Astbury Cheshire Family History Guide

Astbury is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cheshire.

Other places in the parish include: Mosley, Somerford Booths, Somerford, Radnor, Odd Rode, Newbold Astbury, Mossley, Somerford Radnor, Moreton cum Alcumlow, Hulmewalfield, Hulme Walfield, Holy Trinity, Eaton, and Davenport.

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin:

Astbury

Parish registers: 1572
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1593

Mossley Holy Trinity:

Parish registers: 1845
Bishop’s Transcripts: None

Odd Rode:

Parish registers: 1809
Bishop’s Transcripts: None

Somerford:

Parish registers: 1691
Bishop’s Transcripts: None

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Primitive Methodist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

• Buglawton
• Marton
• Church Hulme
• Wolstanton Staffordshire
• Gawsworth
• Brereton cum Smethwick
• Smallwood
• Church Lawton
• Congleton St James
• Congleton St Peter
• Congleton St Stephen
• Biddulph Staffordshire
• Sandbach
• Swettenham
• North Rode

Old Maps of Astbury

All the historic ordnance survey maps listed below are free to view online. All maps are available to view full screen.

UK Great Britain, Ordnance Survey (1:1 million-1:10,560), 1900s

UK Great Britain, Ordnance Survey one-inch to the mile (1:63,360), ‘Hills’ edition, 1885-1903

UK Great Britain, Ordnance Survey six-inch to the mile (1:10,560), 1888-1913

UK Ordnance Survey Historical Maps from 1919-1947

UK Great Britain, Ordnance Survey ‘Provisional’ edition (1:25,000), 1937-1961

UK Great Britain, Ordnance Survey One-Inch Seventh Series (1:63,360), 1955-1961

Parish History

Astbury

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ASTBURY, a village and a parish in Congleton district, Cheshire. The village stands on an affluent of the river Dane, adjacent to the North Staffordshire railway, near the Macclesfield canal, 1½ mile SW of Congleton; and has a post office under Congleton, and fairs on 30 April and 30 Oct.

The parish includes the townships of Davenport, Somerford-Booths, Hulme-Walfield, Radnor, Buglawton, Congleton, Newbold-Astbury, Moreton-cum-Alcumlow, Smallwood, and Odd-Rode. Acres, 19,602. Real property, £66,903. Pop. in 1841, 14,519; in 1861, 19,351. Houses, 4,009. There are six chief proprietors. Coal, limestone, and building-stone are worked. Very many of the inhabitants are employed in silk factories, and some in cotton mills.

The living is a rectory, united with the curacy of Hulme-Walfield, in the diocese of Chester. Value, £2,040. Patron, Lord Crewe. The church is early English, with a good spire; and contains chancel stalls, a rood-loft, some fine screen-work, stained windows, and carved oaken ceilings. Two very ancient monuments, with insignia of knighthood, are in the churchyard. The chapelries of Buglawton, Congleton, Congleton-St. James’, Congleton-St. Stephen’s, Eaton, Mossley, Odd-Rode, and Smallwood, and the donative of Somerford, are separate charges. Charities, exclusive of Congleton, £63. See Congleton.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

ASTBURY (St. Mary), a parish, chiefly in the union of Congleton, consisting of the townships of Eaton and Somerford-Booths in the hundred of Macclesfield, and the market-town of Congleton, and the townships of Astbury-Newbold, Buglawton, Davenport, Hulme-Walfield, Moreton with Alcumlow, Odd Rode, Radnor, Smallwood, and Somerford, in the hundred of Northwich, county of Chester; and containing 14,890 inhabitants, of whom 641 are in Astbury-Newbold.

This parish comprises by computation 20,000 acres, and contains a bed of limestone, from twenty-five to thirty yards in thickness, of which considerable quantities are procured and burnt; it is based on a species of gritstone, excellent for building. The Macclesfield canal passes at a short distance to the east of the village. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £68, and in the patronage of the Trustees of Lord Crewe; net income, upwards of £1500.

