The furthest that I have managed to take the Crosby line back with any certainty is to my 3rd great grandfather, William Crosby, who was born in the late 18th century. He married Betty and, according to the Hale Parish Register, they had at least six children. The Register usually describes them "of Halewood" and on one occasion "of Hale." The population of Hale during the 18th century and earlier would have been small so it reasonable to assume that all the Crossbee/Crosbe/Crosbie entries in the Hale Parish Register are the same family. Unfortunately, there seems to be a missing generation in the Register so I have not been able to find William's parents and therefore been unable to link them to the earlier generations. Assuming that the various spellings of Crosby in the Register are a direct line then the earliest entry in the Hale Parish Register is the christening of Elizabethe Crossbee in July 1572. The names then appear on a regular basis over the following three centuries. At different times in the 17th and 18th centuries, the first names are given Latin spellings. I would think that the actual names of Richardus, Henricus and Willielmus were really Richard, Henry and William. There was a Moses Crosbie/Crosby who was born in 1711 and died in 1790. He was a shoemaker and married Martha. It is possible that Moses was the grandfather of William and therefore my 5th great grandfather. Moses had a son called William who was born in 1740 but he would seem a little old to be having children between 1809 and 1817.

My earliest memories:

I never knew James Crosby, my grandfather, as he died in 1941 - 14 years before I was born.

As a very small child, I remember visiting Nanny Crosby at the family house at 3 Harris Street, Widnes. Auntie May also lived in the house at this time as she was widowed at a comparatively early age. Auntie Frances lived across the street. The houses opened directly on to the street which was probably cobbled but I don't actually remember this. The street was lit by a few gas lamps that were lit at night by a man with a long pole and put out early in the morning.

The house did not have a back garden but a yard with a toilet at the end. I remember that old newspapers were used rather than toilet paper. The house itself had no toilet or bathroom, and had no electricity. Chamber pots had to be used for night time use. There were gas lamps on the walls of the various rooms. There was one cold tap in what was referred to as the 'back kitchen.' Washing was done by heating up water and putting it into a large tub. The clothes were then agitated by a 'dolly' a long pole with three prongs at the end. The wet clothes were then put through a mangle to squeeze out some of the water. Baths were not taken very often as the water had to be heated in pans and poured into the tin bath that hung behind the kitchen door.

There was a big black oven that was heated by the fire in the middle room that was referred to as the 'front kitchen.' I'm not sure how they used the oven during the summer when there wouldn't have been a fire lit. The front room was called the parlour. The parlour was never used for day to day use. It was only used for very special occasions, or certain callers like the vicar, or for laying dead people out. It seems very odd that the room was not used more given that Nanny Crosby brought up six children in the house. Life must have been a lot colder than today although there were fireplaces in the bedrooms and parlour, these were rarely lit.

The family always had several cats. Although they were pets, they were kept more for their practical use in keeping down the numbers of mice and rats.

A peculiar habit was that the clock on the sideboard was always kept ten minutes fast. This was a tradition that was continued by Auntie May when she lived alone. It had something to do with 'so no one would be late for the bus.'

Although I must have been only 5 or 6 years old, I have an image of Nanny Crosby. We used to visit on a Saturday night and she would give me a silver sixpence. She was an old lady then and I remember her sitting in the corner of the front kitchen in her rocking chair. She always had a knitted shawl around her. She was virtually blind at the time so you had to get very close to her so that she could see you. My other strong memory of her is that she used to take snuff - virtually unheard of these days. She used to put the snuff (powdered tobacco) on the back of her hand and inhale it through each nostril. She also liked to have a bottle of stout from the local off licence.

By Ralph Crosby (1955 - )