ACTON CHURCH
A short account of ACTON
CHURCH and
neighbourhood
This
is based on a history written
by Canon Herbert Moore M.A. who was vicar of Acton from 1899 to
1936.
Canon Moore made some corrective
notes after the original issue in 1930, some of which are given at the
end.
In writing these note.
I have
simply put on paper some of things which I find chiefly interest
visitors. I have not used any technical terms (which the learned can
supply for themselves) and have sometime stated as facts
things
about which there can be no certainty without giving reasons or
suggesting difficulties. H.M.
The
visitor to Acton is almost sure to come by a Roman road. At Crewe,
seven lines of railway join; at Condate, near Middlewich, seven Roman
roads joined for the lines taken by transport routes depend on the
contour of the land, neither roads nor railways would be taken over the
Pennine Hills. Uriconium, on the Severn, 51/2 miles south of
Shrewsbury, was an important Roman City; in the year 584 the West
Saxons came up the Severn Valley, and sacked it. Then they made for
Chester, and the road they traversed ran over a hill three miles south
of Nantwich, on which stands a farm called "Coronerage"; this is often
taken to have some connection with the Coroner who holds inquests, but
this is not so. "Corona" is Latin for the crown of a hill, as well as
for the crown of a king. A little further north, there is a Roman road
turning north-west-wards, through Edleston; the Saxons probably passed
along this, for we next hear of them at Faddiley, in Acton parish, then
called Fethan-lea. The Saxon Chronicle briefly tells us that "This year
Ceawlin and Cutha fought against the Britons at the place called
Fethan-lea, and there was Cutha slain; and Ceawlin took many towns, and
spoils innumerable; and wrathful he thence returned to his own." The
British leader was Brocmael, prince of Powis.
This battle took place
either on
the flat ground by Woodhey Hall, of which we shall hear again, or lower
down the hill by the "Tollemache Arms." where the defending force would
have the advantage of broken ground protecting its flanks. The result
of the battle was that Roman civilization was saved for the time from
being blotted out in Cheshire.
So much for the road
from the south
west. The road from the south east now crosses the Weaver by the bridge
at Nantwich, beside which is the Roman salt well, 216 feet deep, a
marvellous piece of engineering for those early days. It is not known
when the first bridge was built; the shallow stretch above the bridge
approached from Castle Street would always serve as a ford. But there
is a "Street Field" in Reaseheath, which may have got its name from the
Roman "strata" or "street" which went that way, not across the river
here. Colonel Powell finds that a straight line drawn from the Tumulus
at Tilstone Fearnall (commonly called "Robin Hood"), along the
"Armitage" (the straight piece of road in Wardle) passes Street Field
to the Moat at Wybunbury. Passing up Welsh Row, the road now bears to
the right to pass through Acton, until it reaches Wardle, three miles
further on, where the straight line which is the sign of a Roman road
begins again. At Hurleston, between Nantwich and Wardle, there is a
reservoir for the canal (which was finished in 1771); a very old man
once told me that his grandfather had been employed upon making it, and
had told him of finding the cobble stones which the Romans used for
road making. We can see why the divergence took place. Half a mile from
Nantwich, by the side of a pool, stands Dorfold Hall. Roads and fences
may be shifted, but not streams and lakes; a good piece of water always
made a desirable site for a residence, if only because of the fish. The
pool was there before the Conquest, and Edwin Prince of Mercia,
brother-in-law of King Harold, resided beside it, and it was natural
that there should be a good road to the house of the great lord. So we
come up the hill past Dorfold gates, and at "The Grove" bend round
again, past the "Star" Inn and Acton Church, to rejoin the Roman road
at Barbridge. It is said that the sill of the door of Acton Church is
exactly on the level of the top of Nantwich Church tower, 101 ft. high.
ACTON AND
BANGOR.
At Acton Church,
another road turns
westwards, to the left, the Church standing at the angle; a very
natural site to choose. This road leads to Wrexham, and to a place once
much more important than Wrexham, Bangor Iscoed or Bangor on Dee, in
Flintshire. There is now only a farm and a few houses, to mark where
the famous Monastery stood; the better known Bangor in Carnarvon,
founded as a daughter house, still bears the mother's name. The
Monastery of Bangor Iscoed had 4000 residents; it would be a mistake to
call them all monks, since young men went there to be educated, as they
do now to the University, without intending to "renounce the world."
This Monastery was destroyed in 607, by Ethelfrith, king of
Northumbria, and its people put to the sword.
A few years prior to
this time,
Augustine, the head of the mission sent from Rome by Gregory, had
proposed a conference with British bishops and learned men, to discuss,
as they supposed, or to have settled for them, as he intended, certain
points on which the custom of the British Church differed from the
Roman, such as the right date of Easter, etc. Seven British Bishops
attended, and a number of monks from Bangor Iscoed; these British monks
had determined that if this Italian ecclesiastic was really a man of
God, he would receive them courteously, but when they arrived, they
found him seated, under an oak. He did not even rise to salute them, so
the conference started badly; the British refusing to change their
customs, and also declined to join in evangelizing their enemies the
English. Augustine was very angry, and said that if they would not
forward the way to peace, they should be destroyed by their enemies.
