Waverton is a village 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 ...

on the outskirts of

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 ...

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 lies about south-east of

Chester High Cross Chester High Cross is in Chester, Cheshire, England. It stands in front of St Peter's Church at the junction of Watergate Street, Eastgate Street and Bridge Street, a site known as Chester Cross. The cross is recorded in the National ...

, south of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and south west of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. It is almost continuous with the village of Rowton to the north west and that in turn is almost continuous with

Christleton Christleton is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the outskirts of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The Shropshire Union Canal (originally Cheste ...

. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the parish was 1,587. The village's

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church is dedicated to St. Peter. The village has an

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

church and there is a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church on the edge of the village in the parish of Rowton. The village has a post office, a number of shops, a takeaway, hairdressers, a primary school and a pub called the Black Dog. The village is home to the outdoor children's adventure attraction, the Crocky Trail. The

Waverton Good Read Award The Waverton Good Read Award was founded in 2003 by villagers in Waverton, Cheshire, Waverton, Chester, England, and is based on ''Le Prix de la Cadière d'Azur'', a literary prize awarded by a Provence, Provençal village. Adult debut novels writ ...

was founded in 2003 for first-time UK novelists. Waverton Business Park is also located in the village, off the A41. 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 ...

(originally

Chester Canal The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative a ...

) runs through the middle of Waverton. The village had a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

on the

North Wales Coast Line The North Wales Coast Line ( cy, Llinell Arfordir Gogledd Cymru), also known as the North Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell Gogledd Cymru or cy, label=none, Prif Linell y Gogledd), is a major railway line in the north of Wales and Cheshire, ...

until it closed in the 1960s. The line, which runs between

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 ...

, and

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

, is named Route 22 on

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

's 2006 reorganisation. Services on this line are offered by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

, and, as the "London to Holyhead" spur of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

route, by

Avanti West Coast Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise. During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...

. The train station is now a bus depot run by

Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company ( ...

. The village also has a large junior football team, AFC Waverton, which competes in both the Chester and District Junior Football League and the Ellesmere Port Junior Football League.

History

The settlement was named ''Wavretone'' 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 manusc ...

'', where it was said to be in the Dudestan

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

. The name was first given as ''Waverton'' in 1260, having been called ''Waueretone'' in 1150, and ''Wauertone'' in 1100. The origin of the name is not certain. The Church of St Peter's

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

has a roof that has been dated to 1665. The tower, on the west end of the building, is built in the

Perpendicular Style Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

and possess a nineteenth-century pyramidal roof. Although the church was restored in the 1880s, the chancel's timber framing, the windows, and

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

are all original. New residential developments led to a significant expansion of the village in the 20th Century. Until the late 1970s there was a chemical works located on the canal in the centre of Waverton. Residents of the village tend to be commuters to Liverpool and Manchester with easy access to the

M53 motorway The M53 is an motorway in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and Cheshire on the Wirral Peninsula in England. It is also referred to as the Mid Wirral Motorway. It runs between the Kingsway Tunnel, at Wallasey in the north, and the A55 at ...

and

M56 motorway The M56 motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England. It runs east to west from junction 4 of the M60 at Gatley, south of Manchester, to Dunkirk, approximately north of Ches ...

, as well as into Chester city centre.

Notable people

Joseph Wright (greyhound trainer) Born Joseph Wright (born 1824) in Waverton, Cheshire, the second eldest son of Joseph & Ann Wright. Career Joseph Wright became one of the best known breeders and trainers of coursing greyhounds in the United Kingdom. He kept an extensive breed ...

, born in Waverton 1824. He farmed at Avenue Farm, previously being the innkeeper of The White Horse public house in the villageWAVERTON A History of its People and Places, page 131/132 *

Jack Wright (greyhound trainer) Jack Wright (born ''John Wright'', 1850–1929) in Waverton, Cheshire, the eldest son of Joseph and Anne Wright of Avenue Farm, previous of The White Horse Inn, Waverton. Initially employed as a stonemason in a local sandstone quarry he m ...

, born in Waverton 1850 *

Joe Wright (greyhound trainer) Born Joseph Wright (b. 1855) in Waverton, Cheshire, the eldest son of Joseph & Anne Wright of Avenue Farm, previous of The White Lion Inn. Initially employed as a farm servant on his father's farm he moved to Ditton, Cheshire and worked with hi ...

, born in Waverton 1855 *

Robert Kelsell Wright Robert Kelsell Wright (1858–1908) was the third eldest son of Joseph & Ann Wright of Avenue Farm, Waverton, Cheshire, United Kingdoma. Robert obtained his middle name from his paternal grandmother Elizabeth Kelsell and did not follow his brother ...

, born in Waverton 1858, slipped the

Waterloo Cup The Waterloo Cup was a coursing event organised by the National Coursing Club. The three-day event was run annually at Great Altcar in Lancashire, England from 1836 to 2005 and it used to attract tens of thousands of spectators to watch and gamble ...

finals in 1890 & 1895. He farmed at Well House Farm. *

Tom Wright (greyhound trainer) Thomas Edward Wright (1861–1956) is an England, English greyhound trainer. His family was known for its success during the late 19th century. He is the youngest son of Joseph Wright (greyhound trainer), Joseph & Anne Wright of Avenue Farm in Wav ...

, born in Waverton 1861

References

External links

Waverton website
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire

History

Notable people

See also

References

External links