Why I love Leigh: Carole Mulroney

February 19, 2020 by Carole Mulroney

Carole Mulroney loves all things Leigh and is very involved in local town life as a Borough and Town Councillor and Trustee of the Heritage Centre.

Her passion lies with the social and family history of Leigh, and here she expresses her enthusiasm for the town through a poem.

Where to start this tale of Leigh?
At the start or back from me?
Well I’m a Palmer through and through
At least I thought that that was true
But when I start to dig around
You won’t believe the trail I’ve found

Yes I’m a Palmer true to say
Fruiterers of Leigh Broadway
But I must go back many years
Through vales of laughter and of tears
To where my origins are laid
Among the coastlines fishing trade

A Cotgrove is the first to show
Though where he came from I don’t know
Some people say from Holland’s shore
I really wish that I knew more
Through several sons named Benjamin
I come at last to Sarah Ann

Now this is where the bloodlines meet
James Palmer makes the link complete
Now he’s been married once before
But who she was I am not sure
And so to me the line goes on
For after James there came James John

He then wed a Johnson, Bess
Jeremiah’s girl no less
All along the salty sea
Runs through their veins and on to me
Now James John’s son, he broke the mould
And fruit and veg is what he sold

Mary Kerry was his wife
And both took up the tradesman’s life
Now their son Ben was my Granddad
He too began as grocer’s lad
To Tilly Bridge Ben gave his name
From fisher folk she also came

Her father Fiddler, known to all
My own dear father could recall
His photo shows a kindly man
His wife a Ford named Mary Ann
Her father though a Leigh man bred
Descends from Maldon town instead

Her mother came from Thundersley
Where Griggs are plentiful you see
But back to Fiddler, Great Grandpa
His Mum’s name Ritchie goes back far
An old Leigh name like many more
To which I’m linked through days of yore

Through Osborne, Noakes and Emery
It stretches way way back from me
So when you total up the score
I may be Palmer, but I’m more
I’m partly all these names, you see
But most of all, I’m part of Leigh