When Ethelfrith invaded Chester and killed twelve hundred of these
monks before the fight began (close to Chester), because "though they
do not bear arms, yet they fight against us, because they oppose us by
their prayers." people said Augustine's words had come true.
In
recent years the existence of a Roman "Street" has been proved by
excavation running from a river crossing at Worleston through
Reaseheath and Bluestone to Swanley in the general direction of Bangor
on Dee
This view of the
church taken in
the nineteenth century shows the old vestry behind the "sun dial" the
old porch since removed and an absence of trees.
What has all this to
do with Acton?
"Acton" means "Oak Town," and there are at least 13 Actons in England.
Where was this meeting held, at which Augustine sat under an "ac" or
oak? They show a tree called " Augustine's Oak" at Aust, a tiny place
on the estuary of the Severn; but why should they go there? It is a
distant out of-the-way place even now, and why or how, in those days
when roads were bad, and travelling dangerous, a party should travel
from Kent, and more difficult still, another from Bangor, to the coast
of Gloucestershire, it is hard to see. But our Acton, on the great
North West road, at a spot which the branch road to Bangor made it easy
for the learned men to reach, seems a more likely place, convenient and
safe for all. Half a mile along the Chester road a coppice reminds us
that Delamere Forest once reached this spot, and there are plenty of
oaks round about.
Another place
suggested by learned
men is Cricklade. One of these scholars is amazed that Augustine should
have travelled so far through the hostile territory of "The ceaseless
fighter," Coinwalch. On the other hand, as Mercia at that time was not
united under a king, the party could travel our way without danger of
attack. So it is not over-bold to claim this incident for Cheshire.
HOW THE
CHURCH WAS FOUNDED.
Probably there was no
Church at
Acton when Penda, king of Mercia (central England) who hated
Christianity, was living, the terror of all within reach of his
commandoes; before he died, his son Peada married the daughter of Oswy,
Christian king of Northumbria. The young couple brought with them to
the south four priests, one of whom was Cedd or Chad, afterwards bishop
of Lichfield; that is probably why the Churches at Over and Wybunbury
are called St. Chad's. The wonderful old crosses eleven miles away at
Sandbach probably date from this period; from about 660 A.D. Mercia
became Christian.
We do not know, but we
may well
suppose that some good missionary, seeing the junction of roads at
Acton, thought it a place where travellers would like to halt, a day's
march from Chester, to seek refreshment for man and beast. He built a
hut, which would serve for his Christian service of Holy Communion as
well as for his bed, and stuck into the ground his tall pilgrims's
staff, with its cross-piece handle, to mark a Christian habitation; the
pool at Dorfold would serve for the baptising of converts. In time, a
wooden and then a stone cross took the place of the staff; this latter
was destroyed in Puritan times, and turned into a sun-dial, now
standing in the Churchyard by the Chester road. It is mentioned as a
sun-dial in a will of 1705, and bears the inscription,*
| Tempus
fugit |
Time
is flying, |
| Mors
venit |
Death
is coming, |
Ut
hora
|
Life,
like the day |
| Sic
vita |
Must
pass away. |
*Note.-Mr. James Hall
says that the
Cross stood in the "Cross Field" on the south side of the church, bur I
can find no mention of this field in the tithe map.
In the same way, a
stone Church was
in time built instead of the hut; and now comes in legend.
“Bluestone” is the name of the hamlet half a mile
down the
Chester road; so called from a piece of basaltic rock lying in the
field. Geologists say that this, with a great many other boulder stones
which are to be found in Acton, was brought from the Cumberland hills
on the ice, which once covered the country. Another explanation is,
that the devil, seeing Acton Church rising, took a shot at it with this
rock from Peckforton Hills; his aim was fair, but not quite good
enough, and there the stone lies to prove it,
The first Church no
doubt was quite
small, like the Saxon Chapel in Ripon Cathedral, but had some rough
carving; people who cannot read can learn from pictures. In the south
aisle of the Church, behind the Wilbraham Monument, you may see some of
these carvings, which escaped destruction through being let into the
stone seat which runs round the Church. There is a figure in a cave,
which gave an idea of the Resurrection; one stone with apostles, and
one which perhaps tells of the Holy Trinity. Another shows a bishop,
without a mitre; as the mitre became a part of a Bishop's costume at
the end of the eleventh century, the carving must be earlier than that.
Probably the Church was several times rebuilt. Five hundred years is a
long time for a building to stand, even without Welsh raiders to
destroy it, or devout men who wished to improve upon it. Some of the
other carvings in sandstone, behind the Monument, come from these
erections; there is the base and the capital of a pillar, an eagle, and
three heads. These were found in 1897 imbedded in the wall of the
clere-story.
