Dodleston has a village shop with post office, village hall, village green, a C of E primary school, the Grade II listedSt Mary's Church[2] and the Grade II listed 'Red Lion' pub.[3]
It also contains some good examples of buildings by the 19th-century architect John Douglas.
The name Dodleston likely derives from the Old English personal noun Dod(d)el and the word tūn, meaning "an enclosure, farmstead or settlement".[6] In 1086, Dodleston was recorded in the Domesday Book as a relatively large settlement within the hundred of Ati's Cross and in the county of Cheshire.[7] The castle at Dodleston was first mentioned in 1277, but was likely founded in the 12th century.[8]
Dodleston was a township in Broxton Hundred. The population was recorded over time as 185 in 1801, 258 in 1851, 307 in 1901, 267 in 1951 and significantly increasing to 777 by 2001.[4]
The village was also the birthplace of Sir Thomas Egerton (1540–1617), who rose to importance during the latter years of Elizabeth I and the early reign of James I. Because of his high status he could have been buried in either Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral in London, but chose St Mary's Church, Dodleston, as his final resting place.[9]
Association with Mallory
In the early 1980s the old order of life in a small country village was considerably affected[citation needed] by the development of a new housing estate, which became known as Boydell Park.[citation needed] Within Boydell Park and branching off Penfold Way is Mallory Walk, which is a cul de sac with footpath access to other areas of Dodleston.
Penfold Way in 1982
Mallory Walk is named after Canon Herbert Leigh-Mallory, who was Rector of St Mary's Church between the years 1927 to 1940, having previously been incumbent at St John's Church in Birkenhead. His son George Mallory was the English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to conquer Mount Everest in the early 1920s.
Governance
Dodleston is within the City of Chester parliamentary constituency.
An electoral ward in the name of Dodleston and Huntington existed at the time of the 2011 census, which covered both of the parishes plus their surrounding areas. The total population was recorded as 3,958.[10]
As of 2024, Dodleston is within the Christleton and Huntington Ward of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The village has its own ten-member elected parish council.[11]
Dodleston messages story
Dodleston is the setting for the "Dodleston Messages", a series of messages from the sixteenth century allegedly received in 1984 by author Ken Webster through a BBC Micro computer supposedly haunted by ghosts.[12]
^Webster, Ken (2018). The Vertical Plane: The Mystery of the Dodleston Messages – A Bizarre Record of Communication Through Time. London: Thorsons. ISBN9780008288334.
