Plemstall (formerly Plemonstall) is a hamlet in the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Mickle Trafford and District, in

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 structural changes to l ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. It lies north-east of the village of

Mickle Trafford Mickle Trafford is a village in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. It is the main village in the civil parish of Mickle Trafford and District. The A56 road from Chester to Warrington passes through the village and the Chester to Manc ...

Geography

The hamlet contains only a couple of houses, being a farm and former

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

keeper's house, in addition to the Grade I listed St Peter's Church. The church stands on a slightly elevated area which was known as "The Isle of Chester", the surrounding area formerly being marsh. The church is believed to have been built on the site of Plegmund's hermitage, who is believed to have lived in there before he became

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

in AD 890. St Plegmund's well is also situated within the hamlet, on the edge of a low cliff about to the west of the church and to the east of one of the channels of 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 ...

. It is one of two

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

s in west Cheshire.

Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Plemstall, at parish and

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

level: Mickle Trafford and District Parish Council, and

Cheshire West and Chester Council Cheshire West and Chester Council is the local authority for Cheshire West and Chester, a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council w ...

. The parish council generally meets at the village hall in Mickle Trafford.

Administrative history

Plemstall was an

ancient 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, and formed part of the Broxton Hundred of Cheshire. The parish was subdivided into the four

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Bridge Trafford Bridge Trafford is a hamlet in the civil parish of Mickle Trafford and District, in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. It lies to the north of Mickle Trafford on the A56 road, and is north-east of Chester. Bridge Trafford was form ...

Hoole Hoole is a suburb in the east of Chester, in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. The area is contiguous with Newton to the north and Vicars Cross to the south. The A41 road marks the suburb's eastern boundary, with the separate Hool ...

, and Picton. Plemstall's parish church of St Peter was in the Mickle Trafford township. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the

poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Plemstall, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so the four townships each became a separate

, whilst remaining part of the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Plemstall. The ecclesiastical parish retains the name Plemstall.

References

External links

Hamlets in Cheshire Cheshire West and Chester {{Cheshire-geo-stub