The
Old Carved
Stones
THE COMING
OF THE MONKS.
The Church at Acton is
mentioned in
Domesday Book (about 1087); if all the earlier buildings had been
destroyed, Earl Edwin probably saw to his people having a Church in
which to worship, with two priests in charge. There was no parish of
Nantwich then; only Acton, Wybunbury (which is the mother parish of
Crewe), and Barthomley. But in those troublous times it must have been
very difficult to find clergy. William Malbanc succeeded to the
possessions of Earl Edwin, who had resisted the Norman invasion, and
his son Hugh found that as in the prophet's time, God's people perished
for lack of knowledge. So about the year 1150, he invited the
Cistercians to build an abbey at Combermere, and gave the monks a
charter, conveying certain property and privileges to them, including
the Church at Acton, to which were added later the dependent chapelries
of Wrenbury, Wych Malbanc, (that is, Nantwich), and Minshull. This
meant that the tithes due to Acton Church went to the monastery, and
the monastery was responsible for the services, both at the mother and
at the daughter Churches. Sometimes a member of the brotherhood stayed
at Acton; some think that this is why there is an opening from the
belfry into the Church, above the great western arch, A good many old
English Churches have such a lodging room in the belfry, Sometimes he
would ride over, and as he naturally needed refreshment before
returning, he would find it at the Village Inn, now a black and white
timbered building called "The Star," This stands for the old name
of "Stirrup," since the last drink which a man had before riding on his
way was called "Stirrup Cup." The "Grove" just by, and some of the land
adjoining, belong; properly to the township of Dodcott, not of Acton,
because they were the property of the Abbey, and the road along the
south side of the Church is called "Monks' Lane," though further on it
receives its proper name of "Wrexham Road,"
About a hundred years
later, the
Bishop of Lichfield (Cheshire was then in the diocese of Lichfield)
found that this method of carrying on the services of the Church was
not satisfactory, and ordered the Combermere community to appoint one
of their number to reside permanently in the parish; he was to act for,
or instead of, the whole body, and as the Latin for "instead of" is
"vice," he was called "vicarius," and was to receive the "lesser
tithes" He in his turn had to appoint priests to do his work at the
daughter Churches of Nantwich and Wrenbury. These were properly called
"perpetual curates," as they could not be removed by the Vicar. It will
be convenient to say here, that at the dissolution of the Monastic
Houses, about 1546, King Henry VIII sold the "Great Tithes" to Sir
Richard Wilbraham for £250; that is why occupiers of land in
the
old parish of Acton are perplexed at receiving a demand every year, not
only for a small sum due to the Vicar of Acton, but also a much larger
one (the "Great Tithe"), due to the Peckforton Estate. The Vicar of
Acton still pays the Vicar of Wrenbury £10 a year, according
to
the deed of the year 1285, but the Vicars of Wrenbury do not still
"swear upon the Holy Gospels" that they will hand over all fees to the
Vicar of Acton. The Incumbents of Nantwich and Baddiley still receive
some "Great Tithe," and therefore are "Rectors," not "Vicars," though
they do not receive so much as the Incumbent of Acton.
It took the monks some
time to
build their abbey of Combermere, and about 1180 they turned their
attention to their Church at Acton. Forty years before, there had been
a great Welsh raid, and very likely this had laid the old building in
ruins.
HOW THEY
BUILT CHURCHES SEVEN
HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Our Lord said that if
the disciples
could understand one parable, they would know all parables. In the same
way, it is worth while to study one ancient Church, because it gives
you the key to understand many others. For different "styles" of
building came in and passed away, just as do different fashions in
dress or house furnishing, and if you can recognize the style of a
Church, or part of a Church, you can tell when it was built. Acton is a
good one to study, because it has three styles; it was begun, as we
saw, about 1180; just at the end of the "Norman" period.
Churches were usually
built at that
time without aisles; a nave, and a small chancel, both quite low, with
the tower separate, or in the middle, where the chancel joins the nave,
as at Nantwich, or at the west end, as at Acton and Bunbury. The door
was on the south side of the nave, especially if there was a road
there, for convenience at funerals; and one door was enough, as
Churches were used in those days for purposes of which we might not
approve; when the Welsh raiders came to ravage the countryside, the
people would take shelter in the Church. The only entrance even to the
tower was from within the building.
The Church was used
also for
meetings of the guilds; a guild was something between a trades' union
and a benefit club. The builders, the blacksmiths, and others had their
guilds, separate in a town, united in a village, which met in the
Church, It sounds irreverent, but the guilds were always on a religious
basis. So the next step was to throw out a chapel on the north side, by
the chancel wall, called by the name of the Saint specially held in
honour by the guild members, and there they held their services, and
their meetings.
