Civil History and Antiquities

At the time of the Roman invasion this county formed part of the territory occupied by the Cornavii or Carnabii, a name which Whittaker conjectures the inhabitants of this district derived from the peculiar form of the peninsula between the estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey. In the first division of Britain, by the Romans it was included the Britannia Superior ; and in their subsequent subdivision, it became part of Flavia Caesariensis. The towns possessed by the Cornavii were Deva or Chester, Condate or Kinderton, Banchorium, Banchor or Bangor, Etocetum or Wall, and Uriconium or Wroxeter ; the last of which seems to have been their metropolis. Bangor, Etocetum, and Uriconium are not within the limits of Cheshire. Ormerod mentions a recent discovery of brass tablets, recording a grant of the freedom of the city of Rome to certain troops serving in Britain in the reign of Trajan, A.D. 98-117, some of whom at least may have been stationed near Bickly, where the tablets were found. From inscriptions which have been found, the twentieth legion appears to have continued at Chester as late as the third century, but to have withdrawn long before the final abandonment of the island in the fifth.

On the departure of the Romans, the Britons continued to hold Cheshire until about the year 607, when it was wrested from Brochmael, king of Powys, by the successful arms of Ethelfrid, the Saxon king of Bernicia. Prior to the battle, the Saxon troops are said to have massacred the monks of Bangor, against whom St. Augustine had denounced divine vengeance for their errors, and, who aided the Britons with their prayers. Several of the British princes, however, having collected an army and marched to Chester, Ethelfrid was defeated in turn, and this district was not again subjected to the Anglo-Saxon power until about the year 828, when it was taken by King Egbert, and made a part of the kingdom of Mercia. According to Peter Langtoft, Athelwolf held his parliament at Chester after the death of Egbert, and there received the homage of his tributary kings 'from Berwick into Kent.’ About the close of 894, an army of Danes advancing from Northumberland took possession of Chester, and seized the fortress ; the Saxons under Alfred, however, having arrived in the vicinity, by destroying the cattle and corn, and intercepting the provisions of the Danes, drove them to such extremities of famine, that they quitted the city and retreated to North Wales. Upon the division of England into three districts by Alfred, Cheshire was included in the Mercian jurisdiction. Cheshire acquired the privileges of a county palatine in the reign of William the Conqueror, who granted it to his nephew, Hugh d’Avranches, commonly called Hugh Lupus, to hold it as freely by the sword as he himself held the kingdom of England by the crown. Lupus created eight barons as soon as he felt himself established in his new dignity, who were bound to attend on him at his court and to furnish him with horses in war. In return for these services, they were invested with the right of holding courts on all pleas, suits, and plaints, and with the power of life and death. The last instance of the exertion of this last privilege occurred in 1597, when the baron of Kinderton’s court tried and executed Hugh Stringer for murder. Until the final subjugation of the Welsh, the city of Chester was the usual place of rendezvous for the English army, and the county was exposed to all the evils of a border warfare. In 1237, on the death of John Scot, the seventh earl of Chester of the Norman line, without male issue, Henry III gave the daughters of the late earl other lands in lieu of the earldom, being unwilling, as he said, to 'parcel out’ so great an inheritance 'among distaffs' : the county he bestowed on his son Edward, who did not assume the title, but conferred it on his son Edward of Caernarvon, since which time the eldest sons of the kings of England have always held the title of earls of Chester. The inhabitants of Cheshire took a part in the rebellion of the Percies, and the greater part of the knights and esquires of the whole county, to the number of 200, with many of their retainers, fell in the battle of Shrewsbury, on the 22nd of July, 1403, from which date to the reign of Charles I, Cheshire was not the scene of any important military transactions. From the time of Henry III to the reign of Henry VIII, the palatinate was governed as independently as it had been by the Norman earls. Henry VIII however made it subordinate to the crown of England ; ‘yet,' says Gough, in his 'Additions to Camden,' 'all pleas of lands and tenements and all contracts within the county are to he heard and determined within it ; and all determination out of it is deemed void, et coram non judice, except in cases of error, foreign plea, and foreign voucher ; and for no crime but treason can an inhabitant of this county he tried out of it.' The county being solely under a distinct jurisdiction, and to a certain extent like a separate kingdom, never sent representatives to the English parliament, either for city or shire, until the reign of Edward VI, when, in the year 1549, on the petition of the inhabitants, two members were summoned from each. On the out-breaking of the civil war, as this county was nearly equally divided between the king and the people, the principal persons attempted to preserve its internal peace by a treaty of pacification, which was entered into at Bunbury under the sanction of the commissioners of array, but was rendered nugatory by an ordinance of parliament which required the inhabitants to assist the common cause. The parliament sent Sir William Brereton with a troop of horse, who took possession of Nantwich, which he fortified and made his headquarters ; while Sir Nicholas Byron, on the other side, being appointed colonel-general of Shropshire and Cheshire, and governor of Chester by the king, made it the headquarters of the royalists. Lord Byron, the nephew of the governor, after successfully reducing several of the parliamentarian garrisons with his Irish regiments, defeated the whole parliamentary forces under Sir William Brereton at Middlewich, in the month of December, 1643. Nantwich, being now the only garrison in Cheshire in the possession of the parliament, was besieged during the greater part of January, 1644, until it was relieved by the united forces of Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir William Brereton, who defeated Lord Byron and compelled him to retreat with the remains of his forces to Chester on the 25th. Prince Rupert took Stockport without resistance on the 25th of May; but the royalists were defeated after a severe battle at Castle-heath, near Malpas, on the 25th of August. Next year, on the advance of the king to Chester with a large force, the parliament abandoned all their garrisons, except Tarvin and Nantwich, and, on the 27th of September, the battle of Rowton and Hooleheath was fought near Chester, in which the royalists were defeated ; an event which led to the surrender of the garrison of Chester, in February, 1646, and the subjugation of the whole county to the parliament.

