Great Budworth - History

History

The early history of Great Budworth is documented in the Domesday Book. It mentions a priest at Great Budworth. In 1130, the St Mary and All Saints Church was given to the Augustinian canon of Norton Priory by William FitzNigel, Constable of Chester and Baron of Halton.

During the reign of Henry III, Sir Geoffrey de Dutton (sometimes "Geffrey de Budworth") (d. 1248) was lord of the manor. De Budworth was the son of Adam, a younger son of Hugh de Dutton. Peter, grandson of De Budworth and ancestor of Sir Peter Warburton, second Bart. of Arley, moved to Warburton, assumed that name, and was a proprietor of Great Budworth. De Budworth gave a third of his land, including St Mary and All Saints Church, to Norton Priory in order to secure perpetual masses for his soul. After the dissolution of the monasteries, King Henry VIII granted the estate to John Grimsditch. It was afterwards divided into several parcels.

There may have been a school in Great Budworth as early as 1563, but certainly one existed by 1578. For centuries, the village was owned by the head of Arley Hall who would collect rent from the villagers. Rowland Egerton-Warburton of Arley Hall paid for restorations and improvements to the church in the 1850s. Egerton-Warburton also undertook a "campaign to render it (the village) picturesque in Victorian eyes". To this end he commissioned architects including William Nesfield and John Douglas to work on buildings in the village. Douglas remodelled the George and Dragon inn in 1875, and restored some of the cottages.

A running pump was the only source of drinking water for the whole community until 1934 when a piped supply was first connected. Until 1948, Great Budworth was part of the Arley Hall estate.