As the population of
the place
increased, an aisle was added on the south side, handy to the door, and
as the services were made more stately, the chancel was lengthened, to
give more space. When an aisle was built, the wall was generally
propped while the pillars and arches were put in; sometimes the whole
nave was pulled down and rebuilt.
Next, if only the
south aisle had
been added, the guild chapel on the north side was lengthened, so that
the wall ran down to meet the west wall, and a chamber opening out of
the sanctuary was added on the north side, for the vestments and books.
A porch might also be put up, and an extra door inserted. The
clere-story (the row of windows over the arches, beneath the roof)
usually came late in the history of the Church.
When arches and
windows are round,
the style is called "Norman"; when they begin to be pointed, it is
called "transition" or "change," to "Early English," which has pointed
or "lancet" windows. Another "transition," about the year 1270, takes
us to "decorated," in which the windows have many curves and bends, and
small lights; another, about 1370, to "Perpendicular," in which the
shafts dividing the windows run straight up and down. At Acton we have
the first "transition," some "decorated," and some "perpendicular."
This
view from the last century
shows the older clere-storey windows, the Grammar School buildings in
the church yard and the old tythe barn on the right.
THE BUILDING
OF ACTON CHURCH.
Thus we can tell that
the tower of
Acton was built a bout 1180, because the big arch, and the windows, are
slightly pointed. It is about 26 feet wide inside, and not quite
square; the walls are six feet thick, as you may see at the west door,
which was evidently put in long after the tower was built. It is now 84
feet high, and there is a chamber between the belfry and the
bell-chamber, which contains the clock, moved by a weight at the end of
a rope running round an axle, put in by "Peter Clare, Manchester,
1788," and still keeping good time. The tower, like that at Bunbury,
rests upon three arches and the western wall. Such towers are called
"engaged" towers.
After what we have
said, you will
not be surprised at the statement that except for the tower, and the
great eastern arch, there is little left of the monk's work. If you
stand in the middle of the nave, and look at the west wall over the
great tower arch, you see a line of projecting stones sloping down on
each side, which you at once will say shows the pitch of a roof which
has been removed. Over the eastern arch, though not so clearly, you can
trace the same line in the arrangement of the stones; and there are two
stones, of a different colour to the rest, corresponding to one
another, evidently put into the holes where the roof-beams once rested.
Next, by the main south door, over the oaken screen at the entrance to
the Dorfold Chantry, there is an arch with only one side; it looks like
a lean-to, added after the tower was built. Then go under the tower,
and look at the arches which support it. Those on the sides are much
lower than the great one by which you pass into the nave, and the line
of ornamental carving does not go all round on the same level for there
is eighteen inches difference between the lines on the east and south
sides. If they had all been built at the same time, the line would have
been straight all the way round, as at Bunbury. Then if you go into the
vestry, you find that the bottom of the inside wall supporting the
tower slopes outwards, as if to let the rain run off; this slope shows
that it was at first an outside wall. Now Mr. James Hall, the historian
of Nantwich, says that "Acton Tower rests upon three arches, and,
therefore, always had side aisles."
Why, then, this
out-sloping
support? Indeed Mr. Hall's "therefore" does not follow. There are other
churches in which "the aisles were extended at a later date than the
tower, forming mere lean-to additions against the tower walls, which
are pierced by low arches. In some cases, the space gained was enclosed
by screens and formed chapels."
This is precisely what
we find at
Acton; the walls were pierced, and the "Dorfold Chantry" put
on one side, the screened off vestry (as it is now) on the other. The
stone used in the lower arches is not the same as that of the higher
one; and if you go outside, and look at the west wall, where the tower
wall joins the aisle wall, you will see that the two are not part of
the same job. Where, again, the far west wall of the north aisle joins
the tower, all the stones are of the same width, in stead of being
longs and shorts, because they have all been cut down from something
that was there before. I am sure, myself, that this was a buttress, not
an aisle; I should be sure even if it were not too lofty to be an
aisle, at that early date.
THE
MAINWARING MONUMENT.
Now look at the bottom
of the wall
at the top of the aisle, under the window from which the glass has been
taken out, to allow the sound of the organ to be heard. It is built
upon a foundation much older than the wall above it; follow the
foundation wall round the angle of the north wall, and you come to a
flat tombstone let into the wall, with a cross upon it (like the one in
the Dorfold Chantry), to the right of the Mainwaring
monument. This
belonged to some Abbott or other
great person (perhaps Sir John
Bromley, a friend of Sir William) who was buried there. Then comes the
big tomb, and after that there is no old foundation wall.
Those old
walls belonged to the "St. Mary's Chapel" mentioned in the will; a
small projecting building, with narrow windows and a door, built as we
explained, for the guild. As there was not room for Sir William's tomb,
they took down the walls, and threw the framework of the door and
window on one side; then they built the new wall, and carried it right
down to the west end, cut away the buttress, and joined it up. When the
wall was taken down in 1898, they found the window and
the door buried deep under ground, and put them at the entrance to the
heating chamber, where you will see them if you look over the railings.
