Antrobus, Cheshire
Antrobus is a civil parish and village in Cheshire, England, about south of Warrington. It lies within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester, and had a population of 832, reducing to 791 at the 2011 Census, and to 767 in the 2021 census. The parish is the most northeasterly point of Cheshire West and Chester, and as such borders both Warrington and Cheshire East. As well as Antrobus village centre itself, the parish includes other large hamlets at Frandley, about south-west from the main village, and Crowley, about to the north-east.
The village shop and post office is owned and run cooperatively by the villagers for the benefit of the community having previously closed in 2003.
Toponymy
The place name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Entrebus, and in the Pipe Rolls of Cheshire of 1282 as Anterbus. The derivation of the name is from the Old Norse personal name Eindrithi or Andrithi, with the Old Norse buski, the whole name thus signifying "Andrithi's thicket".History
Antrobus is listed as a township of Great Budworth parish on Cheshire's tithe map, in the Bucklow Hundred and under the deanery of Frodsham. In 1894, Antrobus became a parish in its own right and a part of the Runcorn Rural District. In 1936, the neighbouring parishes of Crowley and Seven Oaks were abolished and brought under the control of Antrobus. Through the 20th century, usage of the term Seven Oaks to describe the south-west of Antrobus declined, and much of that area is now known as Frandley. Seven Oaks has become truncated to Sevenoaks and now refers to the small hamlet surrounding the former Sevenoaks Saddlery and sawmill at the northernmost end of Gibb Hill.The north-easternmost area of the parish was formerly taken up by a portion of the Arley estate, including all of the village of Arley itself, Crowley Hall Lodge and the surrounding farms. However, when Runcorn Rural District was abolished in 1974, Antrobus was moved into Vale Royal and neighbouring Aston by Budworth was transferred into the borough of Macclesfield. This made the Antrobus portion the only remaining part of the estate not under Macclesfield's control. In 1978, for the ease of estate management and the paying of tax, Aston-by-Budworth Parish Council requested that the portion of Antrobus east of Arley Brook, Lodge Lane, and Caldwell's Gate Lane be transferred to their control.
The village was struck by an F1/T3 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.