Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MALPAS

MALPAS, a small town, a township, and a sub-district in Whitchurch district, and a parish partly also in Nantwich and Great Boughton districts, Cheshire. The town stands on an eminence, 2 miles N of the boundary with Flint, 4¾ E of the river Dee, 5½ NW of Whitchurch r. station, and 15 SSE of Chester; commands views over an extensive surrounding country, backed by the boldly picturesque mountains of Wales; took its name from two words which signify "a bad pass;'' was anciently called Depembeck, which also signifies "a bad pass; ''had anciently a castle of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, remains of the keep of which adjoin the churchyard; is irregularly built; consists of four streets, diverging from a common centre; is supplied with water by works erected at the expense of the Marquis of Cholmondeley and T. T. Drake, Esq.; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place; has a post office‡ under Whitchurch, Salop, a police station, a subscription library and reading-room, a church, Independent, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, an endowed grammar school, an endowed national school, two alms houses for twelve persons, and charities about £60 a year; and gives the title of Viscount to the Marquis of Cholmondeley. The church is partly decorated English, but chiefly perpendicular: comprises nave, aisles, and chancel; includes two highly decorated chapels of the Cholmondeley and the Egerton families, enclosed by carved oak screens; has a beautiful E window, with richly stained glass medallions; has also admissive handsome tower; was restored in 1841, at a cost of £2,500; and contains stalls, memorial windows, and alabaster tombs, with life-size recumbent figures. The Independent chapel was built in 1862, at a cost of £1,400. The grammar school has £25 a year from endowment; the national school, £119; the alms houses, £117. A weekly market used to be held on Wednesday, but has been discontinued; and fairs are held on 5 April, 26 July, and 8 Dec. The township comprises 1,998 acres. Real property, £4,869. Pop., 1,037. Houses, 223. The manor was given by Hugh Lupus to Robert Fitzhugh; and passed, through the Suttons, the St. Pierres, and others, to the Cholmondeleys. The Hall was the seat of the Breretons, and was destroyed by fire in 1760.-The subdistrict contains also the townships of Bickley, Hampton, Larkton, Duckington, Edge, Overton, Chorlton, Cuddington, Oldcastle, Newton-juxta-Malpas, Stockton, Wichaugh, Wigland, Agden, Chidlow, Bradley, Macefen, and Tushingham-cum-Grindley. Acres, 15,847. Pop., 3,621. Houses, 729.—The parish contains likewise the townships of Cholmondeley, Egerton, Bickerton, and Bulkeley in Nantwich district, and the township of Broxton in Great Boughton district. The townships are severally noticed in their own alphabetical places. Acres of the parish, 27,094. Real property, £37,007. Pop. in 1851,5,710; in 1861,5,598. Houses, 1,128. The living is a double rectory, or rectory of two medieties, in the diocese of Chester; and the higher mediety is united with the p. curacy of Whitewell. Value of the higher mediety-with-W, £1,000;* of the lower mediety, £910.* Patron of the former, alternately the Marquis of Cholmondeley and T. T. Drake, Esq.; of the latter, T. T. Drake, Esq. A section of the parish called St. Chad, was constituted a separate charge in 1860, and had a pop. of 871 in 1861; and the living of it is a p. curacy, of the value of £140,* in the patronage of the Rectors of Malpas. The church stands in Tushingham-cum-Grindley township; was built in 1863; consists of nave, transept, and chancel, with porch and bell-turret and superseded a small old brick building. The p. curacy of Bickerton also is a separate benefice. A chapel of ease is at Iscoyd. A Wesleyan chapel is in Hampton; Primitive Methodist chapels are in Agden, Broxton, Bulkeley, Hampton, Wigland, and Tushingham-cum-Grindley; national schools are in Bickley and Macefen; and a school for boys and girls, erected in 1864, by Mrs. Clutton, is in Chorlton. Bishop Dudley, Sharpe, the chaplain of a son of James I., Professor Townson, and Bishop Heber's father were rectors; Bishop Heber himself was a native; and Matthew Henry was born in the vicinity.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Malpas AP/Tn/CP       Cheshire AncC
Place names: DEPEMBECK     |     MALPAS
Place: Malpas

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