They are in "early English" style. You will notice that the inside wall
of the Church is divided up by arches called "arcades," on the face of
the stones, in the middle of which the windows are set; these run all
round the Church. The first of them is nine feet across, the second
nine, and the third fourteen; because room had to be found in the third
for the tomb in the north aisle, and the south aisle was made to match
it. The window by the tomb has two lights, the others three, and there
are no signs of alteration; so we know that the aisle was built at the
same time as the tomb.
ACTON CHURCH
AND BUNBURY CHURCH.
You can tell a man by
his friends,
and very often a Church by its neighbours. Acton Church and Bunbury
Church are wonderfully alike. In both, the tower rests upon three
arches; the buttresses are deep and steep; and all round both runs a
convex course of stone, shaped, that is, like the outside, not the
inside, of a drain-pipe. Both have a chapel, in the north aisle, and
both, a vestry opening out of the sanctuary. But the tower at Bunbury
was evidently originally built as it is now; there are none of the
signs of alteration that are clear at Acton, if you compare the two.
Now Bunbury Church was
built, or
rebuilt, in 1384, by Sir Hugh de Calveley, who came back to his native
place after a long period of very rough "knocking about in the world."
If the Squire of Bunbury was doing something big, the neighbouring
Squires would be sure to know; and when the work at Bunbury was done,
the architect and builders would be available for another job.
What then could be
more likely,
than that when Sir William Mainwaring died, these workmen should be
asked to take Acton Church in hand? It is possible of course that the
south aisle and the clerestory had been already built (which is not
very likely); it seems to me more probable, considering what a very big
piece of work it would be to pierce the walls, prop the roof, and put
in the six pillars and arches, that the whole thing was done at the
same time, and that the time was this time, about 1399; they pulled
down the old nave and Chapel, leaving the pitch of the roof shown on
the two great arches, and the chancel. They then built them up again in
the style which looked so well at Bunbury, with clerestory; a style
which the same architect and builders would naturally adopt. At the
same time, they altered the lower part of the tower, so as to be as
like Bunbury as possible; but they could not make the side arches of
the same height as the main one.
The arcading work is
just what we
should expect at this date, and the stone seating which runs all round
the nave is like that of Malpas, which was also built about this time.
On the tomb, the shield of the Mainwarings, with two cross-bars, occurs
twenty-one times; it is also over the north door, and over the west
door, showing that the aisle was built, and the west door pierced, at
the same time, under the same directions.
It does not seem an
impossible
conjecture, that the men engaged at Bunbury went on first to do the
similar work at Malpas; since the Baron of Malpas was also the Baron of
Bunbury.
SOME DETAILS.
Standing beneath the
tower, you are
a step below the nave; the nave is a step below the chancel, the
chancel a step below the sanctuary. This meant, that a person not
baptized is in a state of nature, without the divine Grace of Christ;
he goes up one step to baptism, another, when he is confirmed, to full
communicant membership in the Kingdom, and a third, when he leaves this
earthly life for that which by Grace awaits him within the gates of the
heavenly Jerusalem. On the right is the raised floor of the Dorfold
Chantry, beneath which (now sealed up) lie the remains of twenty-eight
members of the Wilbraham family. The large grave-stone now placed there
was inside the Church; the red sandstone one, broken, was found in the
"new" churchyard, while a grave was being dug.
The font, of black
basalt, is
Norman, i.e., of the age of the tower; the carvings on it show an
apostle, who represents the Church of which the baptized person becomes
a member, and the devil, whom he renounces. It stands just inside the
main door, because Baptism is the entrance into the Church. Our fathers
did not appreciate the massive dignity of this font, and exchanged it
for an ugly modem one of stucco. This ancient Norman font was found in
use as a pig-trough in a farm yard. It was removed to the terrace at
Dorfold Hall, until in 1897 Mr. H. J. Tollemache replaced it in the
Church.
THE WORK OF
THE WILBRAHAM
FAMILY.
The people of Acton,
or at least
one man of good will among them, was not yet content with the Church.
About the year 1620, the frame of the main south door was taken out,
and a new one put in, with a fine flourish of carving at the top; at
the same time the balustrade along the top of the Chancel wall, like
fret-work in stone, was erected. There is the same thing at Chester
Catherdral, but it is rarely found.
We know who this
restorer was; he
has placed his coat of arms over the east window, outside. It is the
coat of Sir Richard Wilbraham, son of Sir Thomas and Grace (nee
Cholmondeley) Wilbraham of Woodhey Hall. He died in 1645, and the
recumbent monument in the south aisle is his memorial. This monument
was moved about 1850, into the chancel, for the curious object of
providing more seats near the pulpit, as the Vicar was a "popular
preacher." But presently the people who had pressed for the erection of
the new pew ceased to attend, it was therefore called the "hypocrites'
pew," and the monument was moved back. The piscina (place for washing
the vessels after Holy Communion) in the wall to the right shows that
there once was an altar here, belonging to the Woodhey Chapel, as it
was called.
