The earliest known documentary evidence for a Hanmer connection with St Chad is in the charter of Leofric, Earl of Chester AD 1043, (Thorpe’s Diplomatarium Anglicanum p.352) in which he bestows upon his newly founded monastery at Coventry the vills amongst others of Hulhtune and Chadeleshunte, and a mioiety of the Vill of Eatun upon the river Dee. The latter covers the site of the ancient Bangor, while the former are Halton, (a name still remaining) and Chad-hull, the former name of Hanmer.”
The present church was established in stone on its rise above Hanmer mere by the 12th century. Chadwell, which is just off the footpath between the village and Hanmer Mill used to be highly valued in the neighbourhood. There was a custom of dressing it with flowers on Hanmer Wake Sunday – the first after St. Chad’s Day. This is recorded in the notebooks of Canon Matthew Henry Lee the Vicar of Hanmer in the late 19th century.
