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Over (St. Chad)

OVER (St. Chad), a market-town and parish, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the First division of the hundred of Eddisbury, partly in the union of Nantwich, but chiefly in that of Northwich, S. division of the county of Chester; containing, with the township of Low Oulton and the chapelry of Wettenhall, 3137 inhabitants, of whom 2816 are in the town, 16¼ miles (E.) from Chester, and 168 (N. W. by N.) from London. This place is situated on the road from Middlewich to Chester, and consists chiefly of one long and irregular street, in which are remains of several crosses. On the banks of the river Weaver, which bounds the parish on the east, are numerous brine-pits; and across the stream, between the parishes of Over and Davenham, is Winsford bridge, where the navigation ends, and on each side of which houses have been built, in consequence of the extension of the salt manufacture in the neighbourhood. A little to the east of the bridge is a station of the Liverpool and Birmingham railway. The market, granted by charter of Edward I., having been disused for about a century, was restored in 1840, and is held on Wednesday, in a commodious market-place lately built on land given by Lord Delamere, lord of the manor: there are fairs on May 15th and September 25th. The town is called in ancient records a borough, and has been from time immemorial under the government of a mayor, who is chosen at the court leet and baron of the lord of the manor, held in October. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 4.; net income, £167; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Chester, whose tithes in the township of Over have been commuted for £125. The glebehouse and out-buildings were restored in the year 1826, at the cost of about £1400: the glebe in the immediate neighbourhood, consists of about 24 acres. The church was rebuilt in 1543, by Hugh Starkey, gentleman usher to Henry VIII., and is in the later English style; the interior has some good stained glass and tabernaclework, and an altar-tomb supporting an effigy in brass to the memory of Hugh Starkey. At Wettenhall and Winsford are separate incumbencies; the latter in the gift of the Bishop, with an income of £150. There is a place of worship for Independents. The free grammar school was founded in 1689, by Mrs. Elizabeth Venables, and her son, Thomas Lee, Esq., at Darnhall, in the adjoining parish of Whitegate, and was endowed with lands, the value of which is £60 per annum; it was removed to its present situation in 1803, and is now conducted on the national system.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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