Poulton is a settlement in Cheshire West and Chester. The area, which was a 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 authorit ...

until being merged into the combined parish of Poulton and

Pulford Pulford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Poulton and Pulford, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is on the B5445 road, to the south west of Chest ...

in 2015, is in the ceremonial county of Cheshire in England. In 2001 census it had a recorded population of 92. Since 1995, significant archaeological activity has been conducted in the area, first by the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

and later by the independent group known as the Poulton Research Project.

History

Archaeological research has established there has been human habitation in the area since the

Mesolithic period The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously ...

(8,000 B.C.). In the Sub-Roman Britain period,

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 mostl ...

roundhouse ditches,

Briquetage Briquetage or very coarse pottery (VCP) is a coarse ceramic material used to make evaporation vessels and supporting pillars used in extracting salt from brine or seawater. Thick-walled saltpans were filled with saltwater and heated from belo ...

and animal bones have also been found suggesting the area was once an important site for the processing and preserving of meat for trading. Roman finds include ditches, domestic ceramics and building materials relating to the

Legio XX Valeria Victrix Legio XX Valeria Victrix, in English Twentieth Victorious Valeria Legion was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The origin of the Legion's name is unclear and there are various theories, but the legion may have gained its title ''Valeria ...

that was garrisoned at the nearby legionary fortress of

Deva Victrix Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II ''Adiutrix'' in the 70s AD as the Roman army advanced north ag ...

( Chester). During the medieval period, Poulton Chapel was an important monastic site that was founded by the Cistercian monks of

Poulton Abbey Poulton Abbey was a Cistercian medieval monastic house in Poulton, Cheshire, England, which was founded between 1153 and 1158, and moved in 1214 to a site near Leek, Staffordshire, where it became Dieulacres Abbey. The original site became a gr ...

in the mid 12th century. Although it is believed to have been a substantial site, only a small amount of ground level masonry survives. Until 1919 the village was part of the Grosvenor Estate administered from nearby Eaton Hall. Several of the buildings in the former parish were commissed by

Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), styled Viscount Belgrave between 1831 and 1845, Earl Grosvenor between 1845 and 1869, and known as The Marquess of Westminster between 1869 and 1874, was an ...

, and designed by

Douglas and Fordham John Douglas (11 April 183023 May 1911) was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall. He was trained in Lancaster and practised throu ...

, a well-known Cheshire architects' practice. In 1870–72,

John Marius Wilson John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains informati ...

described the settlement in the '' Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' as:

POULTON, a township in Pulford parish, Cheshire; on an affluent of the river Dee, 4¼ miles S of Chester. Acres, 1, 391. Real property, £1, 723. Pop., 132. Houses, 22. A Cistertian abbey was founded here, in 1153, by Robert Pincerna; and was removed, in 1220, to Dieulacres in Staffordshire.

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 opposi ...

, the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

established RAF Poulton to the northwest of the settlement. The base was used to train pilots flying

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness b ...

s. Much of wartime airfield's runway, perimeter track, and aircraft hardstandings remain.

References

External links

Villages in Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Cheshire West and Chester {{Cheshire-geo-stub

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links