Welcome to Lach Dennis

What’s In A Name? The history of Lach Dennis can be traced back as far as the great land survey commissioned by William The Conqueror in 1086, more commonly known as ‘The Doomsday Book’.  At that time Lece (as it was known) was divided into two manors, each owned by a different man and therefore our village was actually listed twice! Of these 2 owners, the most notable was William FitzNigel, 1st Baron of Halton.  He was an important land-owner of the day and in addition to Lece, held 29 other manors in Cheshire.  Lece itself was not considered to be particularly fertile and cultivatable land, which was highlighted by the fact that his workable land was recorded as only large enough to warrant a single plough! A clue to why this was so, lies in the name, which is derived from the Old English, ‘laecc’ which means boggy stream, or stream running through boggy land.  Draining and farming the land at that time would have been considerably difficult.  In addition, given the population and requirement for food, it simply wasn’t necessary to farm this area to fulfil local demand (remember, local transport links were made by horse and cart over rough ground) The other landowner of Lece at the time of the Doomsday Book was a man called Moran, who had started to cultivate some of the land, which was large enough to support one smallholder and two ploughmen and their respective families. In subsequent land surveys through the ages,…