Mickle Trafford is a village and former

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 authority ...

, now in the parish of Mickle Trafford and District, in the unitary authority of

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 str ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It includes the area known as

Plemstall Plemstall (formerly Plemonstall) is a hamlet in the civil parish of Mickle Trafford and District, Cheshire, England. It lies northeast of the village of Mickle Trafford. The hamlet contains only a farm and former level crossing keeper's house, in ...

. The

A56 road The A56 is a road in England which extends between the city of Chester in Cheshire and the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as t ...

from

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

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 ...

passes through the village and the Chester-Warrington railway line passes immediately to its east. The civil parish was abolished in 2015 to form Mickle Trafford and District, part of it also went to

Guilden Sutton Guilden Sutton is a civil parish and village in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village lies approximately to the east of Chester and is south of the village of Mickle Traff ...

. At the 2011 census the population of the civil parish was 1,822. In 2004 it had been estimated to be 2,140, although the 2001 census recorded 1,831 people.

History

The name is derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

word ''mikill'' (meaning big or great) and the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

words ''trog'' (a trough) and ''

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

''. The only artifacts found from the

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

period are an

arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

and a worked flake which were found in the nearby settlement of Hoole Village. The arrowhead is dated from the Early

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

to the Early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

(2350 BC to 701 BC). The

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from

Wilderspool Wilderspool is a district of Warrington, Cheshire, near the town centre. It consists of Wilderspool Causeway and the streets coming off it, the limits being the River Mersey into Stockton Heath (where it turns into London Road), Bridgefoot (nea ...

(near the present town of

) passed through or near the village. It is likely that the road known as The Street, which passes to the northwest of the village, was the route of the Roman road. Finds of Roman coins, jewellery and pottery have been found in the village and nearby. There is also evidence of Roman practice camps in the nearby settlements of

Hoole Village Hoole Village is a village and former civil parish near Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish was abolished in 2015 to form Mickle Trafford and District, ...

and Picton. Mickle Trafford is not mentioned in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'', but a raised area in a marsh by the

River Gowy The River Gowy is a river in Cheshire, England, a tributary of the River Mersey. It rises in western Cheshire in the hills near Peckforton Castle, very close to the source of the River Weaver. While the Weaver flows south initially, the Gowy f ...

to the northeast of the present village, was known as the "Isle of Chester". Here lived a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

called

Plegmund Plegmund (or Plegemund; died 2 August either 914 or 923) was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. He may have been a hermit before he became archbishop in 890. As archbishop, he reorganised the Diocese of Winchester, creating four ne ...

, who was later to become the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, and the area is now known as

, which means "Plegmund's holy place". Formerly a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in Plemstall Parish, Broxton Hundred, the population was 247 in 1801, 303 in 1851, 268 in 1901 and 348 in 1951. The village was previously served by two railway stations:

Mickle Trafford Mickle Trafford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Mickle Trafford and District, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It includes the area known as Plemst ...

and Mickle Trafford East. Although the stations have been demolished, both lines remain operational.

Landmarks and places of interest

St Peter's Church, Plemstall is located to the northeast of the village and is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

On the lane leading to the church is St Plegmund's well. Other buildings in and around the village are listed at Grade II. To the north of the village is

Trafford Mill Trafford Mill is a water mill ¾ mile (1.2 km) to the north of the village of Mickle Trafford, Cheshire, England (). It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. History The earli ...

. The other buildings are

Mickle Trafford Manor Mickle may refer to: Geographical features *Mickle Fell, mountain in the Pennines, England *Mickle Island, southeast of Flagstaff Point, west of Ross Island, Antarctica * Mickle Mere, nature reserve south of Ixworth in Suffolk, England *Mickle Tra ...

, Windsor Lodge,

Ivy Bank Farmhouse ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

, and a farm building associated with Ivy Bank Farmhouse.

References

Citations Sources *

External links

Village website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mickle Trafford Villages in Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Cheshire West and Chester

History

Landmarks and places of interest

See also

References

External links