As the Romans settled in mid-Cheshire they explored Delamere Forest for food and discovered underground salt in the area.

Between 1153 and 1160 the manor was granted by the Third Earl of Chester to Robert le Grosvenor whose descendant held the village for Edward the First.

In 1798 the church was rebuilt (except for the tower and north wall) by a bequest from Ralph Kirkham (a rich merchant of Chester and the son of a farmer in Little Budworth, educated at Lady Egerton's School).

There remains one of the two short-handled copper collecting boxes dated 1801, the silver-gilt Egerton chalice and the large painting thought to be of the school of Caravaggio.

The smaller painting of 'The Good Shepherd' by William Dyce (given by the Stocks family) is on permanent loan to the Walker Art Gallery.

Described in the SSSI citation as "one of the best surviving examples of lowland heath in Cheshire", it supports locally uncommon plant species such as heather Calluna vulgaris, bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus and purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea.