Cranage 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 authorit ...
in the unitary authority of
Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of
Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 Official UK Census, the population of the entire civil parish was 1,131 which had risen to 1,184 by the 2011 census.
History
The establishment of a community in Cranage is mentioned 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 manus ...
. The name derives from 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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...
of ''Crāwena-læcc'', which means ''crows stream''. The manor of Cranage, unlike many estates, has not remained in one family but had changed hands many times. Historically, Cranage was an agricultural area which had a wide variation of farming activities.
Cranage Hall was one of the principal dwellings in the area. It is believed that it was built in the 17th century incorporating elements of an earlier hall. Lawrence Armistead had the Hall demolished in the 19th century and the current
Cranage Hall built in 1829, to a design by
Lewis Wyatt
Lewis William Wyatt (1777–1853) was a British architect, a nephew of both Samuel and James Wyatt of the Wyatt family of architects, who articled with each of his uncles and began practice on his own about 1805.
Lewis Wyatt is known primarily ...
. The Hall remained in possession of the Armistead family until 1920. Subsequently, it was converted into part of the Cranage hospital, and on the hospital's closure became a conference centre.
The parish contains neither a church nor a chapel that is currently used.
but is served by the nearby church of St. Luke,
Holmes Chapel
Holmes Chapel is a large village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Until 1974 the parish was known as Church Hulme. Holmes Chapel is about north of Crewe and south of ...
. The village school was closed in 1990 as a result of the drop in the number of pupils. There is no shop or post office in the parish.
The ''Old Vicarage Hotel'', originally built in the 17th century, provides accommodation. The ''Swan Inn'', an earlier source of accommodation, has changed purpose and is now Swan Farm.
''A Journey through Time: Holmes Chapel, Cotton and Cranage'', by Annabel Capewell, Rosemary Dear, Patricia Dingle, Rodney Smith, Terry Taylor and Janet Yarwood was published in 1996.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Cranage
Cranage is a civil parish in Cheshire East, England. It contains 12 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, one is listed at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the ot ...
Notes
External links
Online Parish Newslette
Cranage Parish Chronicle
Villages in Cheshire
Civil parishes in Cheshire
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