The
Wilbraham Monument
It seems that the work of
beautifying the Church went on for some time. On the gate of the
chancel rails is carved "I.H. I.P. W.W. 1685." "W.W." stands for
"Wardens"; who they were we do not know, but evidently the Wilbraham
family had to do with this also, as the tall nine-pin decoration of the
oak is found also in Dorfold Hall, which was built by Ralph Wilbraham
in 1616. It was Sir Richard who conveyed to the Church the "Church
Farm" at Faddiley, to make perpetual provision for the repair of the
Church. It brings in now £60 a year, so that the burden of
"Church Expenses" is greatly reduced. An ancient Church, as the people
of Nantwich know is a very expensive blessing.
The puzzle is that
between 1620 and
1685 there occurred the struggle of the civil war, which must have
stopped all operations upon the Church. Possibly Messrs. I.H. and I.P.
were responsible only for some such work as the placing of the rails in
some new position; or it may have been in their time that the beautiful
Jacobean oak was put into the chancel.
THE CIVIL
WAR.
The Church had been
finished for
the purpose of worship for centuries to come; but in the changes and
chances of this mortal life its history could not be free from
disturbance. There were still Welsh raids and English reprisals, but
these were small matters in comparison with the stormy times of the
17th century, when the question of the power of the King and the rights
of the people as represented by Parliament led to the great Civil War.
Nantwich took the side
of
Parliament, and Acton was one of the headquarters of the Royalist
troops attacking it. The Church changed hands several times; " Acton
Church is no more a prison, but now free for honest men to do their
devotion therein," the "Captain of firelocks" on the King's side wrote
on January 15, 1643. It is not true that "Cromwell stabled his horses
in Acton Church," since he took no part in these operations; but it is
true, that on St. Paul's Day, 1644-5, the officers who were taken
prisoners by the Parliamentarians were lodged there for the night. The
relieving force had come from Ireland, and before the King's troops
were aware of their approach, they had reached Barbridge, where they
soon drove in the small detachment placed there, and advanced towards
the Church. Word was sent to the forces attacking from the Barony side,
who set out at once; but the deep snow, which often covers the district
towards the end of January, had melted, and Beam Bridge, "being a fayre
Stonne Bridge," had been carried away. While they were marching round
by Brayne's Bridge at Worleston, the defenders came out from the town,
so that the attackers were caught between two fires; the battle was
joined in Acton and Ravensmoor, and all was over as evening fell. The
prisoners numbered 1,800, including 120 women, "armed with long
knives." The death roll was only 54; these were buried in the "Dead
Man's Field," on the right as you go down Monks' Lane, beyond the Moat
Field. Cannon balls were found there in quite recent times. The Vicar
at this time was Edward Burghall, a Puritan (i.e., one who objected to
the use of the Prayer-book, to ordination by Bishops, and other Church
usages); who has left us a diary of these events. At the Restoration
under Charles II he was ejected, and the Church's services were resumed.
It is remarkable, that
no records
seem to remain of the upheaval of the Reformation. In a quiet village
like this, it is hard for people to recognise that they are playing
their part, from time to time, in a movement of importance to the whole
world and for ages to come. Probably orders came from the Bishop, and
as in other places the Priest obeyed, or went elsewhere if he could not
conscientiously do so. Burghall did not leave the parish when the order
to use the new prayer-book came into force. On May 26, 1662, "Divers of
the inhabitants of the parish contributed to the honour of God and the
advancement of religious education and learning" by founding a Free
Grammar School, with thirteen Trustees, who were to "hyre a Schoole
Maister, being a University man, of godly life and conversation. to
have twenty pounds sallayre, with yearly mayntaynance from forrayners"
(i.e. other than Acton pupils), but "not exceede the number of fower
score Scollers by his entertainment of Strangers" -if he does, he must
take an Usher. These eighty children in one class were to learn, among
other things, "Latyne and Greke"; the rules of the School would be
regarded in these days as exceedingly severe. The old vicar Burghall
was made the first Master. It was a black and white timbered building,
approached from the road through the avenue of trees between the
vicarage and the Churchyard, and stood till 1885, when it was
demolished and incorporated into the Nantwich and Acton Grammar School,
the splendid buildings of which stand just below the aqueduct. The old
site was cleared, and consecrated as an extension of the Churchyard.
