Lostock Gralam, Cheshire

Description
Lostock Gralam, a large village, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish in Great Budworth parish, Cheshire. The village, fast developing into a town of some commercial importance, stands on an affluent of the river Weaver, 2 1/2 miles ENE of Northwich, and has a station on the Cheshire Lines railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Northwich. Large chemical works employing over 1000 men, tannery and terra cotta works, corn and bone mills, and the Cheshire Salt Works are in the neighbourhood. The township contains also the hamlet of Lostock Green, and comprises 1732 acres; population, 896. The population is rapidly increasing, and has trebled itself in three years. The manor belonged anciently to the family of Hame; passed to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester; was given by him to Hugh de Run-champ, whose son Gralam assumed from it the name of Lostock; passed subsequently to the Holfords; and afterwards to the Brookes. The ecclesiastical parish includes also the townships of Lach Dennis, Hulse, Birches, and part of Win-cham, and was constituted in 1844. Population, 1506. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chester; net value, £173. Patron, the Vicar of Witton. The church is a brick edifice of 1844. There is a Wesleyan chapel, and another at Lostock Green ; also a good technical school.