Marbury, Cheshire

Marbury is a small village located at in the civil parish of Marbury and District, formerly Marbury cum Quoisley, within the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is administered jointly with the adjacent civil parishes of Norbury and Wirswall. The village lies around 3 mile (5 km) north east of Whitchurch in Shropshire and 7 mile (11 km) south west of Nantwich in Cheshire. Nearby villages include Malpas, No Man's Heath, Norbury, Wirswall and Wrenbury. The civil parish bordered Shropshire and covers ; it also contains the small settlements of Hollins Lane, Marley Green and Quoisley, as well as parts of Hollyhurst and Willeymoor. The total population was just under 250 in 2001, and – combined with Wirswall – 352 in 2011. Roman coins have been found in the area, but there is no evidence of Roman settlement. Parts of two skulls, that of an adult and a child, were recovered from Marbury Big Mere; they have been dated to around 750 AD. A fragment of an unglazed cooking pot considered to be of late Saxon date has also been found in the civil parish. Marbury was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 as Merberie, jointly with the adjacent townships of Norbury and Wirswall. Before the Conquest, it was held as an outlying estate of Earl Harold, and afterwards by William Malbank, Baron of Nantwich. The Domesday entry records 1½ hides at Marbury; jointly with Norbury and Wirswall, there was land for five ploughs and woodland measuring two leagues by a league and 40 perches. The total population of the joint demesne was recorded as seven. Unlike the adjacent townships of Wirswall and Wrenbury, Marbury is not described as "waste" in the survey. The manor of Marbury was later owned by the de Praers family of Baddiley, passing to John le Strange, Lord of Whitchurch, before 1349. A timber church was in existence in 1299, on the site of the present parish church; Marbury church was considered a parochial chapel of Whitchurch until 1870. The remains of a medieval road were uncovered near Marbury Big Mere during sewerage works. They consist of a brushwood base covered by several layers of logs, with cobbles lying on top of the wood. Quoisley is first recorded in 1350 as Cuselegh; the name is Anglo Saxon in origin and means "Cusa's clearing". It might represent a small medieval settlement which was later deserted.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the manor was held by the Earl of Shrewsbury of Marley Hall, later passing to the Earl of Bridgewater. In June 1551, sixteen people in Marbury died in an epidemic of "sweating sickness", perhaps influenza, which also claimed the life of the mayor of Chester, Edmund Gee. By the 17th century, the Marbury family was a major local landowner. In the Civil War, Thomas Marbury declared for Parliament and raised troops which fought at the Parliamentarian stronghold of Nantwich in 1643–44. In common with much of the countryside surrounding Nantwich, Marbury was plundered by both sides between 1642 and 1644, with the Royalist commander Lord Capell quartering troops in the parish in 1643. Relative peace was restored after the decisive defeat of the Royalists in the Battle of Nantwich of 1644. Thomas Marbury was among several Cheshire Parliamentarians to be pardoned by Charles II in 1651. A charity school was founded in Marbury churchyard in 1688, and remained on that site until 1824. The Pooles inhabited the Jacobean Marbury Old Hall at Tapley's Craft by the church, building the present Marbury Hall in around 1805–10. The Old Hall was unoccupied and partly ruined by 1888, and has now been demolished. In the 1760s, there were two public houses, The Leathern Bottle and The Swan, as well as two licensed sellers of ale. The Leathern Bottle had closed by the end of the 19th century, while The Swan was rebuilt in around 1884 by Cudworth Halstead Poole, and remains open as of 2024. Cudworth Halstead Poole also rebuilt Bank Farm, Marley Lodge and several other buildings in the village. In 1850, nearly all local tradespeople were involved with agriculture, whether directly or indirectly. At that date, Marbury had two blacksmiths, butchers and shoemakers, and a wheelwright; later there was also a smithy, coal merchant, tailor, bakehouse and one or more grocer's shops. In the early 20th century, the great majority of the population was still employed in agriculture; one contemporary observer mentioned common occupations as "farm workers, milkmaids and washer women". Several descriptions of Marbury village and the surrounding countryside survive from the first half of the 20th century. Ornithologist T. A. Coward wrote around 1900: "What a country this is, wooded hills, none of them high, lanes bordered with luxuriant vegetation that tempts one to potter and smell the honeysuckle or pick the wild roses; meres or pools in almost every hollow." A total of 86 men from Marbury served in the First World War; Belgian refugees supplied some of the resulting deficit in agricultural labour. The earliest piped water supply was installed at Marbury in around 1930; previously, village pumps on the green were used. During the Second World War, evacuees were housed at Marbury Hall. Marbury was one of the observation posts of the Home Guard, but no bombs are recorded as having fallen within the civil parish. Part of the remainder of the estate, including Marbury Little Mere and several farms, passed to the Duchy of Lancaster. Marbury School was extended in 1965, but closed in 1988 due to low enrolment. From 1974 the civil parish was served by Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council, which was succeeded on 1 April 2009 by the unitary authority of Cheshire East. Marbury cum Quoisley falls in the parliamentary constituency of Eddisbury, which has been represented by Edward Timpson since 2019, after being represented by Stephen O'Brien (1999–2015) and Antoinette Sandbach (2015–19).

