When Bigelows organized in 1887 to publish the first Bigelow Family genealogy, some searching was done to try to clarify a connection with the Baguley family of Ollerton Hall in England. According to the account by Gilman B. Howe in his book, no positive relationship was established.
YouTube Video; Oct 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKVAAAL0xFY

The Bigelow Society has published a booklet on Baguley Hall .............................. See Link.

In Feb 1974, Laurel Barklow visited the home of Hester (Sproul) and William Wallace ⁸ Bigelow (Charles Chandler ⁷, Job ⁶, Paul ⁵, Cornelius ⁴, Samuel ³, Samuel ², John¹) in Rockton, lIlinois. They showed her a letter to William from Charles Chase Bigelow, excerpts of which follow

Dear William Wallace:

...I have also the line of descent of the Baguley family from Sir Richard de Baguley down to John Biglo and his forge and hammer at Watertown. This makes our family line entirely complete from the present day back to 1243. The Baguleys were lords of Baguley Hall and Ollerton Hall, the latter acquired by marriage...

I wondered if the town of Baguley still existed. I looked it up in Buffalo's Grosvenor Library, third largest reference library in the U.S., and with the help of a librarian, I found it in an English atlas. It is just outside Manchester, England. I also looked up the Bigelow coat-of-arms in the Encyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 32 {recorded by John Bigelow, Watertown, Mass. 1637).

From the EAB I made a copy of the coat-of-arms in colour. Then I wondered if we were the Baguley family of England, what about the Baguley coat-of-arms? I looked it up and found it to be the same as ours is.

And so John Biglo recorded the Baguley coat-of-arms at Watertown, and John Biglo's name was Baguley. He was a blacksmith and like others of that day, he could neither read nor write. The first recorded marriage in Watertown is that of John Biglo...

Shortly after I had done considerable of this research, a friend of mine, Ernest Davenport, was going to England to visit his mother who lived at Stoke-on-Trent. As this Stoke-on-Trent is about 25 mile from Manchester, I asked him if he would look up Baguley Hall.

This he did and found it. It seems that in the city of Manchester some of the buses are labelled "Baguley." He boarded one of these and said he wished to go to Baguley. The motorman said New Baguley or Old Baguley? It seems that of late years a whole new suburb of Manchester has grown up adjacent to old Baguley, which is new Baguley. There doesn't seem to be much to old Baguley except the hall, of which he brought back two photographs.

It is rather a sprawling structure and is widely known for its immense oak beams. Cut in the stone wall at the rear of the Great Hall is the Baguley coat-of-arms, identical with the Bigelow coat-of-arms. And so at last we know where we came from -- from the hall of Baguley, 1243, Cheshire, England.

Done this day, 20 Mar 1959 by Charles Chase Bigelow, 437 Rhode Island St., Buffalo, NY.

See also: Baguley History
and : Baguley History 5 most comprehensive history but some doubts and incomplete lines.
and : Baguley History 1
and : Baguley Hall 1982
Note 3:
Subject: Baguley & Ollerton Halls
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 16:04:51 -0700
From: Mark.Bigelow@upm-kymmene.com
     I made a brief visit to Baguley Hall two weeks ago. It was interesting to see that the area known as " Baguley " still exists ,
and is sign posted as you leave the motorway . I have been passed this spot very many times on the motorway ,heading into
Manchester but had never heard of an area called Baguley ......many thanks to the Bigelow Society educating me !
Unfortunately I was unable to gain access to the Hall , as it is fenced off, but I am happy to say that the gardens are still being well maintained . A large hoarding states the property is the responsibility of " English Heritage " and that money is available to help restore the property if someone can develop a realistic plan for its development . When time allows I will investigate this in more detail.
     It would be nice to see  the web page for Josiah, amended to show his date and place of death , and to have little Eugene's name added to the list of his children , plus the children's birth dates. I now have the photographs of Rosalie and William Henry Bigelow. I have taken a normal photograph of Rosalie's Daguerreotype image , as I did not think the image could be scanned as it is a mirror like image.

