. They lived at Church Cottages and Alice kept the village shop. They appear to have had a daughter, Mary Anne. Edward and Alice were at the same address in 1938 when he is recorded in the Estate Sale Catalogue as being responsible for the payment of the water rates for the shop. Edward was always closely involved with the church and was presented with a beautiful inkwell in the shape of a bell in appreciation of his 50 years as a bellringer at St Mary’s. Edward Potts died on 26th July, 1947, aged 82, and is buried in St Mary’s churchyard. His widow, Alice, died on 17 July 1963, when she was living in Wilmslow; she and her mother, Mary Simpson, are also buried in St Mary’s. |
| Edward Potts(Ted Potts) | Ted Potts (born Edward Potts) was born at Over Alderley, Cheshire in 1865/6 (9)The earliest mention I have of Ted Potts is in 1881 (8) when he was recorded as living at Gately Green Farm as a Farm Servant. Edward Potts married Lucy Salthouse in 1895 in Alderley. In 1901 (9) they were living at Welsh Row with their young son Herbert, recorded as Albert E Potts on the census form. Edward Potts’ occupation was recorded as ‘farmer in his own right’, the farm was Gately Green (10). Herbert joined the 9th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, he died in France in 1918. In 1938 Edward was living with his second wife, Alice Simpson (11), at the village shop in Church Cottages (12) where Annie Salthouse had lived and kept the shop in 1901 (13). Edward and Lucy had only one son that I know of, Herbert Edward Potts, but there may have been more children. Edward Potts is remembered as a very pleasant, quiet man who never travelled far from Nether Alderley, he was a member of St Mary’s Church, Nether Alderley and was a bellringer there for over 50 years. |
| Lucy Potts | Born Lucy Salthouse, daughter of John Salthouse and Lucy Walters, Lucy was born in Nether Alderley. In 1881 she was living with her sister, Annie Potts, in the village shop opposite Nether Alderley Mill as an assistant grocer. Lucy married Edward Potts in 1895. See Lucy Salthouse |
| Herbert Edward Potts | Herbert Edward Potts, recorded as Albert E Potts on the 1901 census and Hubert E Potts on Cheshire bmd. Herbert was born in 1898, the son of Edward and Lucy Potts and lived with his family at Welsh Row in 1901. Sadly, Herbert was killed in France in 1918, on the 22 March, when he was 20 years old. Herbert was in the Seaforth Highlanders when they were subjected to the last major German Offensive at the battle of St Quentin. He is commemorated at Roye New British Cemetery in France. This is the commemoration on the Commonwealth War Graves site:
Debt of Honour RegisterIn Memory of HERBERT EDWARD POTTS Corporal who died on Son of Edward and Lucy Potts, of Nether Alderley, Chelford, Cheshire. Marchelepot Brit. Cem. ROYE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY Somme, France Mem. 72. |
Potts Tree
The Potts family is connected to the Salthouse family by marriage. William Salthouse’s youngest sister, Lucy Salthouse, married Edward Potts
References As Winifred Annie Potts, born in the June Q of 1901at Macclesfield 8a 156 (PRO) As Winifred Annie Potts, born in 1901 at Alderley ALD/16/11(Cheshire BMD) As Winifred Annie Potts married Charles Frederick Dutton in Nether Alderley in 1923 (Marriage Cert)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hilary's History Pages 