Adrian Smith is Bostock Green's local dairy farmer. Along with wife Alison and son Jason, Adrian runs the farm with the help of three members of staff, and is responsible for the Pedigree Holstein Bostock Herd. Calving takes place year-round with the cows producing an average of 8,600 litres.
The oak tree which today stands opposite the entrance to Brick Kiln Lane is the second to be planted in the village to mark its place as the centre of the original County of Chester. The tree which was beautifully illustrated as a mature tree in the 1795 Kenyon watercolour, was probably planted in the early 1700s. It was felled in 1887 and replaced by the one we see today which was planted by Canon Thomas France-Hayhurst and Col CH France-Hayhurst in 1887, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
Ever wondered where the name Bostock came from? The following gives us some insight.
The Hayhurst Arms was built in 1845 by the France-Hayhurst family as a Reading Room for the workers on the Estate; just one example of their philanthropy. In later years it expanded and evolved into Bostock Working Men’s Club and Parish Rooms, and in 2014 was completely renovated by Brunning & Price, opening its doors in February 2015. Now a classic village pub, The Hayhurst Arms sits at the very heart of Cheshire, alongside Bostock's village green.
The building that now houses Tilly Tots Daycare was originally built in 1905 as a Laundry Room by the philanthropic Colonel France-Hayhurst and serviced the laundry of the many servants and workers at The Hall. At that time the laundry for the family at The Hall was washed and ironed in a purpose built room in what is now 2 Bostock Green. The square tower of the building housed a massive water tank, and beneath it were two boilers heated by fires; the water was pumped up into the tower by a windmill, situated behind the building.
There has been a Blacksmith in Bostock at least since the 1660 Poll Tax records, when Laurence Rowe is named as ‘smith’. He would not, however, have practised his trade in today’s building, since this was not in evidence until the 1796 auction catalogue where it is described as ‘A new erected Messuage and Smithy, with Garden adjoining in the Township of Bostock, late in the holding of Richard Lowe’. The photographs below show the Smithy in 1906 and of William Stock in his late 60s. William was born in 1900, and took over the Smithy in the early 1930s from Mr Dodd; he worked there until he died in 1975.