[1] The Norman Earls of Chester had a hunting lodge or summer palace at Darnhall in Over parish.

After the Second Barons' War, the Ash Brook was dammed to drive three water mills and to make pools to keep fish.

[2] In 1270 at the behest of his son, Henry III gave the estate to the Cistercians, who built Darnhall Abbey in 1274 on the north bank of the new lake.

However the land was not suitable for the grand scale of building envisaged, and the locals were not cooperative, so the monks left Darnhall to found Vale Royal Abbey in Whitegate in 1281.

The church and responsibility for the parish was given to St Mary's Convent in Chester, who appointed the priests in charge.