England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Baddiley St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Baddiley lies in southern Cheshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Shropshire. Baddiley is located roughly 3 miles west of the town of Nantwich and stands a little over 2 miles northwest of the A530 road which links Nantwich with Whitchurch in Shropshire. Baddiley is a dispersed community with no village, there is merely the Hall and farm, the parish church and a single bungalow as the notional centre of the village with most of the population dispersed across the extensive parish. The parish lies on low-lying land dotted with small circular lakes, a glacial feature shared between this area and neighbouring northern Shropshire and known locally as meres, they formed through shallow depressions which once held large ice blocks which only melted after the general retreat of the ice front leaving their hollows to fill. This is dairy country with cattle the main livestock and noted for the quality of the Cheshire Cheese they produce. Modern developments have come to the area, the Llangollen Canal passes through to the east bringing mainly tourist traffic nowadays rather than the freight of its past. The parish drainage eventually ends up to the southeast in the River Weaver which performs a broad meander to end up headed back north through Nantwich & Northwich to eventually meet the Mersey Estuary and from there the Irish Sea squeezing between Liverpool & Birkenhead. Baddiley is sited at around 70 metres above the sea in an area where 80 metres forms the highest land in generally flattish terrain. Baddiley parish, like virtually all Cheshire parishes, was quite extensive covering 2,300 acres and supporting a population of close to 250 parishioners. In Domesday time Baddiley was a holding of one William Malbank with a single plough as its only asset.

The Church

St Michael's church sits immediately south of the Georgian manor house of Baddiley Hall on the eastern side of Baddiley Hall Lane and some 400 yards west of the Llangollen Canal. Documents record the presence of a church on this site as early as 1308 and it is believed that the attractively picturesque timber-framed chancel, which is early 14th century in style, remains from that time. The age of the nave, which is substantially taller, is uncertain with Pevsner saying "perhaps 15th or 16th century", the reason being that in 1811 the entire medieval nave was encased in brick masking any visible dating feature from the external appraisal. The western end is topped with an equally rustic wooden bellcote probably contemporary with the 1811 work. Internally the screen and the tympanum, of wattle and daub, are worth a visit in their own right. Baddiley Hall Lane is dead-ended beyond the Hall so carries little traffic, even so it is polite to park considerately on this narrow lane. A wooden gate grants entry to the churchyard which has no obstacles to concern the photographer.