The civil parish of Marbury and District had a total area of The terrain is undulating in character, rising from around 75 metres by the Llangollen Canal in the north and west of the parish to around 120 metres near Hollyhurst in the south east. Five sizable meres lay wholly or partly within the civil parish: Marbury Big Mere and Little Mere , Quoisley Big Mere and Little Mere , and part of Brankelow Moss The largest, Marbury Big Mere, is around 500 metres in length. Additionally, numerous smaller ponds are scattered across the farmland. There were many small areas of woodland including Big Wood, Buttermilk Bank, Glebe Covert, Hadley Covert, Holly Rough, Limepits, Marley Hall Covert, Marley Moss, Poole Gorse, Poole Hook and Square Covert, and parts of Brankelow Moss, Hollyhurst Wood and Poole's Riding Wood. The modern road bridges of Steer Bridge (Marbury Road) and Quoisley Canal Bridge (A49) cross the canal at and , respectively. Quoisley Lock is at Tourism is also significant, including walking, cycling, fishing and the canal trade. The village of Marbury is centred around the T junction of Hollins Lane, Wirswall Road and Wrenbury Road at , with housing also extending along School Lane. A small area in the south east falls within the parkland of Combermere Abbey, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at grade II. The village of Marbury was designated a conservation area in 1973.

The Marbury and Quoisley Meres with their surrounding reed beds form a significant wildlife habitat. Quoisley Meres are a Site of Special Scientific Interest and have also been designated Wetlands of International Importance, as part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar site. The woodland across the civil parish also supports birdlife, with nightingale and marsh tit being among the many species recorded here.

Marbury Hall is a small Regency hall in white stuccoed brick with stone dressings, located off Hollins Lane at , on rising ground overlooking Marbury Big Mere. The entrance front has two bow windows, each three bays wide, flanking a central recessed porch. Built for the Poole family in around 1805–10, the hall is listed at grade II. A timber framed farmhouse adjacent to the hall dates from the 17th century, and is also listed at grade II. The grade II listed gatelodge, on Hollins Lane at , dates from 1876 and is thought to be by Thomas Lockwood. Timber framed in red sandstone and brick, the lodge features decorative framing and has a jettied bay. Architecture writers Peter de Figueiredo and Julian Treuherz describe it as "pretty", with "playful" ornamentation. Also on Wirswall Road is a group of estate cottages which, as of 2010, are under consideration as locally important buildings. A sandstone obelisk stands on a rise at the edge of the Combermere estate at , near the high point of the civil parish. It was erected in 1890 to commemorate Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, the first Viscount Combermere (1773–1865), under the terms of his widow's will. Lord Combermere, of nearby Combermere Abbey, had a long and distinguished military career, the pinnacle of which was his taking the fort of Bharatpur in 1825; other successes include his service during the Peninsular War and at the Battle of Salamanca. The obelisk is around high, with window mouldings approximately halfway up each side. The base has inset panels of red sandstone on each face; one has a doorway, while the opposite one bears the Cotton coat of arms and a memorial inscription. The design is similar to Sir Robert Smirke's monument to the Duke of Wellington, Lord Combermere's former commanding officer, in Phoenix Park, Dublin. there have been no educational facilities within the civil parish. Marbury cum Quoisley falls within the catchment areas of Wrenbury Primary School in Wrenbury, and Brine Leas High School in Nantwich.

A traditional country fair, "Marbury Merry Days", is held annually, usually on the second weekend of May, beside Marbury Big Mere. It lasts for two days and all proceeds are donated to maintaining the church. Inaugurated in 1978 by the Reverend John Wright to raise money for church restoration, by 1996 the fair was raising an annual sum of around £7000; in 2009 it raised £12,800. At past fairs, entertainments have included displays of farm machinery, vintage cars and motor cycles, and model railways and aircraft, as well as historical reenactments, puppet shows, clay pigeon shooting, raft and cross country races, sheepdog trials and other dog displays.

Richards states second oldest, after that in Mellor, which has been in Greater Manchester since 1974.