Places: Farndon

FARNDON

Farndon was a small parish close to the Welsh border on the river Dee. It comprised the townships of Farndon, Barton, Clutton and Crewe, plus a moiety of Churton.

The church building, which may have been constructed in the thirteenth century, was badly damaged by fire during the Civil War, during the struggle to control the river crossing. It was subsequently rebuilt, and the only remaining part of the medieval building is the tower. A window of painted glass, restored in the nineteenth century, commemorates Royalist soldiers of the Civil War. An illustration of the window, shown below, is from a drawing by the Very Rev Hugh Cholmondley, Dean of Chester, contributed to the 1819 edition of Ormerod’s History of the county (between pages 408 and 409 of volume 2).

The church was appropriated to the college of St John in Chester, although the rectory was farmed out at various times. Following the dissolution of the college in 1547 or 1548 the parish was impropriated, and by the nineteenth century it was the property of the family of Grosvenor of Eaton who were responsible for appointing a perpetual curate to serve the parish.

At times parts of the tithes were sold or leased.

Sources

Douglas Jones, The Church in Chester 1300-1540 (Chetham Society 3rd series, 7, 1957), pp. 51, 88.

George Ormerod, The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences, vol. 2 (London, 1819).

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, vol. 2 (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882).