Places: Ashton upon Mersey

ASHTON UPON MERSEY

Ashton upon Mersey is situated on the south bank of the River Mersey. It was formerly in Cheshire but is now part of Trafford district of Greater Manchester. The parish comprised the township of Sale and half of Ashton and was a rectory of which the advowson was owned by the Ashton family who held a portion of the manor of Ashton. During the seventeenth century, however, it passed from the Ashtons to a succession of other families.

An early church building, dating from 1304, was destroyed by a storm in 1704. Money was needed for the construction of a new church, and church briefs were collected to help out. It presumably took some time to raise the necessary funds. In 1710, for example, the amount of 12s was raised in Reading and 2s 9½p came from a Sussex parish in 1711.

Eventually the new church was built and finished, probably in 1714 in accordance with the date over the north porch. It was later extended during the nineteenth century. These extensions included the addition of a large, square brick tower, topped by a timber-framed belfry, built in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

In the nineteenth century some market gardening, notably the production of potatoes, was carried out in the area for the Manchester market. The area of the parish is now largely residential although an early nineteenth-century farmstead has been preserved in the conservation area around the church.

Sources:

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol. i, pp. 558-566 

Raymond Richards, Old Cheshire Churches (Revised and enlarged edition, Didsbury, 1973), pp. 22-24 

CCEd location ID: 4994

Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd Series, xvi, p. 2; 2nd Series, i, p. 88

‘Ashton – Ashton, West’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis( London, 1848), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp90-96 [accessed 31 December 2024]

Historic England:
Church of St Martin, Church Lane (1067893)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1067893 National Heritage List for England