Local historian BOB CURZON looks at Winsford from days gone by, comparing and contrasting it with life in the town as it is now

THERE has been a lot written in the local press recently about Ida the Nun and whether she existed or not, or if she was invented by John Henry Cooke in his novel Ida or the mystery of the nun's grave at Vale Royal in Cheshire published in 1912.

Was this book written to arouse local interest, to coincide with the excavations of 1911-12 of Vale Royal by Basil Pendleton, or was there such a person?

Indeed, before the 1912 version of "Time Team", the locals had only a rough idea that an abbey stood there at all, even the location was in doubt as very little remained on the surface.

It was John Henry's preference which aroused the Pendleton dig and also due to his cajoling of the Cheshire gentry to part with money for the deciphering of the Vale Royal Ledger Book from Latin. This is the only copy, as the original was lost, and so gives us as much information as we have today.

Fact or fable though, the story of Ida makes fascinating conversation. I have watched the press avidly at both sides of the argument, and I would love to say the story is true, I also spent a couple of hours looking through John Henry's book and I must state it was heavy going.

The book which was priced at 6/- (30p) contained an account of life in Vale Royal Abbey and St Mary's Nunnery, Chester, interwoven with the story of Fr John, who afterwards became Abbot Peter in 1322, being the fifth Abbot, and Ida Marian Godman a beautiful brown haired dark eyed maid of Overton, who had a passion of caring for the sick.

As in all good tales, sceptics are quick to condemn what may or may not be the truth. Admittedly, John Henry's somewhat fanciful and unlikely tale of love between the two may have been distorted from fact as a book was found along with the Vale Royal manuscripts, entitled Sweet Rememberances of Ida Marion Godman, Ye nun of St Mary's Convent, Chester.

The novel goes on to tell us that Ida, supposedly took refuge from an over zealous suitor, Sir Barnaby De Gresford, in St Mary's Nunnery.

She had previously been befriended by Fr John who then fell in love with Ida. On her deathbed, she asked for Fr John, who was by this time Abbot Peter. He mounted his best horse and quickly made his way to St Mary's where Ida died wearing the emerald ring her had given to her.

It was her last wish to be buried in the Abbey precincts.

The Abbey ledger book tells of Abbot Peter and a monk murdered in Bradford Wood by John Le Welch, one of the Venables gentry, who resented the Abbot's power in 1339.

Gerard Coneely has studied and been intrigued by the tale and of Vale Royal Abbey as a whole ever since a friend saw an apparition of a nun.

He believes that on the death of Abbot Peter, his friend Ida was summoned, possibly to tend him.

She later died at the Abbey, maybe of a broken heart, and was buried alongside her true love.

The memoirs of Essex Cholmondeley in 1740, writes that on the pulling down of the cloister walls, two stone coffins containing the bodies of an Abbot and an abbess were found.

The remains were re-interred at what we know as the nun's grave, consisting of a sandstone column, surmounted by a 15th century cross head depicting the crucifixion, St Nicholas, the Virgin Mary, and St Catherine with the base being fragments of the Abbey. Ida was inscribed in Latin on the slab, but the non-believers thinks this is a recent additions.

Strange goings on have been noted for years, before sightings of a spectral figure occurred, and an early 19th century manuscript is inscribed "At Vale Royal on a calm summer evening, there is sometimes heard plaintive dulcet music hovering over the nun's grave".

Of course, many sightings have occurred, some around the river. Of Ida the nun, staff of the golf club in the hall felt a presence, culminating in the latest supposed photo at the window.

My favourite tale, told to me by various retired ICI workmen, date when Vale Royal was used as ICI offices in the late 1950s. Tom Dean, the night watchman, arrived back at Winsford works having left his bike at the hall. In the middle of the night, he had seen a ghostly figure and had run all the way back to the works. He consequently never returned.

The Daily Telegraph reviewed "Ida" in 1912, when they said Mr Cooke's real achievement is a careful antiquarian record, the book has gathered up a host of medieval memorials.

I much prefer the haunting prose of Gerard Conneely "Neath this green sward fair Ida sleeps, where once a mighty Abbey proclaimed it's grandeur, piety, grace, only Ida, now, her timeless vigil keeps.

On going to press, I have been informed that the nun's grave is now in pieces inside the hall, with no plans by English Heritage to re-erect it. I have written to English Heritage, Savile Row, London to express my disappointment.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.