BOWDON, a parish in the hundred of BUCKLOW,
county palatine of CHESTER, comprising the market-town
of Altrincham, the chapelry of Carrington, and
the townships of Agden, Ashley, Baguley, Bollington,
Bowdon, Dunham-Massey, Hale, Partington, and Timperley,
and containing 7442 inhabitants, of which number,
433 are in the township of Bowdon, 1 mile (S.W.
by S.) from Altrincham. The living is a vicarage, in the
archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, rated in the king s
books at £24, and in the patronage of the Bishop or
Chester. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is an ancient
structure on an elevated site, the churchyard commanding
an extensive and pleasing panoramic view or
the surrounding country; it was annexed to the See or
Chester, by Henry VIII., on the dissolution, of Birkenhead
priory, to which it had been given by Hamon ae
Massey, the fifth of that name: the rectorial tithes are
leased by the bishop to the Earl of Stamford and Warrington,
who, as lord of the ancient barony of Dunham-
Massey, appoints four churchwardens for the parish.
Mr. Edward Vawdrey, about the year 1600, gave £4 per
annum toward the endowment of a grammar school:
the school-room was rebuilt at the expense of the
parishioners, about 1670, and again in 1806, with a convenient
house for the master. A charity school has also
been built, and is supported by subscription. The Earl of
Warrington, in 1754, gave £168. 6. for educating and
apprenticing children, and for the relief of the poor.
a hundred children of each sex, the school being under
the There is also a school for boys at Scamons Moss, and
another for boys and girls at Littleheath, founded and
endowed by the late Mr. Thomas Walton. A Roman
road passed through the parish.