The church is a spacious and beautiful structure, in every style of architecture from the early English to the later English, but chiefly the latter: the interior contains several stalls, a rood-loft, and some fine screen-work; the roofs are of oak, richly carved; the east window is highly enriched, and there are some fine specimens of stained glass. The tower, which stands at the north-west angle of the church, and is surmounted by an elegant spire, appears to have belonged to a former edifice. There are also churches or chapels at Congleton, Buglawton, Mossley, Rode, Smallwood, and Somerford; together with several places of worship for dissenters, in the parish.

The sum of £50 per annum, the bequest of John Holford in 1714, is partly distributed among the poor, and partly applied in apprenticing children. The parish contains some petrifying springs.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Eaton

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

EATON, a township, in the parish of Astbury, union and hundred of Macclesfield, N. division of the county of Chester, 2 miles (N. N. E.) from Congleton; containing 535 inhabitants. This place is said to have had no manor, and no mention of one occurs in ancient records. It comprises 1167 acres, of a sandy and clayey soil; and lies on the west side of the river Dane, and on the road from Congleton to Macclesfield. A short distance from the village is Eaton Hall, long a seat of the Antrobus family.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Mossley

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

MOSSLEY, a chapelry in Astbury parish, Cheshire; on the river Dane, adjacent to Staffordshire and to the North Staffordshire railway, 1½ mile E of Congleton. It was constituted in 1846. Post town, Congleton. Pop., 949. Houses, 189. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Chester. Value, £127. Patron, the Rector of Astbury. The church is a recent structure, in the early English style; and consists of nave and chancel, with porch and bell-gable. There is a national school.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Odd Rode

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ODD-RODE, a hamlet, a township, and a chapelry in Astbury parish, Cheshire. The hamlet lies on the Macclesfield canal, and on the North Staffordshire railway, under Mowcop mountain, ½ a mile S by W of Mowcop r. station, 1 W of the boundary with Staffordshire, and 3½ S S W of Congleton. The township contains also the hamlets of Rode-Heath, Scholar-Green, Kent-Green, Thurlwood, and Hall-Green, and part of the village of Mowcop; and its post town is Lawton, under Stoke-on-Trent.

Acres, 3, 692. Real property, £8, 982; of which £100 are in mines, and £67 in quarries. Pop.in 1851, 1,853; in 1861, 2, 503. Houses, 506. The increase of pop. arose chiefly from mining operations. The property is divided chiefly among thirteen.

Rode Hall, a large and handsome edifice, amid tasteful grounds, is the seat of R. Wilbraham, Esq.; and Moreton Hall, a fine specimen of the timber and plaster mansions of the 16th century, is the seat of Mrs. Moreton Craigie. There are many good houses. Mowcop mountain culminates on the boundary with Staffordshire, has an altitude of 1,091 feet above sea-level, and commands an extensive and beautiful view. Coal is worked, and building-stone is quarried. Flint grinding-mills are at Bank; and a wharf of the Stonetrough Colliery company is at Kent-Green.

The chapelry is somewhat less extensive than the township, and was constituted in 1860. Pop. in 1861, 2,476. Houses, 506. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chester. Value, £200. Patron, the Rector of Astbury. The church stands in the centre of the township; was built in 1864, after designs by G. G. Scott; and contains 500 sittings. Wesleyan chapels are at Hall-Green and Mowcop; and there are five schools.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Somerford

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

SOMERFORD, a township in Astbury parish, Cheshire; 3 miles NW by W of Congleton. Acres, 1,203. Real property, £1,821. Pop., 82. Houses, 14. S. Park is the seat of Sir W. Shakerley, Bart.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Mossley

Odd Rode

Somerford

Use for:
England, Cheshire, Somerford Radnor

Administration

• County: Cheshire
• Civil Registration District: Congleton
• Probate Court: Pre-1541 – Court of the Bishop of Lichfield (Episcopal Consistory), Post-1540 – Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Pre-1541 – Lichfield and Coventry, Post-1540 – Chester
• Rural Deanery: Middlewich
• Poor Law Union: Congleton
• Hundred: Macclesfield; Northwich
• Province: York