Mark Bigelow.
6 Ethelbert Rd.
Meols
Wirral
England
CH47 5AD
I am trying to create a page for Josiah ⁷ Bigelow and Family, with info from Mark.........................ROD 11/14/99

"Excited" is not enough to express the feeling I have had for the last four hours exploring your, "our", family stories this early AM.  I feel as if I have found long lost family, as I am one of the Baguley decendants. My grandfather completed an extensive research many years ago, traveling throughout England and other lands.  I remember many of the names and places you have written about from hearing about them as a child.  I have a book he wrote however that is very informative.  I never did recieve the copy of our history as was promised to my mother a long time ago, but now I am determined to track it down.  I am going to join your society and will begin a totally new experience in helping to document family history, something I must admit I didn't know much about until now.  I have many cousins but none of which I saw had written to your comments section.  Did I say I was excited?  I have tears in my eyes.  I will look forward to contact from you.

Sincerely, Pamela Brown Haeussler, only child and daughter of Phyllis Marie Baguley Brown, first born and only daughter of
Irl Leslie Baguley, born to John and Rebecca Baguley of Liverpool, England, landing in Montreal, Que., then settling in Tawas City, Mi.1888, and theinfo goes on and on.

I may be contacted at: 1705 Gretchen Avenue, Grand Island, Nebraska
68803-6350
Phone: 308-382-7471.   Email: pamela@hamilton.net
Let me end with the dedication passage from my grandfathers book:

     "I remember walking with my father
     near the white pine that smoldered in shade
     hunched and crushed at the end of the wood...
     He bent over to tie the shoe that I lifted to his knee.

     What if the world is filled with stories?
      we hear only a few,live fewer,
      and most that we live or hear
      solve nothing, lead nowhere.

      But the pine appears again, rooted in dreamed tears,
      yes, each branch, each needle
      its own true story, yours,
      mine, ours to tell."

I know and am pleased to have information I can give you to add to your
fantastic work.
I didn't believe there would be much of an interest, until this very morning.
Thank you again.  I feel alive again.  Sincerely, Pamela Haeussler

     I just finished reading your homepage about the history of the Baguley family.  My mother was a Bagley from Texas.  I have a book called Bagley Family Tales written by Kaaren M. Perry which takes our family back to Baguley Hall.  However, in her book she states that the Hall was being renovated and was to be opened to the public as a tourist attraction since it is one of the "oldest timbered" buildings in England.  Also, it has an authentic Viking roof - the roof of the Great Hall is a replica of a Viking ship upside down.  It was supposed to be opened in 1982.
   I am now living in Dublin, Ireland, and plan to go look for this building in a few weeks.  Do you know anything about it?  I met a lady from Manchester who said she knew where it was and thought it had burned about a year ago. Who knows?
Thanks,  Diedra Morris

    I am the grand nephew of Charles Chase Bigelow who did original tracings of family back to Baguley Hall, which I visited some years ago. Am trying to put together short version of family history for my son and ran into that attached beautiful picture of Baguley Hall. Though you might like a copy.
Uncle Charlie was also an artist and did murals in Buffalo newspaper building which are not  on National registry of Historical Landmarks.
His Niece is now over 80 and living in Sierra Madre, CA -- very interested in Bigelow stuff and a treasure trove of great family memorabilia.
Bud Bigelow
Burlington, VT

Note:
Subject: Baguley Hall
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 07:30:57 -0600
From: "Nora Bartlett" <  nora.bartlett@home.com  >

Hi, my name is Nora Bartlett and I hope you can help me with the name Baguley.  In 1826 my great grandfather was born and
later lived  and worked a farm called Baguley Farm.  His name was William Marsland.  I know this has nothing to do with the
Biglow family name but I saw a reference to the fact that Baguley Hall is now called 'farm' and as it is the only building remaining just maybe I can get my sister to go and visit (she still lives in England, I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada).  I understand you have a publication called "Forge Is this published in the States and how much would it cost for vol.7 as this was mentioned as having a reference to Baguley.
I really was excited to read your family history as up until yesterday I didn't know the correct spelling of Baguley or that there was so much history to the place.  Thanks for your help, Nora

Note:
Subject: Baguley links
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 14:41:22 -0400
From: ebagley@wingate.edu (Edwin Bagley)
Organization: Wingate University

