| Weaverham : 1850 & 1892 |
| 1850 : WEAVERHAM parish comprises the township and lordship of Weaverham, and the townships of Acton, Crowton, Cuddington, Onston, and Wallerscoat, which together contain 6,636 acres of land. At the last census in 1841, the entire parish had a population of 2,596 souls. Population in 1801, 1,819; in 1831, 2,021. The tithes were commuted in 1839, for £340. WEAVERHAM is a considerable well-built village, 3 1/2 miles W. by N. from Northwich, on the river Weaver and on the line of the London and North Western railway. The township and lordship of Weaverham, includes the hamlets of Gorstage, Sandiway, and Milton, and contains 2,530 acres, mostly a richly undulating district of grazing land. At the census, in 1841, the township was returned as containing 188 houses, and 834 inhabitants, and the lordship, 105 houses and 580 inhabitants, making a total population of 1707 souls. The number of inhabitants in 1801 was 1040; in 1831, 1246. Gross estimated rentals, £10,661. 12s. Rateable value, £8,414. 14s. 7d. The manor previous to the Norman Conquest, was possessed by the Saxon, Earl Edwin. It was then seized by Hugh Lupus, and continued the property of the Earls of Chester till Edward I gave it to Roger Clifford, who married the Countess Lauretina. On his death, it came to the Crown, and was given by the King to the Abbot and Convent of Vale Royal, to which it was attached till the dissolution, when King Henry VIII granted the manor to Sir Thomas Holcroft. It was afterwards sold to the Marburys, of Marbury, and in the year 1708, it was sold, pusuant to a decree in Chancery, by the heirs of the Marbury family to Richard Earl Rivers. On his death, the manor, with other estates, was purchased by James, Earl of Barrymore, and has fallen to J.H.S. Barry, Esq. of Marbury, who is the most considerable landowner in the lordship. The other principal owners are Lord Delamere, Earl of Mansfield, Herbert Ashton Esq., Dennis Milner, Esq., Thomas Parr, Esq., Mr Ralph Nield, Mr William Moreton, R.R. Okell, Mrs. Elizabeth Bancroft, Mr. Thomas Holland, Mrs. Martha Wakefield, Mr. James Couchie, Mrs. Marshall, Booth Grey, Esq., Mrs. Hatton, Thomas Hornby, Messrs. Thomas & John Johnson, Mr. Charles Reynolds, Messrs. William & Jospeh Trickett, and the Rev. Spencer Stanhope. There are also a number of smaller proprietors. The Abbot of Vale Royal had a prison here, and exercised great authority over the neighbouring townships. His bailiff was the Judge; and it was also a part of his duty to act in a military capacity, in summoning the tenants of Weaverham Fee to Chester bridge, in time of war. The jurisdiction of the Leet extends over Weaverham, Lostock, Twemlowe, and Lower Withington. Weaverham is divided into what is termed the town and lordship. The first includes Weaverham and the hamlet of Milton, and the latter the hamlets of Gorstage and Sandiway. The latter hamlet is partly in Whitegate parish. A PROVIDENT DISPENSARY was established in Weaverham, in the year 1838, under the patronage of Lady Wilbraham, and other principal ladies in the neighbourhood, for the purpose of affording medical assistance to the labouring classes of society, at a cheap cost. Each member pays 1d. per week, or for a whole family where the children are under 15 years of age, 3d. per week. The subscriptions of the honorary members are applied to the benefit of the free members. Medical officers residong in the parish are appointed by the committee of management, to attend the members of the club, and furnish them with suitable medicines. CHARITIES.-The Free Grammer School is a stone building, of considerable antiquity, now undergoing a complete reparation. It is endowed with the Pickmere estate, situated in the parish of Gt. Budworth, and let from year to year at a rent of £30. The estate was bequeathed by Mr. Barker, in the reign of Charles II, for the instruction of children residing within the township of Weaverham. In 1835, a house and farm buildings were erected upon the estate, at an expense of £310. Of this sum, £250 was raised from a fall of timber, and, with the addition of a year's rent, and the price of the old materials, was found sufficient to cover the expense. The entire rent is paid to the schoolmaster, and his income is increased by a portion of the rent of the Gorstage estate, and the interest of certain monies in the Northwich Savings Bank. All the boys are taught English reading and Latin without any expense; and for writing and accounts, there is a quarterly charge of 7s. 6d. for each boy from the town, and 2s. 6d. for each boy from the lordship. There is also a caharge of 1s. entrance fee, and an anuual payment of 1s. for firing, and 1s. for cock-pence. A portion of the latter is appropriated to the purchase of cocks, for which the boys raffle on Shrove Tuesday. The master has usually been appointed by the trustees of the Weaverham estate, but the question as to the patronage of the school was raised some years ago by the vicar. We may observe, the school was in existence at the time that the Pickmere estate was bestowed upon it by Mr. Barker; his