• 10 PARISH CHURCH OF WEAVERHAM

sold by Henry VIII to Sir Thomas Holcroft.' From him it passed by purchase to Thomas Marbury of Marbury, and from him to Earl Rivers. Earl Rivers sold to James, Earl of Barrymore, from whom it passed by succession through the Smith Barry family to Arthur Hugh Lord Barrymore, at whose death in 1930 the estates were sold and the manorial rights came to an end.

After the dissolution of the abbey the rectory and ad vow-son were granted to John Bird, Bishop of Chester and his successors. In 1575 Queen Elizabeth presented " by lapse." After this the Bishop presented regularly with the exception of the presentations by the Warburtons of Hefferston Grange as lessees of the impropriated rectory under the bishop until the year 1725.

the church

The church, built of local red sandstone and dedicated in the name of St. Mary the Virgin, stands on an eminence above the river Weaver and from the churchyard is obtained a beautiful view of the valley as far westwards as Runcorn.

The mention of the Saxon church in the Domesday Survey with its resident priest shows that the church was an active, living organization in the parish in those early days. No trace of the Saxon building is left, but I fancy its position would be where the tower and nave of the present church stand, because, when the church was being restored in 1876, a Roman causeway was found cutting diagonally across the present chancel, and the formation of the ground points to the early church standing to the west of that road. At first sight this may seem to contradict what is written earlier of the finding of the Roman Road 39 yards to the east of the church, but not if my theory is correct that the road found in 1876 was another branch road leaving the main road and winding up the mound on which the small church stood, or possibly to the residence of the commandant.