Peter Walch, Quarryman - Family History

I was surprised to learn that Peter Walch was the name of my 3rd great-grandfather. I think of Peter as a name frequented more by the Roman Catholic than the Protestant English. I was glad at least in one regard - its rarity might help in researching the Walch name. The surname Walch, like Walsh and Welch, is a variation of Welsh, which simply means that a person originated from Wales. Walch is the least common among the variations but when taken together the surname is the most common in the British Isles. Researching this name is very difficult.

So what has my research revealed since learning his name? I found only one Peter Walch in the online databases that fit his estimated years of birth, occupation and locale. In the 1851 English census, we find: Peter Walsh, 55, a quarryman, born about 1796 in “Writington,” Lancashire, England. He was residing in Aspulll Township in the Registration District of Wigan. His wife is not listed and is presumed dead, but he is living with his daughters - 15-year-old Mary and 10-year-old Ellen, both born in “Writington.” There is no Writington, England, but there is a Wrightington near Wigan and my guess is that Writington was a misspelling.

This is what we learned from John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72): “WRIGHTINGTON, a township-chapelry in Eccleston parish, Lancashire; at Appleby-Bridge r. station, and 4 miles NW of Wigan. It has a post-office under Wigan. Acres, 3,876. Real property, £7,423; of which £41 are in quarries. Pop., 1,618. Houses, 305. W. Hall is the seat of T. Dicconson, Esq.; and Harrock Hall, of Mrs. Bolton. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £128. Patron, the Rector of Eccleston. The church was built in 1857. There are Independent, Primitive Methodist, and Roman Catholic chapels”

Is this the right Peter Walch? My guess is that he most likely is. Only further research will tell. Currently there is a project in Lancashire County in which the parishes are putting historic birth, marriage and death records online. When the churches in the Ecclestone parish go online in the next few years perhaps we will be able to prove this family line.

I learned more about stone getters, Peter’s occupation listed in his son's marriage certificate. It comes from the website of the John Wainwright/Moons Hill Quarry. The history they give is more recent than Peter's time in the quarry, given the jackhammers were not available then. But still, I think there is enough in common to give us insight into the labor of our ancestor:

“At the quarry face, stone getters worked in gangs varying in numbers from two to four, each gang being responsible for its own particular "piece" to work, the method of working the stone was simple, but arduous. Each gang undertook its own blasting, breaking and haulage within the quarry. The removal and excavation of a face was affected by a form of benching system employing relatively short holes drilled by a hand-held jack hammer or wagon type machinery. The fireman responsible for boring and firing would use black grain powder, which was poured into the drill and well bedded with the fuse. The fuse was sometimes simply wheat straw filled with a similar explosive, damped to give a slow burning rate. Following the blasting, the loose stone was barred down by the fireman, broken or crushed with hand tools by the gang and loaded into skips, drums or drays which were then pushed on narrow gauge light rail tracks or hauled by horses to loading bays within the quarry. Little or no secondary crushing of the stone took place. Where the stone was required for road purposes the material was stacked into lay-bys outside the quarry or at other prearranged places until required for use, when it was further crushed down by the roadmen into sizes for road works.

It is of interest to note that every quarry man had to provide his own tools, whether sledges, bars or shovels and was even required to pay for all explosives used by the gang.”


This is the ancestral extent to which the Walch surname line has been researched. In the next few blogs we will learn about the Charnock family and follow Elizabeth and Stephen Walch to New York and their children across America.