In August, 1659, Sir George Booth, having a secret commission from Charles II, appointing him commander-in-chief of all his forces in Cheshire, Lancashire. and North Wales, and being accompanied by several noblemen and gentlemen, appeared in Cheshire at the head of an army of upwards of 3,000 men. They mustered on Rowton Heath, and published a declaration that they took up arms to deliver the nation from slavery and obtain a free parliament. The army of the parliament, under General Lambert, met them at Winnington Bridge, near Northwich, on the 16th of August, and soon defeated them. Booth himself, after making his escape from the field in disguise, was taken at Newport Pagnell and sent to the Tower ; and Chester, which had been held by Colonel Croxton, surrendered immediately on the approach of the victorious army. The son of Sir George Booth, Lord Delamere, on the eve of the revolution, no sooner heard of the landing of the prince of Orange than he raised a considerable force in Cheshire and Lancashire, declared in his favour, and marched to join him ; the Lords Molineux and Aston, with equal promptness, seized Chester for the king ; but these warlike preparations were fortunately rendered useless by the abdication.

The Roman roads in the county are found in detached parts : one road, called the Watling-street, was probably more ancient than the Roman times. This road enters Cheshire from the north by the ford over the Mersey at Stratford ; the marks of the elevated crest, peculiar to the military roads of the Romans, are still visible. A little south-west of Bucklow Hill the roads seem to have divided, the Roman continuing towards Kinderton, and the British pursuing its old direction by Northwich over Delamere Forest, and by Chester to the coast of Caernarvonshire. The Roman road from Manchester to Kinderton crosses the ford of the Mersey, and proceeds to the village of Cross-street. It is seen in the enclosures about Oldfield Hall, and in a field beyond it is still raised several yards. In crossing the adjoining moss it is known by the name of Upcast, whence it runs by Dunham Park to a field called the Harbour-field, in the parish of Kinderton, which is the supposed station of Condate. Part of the Via Devana crossed the county from the SE to Chester. Besides these, antiquarian conjecture has pointed out several other Roman roads, but the evidence is not so satisfactory in their favour as in the cases of the roads we have traced. That there was a Roman station at Chester is universally admitted - the sites of the others are uncertain.

Besides the castle at Chester, which was built by William the Conqueror, and is now converted into the county-hall, jail, and barracks, there are several others. Beeston Castle, built in 1220, by Randle Blundeville, Earl of Chester, is upon the slope and summit of a sandstone rock, which forms on one side an almost perpendicular precipice of great height. The outer court is irregular in form, inclosing an area of about five acres. The walls are prodigiously thick, and have several round towers. A deep ditch, sunk in the solid rock, surrounds the keep ; which was entered by a drawbridge, opposite two circular watch towers, still remaining. The approach within the great gateway between these towers is by rugged steps cut in the natural rock. Camden speaks of a draw-well, bored to the base of the rock, a depth of 90 yards, and communicating with a brook in the vale below. This castle has been in ruins since the civil war of Charles I, when it was dismantled. The others are Halton Castle, of which very few traces now remain ; Aldford Castle, of which the foundations are still traced ; Shocklach Castle, of which only some earth-works and a high mount are now to be seen ; and Shotwick, which appears from the sketch of it in the British Museum to have had a pentagonal wall, with several circular towers inclosing a lofty square one. There are numerous ancient mansion-houses. Smith, in his Treatise on Cheshire, calls this county 'the mother and the nurse of the gentility of England.' Another writer speaks of it as 'the seed-plot of gentry.'

