Our history

St Margaret's has two graveyards, lovingly referred to as the "old graveyard" and the "new graveyard". The graveyard adjacent to the church is closed to new burials. However, the "new graveyard" across the road from the church is operational and is...

The rules about what types of memorials are allowed in Church of England churchyards are very strict. People generally believe that because there are already white marble/black granite/ kerbs etc. in a particular churchyard that they will be allowed...

Entries supply name, date of death, and age. Abbreviations: w=wife; h=husband; s=son; d=daughter; &c. A1. Margaret, w/o Joseph GLOVER, Of Adderley Green, 28 Oct 1864, 80 Joseph, above, 4 Feb 1866, 84 A2. Hannah BIRKS of this...

QR Codes are now available within the church and in the porch. Information relating to the following can be obtained directly from St. Margaret’s website by using a QR Code Reader on your mobile phone or tablet: Church Construction Church B...

Download the St Margaret's Church History booklet The history of St Margaret's church St. Margaret's Church is a Grade One listed building and has borne witness to a Christian presence in the village for over 700 years. Its exterior and interior...

  Bequest boards hang on the walls of the church, usually in the nave. They list gifts of money made to local charities. Bequest boards also give an idea of the changing worth of money over time. (text courtesy of Heritage Inspired...

In the 16th and 17th century the church received a number of benefactions, details of which can be seen on the charity boards at the west end of the nave. Bequests were made for the instruction of poor children, apprenticeships and relief. By today’s s...

Memorial tablets From the mid-16th century, many monuments were secured to the wall and were called ‘hanging wall monuments’. Modest versions of these are referred to as ‘wall tablets’ or ‘memorial tablets’.  They are stone panels in a variet...

Situated on the west wall above the Vestry door. It was researched and designed by Mrs. Thelma Peake and produced by St. Margaret’s Tapestry Group. It was inspired by the hymn ‘It came upon the midnight clear’  using the lines: “Beneath the ang...

Parish church. Core of circa 1500 with C17 and C18 additions, heavily restored and partially rebuilt in 1842 by Scott and Moffat. Sandstone ashlar encapsulating a timber-framed core; plain tile roof with shaped tile bands and stone coped verge. West...

On the left hand wall, in the chancel, by the high altar is the Egerton Memorial. It's an impressive wall monument to Ralph and his wife Frances. Behind Frances kneels a daughter, behind Ralph originally knelt a son. The figure was stolen about...

St Margaret's actually contains two fonts, one by the entrance, and a movable one stored up by the main altar. The History of the Font Every medieval church contained a font. It was close to the main entrance of the church in an area known...

  The organ was installed around 1895 when a major restoration of the church took place. It is a splendid Victorian instrument which was rebuilt and enlarged in 1969 and had a major renovation again in 1996...

The Thicknesse Chapel in the north aisle is surrounded by a screen which dates from the 14th  or 15th  centuries and is also of Spanish Chestnut. This chapel was originally in Balterley Hall, the seat of the Thicknesse family who were...

Acknowledgments The Parochial Church Council of St. Margaret’s, Betley records its warmest appreciation of the work and contributions of the following in compiling the World War Memorials section of this website. Betley Local History Society David a...

The Men of Betley who died in the The Great War (1914-18), and World War II (1939-45).                                 ...

Biography – Elias Wagstaff Died 29th October 1917. Family situation Elias was born in Hanley and had an older brother and sister. He was living on Betley Common in the 1911 census, with his wife Elsie and baby boy, a...

Biography – Sydney John Cornes Died 21st February 1943. Age 24 Family situation John was born in 1918 at his grandparents’ house in Halmerend, as a descendant of a family with Betley associations since the 16th He had...

Biography – Edwin Farrington Died 1st April 1945. Age 27 Family situation Edwin was born on 10th March 1918 in Audley to Thomas and Margaret Farrington and had 3 siblings. After the death of his mother in 1930, his father re-married a...

