Horsley Bath
borrowed from www.primelocation.com/uk

When my Father died I inherited a suitcase full of old photographs and documents. Amongst these were some C18 writing books in which my Great grandfather had recorded items of interest to him as he practised his handwriting. He worked in the Liverpool Post Office.
One of the books contained this inscription:
'Sanituti sacrum obstructum reserat durum terit humidia siccat debile fortificat sitamen arte bibis'.
with the rider:
Carved in the stone at Horsley bath and dated 1424.

There followed a translation of the Latin which I have ammended and it reads thus:
'It clears obstruction to health, it softens rigidity, it makes strong what is weak if you drink of this water in faith as medicine'.

I puzzled over this finding and trawled the web on a regular basis searching for clues as to its origin. For several years I found nothing except frustration! Then one Sunday, when I had been entering the data in to the search engine in various configurations for two or three hours 'I hit the jackpot'. An estate agent's site was revealed and it included the details of a house with an ancient 'bath' in the garden. 'Horsley' was part of the Cheshire address. I was in shock because it was such a beautiful house and I had no idea how I could be connected to it!

I next used the property to search the census results and found Smiths living in the house on every one. I began to believe I really had found something relevant. I delved deeper into these Smiths using the IGI and gradually discovered that they included my direct ancestors that no one had told me about. Further research at Chester Record office confirmed that the bath in the grounds had probably been there since Roman times!

I have since discovered that the neighbouring house was inhabited by another branch of the Smith family. I have now made contact with someone in America who is descended from that branch.

Discovering this house was the key to unlocking my Smith history and I believe it proves the value of not giving up no matter how hopeless the search seems. It was only by chance that I searched when the house was up for sale and therefore found it! Thank goodness I didn't miss that chance.

Gillian

Carole this is very interesting! I have never seen a picture of Horsley Bath before so I am thrilled to see this one. The website looks interesting too so I shall explore that in due course. Thank you, Gillian