The church at Acton and its subsidiary chapels at Wrenbury, Church Minshull and Nantwich, together with some ploughland, were given to the abbot of the Cistercian Combermere Abbey at its foundation in 1133 by Hugh Malbank, second baron of Wich Malbank. The abbey received tithes from Acton and monks gave services in the church. It is unclear when this church was built; the present church originates in the 13th century, with some authorities giving a date as early as 1180. Anglo-Saxon carvings incorporated into its foundations suggest, however, that an earlier, possibly timber, church occupied the same site. Priests are listed in parish records from 1288. The church was the main parish church for a wide area to the west of Nantwich in the ancient parish of Acton. Subsidiary churches were chapels of ease; St Mary's Church, Nantwich, for example, despite its size, remained a chapel of ease to Acton until the 17th century. At the Dissolution in 1538, the abbey's land passed to the Cotton family; the tithes and advowson were sold to Sir Richard Wilbraham in 1544, and later passed to the Tollemache family.