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Parish Church of St. Wilfrid
Rector: Rev. Mel Gray - 01565 873218
Verger: Mrs Ann Davidson - 01565 872549
Sunday Services:
08.3Oam - Holy Communion
10.3Oam - 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays in the month: Parish Communion
2nd Sunday in the month: All Ages
4th Sunday in the month: Matins
6.3Opm - Evensong
Foundation
The first reference to a church at Mobberley occurs at the beginning of the reign of King John, but it is reasonable to assume tha one existed there long before that date. Proof of this was found in the 19th Century when restoration work was carried out Excavations for the foundations of the Chancel Arch revealed Saxon remains pointing to the existence of a pre-conquest church.
About 1206 one Patrick de Mobberley founded a small priory of regular canons of the order of St. Augustine in honour of God~ the Virgin Mary and St. Wilfrid, who were to abide and dwell for ever in the church at Mobberley. The benefactor gave the canon5 half of the church and all its appurtenances in his possession so that the parsons of the other half of the church at Mobberley, which was not in his possession, would not be able to challenge his grant.
The existence of Mobberley Priory was short lived, and ended before 1240 when the moiety of the church, with the advowsor etc. was annexed to the Priory of Rocester in Staffordshire. There were subsequent disputes in 1259 between the Mobberley, family and the canons of Rocester respecting the advowson. Although not mentioned in the Domesday Book the taxes were levied in accordance with it up to 1552 when a more accurate survey was compiled.
Family Connections
Probably no church in Cheshire is more closely associated with any one family than Mobberley with the Mallorys. In the chance monuments one commemorates Dean Mallory of 1636, whilst in the list of Rectors they are seen to be both Parish Priests anc Patrons of the Living.
Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester, was a younger son of Sir Williams Mallory of Studley in Yorkshire (Fountains Abbey). In 1619 he purchased from Andrew Carrington of Mobberley the advowson of the church, the Manor House, erected on the site of the olc Priory, and other portions of the Mobberley moiety that had not been sold elsewhere. He also purchased in 1631, the royalty ol that part which had belonged to Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. In Doctor Ormerod’s History of Cheshire, Volume I, a pedigree of the Mallorys is presented.
In 1832 Julia Mallory, daughter and heiress of the Reverend John Holdsworth Mallory, married George Leigh MA, curate of thE Parish of Liverpool. In 1835 she died but George Leigh who had assumed the name of Mallory was to be the Rector ol Mobberley until 1885. He married a second time, Henrietta, daughter of Trafford Esquire of Oughtrington Hall in 1836 and hac several sons and daughters. Herbert Leigh Mallory, seventh son, born in 1856, became Rector of Mobberley until 1904, when hE exchanged livings with the Reverend G C Dicker of Birkenhead. He died in 1943 at Chester. He had previously been granted ~ change of name to Leigh Mallory and a grant of arms in accordance with the name, Mallory quartering Leigh, with a cross patteE in the canton in the arms of Mallory of Mobberley. The arms of the Mallorys of Studley were without the canton azure.
In our own time, we think of his son, George Leigh Mallory, who with his companion, Andrew Irvine, lost his life on 8th June 1924 in a gallant attempt to reach the summit of Everest. A beautiful modern window to his memory has the inscription “All his life he sought after whatsoever things are sure and high and eternal. At last, in the flower of his perfect manhood, he was lost to sight between earth and heaven on the topmost peak of Mount Everest”.
His body was found on 1st May 1999 on the slopes at a height of 27,000 feet by an American/British Expedition who subsequently carried out a committal ceremony and buried him there. The discovery gave rise to fresh speculation as to whether or not he reached the summit. Documents found in his pockets have provided justification for continuing research.
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