Flookersbrook: Our Walker and Lightfoot Families

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Flookersbrook
Flookersbrook stands on the line of an ancient road which stretched from the fortress at Deva to Warrington and beyond. Flookersbrook has been cut off from Hoole Road which is now the main route into Chester and retains a quiet almost village atmosphere.

  © Copyright Jeff Buck and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence





History of the City of Chester from its foundation to the present time.
by Joseph Hemingway, 1831 pg. 346

Pickering and Walker Streets
Pickering and Walker Street sign, Floorkersbrook.
Photo courtesy, Janet Leece, 2013.
" ... Still nearer is seen the lovely hamlet of Flookersbrook, abounding with neatly-built modern dwellings, to which, if the epithet of splendid be inappropriate, the claim of elegance and comfort is justly due; to each of which is appended richly cultivated garden ground. Here are the comfortable residents of ... Mr. Lightfoot, Mr. T. Walker ... It is hardly possible to pass this approach to the city, without being reminded of the villa in the neighborhood of the metropolis; width of the road, the respectable and good-looking tavern, called the Ermine."


Lightfoot Street
Photo courtesy Janet Leece, 2013.

Map of Flookersbrook
Connie Notes: This map is my first clue that the Pickering family must have lived very close to the Walker family. Further investigation might show which Pickering (perhaps William, father of CWHP?) lived there. Elizabeth Walker and CWHP met and married, but as yet I do not have records showing that he lived in Chester.


Timeline

Historical References to Walker, Lightfoot and Pickering families of
Flookersbrook and Chester

John Lightfoot
c: About 1755-56
o: Victualler
d: 12 March 1832
b: 17 March 1832 at St. Oswald's [of Flookersbrook] (age 76)

George Walker
c: About 1750's
o: Brewer, Chester (1799 Business Directory)
m: Mary Hoole, 1 Jan 1777, Chester (possible first marriage)
m: Margaret Salmon, Aug 1778 (George Walker, widower)
          son: Thomas Walker
                    c: 19 Jan 1783, Chester
                    o: Tanner / Brewer (Lion Brewery, Chester)
                    m: Catherine Lightfoot
                                        dau: Elizabeth Catherine Walker
                                                  c: 24 Jul 1819, Chester
                                                  m: Charles William Harrison Pickering
                                                  c: 1815, Liverpool



1758-9
Before Richard Richardson, Esq., CHESTER
Henry Hegg, druggist, was to be admitted to the freedom paying twenty pounds within a month.
William Evans, grocer, was to be similarly admitted.
James Pickering, sadler, was to be similarly admitted.

1805
• NOTICE: Provincial Occurrences. Cheshire. J. Hinton, , pg 180
"[Married] At Chester, Mr. T. Walker, son of Mr. W. brazier, to Miss Lightfoot, of Flookersbrooke."

1806
The first child of Thomas Walker and Catharine Lightfoot was christened at St. Oswald's Parish

Northgate
NORTHGATE STREET. A fine uncoloured lithograph view sketched
by G. Pickering and published by John Seacombe, Bookseller,
Chester. 9 1/2 x 6 3/5 inches.
c. 1845



1818-20
• Pigot and Co,'s Commercial Directory - Cheshire
           • Malsters and Dealers in Malt:
Lightfoot and Walker, Flookersbrook
           • Liquor Merchants: George Walker, Upper Bridge-street
[Ed. In 1818-20 the Ermine's licencee was John Lightfoot (there is a Lightfoot Street just across the road from the pub today)]

1822
• Pigot and Co,'s Commercial Directory - Cheshire
Liquor Merchants:
George Walker, Northgate Street

Wine and Spirit Merchants:
Walker George, Northgate-street Malt:
Lightfoot and Walker, Flookersbrook

Taverns and Public Houses:

Black Horse, E. Walker, Bridge-st.
Cross Foxes, Miles Harrison, Northgate Street Row
George and Dragon, Geo Walker, Linen-hall-street

1829
The last child of Thomas Walker and Catharine Lightfoot was christened at Flookersbrook, Newton, Chester

1841
Foregate Street, St John The Baptist
Thomas Walker, Brewer was a widower living with his children: Alice, Charles William, Ann, and Emma. Also in the household was James Broadbent, Printer, who was to become the husband of Thomas' daughter, Alice. There is another family tie staying in this household at the time: Elizabeth Harrison (Independent) and Ann Hughes. These are important clues to be follow up in the near future.

1875

The London Gazette, Nov 19, 1875. pg. 5539
"... in other part by property belonging to the trustees of the will of the late John Lightfoot, in other part by property belonging to the trustees of the settlement made on the marriage of the late Maria Broadbent..."
[Ed. Maria Broadbent was the 2nd wife of James Broadbent, whose 1st wife was Alice Walker, daughter of Thomas Walker and Catherine Lightfoot.]

1876
• Flookersbrook Improvement Act, 1876.
Description of the Lands within the Limits of this Act.
"Such of the lands situate in the townships of Newton and Hoole and county of Chester, comprising in the whole two acres two roods and three perches or thereabouts, bounded as follows; ...and on the north-west in part by property belonging or reputed to belong to the said Earl of Kilmorey, on the other part by property belonging or reputed to belong to the trustees of the will of the late John Lightfoot, in other part by property belonging or reputed to belong to the trustees of the settlement made on the marriage of the late Maria Broadbent, in other part by a certain street or occupation road, ..."

1895
The London Gazette, July 23, 1895, pg. 4162
SCHEDULE: "A Place comprising Pickering and Nightingale’s Sale-yard at the Ermine Hotel, Flookersbrooke, near Chester."

[Click here for research notes on CHESTER CONNECTIONS, Pickering and Nightingale Auctioneers and
connection to Rigby of Chester]