St Luke's Church, Goostrey

St Luke's Church is in the village of Goostrey, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Congleton. Its benefice is combined with that of St Peter, Swettenham.HistoryThe parish of Goostrey is first mentioned in the Domesday Book and a church or chapel was present by 1244. By 1617 a timber-framed chapel was present on the site which consisted of a nave and a chancel with a south aisle belonging to the Booths of Twemlow. In 1667 another south aisle was constructed for Edmund Jodrell and this was enlarged in 1711. In 1792 this chapel was demolished and the present church built between 1792 and 1796.Parish of GoostreyThe ecclesiastical parish of Goostrey includes not only the civil parish of that name, but also that of Twemlow, named after the burial mounds or 'lows' found in this part of Cheshire, indicating that people lived here over four thousand years ago. The first documented mention of Goostrey is in the Domesday Book (1086), when most of the parish was held by William Fitz Nigel, Baron of Halton, and by Hugh de Mara, another follower of the Earl of Chester. They gave much land in Goostrey to endow the new abbey of Saint Werburgh in Chester, and later land in the parish was given to help endow the Vale Royal Abbey, near Northwich.