Little Budworth is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

and village between

Winsford Winsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the River Weaver south of Northwich and west of Middlewich. It grew around the salt mining industr ...

and Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 594. It is primarily known as the location of the

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection al ...

motor racing circuit. The village is about 3 miles from

and

Tarporley Tarporley is a large village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. The civil parish also contains the village of Rhuddall Heath. Tarporley is bypassed by the A49 and A51 roads. At the 2011 census, the population was 2,614. History Tarporle ...

, 14 miles to Chester City Centre, 8 miles to Northwich and 17 miles to

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

with nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line set in rolling English countryside and forest.

History

As the Romans settled in mid-Cheshire they explored

Delamere Forest Delamere Forest is a large wood in the village of Delamere in Cheshire, England. The woodland, which is managed by Forestry England, covers an area of making it the largest area of woodland in the county. It contains a mixture of deciduous and ...

for food and discovered underground salt in the area. The transport of salt led to roads being created in an otherwise wild area. A settlement was founded in this open space by a Viking, Bodeur. The open space was called a 'wirth'. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

the village appeared as 'Bodeaurde' and is described as a 'waste' with woodland 'one league long and half a league wide' and land enough for two ploughs. Between 1153 and 1160 the manor was granted by the Third Earl of Chester to Robert le Grosvenor whose descendant held the village for Edward the First. Certain lands remained in the ownership of the Grosvenors. In the reign of Henry VIII it passed to the ancestors of the Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1860 the village was known as Budworth-in-the-Frith. There was a school known as Lady Egerton's School.

St Peter's Church

The first record of a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in Little Budworth dates from 1190 when it was mentioned in conjunction with the parish of Over, Winsford. In 1526 Hugh Starky of Oulton directed that he should be buried in Little Budworth and left money to the church. The 'free chapel of Budworth le Frith, within the Parish of Over', is mentioned in a charter of 1547 endowing the Bishopric of Chester, when is belonged to the nunnery of St Mary, Chester. In 1798 the church was rebuilt (except for the tower and north wall) by a bequest from Ralph Kirkham (a rich merchant of Chester and the son of a farmer in Little Budworth, educated at Lady Egerton's School). The church was restored by the Colonel of Egerton in 1919 and the window commemorating the Egerton twins killed in the war was placed in the south aisle. Two chests ordered by Queen Elizabeth – the outer for vestments and registers, the inner for the plate – were still there in 1935 but now the smaller has disappeared. There remains one of the two short-handled copper collecting boxes dated 1801, the silver-gilt Egerton chalice and the large painting thought to be of the school of Caravaggio. The smaller painting of 'The Good Shepherd' by William Dyce (given by the Stocks family) is on permanent loan to the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

Public houses

There are four pubs in the parish of Little Budworth. The Red Lion is in the heart of the village, opposite the church. The Shrewsbury Arms is on the road to Chester and the Cabbage Hall is on the A49. The Egerton Arms closed down in 2008 but has now re-opened.

Little Budworth Common

Little Budworth Common is a country park and SSSI west of the village. Described in the SSSI citation as "one of the best surviving examples of lowland heath in Cheshire", it supports locally uncommon plant species such as heather '' Calluna vulgaris'', bilberry '' Vaccinium myrtillus'' and purple moor-grass '' Molinia caerulea''. The Friends of Little Budworth Common, a community group, help maintain the habitat. The site has designated routes for horse-riders and cyclists, and a waymarked Heathland Trail.

References

External links

Discovercheshire (Little Budworth Country Park page)
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire