Places: Shocklach

SHOCKLACH

This small parish, on the border of Cheshire and Wales, comprised three townships: Church Shocklach, Shocklach Oviatt and Caldecott. There are the remains of two castles at Shocklach, included in one entry in the National Heritage List for England. The site to the east (pictured below) was a motte and bailey castle, originally constructed soon after the Norman Conquest, in part as an element in a defensive network along the River Dee to protect against Welsh incursion. The site to the west was a motte castle, understood to have been built later. This site is ‘the only example in Cheshire of paired mottes’. There was later a toll gate across the road separating the castles, giving them an added commercial function and making Shocklach ‘certainly a place of significance in medieval England.’ (Swallow, pp. 35-36).

The Brereton family of Malpas held much of the land in the parish. Members of this influential family held positions at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII and in 1572 they bought the manor of Shocklach.

The parish belonged to the college of St John in Chester until the dissolution of the college in 1547 or 1548 when it passed to the king and continued to be served by a stipendiary curate. The dean and chapter of the college had granted a lease of the parish to William Brereton from 1533 for 5 years, but he was executed for treason in 1536 and his personal property passed to the crown.

The small parish church, dedicated to the Ango-Saxon Saint Edith of Polesworth, is built in red sandstone with a slate roof and the earliest parts, including the south doorway, are thought to date from the mid-12th century. The font dates from the 15th century although the carving on the bowl has been restored. The pulpit is embellished with the date ‘1687’ set out in brass nails. The problems of travel in the area during the eighteenth century are evidenced by an inscription scratched into one of the windows of the chancel which states that three visitors in 1756 found the local roads so bad that they felt in danger of their lives.

In the north wall of the nave is a stone carving of a mounted person. Opinion is divided as to whether this is a 17th century knight or, as the horse appears to have more than 4 legs, it may be a Viking carving depicting Odin riding Sleipnir, his 8-legged mount.

In the churchyard is part of a medieval cross which may have been used as a plague stone where food and water were left for victims.

The area of the parish remains largely agricultural, and parts of a medieval field system and the earthwork remains of the related settlement have survived.

Sources:

J S Barrow, J D Herson, A H Lawes, P J Riden, M V J Seaborne, ‘Churches and religious bodies: The collegiate church of St John’, in A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions, ed. A T Thacker, C P Lewis( London, 2005), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt2/pp125-133 [accessed 29 December 2024]

E. W. Ives (ed.), Letters and accounts of William Brereton of Malpas (The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 116, 1976), pp. 1, 108

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. 684-693

Rachel Swallow, ‘Two for One:  the Archaeological Survey of Shocklach, Castle, Cheshire’, Cheshire History, (53), (2013-2014), pp. 18-44

Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd Series, xvi, pp. 48-49

Historic England

Church of St Edith, Worthenbury Road (1228322)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1228322 National Heritage List for England
Medieval Cross in St Edith’s Churchyard, South of Church (1228350)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1228350 National Heritage List for England
Medieval settlement and part of field system at Castletown Farm (1016588)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1016588 National Heritage List for England
Shocklach Castle Motte and moated enclosure (1012620)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1012620  National Heritage List for England