We have now reached
the eighteenth
century in our sketch of the history of Acton Church; a continual
record of improvement. Now we have to tell of a set-back, caused not by
the hand of man, but by the violence of tempest. If you examine the
tower, you will see a line below the large window which allows the
sound of the bells to come forth, above which the stone is of a
different texture and colour. The ornament (called ogee) over the
windows, and the pinnacles and balls at the top, are quite different in
style to anything else in the Church. These things commemorate a great
disaster. The register of Baptisms tells how "On Tuesday, March
15,1757, abt noon, the Upper Part of the Steeple was, by the excessive
violence of the Wind or Tempest, suddenly blown down, and falling upon
the Roof of the Church broke it entirely, and destroyed most of the
Pews and a Gallery erected therein at the West End." Where this
"Gallery" was placed, we do not know now. The tower had been 100 feet
high; 34 feet of it had fallen, and the ruin must have been enough to
dismay the boldest Churchwarden. But the walls were not injured; the
registers show that baptisms and marriages continued to be solemnized.
The entry continues: "The Estimate of Damage given in to obtain a
brief
was £ 1,180 and upwards, but this was exceeded by
£600 at
least." It was indeed a low estimate! A "Brier' is what we should now
call an "appeal," which was sent out to all parishes under the King's
authority, after misfortunes of this kind. The "Brief Book" of Acton
parish shows that in 1807, for instance, five briefs were sent round
England, asking for a total of £8,033. Towards this sum Acton
sent 15/-. There seems to be no record of the amount sent to Acton in
this emergency, but local contributions were raised, and various small
parish charities compounded for £ 100, on which £5
a year
interest was paid from the Church collections until recently, when
£100 worth of stock was bought for the charities; so the
building
was re-erected for service. But not as it had been; the windows of the
clere-story were actually ugly, the roof was barrel-shaped, and the
whole Church plastered and whitewashed, the floor-space covered with
high box pews. No doubt all was done for the best with the means
available, but the fair beauty of the Church was gone. Moreover, so
many people had been buried within the walls of the Church, that it was
actually unhealthy to be in it for long together.
One
of several views of the
interior of the church taken before the 1893-98 Restoration
THE LAST
RESTORATION.
For the next 150 years
nothing of
importance happened to Acton Church, except that in 1893, the bells
were restored. At first there were five bells, dating from 1604 to 1633
(at the time when the restoration by the Wilbraham family took place);
about 1720 rhese were made into six, which were re-tuned and hung in
1893. Immediately after this, the Vicar set his hand to get the Church
restored. An old Acton man, Mr. T. Surton Timmis, of Allerton, whom God
had prospered in his worldly affairs, undertook the restoration of the
nave, in memory of his mother, only stipulating that the best
architects and the best materials should be employed; the Patron, Lord
Tollemache did that of the Chancel; Mr. Henry Tollemache, the building
of the organ chamber; and in 1898 the restored Church was re-opened for
service. It was found that the wall of the north aisle was 14 inches
out of plumb; this was taken do\\.n, each stone numbered, and replaced
exactly into its original position. The clere-story was re-built, the
beautiful roof erected, and the floor concreted, while the pews were
replaced by the present oak benches. The heating chamber was placed on
the south west side, and as the foundations of the tower were found to
be slightly sinking (Norman builders always were rather careless about
foundations), these were strengthened with tons of concrete.
GENERAL
NOTES.
A tithe barn used to
stand in what
is now the Smithy garden, facing the south wall of the Church; and
there was a porch to the main south door. These were taken down during
the last century. The red-brick building against the fence to the right
is the "Hearse House," in which the parish hearse was kept. At a
meeting held to consider the best memorial of Queen Victoria's Jubilee,
it was proposed to get a new parish hearse; but the proposal fell to
the ground when a respected resident stated that he had "known many
people who had ridden in that hearse, but he had never heard any
complaints yet." It last appeared after the relief of Mafeking, when
its framework and wheels made a very good carriage for a drain pipe
covered with brown paper, which did duty for a "Long Tom."
On the west side of
the Church is
the Vicarage; the parish register tells us that "J. Harwar Vicar of
Acton built ye Vicaridge house, garden walls, barn, etc" at his own
cost and charge in the year 1723." Parts of it may be alder than this;
in various places doors and windows have been altered. The Rev. Thomas
Brereton was vicar from 1744 to 1787; the present vicar comes next with
30 years of service, and the Rev. R. S. Redfern with 25. The three
fields beyond the vicarage are the glebe. The third contains the moat,
probably of the same age as the tower, and made as a protection against
the Welsh; the cattle were driven on to the enclosure and men set to
protect the entrance, the women and children placed in the tower, and
the bells rung to sound the alarm. In recent times there was probably a
house within the moat; pieces of coal are found beneath the turf.
The registers go back
to 1653. The
earlier ones may have been destroyed in the Civil war; if not, an entry
in the register may account for the loss. It tells how a meeting of the
parishioners was held, at which the vicar was asked to give up the keys
of the vestry (the small chamber which used to stand on the north side
of the sanctuary) ; as he declined to do so, the meeting decided that
the door should be forced, and the books and papers removed. What all
the bother was about, we cannot tell; but it is sad to think of the
loss to history brought about by that foolish assembly.
