Places: Bunbury
Place Type
Parish
County
Cheshire
Parish
Bunbury
Deanery
Nantwich
Causes
EDC 5/13/6 – John Segar contra Margaret Palen, wife of Thomas Palen.
BUNBURY
This extensive parish is situated on the Cheshire Plain between Nantwich and Tarporley. It comprised eleven townships, Alpraham, Beeston, Bunbury, Burwardsley, Calveley, Haughton, Peckforton, Ridley, Spurstow, Tilston Fearnal, Tiverton and Wardle.
Although there was a priest here at the time of the Domesday Book, much of the surviving church fabric dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with nineteenth century centoration.
During the reign of Richard II Sir Hugh Calveley founded a college in the church with a master and six chaplains, and the rectory was appropriated to the college. He died in 1394 and a monumental effigy of him survives in the church. This is said to be the earliest alabaster monument in Cheshire.
A colourful tomb commemorates Sir George Beeston, Admiral of the Fleet, who played a part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. He is said to have lived to the age of 102.
The church is still based on the medieval plan, apart from the addition of the Ridley Chapel by Sir Ralph Egerton of Ridley on the south side of the chantry in the early sixteenth century. This chapel is separated from the chancel by a stone screen.
When the college was dissolved in about 1548 it was headed by a dean, with a staff of six chaplains and two ‘conducts’ according to the chantry certificate reproduced by Ormerod. The tithes were then leased for some time but Thomas Aldersey, a Londoner descended from a prominent Chester family, purchased the rectory and the advowson in 1594. He provided for a school and there is still a school in Bunbury which bears the family name. He also endowed a preacher for the parish, to be supported by a curate and appointed the London Company of Haberdashers as trustees. This resulted in the appointment of a series of puritan clergy, leading to conflict with those parishioners who sympathised with religious conservatives.
In December 1642 Civil War leaders of both sides met at Bunbury and drew up a declaration of neutrality in the hope of keeping Cheshire out of any further fighting. This declaration became known as ‘The Peace of Bunbury’, but it did not last, and the county was soon drawn into bitter conflict.
The church and village of Bunbury suffered bomb damage during the Second World War, which has led to the relocation of the village centre away from the church.
Sources:
R. N. Dore, The Civil Wars in Cheshire (Chester, 1966), p. 15
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. 253-268 (black and white image of the church from this volume courtesy of HathiTrust)
Raymond Richards, Old Cheshire Churches (Revised and enlarged edition, Didsbury, 1973), pp. 74-82
R. C. Richardson, Puritanism in north-west England: A regional study of the diocese of Chester to 1642 (Manchester, 1972), pp. 128-130, 169-170
A. Wolfgang, ‘Ancient screens in Cheshire and Lancashire churches’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 64 (1912), pp. 20-42. Available online: https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-64-1912/
‘Bulbridge – Bundley’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp428-431 [accessed 1 February 2025]
Historic England
The church of St Boniface (1138626)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1138626 National Heritage List for England
North gates to St Boniface’s churchyard (1330103)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1330103 National Heritage List for England
West gates to St Boniface’s churchyard (1138628)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1138628 National Heritage List for England
The Chantry House (1138635)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1138635 National Heritage List for England
Bunbury Cottage Tudor Cottage (1138632)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1138632 National Heritage List for England