The leaning tower of the former church of St Chad, also known as the 'Leaning Tower of South Cheshire' and the 'Hanging Steeple of Wimberie', is located in Wybunbury village.[3][10] The 29.3-metre (96 ft) tower is all that remains of a late-15th-century church demolished in 1833. (Later churches, replacing the 15th-century one, were also demolished in 1892 and 1977.[10]) The tower was stabilised using underexcavation by James Trubshaw in 1832; this is the earliest known application of the technique later used on the Leaning Tower of Pisa.[10]
There are four Commonwealth service war graves of World War I in the original churchyard[11] and, in the neighbouring churchyard extension, another three from the same war and four from World War II.[12]
Wybunbury Lane links the B5071 which runs through the Wybunbury parish to London Road (Stapeley). This lane provides a direct transport link between Wybunbury and the village of Stapeley.[15]
Education
Wybunbury Delves C of E Primary School is a Church of Englandprimary school. Wybunbury Delves is a small school with around 250 pupils. The school is involved with sponsoring a school in Africa.
Wybunbury Delves School June 2012
History
The village of Wybunbury is recorded as being one of the earliest settlements in Cheshire. It is said to take its name from 'Wigbeorn's manor' or stronghold. It is possible that he built a fortified residence of some sort on a site not far from a source of water. Old maps show the location of a moated site with a drawbridge, Hall Bank near Wybunbury Brook. The outline of the site is still visible today from the top of Wybunbury Tower.
Wybunbury was in Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon region in the North-west that was settled on loose tribal boundaries before the country was organised into shires. Wybunbury was already well established before the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 and is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086.
