The village of Hanmer lies at the northern end of
Hanmer Mere, part of the 'Shropshire lake district' of
meres which was formed during the last ice-age. By the time of the Roman invasion (47 AD), the area was part of the lands occupied by the
Cornovii, one of the tribes of ancient Britain who had their principal settlement at the
Wrekin. It later became part of the
Mercian region known as Wreocansaete. The name is thought to have either originally been "Handmere", or "Hagenamere", taking its name from a
Mercian lord. At the time of the Norman invasion the area was part of ancient
Cheshire, within the
Hundred of Duddeston, and it later became the estate of (and gave its name to) the prominent
Hanmer family, who were descended from Sir Thomas de Macclesfield, an officer of
Edward I. Sir Thomas settled in
English Maelor () and his family consolidated their possessions in the area through a series of marriages to heiresses of important Welsh families. The oldest recorded reference to a church in Hanmer dates from 1110, though this building was destroyed in 1463 during the
Wars of the Roses. It was rebuilt in 1490, destroyed again by fire in 1889 along with many irreplaceable architectural features, and rebuilt between 1892 and 1936, when the
chancel was finally reconstructed. It is dedicated to St Chad. Until the reorganisation of Welsh local government on 1 April 1974, Hanmer was in the detached part of the historic county of
Flintshire known as
English Maelor. Its local speech was recorded in depth in the
Survey of English Dialects; Hanmer was the only site in North Wales to be included in the survey, and so it was grouped together with the sites in
Cheshire. ==Important buildings==