trustees, therefore, could have no right to appoint the master, but such a right must, of course, remain with the persons who lawfully exercised it before the acccession of this endowment. It was contended, that the fact of the school having been popularly called the Vicar's school, raised a presumption in favour of the vicar's claim to be the patron of it; but this is certainly a very slender ground to support such a claim, in the absence of confirmatory evidence. There is no doubt that the school was originally erected at the expense of the parish. and the repairs are paid out of the church-rate to the present day. On this account, it would probably appear, that the vicar and churchwarden, or perhaps the vestry generally, are the parties in whom the right of appointment is vested. SCHOOL & POOR'S LAND.- The following legacies were called in, and applied in the purchase of land in the parish of Weaverham, in the year 1754. Mr. William Barker gave £20 to the vicar for a sermon on Easter Monday; £40 for the poor of the lordship, and £40 to the poor of the town of Weaverham. Mr. J. Farrar, to the poor of the town and township £90, and to the minister £10. Of this gift only £50 remained at the above date. Mr. William Barker, for education £100. Mrs. Barker, for clothing poor girls, £100. Robert Warburton, to the Free School, £50. The extent of the land in statute measure is about 25 acres, which is let at a rental of £40 per annum. Of this sum, £15 are paid to the schoolmaster, £10 for clothing and apprenticing poor children of the town and lordship, £8 to the poor of Weaverham, £5 to the Acton poor, and £2 to the vicar. At the time the Charity Commissioners published their report, there was a sum of £162. 10s. in the Northwich Savings Bank, the produce of timber sold from the estate. It was the intention of the Trustees to allow this fund accumulate, with a view to erecting a new house and farm buildings. William & Elizabeth Beard, in the 4th William & Mary, bequeathed a rent charge of 10s. per annum, issuing out of a close in Weaverham called the Withings, to be expended in two-penny boulted loaves, and distributed to the poor. William Baker, in 1678, bequeathed £100 for the support of the Free School; £40, the interest, to be given to the poor, and £20 to be put out at interest, and the interest paid to the minister for a sermon to be preached on the day of his death yearly for ever. The money bequesthed by Mr. Barker was invested in the purchase of the land already noticed. Mary Barker, in 1683, gave £100 for clothing poor girls. This gift, and a sum of £50 remaining of John Farrar's bequest of £100 in 1723, was also invested in the school and the poor's land above noticed. Thomas Bancroft gave to the poor of the parish of Weaverham the sum of £89. 12s. 6d., the interest to be distributed annually on St. Thomas's day. This gift now stands as £110. 5s. New Three-and-a-half per Cents.; the dividends, £3. 15s. 2d., are distributed by the churchwardens. Phoebe Darwell, in 1818, bequeathed £50 to the poor of the parish of Weaverham. The interest has been constantly applied to the use of the National School, as being the most beneficial appropriation of the money. The sum of £300, bequeathed by Mrs. Clewes, was in February, 1829, invested in the Three-and-a-half Reduced Annuities, producing an annual dividend of £12. 5s., which is divided among poor housekeepers in the town and lordship of Weaverham. The poor of Acton, Crowton, Cuddington, and Onston, the out townships of the parish of Weaverham, are entitled to an annual sum of £1, paid from the church rates, as interest upon a sum of £20 borrowed from the poor's money for recasting the church bells. |
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| In 1892 WEAVERHAM is described as 'a parish comprising the townships of Acton, Cuddington, Wallerscoat, and the township and lordship of Weaverham. In the Northwich division of the county, second division of Eddisbury hundred, petty sessional division of Eddisbury, union & county court district of Northwich, rural deanery of Middlewich and arch deaconrey and diocese of Chester. Weaverham-cum-Milton is a township and considerable village near the navigable river Weaver, in the parishes of Weaverham & Whitegate, a mile east from Acton Bridge station and 2 1/4 miles north-west from Hartford station, both on the London & North Western railway, 3 1/2 North-west from Northwich, 9 North-west from Middlewich ["and 15 North-east from Chester"] The small hamlet of Milton is included in the township, but the lordship contains also the hamlets of GORSTAGE and SANDIWAY. The townships of Weaverham & Acton are supplied with water from works at Weaverham, erected in 1891, at a cost of about £2000, the water being obtained from a deep well. The church of St. Mary, supposed to occupy the site of the church which existed here at the date of the Domesday Survey, is a building of stone, in the Late Perpendicular style, consisting of a chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, with the Grange & Crowton chapels at the east end of the north & south aisles