Monument record 41/0 - Burton Village

<1> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol 4, p.211 (Book). SCH3228.

Burton: Farm or enclosure at a fortification; from burh-tun, byrh-tun, with hall, maner; named from the earthworks at Burton Point. Earliest certain reference 1152. The Bishop of Lichfield held Burton in Eddisbury Hundred 3 270. May appear in Domesday Book as 'Burtone' in Eddisbury Hundred.

<2> PH Booth, 1984, Burton in Wirral, A History, Part 1 (Monograph). SCH3867.

<3> Council for British Archaeology, 1980, CBA Group 5 Urban Research Committee Towns and Villages Survey Record Sheet, Cordon, M (Unpublished Report). SCH551.

Burton occupies an elevated site on an outcrop of lower mottled sandstone overlooking the estuary of the River Dee and was originally located at the tidal line of the river. It is screened to the north by the high ground of Burton hill while to the south and west it is bounded by a wide expanse of salt marsh.

The early nucleus of the settlement is in the central area of the present plan of the village, to the north and south of the village street (many of the present cottages are early seventeenth century timber-framed dwellings built on a base of natural rock). This medieval core probably included scattered dwellings to the east around the elevated site of the Church of St Nicholas (CHER 41/2/1). Post medieval expansion spread to the north-east.

Pre-medieval occupation may be represented by possible Iron Age or Dark Age settlement, at Burton Point (CHER 9/1), one mile west of the village. From the medieval period to 1806 the manor was part of the estates of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. As a consequence of being church property, little subinfeudation occurred resulting in fewer documentary sources. In the reign of Edward 1 (1272-1307) a grant for a market and fair was given. It was also used as a site for the disembarkation of a detachment of archers to Ireland in 1399. The first Church of St Nicholas was built in the early twelfth century and was re-built in the fourteenth century and eighteenth century. In 1238 the living of the church was granted to the Hospital of St Andrew at Denhall (CHER 10/1) which continued until 1495. The living was then granted to the Hospital of St John the Baptist at Lichfield.

Burton Manor (to the south of the village street) was leased to the Congreve family in 1755 and then sold to them in 1806; it was enlarged and remodelled in 1904.