Battarbee Bank

Battarbee Bank

Battarbee Bank is a recent small development located on the old Meadowvale Foods Limited site just off Wrexham Road.

Previously occupied by Everfresh Foods and latterly taken over by Meadowvale Foods Limited, Wrexham, the site functioned as a frozen food wholesaler depot, before eventually closing due to financial pressures.

The naming of the street on the site was was suggested by David Hayns and myself and approved by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) in recognition of a previous Malpas resident Mary Battarbee who lived on the Meadowvale site at the time of the Tithe Awards, (c.1841)

Mary is listed in Pigot's 1834 Directory of Cheshire as 'shopkeeper and retailer of beer, at Church Street, Malpas.
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Battarbee Family Historical snippets:
The Battarbees were a large family who were prominent in all areas of trade in Malpas, by way of grocers, bakers and wine merchants throughout the 19th century and part of the 20th Century.

The will of George Battarbee dated 1824, records him as a being a Malpas Baker and Flour dealer on Church Street.
(Note* a list of trades in Malpas in 1822-23 record his surname being miss-spelt as Batterby.)
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John Battarbee
On the 1841 Tithe Maps, John Battarbee is listed as joint owner and occupier of a slaughter house and a shoe makers shop on Parbutts lane

The 1891 Census Enumerator's returns show the Battarbee family at 4, Church Street, where they kept the 'New Inn' (an off-licence.)

However, it would appear that in the mid-nineteenth century there were at least two Battarbee establishments in Church Street that were connected with the licensed trade – The Old Vaults, in 'upper' Church Street and Mary's shop in 'lower 'Church Street.

No information is available at this time as to when the lower end of Church Street was renamed Wrexham Road.

Illustrated below from a booklet on the Inns and Innkeepers of West Cheshire, published in 1992 is a list of the proprietors of the Old Vaults (Previously the Spirit Vaults and currently known as The Vaults)

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Listed in the Episcopal Malpas Burial Board records for 28th June 1875 was a Charles Matthews Manager of the Spirit Vaults, 18 Blandford Street, Liverpool as purchasing plot number 7 (9 Feet Deep) for £2 2s. (£2.10p)
In addition £1 1s (£1.05p) was paid for the erection and maintenance of a head stone.
His wife Ann Matthews was interned in the plot on 13th August 1910 and Charles shortly afterwards on 24th August 1910.

This would support the statement that the property was owned by the Drake Family and the names on the list above were only tenants or managers.
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Richard Barttarbee
Richard Battarbee who became the proprietor of the Old Vaults in 1848, started life as a miller at "Wych Mill."
By 1851 he was also recorded as being a wine merchant in Malpas.

The Episcopal Malpas Burial Board records that on the 25th September 1876, Richard's wife Mary Battarbee of Church Street, Malpas, purchased plot number 35 for £3 3 shillings (£3.15P)
Richard recorded as spirit merchant, was buried on the same day in the 9 foot deep grave.

Mary Battarbee was buried in the same grave just under 3 months later on 13th December 1876.Both being 72 years old.The burial cost for Richard was £3, 14 Shillings and six pence. (£3.75p) and for Mary the cost was 4 Shillings and 6 pence. (45p)

A minor fire at Mr Battarbee's malt kiln was recorded in January 1881.
It is noted that there is a gap of 7 years between Richard and Fredrick tenancy (1875 – 1880).
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Frederick Battarbee
Richard's son, Frederick took over the running of the Old Vaults in 1881.

In 1897 Frederick is recorded as being one of the first Malpas Parish Councillors.

An extract from a 1924 list of probates granted includes Frederick Battarbee who died in 1923.

Frederick apparently had 3 wives during his life time as Inn keeper.
Frederick's First Wife
The Cemetery records show that on 11th March 1884, Frederick purchased plot number 6 at a depth of 9 feet for 3s and 3 pence. (30 & 1/4 p)
This was for his first wife, Mary Ann Battarbee who died at the age of 29 and is recorded as being buried in the Malpas Cemetery on 11th March 1884. The cost of internment was £3, 14 Shillings and six pence.(£3.75p)
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Frederick's Second Wife
On the 26th March 1887, Frederick purchased plot number 7 for 3 shillings and 3 pence. (30 & 1/4 p)
Elizabeth Battarbee, died at the age of 36 and was buried on the same day.

It is also recorded that on 9th May 1887, a George Frederick Battarbee, age 3 months, was buried in the cemetery.
These records suggest that Elizabeth died shortly after child birth and the infant only survived for 3 months without his mother's care.
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Frederick's Third Wife
Frederick married again; this time to another Mary.
They had a son, Richard because as the records show, on 13th November 1893 Frederick paid for plot number 41 for his son, Richard Battarbee aged 4, who was buried on 11th November..
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Bernard Battarbee
Bernard was as illustrated above was the licensee of "The Vaults" in Church St between 1928 and 1950 taking over the Inn, when his father died.
In 1967, Bernard Battarbee (born around 1901) still lived in the village and had at one time had also kept an off-licence called The New Inn, in Church Street near The Cross.
Bernard had a brother also named Frederick.

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Battarbee Descendants
During the course of researching the article, it was established that two descendants of the Battarbee family still live locally, these being Pam Emerson and John Webb. (Ex Parish Council Chairman)

Their common ancestor was John Batterbee, Richard's grandfather.
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Note* Further research is required.
Further investigation is required to establish if Bernard Battarbee was Frederick's son or his brother.

Bernard may (subject to further enquiry) have married Mabel Dodd and if so they had two children, Olga and Peter.

Frederick married a Margaret Willetts and they had a son also called Fred.

A Fred Malpass Batterbee died in Sussex in 1958

Article produced by Chris Whitehurst
30th January 2024 and updated 2nd January 2026
Historic data from research by David Hayns and reference to 4 original record books from Episcopal Malpas Burial Board