England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Hanmer St Chad

The Parish

Flintshire is a curious county in being divided into two parts, the smaller southern portion largely consists of the parish of Hanmer, which lies roughly 7 miles west of the Shropshire market town of Whitchurch. Hanmer forms extensive parts of both border with Cheshire and with Shropshire and has more in common with these two counties than with the more mountainous portion to the west. Whilst the small village of Hanmer gives its name to the wider parish it also covers the townships of Bettesfield, Bronington, Halghston, Tybroughton, and Willington with only an estimated 20% of the parish population living in Hanmer itself. Hanmer is a small village which sits immediately south of the A539 road which links Whitchurch through to the Denbighshire town of Ruabon, most of the village lies along a single lane leading southwards from the A539 to the banks of the village's attractive lake, Hanmer Mere, one of an number of lakes formed in remnant glacial hollows in this area. Much of the parish is agricultural, similar in nature to adjacent Cheshire & Shropshire in being largely pastoral in regime. Modern developments have come & gone with a railway line linking the Shropshire towns of Whitchurch & Ellesmere passing through the southern portion of the parish, the line is now closed and largely dismantled. Hanmer is drained northwestwards by a number of small streams which eventually merge to become the Emral & Worthenbury Brooks before meeting the River Dee, the Dee flows northwards through the city of Chester and to the Irish Sea through its own estuary. Hanmer is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in fairly gentle and slightly rolling terrain, land rises to the southwest to a local high spot of 123 metres close to Ellesmere. Hanmer parish was extensive, covering a little over 7,200 acres and thus more reminiscent of an upland parish than this relatively lowland pastoral parish, within that acreage a population of close to 2,700 parishioners would have been supported. Unlike most of Wales parts of Hanmer parish, namely the manor of Bettesfield, were listed in Domesday Book, an indication of the parish's proximity to and border with England; held by Robert the son of one Hugh Bettesfield could offer 9 ploughs as well as the usual meadows & woodland.

 
The Church

St Chad's church sits on the western side of Hanmer's main lane but is usually accessed from the south from the lane which returns westwards to the A539. The core of St Chad is a late Perpendicular styled building from the 15th or even 16th centuries but much of what we see is the result of corrective action following a terrible fire in 1889. Following that fire little more than the western tower and the outer walls remained, the chancel was open to the sky and all of the interior fixtures and fittings were destroyed. Whilst the main body was restored to use within 3 years the chancel, which carries a mason's date of 1720. was not returned to good use until 1936. Thanks to this good work we can still appreciate the tall western tower and the gargoyle bedecked aisles from the Perpendicular original. In addition to the rebuilt main body, post-fire a southern porch was added to complete today's building. At the southern entrance there is a small parking area taking roughly 10 cars which leads through metal gates to a triumphal way leading to the slightly distant church which sits within a churchyard devoid of significant obstacles for the photographer.