Monument record 7110 - Hallehulm

English Place-Name Society records for the township of Brereton the following place-names: the settlement of Allom or Allum, Allum Bridge and Alum Brook, which is the River Croco. The place-name may derive from a Hallehulm, first recorded in 1287. English Place-Name Society interprets the name to mean Hall (Halle) meadow (hulm). The English Place-Name Society goes on to state that ‘Church Hulme is adjacent, and may have included part of this manor.....The location of the meadows and the bridge suggest that the old manor occupied the north-western corner of the township against the Church Hulme boundary.’ (1).

Possibly Holm/Holme ‘A piece of flat low-lying ground by a river or stream, submerged or surrounded in time of flood’ (2).

Alum Bridge is at the point at which the A50 crosses the River Croco (also known as the Alum Brook) on the southern outskirts of Holmes Chapel (SJ76466647) (3).

Ormerod does not make a direct reference to a manor of Hallehulm, but Hallehulm and Hallum do occur as personal names. Holmes Chapel was originally know as Hulme and later as Chirchehulm and an inquision of 1496 makes mention of lands held in Allum (4).

There is a substantive lack of evidence to support the supposition made in the English Place-Name Society volume (see 1) of a medieval manorial site or settlement at Alum Bridge. The patchy documentary references (see 1 & 4) however hint of a possible manorial site somewhere in the northern Brereton, Holmes Chapel area. It is possible that Chirchehulm and Hallehulm were subdivisions of the township, but this is really only speculation (5).

<1> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol.II p.275 (Book). SCH3228.

<2> Oxford English Dictionary, 1928-2008, Oxford English Dictionary, Holm/Holme (Book). SCH5094.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, 05SJ7666 - 1888 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<4> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.III p.18, 84 & 112-4 (Book). SCH1389.

<5> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R 10/10/2012 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ 76 NE 19 (Index). SCH2487.