English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Audlem and Wrenbury

Parish in the County of Cheshire

Etymology

The township of Dodcott cum Wilkesley was partly in Audlem parish and partly in the Wrenbury chapelry of Acton parish. White (1860) puts it in Audlem following the 1841 Census, but local authorities in 1860 had it as in Wrenbury save for one house in Acton. It is now a c.p. including part of Shavington in Moreton Say Sa. The township contains the several hamlets of Dodcott and Wilkesley in Audlem parish, and of Smeatonwood (including Combermere) in Wrenbury chapelry. It represents the old demesne lands of Combermere abbey. Bryant's map (1831) shows the parochial boundary from the Sa border to Burleydam along Barnett Brook. St Michael's Church at Burleydam was a chapel-of-ease to Wrenbury, and NotCestr (1724) describes it in the Wrenbury township of Smeatonwood. There is a small detached portion of Dodcott cum Wilkesley in Acton township, v. 126infra .

Major Settlements