Acton, Cheshire
Acton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Burland and Acton, lying immediately west of the town of Nantwich, in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish covered and also included the small settlement of Dorfold and part of Burford, with an estimated population of 340 in 2006. It is administered jointly with the adjacent civil parishes of Henhull and Edleston. Historically, Acton refers to a township and also to an ancient parish in the Nantwich Hundred covering a wide area to the west of Nantwich. The area is agricultural, with dairy farming the main industry. Around a third of the area falls within the Dorfold Estate. Historically, agriculture was the major employer, but it has now been overtaken by the service industries, with many residents commuting significant distances outside the parish to work. The civil parish is believed to have been inhabited since the 8th or 9th century. Acton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was one of the wealthiest townships in the Nantwich Hundred, being valued for the same sum as Nantwich. The name means "oak town", referring to the pedunculate oaks that predominated in the adjacent Forest of Mondrem. During the Civil War, the village was taken by siege several times. The Shropshire Union Canal reached the parish in 1835, using a long embankment to avoid Dorfold Park. The parish contains many historic buildings, including two listed at grade I: Dorfold Hall was considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire, while St Mary's Church has a tower dating from the 13th century, one of the earliest in the county. History Early history The civil parish of Acton was on the eastern edge of the Forest of Mondrem in the Bronze Age, giving rise to the name Actune, meaning "oak town", for the predominant pedunculate oaks. A Roman road from Middlewich to Whitchurch passed immediately to the north of the parish, but there is little evidence of settlement. An area north of Acton village was enclosed in the 8th and 9th centuries, and ancient field systems can be discerned elsewhere in this and the adjacent modern civil parishes. Acton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086; it was held by Earl Morcar before the Conquest and afterwards by William Malbank, first baron of Wich Malbank (Nantwich). One of the largest and wealthiest townships in the Nantwich Hundred, the Domesday Book mentions a manor, mill, land for thirty ploughs, 10 acres of meadow, a strip of woodland 6 leagues in length, a hawk's eyrie and a salt house in Nantwich. The total value before 1066 was £10; for comparison, Nantwich was then valued at the same sum. Acton had one of the largest areas of meadow in Cheshire at this time. The survey also mentions two priests in Acton but no church. Dorfold or Deofold means "cattle enclosure" or "deer park". It