ASTBURY

The parish of Astbury was on the eastern boundary of Cheshire, bordering Staffordshire, and comprised eleven townships being Buglawton, Congleton, Davenport, Eaton, Great Moreton, Hulme-Walfield, Newbold Astbury, Odrode, Smallwood, Somerford Booths and Somerford cum Radnor.

The church was mentioned in the Domesday Book and following lengthy litigation it was accepted by the end of the fourteenth century that the rectory belonged to St Werburgh’s Abbey in Chester. Following the dissolution of the abbey the advowson passed to the dean and chapter of the new cathedral and from them to Sir Richard Cotton and then to the Egerton family. The rectors owned all the tithes of the parish but tended to be absentee pluralists, at least in the early part of the sixteenth century. Thus John Brereton, brother of the executed courtier, William, held the parish from 1535 until his death 1542. At the same time, he was a royal chaplain and held the parishes of St Mary in Chester, Christleton and both moieties of Malpas in Cheshire, as well as being a canon of St Paul’s. He was succeeded in the parish by Hugh Powell (or ap Howell/Apowell) who also held the parish of Eccleston in Cheshire and Llanvetherine in Monmouthshire.

The existing church was originally built in the twelfth century but substantially altered over the next three hundred years. The church building is unusual in that the tower, probably dating from the fourteenth century, is not integrated into the main building, but connected to it by a passage. Much of the woodwork of the interior, including the chancel screen and the parclose screen (separating the aisle from the nave), dates from about 1500, and it is thought that a surviving wall painting of St George dates from about the same time.

The fourteenth-century tomb of Ralph Davenport can be seen in the church, in the churchyard is a medieval canopied tomb, but the figures of a knight and his lady associated with it have been badly weathered.

Sources:

Rev. J. E. G. Cartlidge, Newbold Astbury and its History (Congleton, 1915: reprinted 2004)

J. P. Earwaker, The History of the Church and Parish of St Mary-on-the-Hill Chester (London, 1898), p. 80

Miriam Gill, ‘ “Now help, St George, oure lady knyght … to strengthe our Kyng and England ryght”. Rare scenes of Saint George in a wall painting at Astbury, Cheshire’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 91 (1997) pp. 91-102.

Douglas Jones, The Church in Chester 1300-1540 (Chetham Society 3rd series, 7, 1957), p. 176

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol. iii, pp. 21-72

The black and white images are reproduced from volumes 64, 68 and 69 of the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire by kind permission of The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.

CHURTON

The township of Churton lay partly in the parish of Aldford and partly  in the parish of Farndon. This split resulted from the division of the township between the manors of Aldford and Farndon.

Source

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol. ii, pp. 745-746

ALDFORD

The parish is not far from Chester and comprised the townships of Aldford, Buerton, Edgerley and half of Churton. Aldford itself is situated on the River Dee.

The remains of a motte and bailey castle, said to date from the twelfth-century, can still be seen near to the church.

The advowson of the rectory was owned by the lords of the manor. The Stanleys of Alderley held the manor in the early years of the sixteenth century. It subsequently passed back to the Crown and was purchased by the courtier, William Brereton, but was forfeit following his execution. It was later sold to Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth and Robert Tatton jointly but was eventually purchased by the Grosvenors of Eaton who funded the rebuilding of the church and much of the village of Aldford.

The radical Protestant, Christopher Goodman, who had been joint leader with John Knox, of the exile congregation in Geneva during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor, was appointed rector of Aldford in 1567. Goodman’s Puritan practices, such as the use of bread instead of wafers at communion, seems to have been popular in the parish as ‘a great assembly’ gathered for his service on Palm Sunday in 1570, but he was not popular with either the Queen or the church authorities and was obliged to resign the living in 1572. He was replaced by another religious radical, John Lane.

The church building was in a poor state of repair by the early nineteenth century and was demolished and rebuilt to a design by John Douglas; the new building being consecrated in 1866.

The churchyard cross was erected in 1901 but stands on a plinth which is probably medieval. The sundial in the churchyard probably dates from the eighteenth century. The stocks, currently undergoing restoration, are thought to date from the seventeenth century.

Sources:

Denbigh Record Office, DD/PP/839 ff.111-113

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol. ii, pp. 754-760

Jane E. A. Dawson, ‘Goodman, Christopher (1521/2-1603)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10975

Historic England:
Church of St John the Baptist (1135984)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1135984  National Heritage List for England
Cross and Stepped Base East of Path to South Porch of Church of St John the Baptist (1135991)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1135991 National Heritage List for England
Sundial and Pier West of South Porch of Church of St John the Baptist (1129950)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1129950 National Heritage List for England
Stocks, almost Opposite the Grosvenor Arms Inn (1129944)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1129944 National Heritage List for England