One silver chalice,
"The gift of
Alice Wilbraham, of Dorfold," is dated 1633; another, and also a very
heavy silver flagon, was "The gift of the Honble. Lady Wilbraham of
Weston in Staffordshire to the Church of Acton in Cheshire." This lady
Elizabeth, daughter of the famous Jack Mitton, married Sir Richard
Wilbraham of Woodhey, and in 1700 built, or re-built, the Chapel or
Oratory (called "an old domestick chappell" in Leycester's History,
1673) still standing in front of the farm house, for the benefit of the
household and retainers of Woodhey Hall. The panelling of the walls,
and the seats, arranged length-wise to the building, are of oak; a
gallery at the end contains some heavy settles, on which "the people of
the Hall" evidently sat, and some curious cupboards with latticed
panels, apparently for the serving girls, who thus could attend the
service in their over-alls. This chapel is the private property of Lord
Tollemache, who appoints a "discreet and learned minister for the
services"; it is not under the Bishop's jurisdiction. The pillared
porch of the door into the gallery, approached by way of what seems to
be an ancient defensive rampart, is the only part of Woodhey Hall which
escaped being pulled down in 1750. The ancient barns still stand, and
the brick wall of what said to have been the exercising ground for the
men-at-arms of the Hall. There arc some underground passages, which
tradition regards as stretching to Beeston or to Chester according to
the imaginative powers of the narrator; and the remains of a stone
cross mark the entrance to the precincts of the Hall.
The last
restoration
An old windmill, adapted as a
pump
for the supply of water to the neighbouring houses, before the
Liverpool water was supplied about 1891, stands in Ravensmoor about
half a mile from the Church. Ravensmoor was a piece of common land of
414 acres, which in 1838 was enclosed under Act of Parliament, and
apportioned to the lords of the manor. At Swanley Hall, two yew trees
are reported to have been planted at the head and foot of the grave of
an officer killed in the civil war. Yew trees are rather common in the
neighbourhood; the farm adjoining the Churchyard, and one in Stoke, are
each called "Yew Tree Farm." Stoke Manor is said, but not truly, to
have been the residence of Mary, wife of the poet John Milton, and to
have had some connection with Sir John Wolfe, the hero of Quebec.
Behind it is a piece
of land, not
to be distinguished from any ordinary croft, which was once a Quaker
burying place. A little lower down the road is a farm called Verona,
with a wonderful spring in its garden; and further in the fields,
Clatterdish Farm. No one knows the origin of these names. As the latter
is in an exposed place, éclair de soleil is a possible
derivation.
And so one might go
on; as in any
parish with a Church 750 years old.
HERBERT
MOORE
1930
Correction
notes by Canon H
Moore,
M.A c 1933
"An
account of Dorfold by Mr. Johnson of Nantwich mentions an ancient plan
showing how the approach to the house joined the road near the
aquaduct, the space in front (of the house) being largely occupied by
water".
"At
the same time he (Penda) said on one occasion that he had no objection
to Christianity as such, but to persons who called themselves
Christians but lived as heathens. He need not have allowed his son to
marry a Christian wife. His son Wulfhere, who succeeded him as King of
Mercia, was a Christian; his daughter was Werbergha"
"At the
Dissolution Combermere Abbey was granted to Sir Geo. Cotton".
"The eastern
arch is a 15th century arch".
"The
holes were for the
fixing of
the 'doom' picture covering the wall above. Over the lectern, the door
can be traced by which the rood screen was entered; the steps descended
into the north aisle".
"The most likely
date seems to be 1408 (not 1399). What is said about the arch as part
of the original Church will be erroneous, the whole of the nave must
have been rebuilt"
"One of the
Saxon stones, believed to be of the same date as the font, shows a
bishop without the mitre, i.e. before the end of 11th century when the
mitre became part of the bishops dress In 1236 Archbishop Edmund
ordered font covers; the marks of the hinge can be seen.
"The base (of the font) was
designed by Mr. Lyman, architect (in 1897)".
"Sir Richard
Wilbraham was the father of Sir Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhey Hall".
The 'popular preacher'
was Rev.
Francis Storr, M.A
"The volume of minutes etc. (of
Acton Grammar School) is now deposited at Nantwich & Acton
Grammar
School".
"Woodhey Hall
was pulled down in 1730"
"The tablet on the
wall of the
chapel (Woodhey) gives its date as 1700; what was its original form is
not easy to decide, the cavity on the left side of the 'gallery' door
suggesting that the door occupies the place of the altar"
Other notes by Canon
Moore and
others are published from time to time at the Church.
St
Mary's
Acton today
Nearby
A history of
Reaseheath
Bill
Pearson's guide to
Nantwich