Minshull Vernon is a hamlet and

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 ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

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. The hamlet lies to the north west of

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

, south east of

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 industry ...

and south west of Middlewich. The parish also includes the small settlements of Bradfield Green, Eardswick, Hoolgrave, Minshull Hill, Walley's Green and Weaver Bank.UK & Ireland Genealogy: Minshull Vernon
(accessed 3 March 2009) The total population of the civil parish is somewhat over 200, measured at 391 in the Census 2011. Nearby villages include

Church Minshull Church Minshull is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village is approximately north west of Crewe, just west of the River Weaver and Shropshire Union Canal. T ...

Warmingham Warmingham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the River Wheelock (at ), north of Crewe, south of Middlewich and miles west of Sandbach. The parish also include ...

and Wimboldsley. The

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included ...

and the Middlewich Branch of the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales. The canal lies in ...

run through the area.

History

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 ...

between Nantwich and Middlewich ran northwards through the civil parish; several stretches of the road, as well as a Roman bridge, have been uncovered in excavations.Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes. ''The Cheshire Village Book'' pp. 163–164 (Countryside Books & CFWI; 1990) () Minshull Vernon and the adjacent parish of

appear in the Domesday survey as ''Maneshale'', which formed part of the extensive lands of William Malbank (also William Malbedeng) and had a hawk's eyrie and four deer enclosures.The Domesday Book Online: Cheshire L–Z
(accessed 5 March 2009) The remains of two medieval

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

ed sites provide evidence for settlement during that period.Cheshire County Council: Revealing Cheshire's Past: Eardswick Hall and Moat, Eardswick Lane
(accessed 5 March 2009) In the Tudor period, Minshull Vernon formed part of the lands of the Venable family, lords of Middlewich. A description of the parish from the early 17th century records its great and spacious farms. There were three churches or chapels in the 19th century, Congregational (1809), Wesleyan Methodist (1832) and Church of England (1847); the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Bradfield Green has closed. In 1840, a school was built at Bradfield Green; it had over a hundred pupils in 1900, but has since closed. The parish suffered bombing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, with two fatalities.

Governance

Minshull Vernon is administered by Minshull Vernon and District Parish Council, jointly with Leighton and

Woolstanwood Woolstanwood (also Woolstan Wood) is a village (at ) and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, which lies immediately to the west of Crewe, 1½ miles from the centre. The pari ...

. Of 22 parish councillors, seven represent Minshull Vernon. From 1974 the civil parish was served by

Crewe and Nantwich Crewe and Nantwich was, from 1974 to 2009, a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It had a population (2001 census) of 111,007. It contained 69 civ ...

Borough Council, which was succeeded on 1 April 2009 by the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Minshull Vernon falls in the parliamentary constituency of Eddisbury, which has been represented by

Edward Timpson Anthony Edward Timpson, (born 26 December 1973) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire at the 2019 general election. He was previously MP for neighbouring Crewe a ...

since 2019, after being represented by

Stephen O'Brien Sir Stephen Rothwell O'Brien, (born 1 April 1957) is a British politician and diplomat who was the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. O'Brien assumed office on 29 May 2015, succeed ...

(1999–2015) and Antoinette Sandbach (2015–19).

Geography, transport and economy

The civil parish has a total area of .Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council: Parish Statistics (downloaded fro

5 April 2010) The area is relatively flat, with an average elevation of around 50 metres.Cheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Minshull Vernon
(accessed 3 March 2009) The civil parish is largely rural, with the major land use being agricultural, predominantly

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

. A short stretch of the

forms part of the northern boundary of the parish and Hoggins Brook runs along its eastern boundary; several unnamed brooks also run through the parish, and numerous small meres and ponds are scattered across the area. The parish contains several areas of woodland, including Burnt Covert, Larch Wood, Spring Plantation, Worsley Covert and parts of Polestead Wood and Weaver Bank Wood. Two small areas in the north west and south west of the parish, together with the western parish boundary, fall within the Weaver Valley Area of Special County Value. An underground gas storage plant is located south of Hole House at . The A530 (Middlewich Road) runs north–south through the parish; Brookhouse Lane/Eardswick Lane loops round from the A530 near Walley's Green to rejoin it near Bradfield Green. Moss Lane and the B5076 (Flowers Lane) run east and southeast, respectively, from the A530 at Bradfield Green towards Barrows Green. Cross Lane runs west from Brookhouse Lane/Eardswick Lane to

. The Middlewich Branch of the

runs through the north-west of the parish, and forms the majority of the western boundary. Cross Lane crosses the canal via Minshullhill Bridge. The Crewe–

railway line runs north–south through the parish to the east of the A530. The Weaver Way follows the Shropshire Union towpath, and the

Crewe and Nantwich Circular Walk The Crewe and Nantwich Circular Walk is a long-distance walkers' path in the Cheshire East area of Cheshire, England. As the name suggests, the walk forms a circuit around the towns of Crewe and Nantwich. It is one of two circular walks i ...

loops through the parish, in part also following the towpath.

