Dunham Massey, Cheshire

Description
Dunham Massey, a township and two ecclesiastical parishes in Bowdon parish, Cheshire. The township lies on an affluent of the river Mersey, on the Bridgwater Canal, 2 1/2 miles WSW of Altrincham. It includes the hamlets of Dunham Town, Dunham-Woodhouse, Oldfield, and Sinderland, and has a station on the Altrincham and Warrington section of the L. & N.W.R. There is a post office at Dunham Woodhouse, under Altrincham.; money order and telegraph office, Altrincham. The manor belonged anciently to the Masseys, who had a castle here. Dunham Park is now the property of the Earl of Stamford. The mansion was rebuilt in 1721, and the park is noted for its oaks and beeches. Acreage of township, 3712 ; population, 2079. The ecclesiastical parish of St Margaret's was constituted in 1855. Population, 3452. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chester ; net value, £400 with residence. Patron, the Stamford Trustees. The Church of St Margaret was erected in 1855 by the late Earl of Stamford and Warrington at a cost of £20,000 ; it is a fine cruciform edifice consisting of chancel, S or Stamford chapel, clerestoried nave, aisles, transepts, and a tower with spire 210 feet high; the interior is very rich, and contains a pulpit font and reredos of Caen stone, beautifully carved, and a good stained E window. The ecclesiastical parish of St Mark's, Dunham Town, was constituted in 1873. Population, 808. The church, a neat Gothic building, was erected in 1864. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of the Vicar of Bowdon ; gross value, £275 with residence. There are Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. The Bowdon branch of the Manchester Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Throat (St Ann's Home) is situated in Woodville Road.