Madeley: Time Line 
History & Dates.

By Chris Machin

1940 to 1970

1945 - Robert Milnes-Crewe, Lord Crewe dies and Lady Annabel Crewe inherits some of the Madeley Estate. To gain the inheritance, Lady Annabel and Major Dodds change their surname to Crewe-Dodds. As their was no male heir, the title of Lord Crewe becomes extinct and the rest of the Madeley estate pass to Lord O’Neill.

Lady Annabel is the last member of the Crewe family to live at Madeley Manor. The conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967), a friend of the Crewe-Dodds regularly visits them at Madeley Manor. Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra 1950-57 and then continues as conductor-in-chief of the Henry Wood promenade concerts.

1947 - Leycett Colliery, under The National Coal Board, is now known as Madeley Colliery, until its closure in 1957.

1948 - Lady Annabel Crewe-Dodds dies. Her funeral is at Barthomley. Her coffin is carried by six tenant farmers: F. Furnival, F. Bennion, F. Bedson, V. Hunt, S. Davies snr, & G. Holding. The mourners included, The Dowager Marchioness of Crewe, Lady Cynthia Colville (sister), Lady Celia Milnes Coates and her husband (sister & brother in law), Hon. Terence O’Neill (son), Colin & Quentin Crewe (sons), Mr. Derick and the Hon. Mrs. Gascoigne (son in law & daughter). The service was conducted by the Archdeacon of Macclesfield, the Rev. F. J. Okell, assisted by Rev. J. Bennet, Rector of Barthomley and Rev. W. Gardner, Vicar of Madeley.

1948 - The Lamp House is destroyed by fire at Leycett Colliery.

1950 - Building begins on The Moss.

1951 - Madeley Manor house and grounds is sold and the Manor is converted to flats.

1952 - Ian Fleming (1908-1964), author of the James Bond novels and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, marries Anne Geraldine Mary Charteris. They have one son and this is her third husband. The first was Shane O’Neill, killed in the Second World War. The second was Esmond, Viscount Rothermere (1898-1978), who she married in 1945 and divorced in 1952.

1954 - Madeley Station closes. The sidings are used on occasion, overnight, by the Royal Train. The local residents would know when because there would be a solitary policeman on Steamer Bridge. When the Royal Train was just passing through, there would be a policeman on every bridge.

1956 - The Market Drayton to Newcastle Branch Line stopped passenger traffic

1957 - Leycett Colliery closes. It continues as a ‘foot rill' or ‘foot rail’ until the late 1960’s.

1957 - September, the first intake into Madeley Secondary School, now Madeley High School.

1958 - Major Hugh Crewe-Dodds dies. His batman, Charles Sergent, went on to develop a taxi, coach and garage business at Betley, on the current site of Wrinehill Garage.

1959 - The new Village Hall is opened. The previous one had been behind The Offley Arms, but had become unsafe..

1960’s - Building of houses starts in The Bryn, New Road & Brown’s Farm.

1961 - Madeley College of Education, a teacher training college, opens on park land below Madeley Manor.

1963 - A thirty three mile stretch of the motorway M6, including the stretch between Hanchurch and Barthomley, is officially opened by Ernest Maples (1907-1978), the Minister of Transport. Extra expenditure had been incurred in dealing with a 400 yard land slip in Walton’s Wood. Alfred Ernest Maples, First Baron Maples, was born in Levenshulme, Manchester. During the war, he was a captain in the Royal Artillery. In 1945, he became Conservative MP for Wallasey. Between 1959 & 1964, he was Minister for Transport. He was created a Life Peer in 1974.

1964 - Work begins on the demolition of the Audley Branch Line between Silverdale and Alsager. By the end of the year, all the track between Keele and Alsager, including Leycett had been lifted and cleared.

1966 - BBC Midland Region Radio gave a Monday Concert from Madeley College of Education.

1966 - The Royal Ballet Demonstration Group featuring artists of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, perform at Madeley College.

1967 - A BT Sub-station is built in Furnace Lane.

1967 - The Market Drayton to Newcastle Branch Line stopped goods traffic.

Approx. 1967 - ‘The Story of a School’, (Sir John Offley Primary School) is published.

1968 - Quentin Hugh Crewe (1926-1998) inherits property in Madeley from his step-grandmother, the Marchioness of Crewe, and moves to Netherset Hey. In 1956 he marries Martha Sharp, and they have one son & one daughter. In 1961, he marries Angela Huth, the marriage is dissolved in 1970, and they have one daughter, and one son who dies. In 1970, he marries Susan Anne Cavendish, they have one son and one daughter, and the marriage is dissolved in 1983. He is educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1953, he joined the Evening Standard and later worked for Queen, Vogue, Daily Mail, Sunday Mirror before becoming freelance. He won the Snowdon Award in 1982. He has had various books published: ‘A Curse of Blossom’, ‘Frontiers of Privilege’, ’Great Chefs of France’, ‘International Pocket Book of Food’, ’In Search of the Sahara’, ’The Last Maharaja’, ’Touch the Happy Isles’, ’In The Realms of Gold’ and ‘Well, I Forget the Rest’.

1968/69 - The National Coal Board begin to demolish Leycett Village.

1968 - 31st December. A series of photographs cataloguing the explosion at Greyhound Court.

 Photographs copyright of Ron Kendrick - Laverock Grove, Madeley

1970- Quentin marries Sue Anne Cavendish (his third wife, born 1949). The Cavendish family own Holker Hall in Lancashire. She qualifies at Rease Heath College of Education. The marriage is dissolved in 1983. She has been the editor of House and Garden since 1994. They have one son and one daughter. Their son, Nathaniel is born in London but christened at Madeley Church. A godparent is Penelope Tree, a model and the then girlfriend of photographer David Bailey. They attend the christening, she in a see-through summer-dress, and he in a leather cat-suit. She has been the editor of House and Garden since 1984. She remarried in 1984. but this marriage has since been dissolved.

While at Netherset Hey, they are visited by their friends Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. Bamber Gascoigne, Quentin’s nephew, also visits.

1970 - ‘Madeley, A History of a North Staffordshire Parish’, is published by The Adult Education Department of the University of Keele. One hundred and forty residents attend the official launch at Madeley Secondary School.

1970 - Councillors Jim Mulliner and Bernard Sumnall protest at plans of the owners of Madeley Pool to fill it in and build on it. The owners were Ross Isle Development Company of Shrewsbury. Newcastle Rural Council consider a compulsory purchase order on the Pool. There is a commemorative stone to both councillors beside Madeley Pool. They were both councillors from 1948 to 1980.

1970 - In May, at Finney Green, in a field known as Hollywood Bowl, a Pop Festival is held over two days. 45,000 people attend. The artists include: Mungo Jerry, Black Sabbath, Ginger Baker’s Air Force, Grateful Dead, Family, Traffic, Free & Jose Feliciano.

1970 - Madeley Mill closes as a cheese factory.