FRODSHAM, a parish in the second division of the
hundred of EDDISBURY, county palatine of CHESTER,
comprising the market-town of Frodsham, the chapelry
of Alvanley, the lordship of Frodsham, and the townships
of Helsby, Kingsley, Mauley, Newton, and
Norley, and containing 5451 inhabitants, of which
number, 1556 are in th& town of Frodsham, 10 miles
(N.E. byN.) from Chester, and 192 (N. N. W.) from
London. Frodsham is mentioned in Domesday-book as
being the property of the Earl of Chester. The town, situated
on an eminence on the banks of the river Weever,
near its confluence with the Mersey, consists of a broad
street, a mile in length, extending along the road from
Chester to Warrington, and another branching from it
and leading to the church; at the east end is a stone
bridge of four arches, over the Weever, which is here
navigable, and at the west end anciently stood a Norman
castle. A charter was granted about 1220, by
Ranulph de Blundeville, sixth earl of Chester, to the
burgesses of Frodsham, which was pleaded in reply to
a writ of Quo Warranto, issued in the 22nd of Henry VII.,
and confirmed in the 33d of Henry VIII. and 21st of
Elizabeth; but the manor having been separated from
the earldom about the beginning of the seventeenth century,
the chartered privileges of the burgesses expired.
Courts leet and baron are now held twice a year, and
there are two presentments, one for the borough and
fee, and the other for the borough and lordship; and
for each of these townships a constable is appointed and
sworn in court. The lord of the manor has the tolls of
a market held on Saturdays, and of two fairs, on the 15th
of May and the 21st of August: the market, owing to
the vicinity of Warrington, is inconsiderable. The principal
branch of trade carried on is the refining of salt,
besides which here are flour-mills and cotton factories.
In the township of Manley is a quarry of excellent
freestone. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at
£23. 13. l1., and in the patronage of the Dean and
Canons of Christ Church, Oxford. The church, dedicated
to St. Lawrence, is situated on elevated ground,
adjacent to the village of Overton, but within the township
of Frodsham; it is built of red freestone,
and appears to be of high antiquity, as the nave displays
manifest traces of Norman architecture. An
organ was erected in 1790, and the organist receives a
salary arising from a tenement called the Organ Lpt.
Wesleyan Methodists have a place of worship here.
There is a free school, built about i860, near the church:
the master is chosen by twenty-four feoffees, consisting
of the vicar and churchwardens, with four feoffees out
of the township and lordship, three out of Kingsley,
and two each from Norley, Newton, Alvanley, Manley,
and Hellesby: he has a good house in Overton, and
a salary of more than £100 per annum from lands
at Frodsham, and a rent-charge on an estate at Christleton:
the usher receives £7 per annum from an
F R O 206 FRO
estate in Overton. Mrs. Gastrell bequeathed a rentcharge
of £ 10 per annum, upon an estate near the town,
to the Warrington Society, for the relief of widows and
orphans of the clergy in the archdeaconry of Chester;
and there are various charitable benefactions of less importance.