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"Coppenhall is a scattered village, township, and chapelry (to Penkridge), four miles NNW of Penkridge, containing 100 inhabitants, and 900 acres of land, belonging to Lord Willoughby de Broke, Miss Clarke, and several smaller proprietors, but Baron Stafford is lord of the manor."

[From History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1831]

Before 1837 Monks Coppenhall (later named Crewe after the family at Crewe Hall) was a small hamlet in the Cheshire countryside. The inhabitants would have made a living from farming.

In 1837 the railway station was built. The first train arrived at 8.45 on 4 July 1837

(left Crewe Green and Church, Crewe)

The first steam train built entirely in Crewe was No 49 Columbine in 1845, a 2-2-2 locomotive which was in use until 1902

Between 1843 and 1958 a total of 7331 locomotives were built at Crewe, more than any other railway works in the country.

1831 Census - population 100

1841 Census - population 119

1901 Census - population approx 30000

1913 Crewe works employed 7000 men in the locomotion works and thousands more in other parts of the railway.

1950 Population approx 60000 (10000 employed by the railways)

William Waine was born in 1834 in Marple Cheshire. In 1851 he worked as a weaver in the mill like his father. In 1881 he was a railway engine driver living in Crewe with his wife and children. His eldest son Alfred Edward Waine was 15 and working as an engine cleaner. By 1891 Alfred was a stoker and by 1901 he was an engine driver. William's son Ernest Waine was a railway engine fitter. Ernest's son William Waine was born in 1903 and worked as an iron moulder in the works.

William's wife Jane Latham was daughter of Richard Latham and Sarah Vernon. Richard worked as machinist /engine maker. His son Thomas Latham lived in Beech St Crewe for at least twenty years. He worked as plater boiler maker

Some workers came from further afield to work at Crewe. Henry Barley, son of a shoemaker, was born in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire. He worked as an engine fitter. His son William Henry Barley became a plater boiler maker.

When Henry's wife died he remarried a widow Matilda Bosworth. Matilda's first husband Walter Bosworth was a fireman in the railway works, and died aged just 28. The Coroner's inquest in 1893 concluded he had died of "exhaustion consequent upon extensive inflammation of both lungs".

William Allcock was a coachbuilder from Leighton when he married Louisa Lawley in 1856. He went on to become a machinist in Crewe works. The Lawleys were from Salop in Shropshire but were living in Crewe by the 1850s. Louisa's father Joseph Lawley had been a clock/watchmaker and died in Broad St in 1872. Three of her brothers also worked on the railways.

By 1881 three of William and Louisa's sons were also working on the railways and the fourth went on to when older.