Handforth, or Handford, with Bosden

HANDFORTH, or HANDFORD, with Bosden, a township, in the parish of Cheadle, union of Stockport, hundred of Macclesfield, N. division of the county of Chester; containing 2394 inhabitants, of whom 681 are in Handforth. The manor, as early as the reign of Henry III., was in the family of Handford, from whom, with the manor of Bosden, it passed to the Breretons, and subsequently to the Booths. Nathaniel Booth, Lord Delamere, in 1766 alienated the manor of Handforth to Mr. Edward Wrench, whose nephew sold it to the Coopers, of Chester. The township comprises 1615 acres, of a clayey soil. The population is mainly engaged in manufactures. The Handforth station of the Manchester and Birmingham railway is 5¼ miles from the Stockport station. A chapel, dedicated to St. Chad, was built in 1837, at a cost of £850; it is in the later English style, and contains 250 sittings.