I found your Baguley Hall material, which I had first seen in different form in Kaaren Perry's Bagley Family Tales.  Some of
the links did not respond.  Is there a different home page now? I fixed links.........ROD

Edwin Bagley
Department of Religion and Philosophy
Wingate University
Wingate, North Carolina  28174
voice:  704-233-8085
fax:  704-233-8285
http://www.wingate.edu/acad/religionphilo/page1.html

     I have just spent a wonderful hour devouring the information about Baguley Hall.  My maiden name is Bigelow, and I come from a very long line of people interested in family history.  Several years ago my husband and I had the chance to visit the UK.  Friends of ours from Manchester area drove us to Baguley Hall, which had just been taken over by the National Trust.  We walked all around the house, examining it closely from outside.  A man came from somewhere and asked us what we were doing.  I said my name, and asked if there were some way to see the house.  It turns out that he was the caretaker.  Since it was a drizzly day, and he probably was bored, he took us through.  Apparently the house had been privately owned until fairly recently, despite a lack of inside plumbing.  He showed us through each room, told us the comparative age (periods) of the house, and pointed out the various additions that had been made.  The largest---and oldest---room inside is indeed amazing.  Two HUGE oak trees hold up the roof, which is an enormous inverted Viking-like ship.  Around the perimeter of this room was a walkway, elevated from the fllo by about 24 inches.  The center part was dirt, and had been partially excavated by the Trust.  In ancient days the original inhabitants had apparently lived on the raised up parts, and had housed their cattle on the lower part.  Amongst the excavated items were tons of chicken bones.  I guess they ate what they wanted and fed the remnants to the animals.  It was very interesting.  Mr. Rice, the caretaker, said that the last of the "family" had died in the late 50's, and that the house had been empty---and vandalized---for awhile.  Then, something happened and a caretaker was installed.  When he died, Mr. Rice took over.  He and his wife lived there for a few years, but it was a bit too rustic for her.  At the time of our visit they lived elsewhere and he oversaw things during the day.  He was very charming and interesting: we quite enjoyed the visit.

     That same day, our friends took us to the church housing the effigy.  My branch of Bigelow family is all tall: the effigy of William, supposedly done life-size, shows that he must have been a giant in his day.  Despite being broken off slightly below the knees, it is still about 6 feet tall!  My branch also has what we like to call "aristocratic" noses:  my husband just calls them"big."  The effigy could have been modeled after my father, who is happily still alive.  It was surreal.  It happened that day that a couple was getting married, and the bell-ringer was to toll.  He invited us up into the bell tower, which was a thrill.  Supposedly, our mutual ancestor John was baptised in that very church!  Incidentally, the church is not that old.  Due to a fire, the original burned: this dates from the late 1500's-early1600's---plenty old.
Hope you find some of this interesting.  I look forward to coming back to this website and reading more.   --
Karin Bigelow Faber  (faber532@aol.com)

Thanks for your note, my reason for believing we are in some form related is in the short family history I was able to obtain from a family member there are details of Baguley Hall and I can remember from a young age being told of the hall. I will try to locate a copy of the current Family tree and make
a copy to forward onto you. Hopefully we can find a link!
For your information possibly the most famous of the Baguley's in Australia is my Grandfather's (Keith) brother Frank Baguley. He started a flower farm many, many years ago in Victoria, Australia. Below is a link to their web site.
Regards,
Tammy

http://www.baguley.com.au

Just browsing thru your pages again for anything new and saw the posting on the Baguley Hall page from Pamela Haeussler.

Since making contact with Pamela a while back (she replied to my visitor posting on the Bigelow pages) I have been in correspondence, on and off. It's been great to find another family member and I have passed to Pamela the family tree work done by her father, which my parents had (Irl Baguley visited Ted Baguley, my father, in 1963).  She was very pleased, I think!
I am also now in regular contact with two of Irl Baguley's sons, Norman & Keith, in Michigan and shall send them your web addresses, particularly
Baguley Hall etc.
All of this through yours and the previous work - keep it up!
Regards,
Richard Baguley

rodbigelow@netzero.net 
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