Biography – Harry Booth Died 27th October 1917. Age 21 Family situation Born in Pipe Gate but was living with parents, Frank and Matilda, at Balterley when he enlisted; 5 of his siblings also lived there. He was the second s...

Biography – Frederick William Holdsworth Died 20th April 1918. Age 34 Family situation He was born in Crewe in 1883 and married Ethel Mary Howard from Crewe in 1908. He came to live at the White Cottage, Betley. He a...

Biography – Alfred Platt Killed in action 26th March 1918 Family situation Son of Alfred and Mary Platt. His father was a labourer on the coal pit bank (name of pit not known) He was the 2nd youngest of eight children a...

Biography – Arthur Brassington Killed in action 27th August 1918 Family situation Born at Wrinehill 2nd July 1893 to Sarah Ann Cooper; no father’s name on birth certificate. Sarah Ann married a John Brassington of Wri...

Biography – Frank Thomas Beeston Died 15th February 1944. Age 21 Family situation Born in Betley, the son of Alfred James and Elizabeth (nee Wood) in about 1923. He had 12 siblings and for some time the family lived i...

Biography – George Stubbs Died 1st October 1918 Family situation He was born in Hough, but became the adopted son of Thomas and Ellen Griffiths of Betley. Ellen was born in Betley, and husband Thomas was from Chetwynd i...

Biography – Harry Moss Died 3rd December 1917. Age 23 Family situation Born in Wrinehill in 1894, baptised at Wrinehill Primitive Methodist Chapel. Mother- Emily Cooper lived in Old Road Wrinehill before marrying his f...

Biography – Cyril Turner Died 4th April 1941. Age 21 Family situation Cyril was born on Christmas Day 1919 into a family of seven who lived in a cottage on Common Lane. He attended Betley School. Employment ...

Biography – Raymond Samuel Thicknesse Family situation Born in Canada in in 1890 and had a younger sister. Father died in 1901 and Raymond returned to England to be adopted by Uncle Ralph, a solicitor in Shaftesbury, Dorset. ...

Biography – Thomas Murray Died 25th February 1944. Age 35 Family situation Thomas was the son of Thomas and Harriet Murray of Betley. He was married to Ethel Gertrude and lived in Betley. Service He saw service i...

Biography – Derek Arthur Grose Tomlinson Died 17th November 1944. Age 20 Family situation Derek was born in 1924 and his family moved into Betley in about 1941 to the Old Post Office. Later they moved to the Old Vicarage i...

Biography – Ernest Thomas Hardern Died 22nd December 1945. Age 28. Family situation Ernest Thomas Hardern was the son of the landlord of the Blue Bell Inn, Wrinehill and his wife. He had 2 sisters. He married Constance V...

Biography – Basil Owen Tatham Family situation and military service After Charterhouse School Basil was gazetted into the 3rd Battalion East Yorks Regiment. 3 years later farmed in NW Rhodesia for two years; then the Federated M...

Betley Men Remembered         The Roll of Honour from Two World Wars: 1914/18 and 1939/45     Men resident in Betley, Balterley and Wrinehill when enlisted. 1914 - 1918 1939 - 1945 Harry...

Its Origin & Commissioning The window was dedicated on 7th February 1919. For many years, details of its origin and commissioning had stubbornly remained a mystery. Parish records had been searched and had failed to reveal any information at all about...

This project was commissioned to find further information about the Betley Window, who paid for it, who designed it and who authorised it. There are no records at Betley. During the investigation it was discovered that there are two almost identical...

Location and Dedication Set into the east wall of the south aisle of the church is a two light window in memory of two brothers, Lionel Trevor Tatham and Basil Owen Tatham. Although we do not know when this window was installed it must have been...

Location and Dedication On the east wall of the south aisle of the church is a stone plaque in memory of Ralph Thicknesse and his wife Lily. Underneath it is a brass plaque in memory of their nephew and adopted son, Raymond Thicknesse. The only...

The Village of Betley 1911-20 Life in the village had not changed much for centuries. It had been a closed community, as had most villages, for generations. Transport in and out of the village was by horse and cart, although Betley Road Station had...