Origin of the Name
The village of Gatley is situated about 30 kilometres north east of Great Budworth in the parish of Northenden. The probably meaning of the name is 'Goats' Cliff'. Variations of the name include Gatcliff, Gatlive and Gatliff. The name should not be confused with Gately, which is an Irish name meaning 'man of the Gael'.
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Great Budworth Parish
Great Budworth is a large picturesque parish in North Cheshire famous for its salt mines. The parish is divided into a number of villages and townships. The village of Great Budworth is situated about three kilometres to the north of Northwich, near to Pick Mere and Budworth Mere.
Matthew Gatley
Gatleys have lived in the parish of Great Budworth since at least the 1650s, but the first of whom we have any real knowledge is Matthew Gatley who was born in the early 1700s and married three times in the 1730s and 40s.
Thomas Gatley
Mathew's grandson Thomas deserves a special mention. We know from the parish register that he was baptised in March 1772. His first marriage to Nancy Woodyer took place in May 1792 and his second marriage to Ann Burton took place in 1813 just over a year after Nancy's death. Ann died in April 1849, six years before Thomas who passed away on the 27th February 1855 at the age of 84. This means that Thomas was married to his first wife for 20 years and his second for 35 years!
Richard Gatley
Richard Gatley, Thomas's grandson (who was baptised in March 1828) is the first Gatley of whom we have any real knowledge: our knowledge having come from the census enumerators' books as well as parish registers and family folklore. In 1841, at the age of 13, Richard was working and living on a farm in Crowley near the village of Great Budworth. For the next 20 years he moved around North Cheshire living and working on various farms.
In 1862, Richard married an Irish woman, Catherine Rooney, who was fifteen years his junior. During the next eleven years Catherine gave birth to nine children, five boys and four girls. Their fifth child Thomas was my great-grandfather. The pressures of so many pregnancies and the hard work involved in bringing up her children, took their toil on Catherine who died from phthisis (TB) at the age of 36 a few days after she gave birth to her last child Catherine who died less than a week later. To help him bring up his family Richard married Jane Sherlock who died in 1898 at the age of 65.
During this time Richard settled down in Budworth Heath just outside the village of Great Budworth. Although a farm worker by trade, the agricultural depression of this period led Richard to seek work elsewhere and in 1881 we find Richard employed as a salt labourer at a nearby salt mine. In 1891 Richard was working as a huckster selling fruit and vegetables.
Like many people in the nineteenth century, Richard did not receive much an of education, although we do know that he learnt to read and write late in life, for whilst he was unable to sign the marriage register when he first married, he signed the register when he married Jane.
Richard died at his home in Budworth Heath on the 22nd April 1906 at the age of 79. Most of Richard's children moved away from Great Budworth in search of employment elsewhere. His son Thomas moved to the nearby town of Warrington where he married Martha Rathbone with whom he had four children.
Joseph Gatley
Thomas's youngest son Joseph was born in Hale Street, Warrington on the 6th June 1899. In 1917, at the age of 18, Joseph joined the Royal Navy. During the war Joseph was stationed at a naval dockyard in Chatham in Kent and never set foot on foreign soil. Apart from the two years he spent in Kent during the First World War Joseph spent the rest of his life in Warrington. After his marriage to Mary Catherine Doyle (known as Kitty), in 1927, he moved to Cobden Street. With Kitty he had four children, all sons, the eldest of whom, yet another Thomas Gatley, was my father.
Joseph worked for most of his life in an iron foundry where he operated an electric crane. During the Second World War Joseph served in the Home Guard. He was a life-long supporter of Warrington Rugby League Club and a good card player. Kitty, his wife, died just before Christmas 1973 and Joseph himself died thirteen years later in May 1986.
David
Alan Gatley
31st
March 2001
