Wednesday 19^th February 2020

Bunbury is about 14 miles from Middlewich and yet, apart from driving through, once trying to visit the watermill and passing a few times on the canal, we had never visited the village itself. This is part of this life we enjoy, being able to get off and explore places you would otherwise, never visit.

With rain again forecast, we walked into the village just over a mile away. Bunbury was bigger than we had expected, with many older timber-framed buildings and quite a lot of new builds, some extremely expensive looking. Despite this, the village retained a nice friendly feel to it. It is actually split between Bunbury and Lower Bunbury. That we saw, there are no less than 3 pubs, a Co-op, a chippy and a butchers’ business that was established in 1924.

     

Buildings in Bunbury

We first called into the Parish Church of St. Boniface a place absolutely full of history and quite out of scale for such a small village. A number of very interesting locals spoke with us about their church and we learnt it was originally built as a Collegiate Church, hence the size.

     

St. Boniface Church, Bunbury

Never have we seen a church with so many huge windows that gave it a very light and airy feel. Inside there was much of interest: there is an alabaster tomb and effigy of Sir Hugh Calveley who died in 1394, much defaced by graffiti, old and recent. Sir Hugh was a giant of a man nearly 7 feet tall, who spent most of his life fighting aboard and, on his return, founded Bunbury’s collegiate church.

Tomb of Sir Hugh Calveley

Sir Hugh’s tomb is surrounded by a ‘hearse’, a metal railing, and one of the locals told us of the origin. A ‘Herce’ originates in Norman-France and was a method of indicating the location of a knight fallen in battle. A plough would be taken from a nearby farm, turned upside-down with the spikes facing upwards and placed above the knights’ body. When the knights’ body came to be moved, it would be placed on top of the plough with the spikes holding it in place. This then led to the tradition of placing metal railings around a grave or tomb. The word has also led to the use of the word ‘hearse’ for transporting bodies. Love this kind of stuff.

A statue commemorating one Jane Johnson, the young wife of the Dancing Master of Nantwich. It, at one time stood close to the main altar, but in 1760’s the vicar was said to be so disturbed by the ‘bulging udders of Jane’ that he had it secretly buried and it was only discovered, by chance, in 1882.

Statue of Jane Johnson

The tomb of Sir George Beeston is in the north wall of the sanctuary. Sir George was a commander during the Spanish Armada of 1588 at the age of 88. He died in 1601 aged 101.

A memorial on one of the walls commemorates Major Ronald Littledale. Major Ronald escaped from Colditz by greasing his body and pushing through the bars of his prison. He re-joined his regiment but was subsequently killed in Normandy.

The church had its roof blown off, the result of a bomb blast in 1940 and the windows shattered. The roof was replaced with one of reduced pitch and an oak panelled ceiling. The windows were renewed using old glass panels which took years to source.   

At every church we visit, we delight in sending a photo of the organ to Brenda’s cousin, a Church Organist himself and a Chorister in Liverpool and Chester Cathedrals. Mark always comes back very quickly and informs us of the history of each. We were surprised when he told us the Vicar who married Brenda and myself in 1979, was once the incumbent at Bunbury as was supported by a plaque on the wall of the church listed past Vicars.

After calling into the Co-op and the butchers, where there was a wonderful display including a chilled cabinet where, using Himalayan Rock Salt, joints of beef could be watched ageing, we walked back along Wych Lane to see more of the village.

I called in to see the Water Mill while Brenda walked directly back to the boat. The mill, quite an insignificant building does not open until 1^st March but should be well worth another visit.

Bunbury Water Mill

Back at the boat we found the pound even lower and the boat, now with an even greater list, is sitting firmly on the bottom. It is very uncomfortable, but we must be a minority in the country just now, complaining of a lack of water.

The rain, as forecast, started in the afternoon no doubt turning a muddy towpath, even muddier.

A damp day with rain in the afternoon.