Acton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Burland and Acton, lying immediately west of the town of Nantwich, in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish covered and also included the small settlement of Dorfold and part of Burford, with an estimated population of 340 in 2006. It is administered jointly with the adjacent civil parishes of Henhull and Edleston. Historically, Acton refers to a township and also to an ancient parish in the Nantwich Hundred covering a wide area to the west of Nantwich. The area is agricultural, with dairy farming the main industry. Around a third of the area falls within the Dorfold Estate. Historically, agriculture was the major employer, but it has now been overtaken by the service industries, with many residents commuting significant distances outside the parish to work.
The civil parish is believed to have been inhabited since the 8th or 9th century. Acton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was one of the wealthiest townships in the Nantwich Hundred, being valued for the same sum as Nantwich. The name means "oak town", referring to the pedunculate oaks that predominated in the adjacent Forest of Mondrem. During the Civil War, the village was taken by siege several times. The Shropshire Union Canal reached the parish in 1835, using a long embankment to avoid Dorfold Park. The parish contains many historic buildings, including two listed at grade I: Dorfold Hall was considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire,Pevsner, p. 22 while St Mary's Church has a tower dating from the 13th century, one of the earliest in the county.
History
Early history The civil parish of Acton was on the eastern edge of the Forest of Mondrem in the Bronze Age, giving rise to the name Actune, meaning "oak town", for the predominant pedunculate oaks.Latham, pp. 11–14 A Roman road from Middlewich to Whitchurch passed immediately to the north of the parish, but there is little evidence of settlement. An area north of Acton village was enclosed in the 8th and 9th centuries, and ancient field systems can be discerned elsewhere in this and the adjacent modern civil parishes.
Acton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086; it was held by Earl Morcar before the Conquest and afterwards by William Malbank, first baron of Wich Malbank (Nantwich). One of the largest and wealthiest townships in the Nantwich Hundred, the Domesday Book mentions a manor, mill, land for thirty ploughs, 10 acres of meadow, a strip of woodland 6 leagues in length, a hawk's eyrie and a salt house in Nantwich. The total value before 1066 was £10;Morgan, chapter 8, paragraph 16 for comparison, Nantwich was then valued at the same sum.Morgan, chapter 1, paragraph 1 Acton had one of the largest areas of meadow in Cheshire at this time. The survey also mentions two priests in Acton but no church.
Dorfold or Deofold means "cattle enclosure" or "deer park". It does not appear in the Domesday survey, but according to some sources Edwin, Earl of Mercia, elder brother of Earl Morcar and brother-in-law to Harold II, had a hall there before the Conquest.Latham, pp. 115–119 A manor at Dorfold is recorded in Henry III's reign (1216–72).
The church at Acton and its subsidiary chapels at Wrenbury, Church Minshull and Nantwich, together with some ploughland, were given to the abbot of the Cistercian Combermere Abbey at its foundation in 1133 by Hugh Malbank, second baron of Wich Malbank. The abbey received tithes from Acton and monks gave services in the church.'Houses of Cistercian monks: The abbey of Combermere', pp. 150–156. In: A History of the County of Chester (Vol. 3) (1980) (accessed 25 February 2008).Latham, pp. 18–19 It is unclear when this church was built; the present church originates in the 13th century, with some authorities giving a date as early as 1180.Moore H. A short account of Acton Church and neighbourhood (1930; revd c.1933; web published by Cross Country Group of Parish Churches) . Retrieved 21 February 2008
Anglo-Saxon carvings incorporated into its foundations suggest, however, that an earlier, possibly timber, church occupied the same site. Priests are listed in parish records from 1288. The church was the main parish church for a wide area to the west of Nantwich in the ancient parish of Acton. Subsidiary churches were chapels of ease; St Mary's Church, Nantwich, for example, despite its size, remained a chapel of ease to Acton until the 17th century.Pevsner & Hubbard, p. 285 At the Dissolution in 1538, the abbey's land passed to the Cotton family;Latham, p. 25 the tithes and advowson were sold to Sir Richard Wilbraham (MP) in 1544, and later passed to the Tollemache family.Latham, p. 26Richards, pp. 15–18
Early land usage was mainly agricultural and forestry, with wood being used as fuel for salt production in nearby Nantwich. As deforestation continued throughout the Middle Ages, animal husbandry and cereal production grew in importance, and by the end of the sixteenth century, the forest had largely been cleared.Latham, p. 24 Landowners of Acton and Dorfold during this period include the Vernon, Littlebury, Wettenhall, Arderne, Davenport and Bromley families.Latham, pp. 19, 22
Civil War In 1602, the Dorfold Estate was purchased by Sir Roger Wilbraham, a prominent lawyer who served as Solicitor-general for Ireland under Elizabeth I and held positions at court under James I. Dorfold Hall was constructed in 1616–21 for his younger brother and heir, Ralph Wilbraham, on the site of the earlier hall.Images of England: Dorfold Hall. Retrieved 21 February 2008
During the Civil War, Acton village was taken by siege several times. In the year 1641 Edward Burghall, the vicar Acton for some of the Civil War, first notices political events, and afterwards gives a very detailed account of the military operations in Cheshire. The reason was that John, Lord Byron took his church at Acton and made it a base of Royalist operations for the siege of Nantwich. The Battle of Nantwich of 1644 took place adjacent to the village.
