Custom
The Farmer's Wife Chest
One arm, one lid, one farmer's bride.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A massive black-oak chest with five locks
- Legend from
- Parish tradition
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Whimsical
Lift this oak lid with one arm and you are strong enough to be a farmer's wife.
St Oswald's at Lower Peover is a timber-framed church dating back to at least 1269. In its Shakerley Chapel stands a dug-out chest made of bog oak, carved from a single piece and thought to be older than the church itself. For centuries it held the parish registers, vicars' robes and church plate. Four of its five locks were added at the Reformation. Tradition says that a girl who wished to marry a farmer had to be able to lift the heavy lid with one arm. The church explains that a farmer's wife needed to be strong enough to lift the great Cheshire cheeses made in the area.