Little Moreton Hall, in the parish of Astbury, is the most remarkable ancient mansion in the county. The materials of the house are timber and plaster. The singular ornamental style of this very ancient edifice, and the curious glazing of its large bay windows, are well exhibited in the plates of Lysons's Magna Britannica ; Ormerod's Cheshire vol. Iii ; and Britton’s Architectural. Antiquities.'

Bramhall Hall, the ancient seat of the Davenports, about two miles SW of Stockport, resembles that of Little Morton. Ormerod's work contains a beautiful view of this mansion, vol. iii, p.400.

Saighton Grange, near Chester, was one of the castellated residences of the Abbot of St. Werburg. (Ormerod, vol. ii., p.240.)

Doddington Hall, the ancient seat of the Delves family, is near the road from Nantwich to London. The modern, large, and sumptuous fabric was erected in 1780 by Samuel Wyat. It stands in a spacious park, and overlooks a fine sheet of water. Poole Hall, in the parish of Eastham, was built in the middle of the sixteenth century, and is one of the most venerable specimens of domestic architecture in this county. The style of the architecture is similar that of all the ancient Cheshire mansions, rising into pointed gables, with numerous large bay windows, and having the approach through a line of stables and cow-houses. Brereton Hall, which is in the style of Esher Place in Surrey, was built by Sir William Brereton, and the foundation stone is said to have been laid by Queen Elizabeth herself. The site is on a rising ground near the river Croke. Among the rich decorations of the interior is a curious painting of Queen Elizabeth in full costume, with chains of jewels hanging down to her waist, and with her hair extremely red. Another object of great interest is the painted window, which has since been removed from this mansion, to Ashton Hall in Warwickshire. Ormerod (vol. iii. p.50) has given a large coloured drawing of this window, which contains nine full-length figures ; the Saxon earls of Mercia, Leofwine and Leofric, and the seven Norman earls of Chester. They are all represented with hair and beards of a deep yellow. Dutton Hall stands on the ridge of a steep declivity overlooking the Weaver. It is surrounded by a broad and deep moat. The great hall is 40 feet by 20, and the whole edifice is a very sumptuous specimen of the domestic architecture of the sixteenth century. Crewe Hall, the seat of Lord Crewe, is an equally fine specimen of the seventeenth century, having been completed in 1636. It is a quadrangular building of red brick, with battlements and large projecting bay windows. An engraving is given in Ormerod, vol. iii. p.168, and in Lysons's Magna Britannica. The sculptured oak ornaments of the interior are curious, as well as the painted-glass window of the chapel. There are many portraits by Lely and others of that time. Britton, in his ‘Architectural Antiquities,' has a fine drawing of a staircase in this mansion, remarkable for its form and decorations. The seat of Lord Combermere was an ancient Cistercian abbey : it is beautifully situated on the margin of the large mere so called. The original edifice has been almost wholly renewed in the pointed Gothic style. Ormerod, vol. iii. p.210.

Dunham Massey, the seat of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, was rebuilt in 1730. It is a very spacious quadrangular building of brick, surrounded with a fine park of lofty old oaks, and is interesting for a curious gallery of paintings by Holbein, Lely, Vandyke, and other old masters. Cholmondeley Castle, the seat of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, is in the township of Cholmondely, in Boxton hundred. The present magnificent modern edifice was built in 1804, on the site of the ancient castle. The style of the architecture is the pointed Gothic ; and, in approaching the eminence on which it stands, it has the appearance of an ancient Norman fortress. The apartments are adorned with some rare and beautiful paintings. Eaton Hall, the seat of Earl Grosvenor, possesses great architectural grandeur, and resembles Cholmondeley Castle, in the pointed Gothic style. The surrounding park and pleasure grounds are laid out with great picturesque effect. Ancient crosses occur at the boundary of Lyme Park, at Sandbach, at Oulton, and at Lymm. The crosses at Sandbach are referred by Lysons to a period not long subsequent to the introduction of Christianity among our Saxon ancestors. The sword of Hugh Lupus, the first Norman Earl of Chester, is preserved in the British Museum.