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Samuel Lewis - A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831)

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BUNBURY, a parish, county palatine of CHESTER, comprising the chapelry of Burwardsley, in the higher division of the hundred of BROXTON, and the townships of Alpraham, Beeston, Bunbury, Calveley, Haughton, Peckforton, Ridley, Spurstow, Tilston-Fernall, Tiverton, and Wardle, in the first division of the hundred of EDDISBURY, county palatine of CHESTER, and containing 4021 inhabitants, of which number, 667 are in the township of Bunbury, 3½ miles (S. S. E.) from Tarporley.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, endowed with £200 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and. £1400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company. The church, dedicated to St. Boniface, is a handsome building of red freestone, in the later style of English architecture, comprising a nave with lateral aisles, a chancel, and a square tower crowned with.eight pinnacles: at the termination of each of the aisles is an ancient and elegant chapel, called Eggerton and Spurstow chapels, the former, built in 1523, containing on the north side a rich stone shrine, ornamented at the base with grotesque figures, flowers, &c., painted in chiaro oscuro, and on the south two arches with curious open work, and scriptural paintings. Within the church are several fine monuments, among which are a rich altar-tomb to the memory of Sir Hugh Calveley, the celebrated "Cheshire herb," who eminently distinguished himself during the invasions of France by Edward III.; and one to Sir George Beeston, one of the admirals who aided in the destruction of the Spanish Armada, in 1588. The church was fired by a detachment from the royal garrison at Cholmondeley House, on the 20th of June, 1643, and sustained considerable injury. "The above Sir Hugh, about 1386, founded and endowed in the church a college for a master and six Secular chaplains: at the dissolution, the establishment consisted of a dean, five vicars, and two choristers, whose clear revenue was valued at £48.2. 8.; The buildings stood in a field about two hundred yards north-west of the church; every vestige has been removed, but the site is conspicuous, from the inequality of the surface, and the remains of the moat that surrounded it. The revenue, which arose partly from the tithes of the parish, became vested in the crown, and the greater part was appropriated towards the maintenance of two ministers. In 1575, Thomas Aldersey, citizen and haberdasher of London, purchased the rectory and advowson from Queen Elizabeth, and some time afterwards leased the tithes for £130 per annum, of which he directed that £20 should be annually given to a schoolmaster, £10 to an usher, one hundred marks to a minister (each to have a house and a certain portion of land in addition), £20 to a curate, and £10 to the poor, and that the patronage should be vested in the Haberdashers' Company; all these grants were confirmed by letters patent, dated January 2nd, 1594. The ministers are nominated by the Master any Wardens, and enter upon the clerical office without and other presentation or institution, but are subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary. The school, which was rebuilt in 1812, at the expense of Samuel Aldersey, Esq., stands at a short distance from the church. A school, for the children of poor parishioners not resident in the township of Bunbury, was founded and endowed by Mr. Thomas Gardener, in 1750. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.

The Chester canal passes through the parish, in which courts leet and baron are held annually; and a manorial court is occasionally held, for the recovery of debts under 40s. Bunbury heath, by some considered to be the place described in a poem entitled the "Ancient English Wake of Jerningham," is the scene of rustic revelry annually on the Sunday preceding the festival of St. Boniface.

 

From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England  (1831) ©Mel Lockie