Bunbury is a village in

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, south of Tarporley and north west of

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

on the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, sometimes nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. It is the modern name for a part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company network. In the leisure age, two of the branches of that netwo ...

. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 1,195.

History

Bunbury was reputedly derived from Buna-burh, meaning the "redoubt of Buna". Just prior to the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

of 1066 it was held by a certain Dedol of Tiverton. Its name was written as Boleberie in the Domesday Survey of 1086 and the lord of the fief was Robert FitzHugh. Listed as lying in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Rushton and the county of Cheshire, it had a recorded population of 3 households in 1086, meaning that it was one of smallest 20% of settlements at that time. A Norman family later acquired the surname of De Boneberi, and were linked to Rake Hall during and after the reign of King Stephen. They were allegedly a cadet line of the Norman family of De St Pierre, associated with Hugh "Lupus" Earl of Chester, one of the famous "marcher lords" of the Welsh Marches. Then the fief was governed by the family of Hugh Claveley that held the manor of Calveley in Bunbury, Cheshire, living in Calveley Hall that came into the possession of the Davenport family through marriage in 1369. Much later, in the era of the English Civil War and on the date of 23 December 1642 some of the prominent gentlemen of Cheshire met in Bunbury and drew up the Bunbury Agreement. The terms of the agreement were intended to keep Cheshire neutral during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. It proved to be a forlorn hope because the national strategic importance of Cheshire and the city port of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

meant that national interests overruled local ones. Bunbury was a victim of the Blitz during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. German aircraft returning from a night raid on

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1940 jettisoned surplus bombs over the village, obliterating Church Row (the houses have since been rebuilt). The blast caused minor damage to the exterior of St Boniface's Church and the immediate area. The original village centre surrounding the church was hit, damaging shops beyond repair. This has largely caused the current centre to evolve in the geographical heart of the village. Four old villages have combined to form the modern-day Bunbury. These are: * Higher Bunbury (centred on the church and the Dysart Arms), * Lower Bunbury (the main part of the village today), * Bunbury Heath (essentially School Lane) and * Bunbury Common (from Higher Bunbury towards Bunbury Locks). The last three have coalesced to form a single village. The River Gowy is a natural division between Higher and Lower Bunbury. Bunbury was used in the autumn of 2014 as the setting for the fictional village of 'Great Paxford' in the ITV drama '' Home Fires''.

Landmarks

Bunbury Locks
is a working

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

with some "high-rise" staircase locks and canal horse stables. Bunbury Mill is a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

dating from 1844, although there has been a mill on this site since 1290. Following damage caused by a flood in 1960, the mill closed in 1966. It was restored to working order and reopened to the public as a museum by North West Water Authority (later part of

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU) is the United Kingdom's largest listed water company. It was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West En ...

). It was closed again in 2010, and passed into the ownership of the Bunbury Watermill Trust, who have reopened it to visitors. The Chantry House is a grade-II*-listed timber-framed building dating from around 1527, which originally housed the two

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a b ...

priests of the Ridley chantry of St Boniface's Church, and later formed part of the free grammar school founded by Thomas Aldersey.

Community

The main lane in Bunbury is Bunbury Lane which contains three shops (butcher, general convenience store/Post Office and fish and chip shop), two hairdressers, and three pubs - the Nags Head, the Dysart Arms (Cheshire Dining Pub of the Year 2009) and the Yew Tree (formerly the Crewe Arms) which re-opened in 2010. Bunbury Aldersey C of E Primary school is in School Lane. The parish church is dedicated to

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB (born Wynfreth; 675 –5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

and is built on the highest point of the village. It is over 1,000 years old and is built on an older pagan site. This was a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

built in the 14th century; the

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 ...

arcades and

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

windows are about 100 years later than this. There is an

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

effigy An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...

of the founder of the college, Sir Hugh Calveley, other effigies, and a 17th-century tomb. It was restored after bomb damage during the Second World War. Bunbury has amenities such as a cricket pavilion, sports pitches, tennis courts, a scout hut (with a new one under construction in 2011) and a village hall. It also has some clubs and societies. Sadlers Wells Woods is located near the A49 road. The wooded area was also 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

written in the time of William the Conqueror.

Notable residents

* Thomas Aldersey (1521/2–1598), a London merchant and philanthropist, was born in Bunbury and founded a free grammar school there in 1575. * William Hinde (1568/9–1629), a well-known

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and author, was curate at St Boniface's from around 1603 until his death. *

Beth Tweddle Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle (born 1 April 1985) is a retired English Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, she was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnas ...

Olympic gymnast

References

External links