A handsome brick viaduct of the Railway crosses a picturesque valley at Handford, through which the river Dean flows; and, after joining the Bollin near Wilmslow, the combined rivers fall into the Mersey, near Altrincham.
The place of interment of the Breretons of Handford was in the parish church of Cheadle, distant nearly four miles from the hall. The church is in the village of Cheadle, and is an old stone edifice of the Gothic style of architecture, with a chancel, a clerestory, a nave with four pointed arches on each side, resting on octagonal pillars, and with side aisles. It has a square tower, with six bells. It is a rectory which has for many years been in the patronage of the Broughtons; and the present rector is the Rev. Charles James Cummings.
There is a striking general resemblance between the churches of Cheadle, Wilmslow, and Bowdon, all in the same part of Cheshire; and they all appear to have been rebuilt, or considerably altered, or repaired, not long before the Reformation; and tradition says, that all three were repaired or rebuilt at the same time, which receives considerable corroboration, not merely from the resemblance in the appearance and style of the churches, but also from the fact, that an inscription, which I saw a few years ago, and which probably still remains, on the stained glass of a window at Bowdon Church, mentions the name of a prior of Birkenhead, the last or one of the last priors of that place, who is stated in the inscription, to have presented the window to the church.
The church at Cheadle is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. A chapel, called the Handford Chapel, is on the south side of the church. In this chapel is a large altar tomb, on which are recumbent marble figures of two knights or personages, in complete plate armour, of a very richly ornamented style, and each with his hands conjoined; one bare-headed, but with the head resting on a helmet, which is so injured that it cannot be clearly ascertained whether it had any crest; the other figure has a helmet, which is ornamented with a wreath and a fillet, and has a crest, seemingly the head of some animal, but of which there are not sufficient remains to show whether it was the head of a bird or beast, but it is said to have been that of a hind. Each of the figures is decorated with a collar of SS, and the feet of each rest upon a lion. Another altar tomb is placed close up to and on the north side of the tomb, but on rather a lower elevation; on it is a third figure, in stone, with some truces of its having been painted; it is the effigy of another personage, in plate armour, but instead of greaves, it has rather small jack-boots, and is bare-headed, with long flowing hair; and, what seems very remarkable in such an effigy, instead of a gorget, it has a neckcloth or cravat, tied, with the ends of it falling down over the upper part of the cuirasse. The head also rests upon a helmet with a plume of feathers, coloured blue, white, and red: the feet do not rest upon any animal.