respectively, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing a clock & 6 bells, rehung in 1878; the stained east window was erected by subscription in 1869: in the north aisle is a memorial window to the Rev. Charles Spencer Stanhope, late vicar, who died October 29th., 1864; one in the Crowton chapel, the gift in 1869 of the late G.F. Wilbraham esq. J.P., of Delamere House; one in the Grange chapel, presented by R. Heath esq. of Hefferston Grange, in 1868; and one in the south aisle, the gift of J Douglas esq. of Chester, in memory of his father, John Douglas, who died April, 1862, and his mother & sisters; the stained west window, was given by A. Johnson esq. of Weaverham Grange, in 1877: there are marble tablets to George Wilbraham esq. of Delamere House, & Lady Ann (Fortescue) his wife, d. 1864; and another to Colonel Mompesson, Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1768, who died 3rd. October 1768: the church was partially restored in 1855 & 1877, at a cost of about £2000, and affords 600 sittings. The register dates from the year 1696. The living is a vicarage, average tithe rent charge £262, net yearly value £307, with 30 acres of glebe & residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chester, and held since 1891 by the Rev. Joseph Francis Phelps, of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. There are in the township two Weslyan Methodist chapels & Primitive & Association Methodist chapels. The Charities for distribution in bread, clothing & money amount to about £47 yearly, derived in part from the school & poor's land of 25 acres. There are also charities of £2. 17s. for the clergy, for two annual sermons. Hefferston Grange, the seat of Robert Heath esq. about a mile from the village, is a fine brick mansion, in extensive pleasure grounds. Weaverham Grange, a modern mansion of brick, is the seat of Alfred Johnson esq. A.H. Smith-Barry M.P., D.L., J.P, of Fota Island, Queenstown, Ireland, who is lord of the manor, Robert Heath esq. & Lord Delamere are the principal landowners. The soil is chiefly a sandy loam, with a subsoil of sand and clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats, potatoes and turnips. The area of the parish is 5,990 acres: township, 3,380 acres; rateable value of township £17,420; the population in 1891 was, parish, 2,645; township, 1,761. GORSTAGE is a mile south; SANDIWAY, 2 miles south-south-east; these are in Weaverham lordship. MILTON is a hamlet in Weaverham township. CROWTON-with-ONSTON now forms a separate parish. ACTON (in Delamere) is a township & village of scattered houses, adjoining the township of Weaverham on the west and northwest, & has a station called Acton Bridge, on the London & North Western railway, which is the junction of the Crewe & Runcorn, & Sandbach, Northwich & Runcorn sections of the line. A well built stone bridgeof one arch crosses the Weaver at Acton Bridge. Here is a Weslyan Methodist chapel. The trustees of the late Dennis Milner esq. of Beel House, Amersham (d. 1888), who are lords of the manor; Mrs William Bankes, of Weaverham; J.P. Bankes, Mrs Gandy, of Acton Hall, & Rape Oswald Leycester esq. of 6 Cheyne Walk, London S.W., are the principal landowners. The area is 1,139 acres; the population in 1891 was 597. Letters through Northwich via Weaverham, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office. CUDDINGTON is a township & scattered village, a mile and a half south-west from Weaverham. A.H. Smith-Barry esq. is lord of the manor. Delamere house, a spacious mansion, in a park of about 100 acres, is the seat of Roger William Wilbraham esq. J.P. The area is 1,134 acres; rateable value £3,853. Letters through Northwich via Weaverham, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office. WALLERSCOAT is a township, consisting of one farm only, in the parish of Weaverham, and a mile & a half west from Northwich. A.H. Smith-Barry esq. M.P., D.L., J.P., is sole landowner. The area is 122 acres; rateable value £219; the population in 1881 was 11. Letters through Northwich, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office. Parish Clerk: Bailey Bebbington. Post Office & Annuity & Insurance office (Weaverham), :Receiver, John Percival. Post Office & Annuity & Insurance office (Sandiway), : Receiver, Charles Platt. Schools: Grammer School, endowed with about £56 a year from the Barker's charity & the school land, with about 40 scholars; John Trickett B.A., master. Board (mixed), formerly parochial, erected by the late J.H. Smith-Barry esq., at a cost of £700 & enlarged with master's house, at a cost of £400, by the Committee of Council on Education; it will hold 240 boys & girls & 100 infants; average attendance, 185 boys & girls & 70 infants. Jn. Jas. Harper, master; Miss Mary Booth, infants' mistress. Sandiway (mixed), Miss Annie Vaughen, mistress, divine service is held in the school room every Sunday afternoon. Carriers, to Warrington- Samuel Newall, on Wed. & Sat. Railway Stations- Acton Bridge, William Martin, station master Cuddington, George Stocks, station master. |
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