Demography

In 2006, the total population of the civil parish was estimated as 240. The 2001 census recorded a population of 224, in 94 households.Neighbourhood Statistics: Minshull Vernon CP
(accessed 3 March 2009) This is around 60% of the population of 1851; the historical population figures were 357 (1801), 375 (1851), 302 (1901) and 267 (1951).

Places of worship

Minshull Vernon United Reformed Church is located at the junction of Cross Lane, Brookhouse Lane and Eardswick Lane. Originally a Congregational Chapel, the grade-II-listed church dates from 1809 to 1810 and was substantially altered in around 1880. It is in brown brick with Victorian stained-glass windows featuring ogee tracery; a single original arched window with "Y" tracery survives in the north gable. The Church of England parish church of St Peter, Leighton-cum-Minshull Vernon, on Middlewich Road north of Bradfield Green was founded in 1840. The present rock-faced building by John Matthews dates from 1847 to 1849 and has a bell-cote and

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s; it is listed at

grade II 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 ...

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...

& Hubbard, Edward (1971). ''The Buildings of England: Cheshire'', p. 281 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) ()

Other landmarks

Newfield Hall on Middlewich Road in Walley's Green is a red-brick mansion on a double pile plan which dates from the early 19th century; it is listed at

. The west front is flanked by stone elephants bearing howdahs, which are believed to have come from Adderley Hall near

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "Dray ...

in Shropshire. A small red-brick summerhouse in the grounds, thought to have originally been a

privy Privy is an old-fashioned term for an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse and by many other names. Privy may also refer to: * Privy council, a body that advises the head of state * Privy mark, a small mark in the design of a coin * Privy Pur ...

, has a slate roof topped with a ball

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

. It dates from the same period as the hall, and is also listed at grade II. Hoolgrave Manor on Eardswick Lane is a grade-II-listed hall, now a farmhouse, in brown brick on a U-shaped plan. Dating from the late 17th century, it features brick

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s at the corners and a central slightly projecting bay with an

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

and topped with a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. Eardswick Hall on Eardswick Lane is a grade-II-listed farmhouse which dates from 1849; the farmhouse and associated farm buildings enclose a courtyard. The farmhouse, in Jacobean style, is in red brick with blue-brick diapering and features cast-iron lozenge windows and decorative roof tiles. The farm buildings also have lozenge windows, as well as elaborately patterned ventilation holes. The existing farmhouse was built on the site of a 16th-century moated hall, demolished in 1849, which was partly in stone and partly timber framed; the west, north and south arms of the moat survive. Several other farmhouses within the parish are also listed at grade II: *The Dairy Farm House *Park House at Walley's Green *The Pines at Bradfield GreenImages of England: The Pines
(accessed 4 March 2009) *Woodhouse Farm House The first three are all on Middlewich Road, the fourth on Brookhouse Lane. All are in red brick and date from the early or mid-19th century, although The Pines also has a rear wing which dates from the early 17th century. The Wharf on Cross Lane, adjacent to the

, is a grade-II-listed former canal warehouse and cottage which dates from around 1830 and is attributed to

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

. In red brick, it is in late 17th-century style and has three shaped gables to the main face, single shaped gables to the two ends, and a carriageway arch. Two aqueducts carrying the canal over the

are listed at grade II. Five canal bridges are also grade II listed: Eardswick Bridge, Eardswick Hall Bridge, Hollingshead Bridge, Minshullhill Bridge and bridge number 18. The aqueducts and bridges all date from 1827 to 1833; all are in brick with stone bands and copings, and all except Minshullhill Bridge are from designs by Telford. A double

ed site with an associated fishpond is located at ; the site dates from the medieval period and is a scheduled ancient monument.Cheshire County Council: Revealing Cheshire's Past: Moated Site, fishpond and connecting channel, Minshull Vernon
(accessed 4 March 2009) A war memorial in Bradfield Green (at ) commemorates those who died in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

from Minshull Vernon and the adjacent parish of Leighton. A stone cross erected in 1897 to mark

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

's Diamond Jubilee stands at the junction of Middlewich Road and Brookhouse Lane in Walley's Green. The Coach and Horses public house is on Middlewich Road at Bradfield Green.

Education

There are no educational facilities in Minshull Vernon. For primary education, the northern half of the civil parish falls within the catchment area of Wimboldsley Community Primary School in Wimboldsley, while the southern half mainly falls within the catchment area of Warmingham Church of England Primary School in

, there are two primary schools in a small area in the south-east corner in Mablins Lane Community Primary School and Leighton Primary School both in Leighton. For secondary education, the northern half of the parish falls within the catchment area of

Middlewich High School Middlewich High School is a co-educational secondary school located in Middlewich, Cheshire, England. It is a school for 11- to 16-year-olds, and had 708 pupils on roll as of the last OFSTED report, less than the average comprehensive. In its ...

in Middlewich, and the southern half within that of

Sir William Stanier School Sir William Stanier School is a Mixed-sex education, co-educational secondary school located in Crewe in the English county of Cheshire. The school is named after William Stanier, a former railway engineer, and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the L ...

.Cheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Sir William Stanier Community School
(accessed 3 March 2009)

References

{{authority control Civil parishes in Cheshire Villages in Cheshire