18th century to the present day In 1754, the Dorfold Estate was sold to Nantwich lawyer James Tomkinson, originally from Bostock. The Chester to Nantwich branch of what later became known as the Shropshire Union Canal was completed in 1774, ending just north of the parish at Basin End; the Nantwich to Birmingham section was completed in 1835. The Tomkinson family objected to the route of the latter, leading to the construction of a half-mile embankment including an aqueduct to avoid the Dorfold Park. With the availability of canal and railway transport during the 18th and 19th centuries, the main produce of the area changed from cheese to milk, and dairy became the major industry.
The Dorfold Estate passed back to descendants of the Wilbraham family in 1861 on inheritance by Anne Tollemache, the wife of Wilbraham Spencer Tollemache, who served as High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1865.Latham, p. 47 The grounds of the hall were remodelled in 1861–2, with the construction of several buildings including the gate lodge. The present owners, the Roundells, are descendants of the Tollemaches via Julia Tollemache, daughter of Wilbraham and Anne Tollemache and wife of Charles Savile Roundell.
A parish hall was built in 1909 by local subscription, and served as an auxiliary military hospital for twenty convalescents during the First World War.Latham, pp. 53, 60 Mains electricity arrived in the area in 1932.Latham, p. 55 Acton village suffered bombing during the Second World War, particularly during one night in late 1940; there were no fatalities. Refugees, mainly from Liverpool, were housed in Acton, and Dorfold Park was used as a camp for American soldiers from November 1940.Latham, p. 56–57
Governance Acton has been administered since 1965 by Acton, Edleston & Henhull Parish Council, jointly with the adjacent civil parishes of Henhull and Edleston; there are five councillors for Acton and one for each of Henhull and Edleston.. Retrieved 17 August 2007Latham, pp. 58, 136Cheshire County Council: Parish Council Details: Acton, Edleston & Henhull Parish Council. Retrieved 24 February 2008 Prior to 1965, Acton had a separate parish council. On 1 April 2023 the parish was abolished to form "Burland and Acton".
From 1974 to 2009, the Borough Council was Crewe and Nantwich, having previously been administered within Nantwich Rural Sanitary District (1875–94) and Nantwich Rural District (1894–1974). Since 1 April 2009 it has been part of the unitary authority of Cheshire East.Cheshire (Structural Changes) Order 2008
Acton falls in the Chester South and Eddisbury parliamentary constituency, represented since the 2024 general election by Aphra Brandreth of the Conservative Party. It was previously part of the Eddisbury constituency, which since its establishment in 1983 had been held by the Conservative MPs Alastair Goodlad (1983–99), Stephen O'Brien (1999–2015), Antoinette Sandbach (2015–19) and Edward Timpson (2019–24).
Geography and economy
The village of Acton () lies on the A534 (Chester Road) 2¼ km (1½ miles) north west of the centre of Nantwich and 7¾ km (4¾ miles) south west of Crewe. The civil parish of Acton has a total area of , and also includes the small settlement of Dorfold, focused around Dorfold Hall (), as well as part of Burford, located around the A51–A534 crossroads (); Burford also falls partly in Henhull civil parish.Genuki: Acton (near Nantwich) . Retrieved 21 February 2008Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council: Parish Statistics (downloaded from ; 5 April 2010) Nearby villages include Burland (to the west), Ravensmoor (south west) and Rease Heath (north east).
The majority of buildings throughout the civil parish are in red brick with slate roofs, with occasional "black and white" half-timbered buildings, as well as the sandstone parish church. Much of Acton village dates from the 17th–19th centuries, centering on the church which dates originally from the 13th century. Fourteen council houses were built after the Second World War in Acton village to the east of the A534,Latham, p. 57 and this development was subsequently expanded with a mix of semi-detached houses and terraced bungalows, the total now numbering some fifty dwellings. In the 2001 census, 65% of dwellings in the civil parish were described as semi-detached or terraced.
The area is relatively flat, with an average elevation of around 50–60 metres. The high point is 61 metres at Acton village; the low point is 43 metres at Nantwich Aqueduct. The geology is Keuper marl, with glacial sand deposit underlying Acton village; glacial boulders originating in Cumbria, such as the Bluestone, are occasionally uncovered.Latham, pp. 10–11 Outside Acton village settlement is sparse, and over 90% of the Acton, Henhull and Edleston combined area of 765 hectares (1890 acres) is open land. The predominant land usage is agricultural, mainly dairy with some arable, predominantly fodder crops and cereals. The Dorfold Estate (125.5 hectares; 310.1 acres) comprises around a third of the civil parish, and includes farmhouses, farmland, gardens, woodland and historic parkland. Around 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of semi-natural woodland within the park are believed to be ancient; other woodland includes Bull's Wood () and several immature plantations. Dorfold Park has a lake, and many smaller meres and ponds are scattered across the farmland. The main line of the Shropshire Union Canal runs broadly north–south to the east of the parish, with a short embanked section (around 300 metres) south of Nantwich Aqueduct falling within the parish boundary.Cheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Acton parish. Retrieved 28 February 2008 Ravensmoor Brook runs north–south along the western boundary of the parish, and an unnamed brook runs north–south from Burford to just south of Monks Lane.