Malpas, Cheshire

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Malpas is an old market town (markets are no longer held) and civil parish in the City of Chester district of Cheshire, England. (grid reference SJ487472) The parish lies on the border with Shropshire and Wales. The name Malpas means bad passage from the Old French mal passe. There are three Public houses (The Crown, The Red Lion and The Vaults) in the village centre and Bishop Heber High School.

Contents 1 Statistics 2 History 2.1 Roman 2.2 Mercian Saxon 2.3 Medieval (Norman 1066-1154) 2.4 Medieval (Plantagenet 1154-1485) 2.5 Tudor - Elizabethan (1485-1603) 2.6 Civil War and the Stuarts (1603-1714) 2.7 Second World War 3 Listed Buildings 4 Noted Malpasians 5 References

[edit] Statistics

According to the 2001 census [1]

• Malpas has 1184 residents living in 544 households.
• 64% of residents describe their health as good
• 36% of 16-74 have no qualifications
• The unemployment rate is 1.1 per cent of all economically active people 16-74

Malpas
Statistics
Population:	1184
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	SJ487472
Administration
District:	Malpas
Shire county:	Cheshire
Region:	North West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Cheshire
Historic county:	Cheshire
Services
Police force:	Cheshire Constabulary
Fire and rescue:	{{{Fire}}}
Ambulance:	North West
Post office and telephone
Post town:	MALPAS
Postal district:	SY14
Dialling code:	+44-1948
Politics
UK Parliament:	Eddisbury
European Parliament:	North West England

[edit] History

[edit] Roman

There is no evidence for Roman settlement in Malpas but it is known that the Roman Road from Bovium (Tilston) and Mediolanium (Whitchurch) passes through the village.

[edit] Mercian Saxon

Dedications to St Oswald are thought to be associated with Æthelræd II and Æthelflæd of Mercia (879-911 and 911-918); they are known to have encouraged the growth of this cult along the Welsh border in places such as Hereford and Shrewsbury. This may indicate that Malpas was not a Norman ‘New Town’, but a Saxon burh.

[edit] Medieval (Norman 1066-1154)

After the Norman conquest of 1066 Malpas is recorded as being called Depenbech and is mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086 as belonging to Robert FitzHugh, Baron of Malpas. Malpas and other holdings were given to his family for defensive services along the Welsh border and as reward for services in the Battle of Hastings. His descendents and the union with the half-sister of William the Conqueror are the Cholmondeley family who still live locally at Cholmondeley Castle.

A concentrated line of castles protected Cheshire's western border on the western side of the county from the Welsh; these included motte-and-bailey castles at Shotwick, Dodleston, Aldford, Pulford, Shocklach, Oldcastle and Malpas. The earthworks of which are still to be found to the North of St. Oswalds Church.

Link to Castle site

[edit] Medieval (Plantagenet 1154-1485)

Develops significantly around the Motte and church and becomes a market town. The present church was built in the second half of the 14th century on the site of an earlier one, of which nothing remains. However, there is a list of earlier rectors. Extensive alterations were made in the late 15th century. The roof was removed, the side walls reduced in height and rebuilt with the current windows while the nave arcade was raised to its current height.

[edit] Tudor - Elizabethan (1485-1603)

The seventh son of Sir Randolph Brereton of Shocklach and Malpas, Sir William Brereton, becomes chamberlain of Chester, and groom of the chamber to Henry VIII. He is beheaded 17 May 1536 for a suspected romantic affair with Anne Boleyn. These accusations may have been politically motivated.

[edit] Civil War and the Stuarts (1603-1714)

Cheshire was strategically very important during the civil war as it controlled the North-South movement of troops from the west of the Pennines to the east of the Clwydian range - Chester, as the main port to Ireland was supremely important as Charles I had an army there. Another Sir William Brereton of Malpas and Shocklach was one of 2 Parliamentarian Generals responsible for the defeat of the Royalist Irish reinforcements at the Battle of Nantwich in January 1644 and later the siege of Chester capturing it in captured it in February 1646.

[edit] Second World War

In 1940 during the Second World War, the Czechoslovak Army in exile was encamped in Cholmondeley Park.

[edit] Listed Buildings

• Listed buildings of Malpas, Cheshire

[edit] Noted Malpasians

• Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
• Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826) Poet and Bishop of Calcutta

[edit] References

• K Matthews
• Visions of Britain, Imperial Gazetteer (1870-72)
• Visions of Britain, John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887)
• [2]

Ceremonial county of Cheshire [[Image:|40px]]
Unitary authorities:	Halton • Warrington
Boroughs/Districts:	City of Chester • Congleton • Crewe and Nantwich • Ellesmere Port and Neston • Macclesfield • Vale Royal
Cities/Towns:	Alderley Edge • Alsager • Bollington • Chester • Congleton • Crewe • Ellesmere Port • Frodsham • Knutsford • Lymm • Macclesfield • Middlewich • Nantwich • Neston • Northwich • Poynton • Runcorn • Sandbach • Warrington • Widnes • Wilmslow • Winsford See also: List of civil parishes in Cheshire