Portal:Cheshire
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The Cheshire Portal
Welcome Cheshire Plain from the Mid Cheshire Ridge
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in the North West of England. Chester is the county town, and formerly gave its name to the county. The largest town is Warrington, and other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich, Runcorn, Sandbach, Widnes, Wilmslow and Winsford. The county is administered as four unitary authorities. Cheshire occupies a boulder clay plain (pictured) which separates the hills of North Wales from the Peak District of Derbyshire. The county covers an area of 2,343 km2 (905 sq mi), with a high point of 559 m (1,834 ft) elevation. The estimated population is a little over one million, 19th highest in England, with a population density of around 450 people per km2. The county was created in around 920, but the area has a long history of human occupation dating back to before the last Ice Age. Deva was a major Roman fort, and Cheshire played an important part in the Civil War. Predominantly rural, the county is historically famous for the production of Cheshire cheese, salt and silk. During the 19th century, towns in the north of the county were pioneers of the chemical industry, while Crewe became a major railway junction and engineering facility. Selected articleRuncorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Its population in 2021 was 62,100. Runcorn is on the southern bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It lies on the southern shore of the River Mersey 15 miles (24 km) upstream from the port of Liverpool. Runcorn was founded by Æthelflæd of Mercia in 915 AD as a fortification to guard against Viking invasion at a narrowing of the River Mersey. Under Norman rule, Runcorn fell under the Barony of Halton and an Augustinian abbey was established here in 1115. It remained a small, isolated settlement until the Industrial Revolution when the extension of the Bridgewater Canal to Runcorn in 1776 established it as a port which would link Liverpool with inland Manchester and Staffordshire. The docks enabled the growth of industry, initially shipwrights and sandstone quarries. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was a spa and health resort but this ended with the growth of polluting industries, especially soap and chemical works. In 1964, Runcorn was designated a new town and expanded eastward, swallowing neighbouring settlements and more than doubling its population. Three bridges span the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn: the Silver Jubilee Bridge, Mersey Gateway, and Runcorn Railway Bridge. Its location between Liverpool and Manchester and its links to the rail, motorway and canal networks have made it a centre for manufacturing, logistics, and wholesale and retail. The town's motto is Navem Mercibus Implere (Latin for "fill the ship with goods"), a classical quotation from Juvenal. Selected image
Tatton Park Gardens at Tatton Hall, near Knutsford, date originally from the 18th century. The Japanese Garden, created in 1910 for Alan de Tatton Egerton and restored in 2001, is considered one of the finest examples of a Japanese garden in the UK. This photograph shows the Golden Brook. Credit: Mike Peel (4 October 2009) In this month
September 1707: Physician Nathan Alcock born at Aston. 1 September 1858: Crewe and Shrewsbury Railway opened. 1 September 1876: Activist and editor Harriet Shaw Weaver born in Frodsham. 1 September 2007: Cheshire Regiment merged into the Mercian Regiment. 7 September 1917: Pilot and charity founder Leonard Cheshire born in Chester. 8 September 1949: Bernard Lovell and Charles Husband first meet at Jodrell Bank to discuss the 250-ft radio telescope. 14 September 1804: Landowner and poet Rowland Egerton-Warburton born in Norley. 16 September 1947: Comedian Russ Abbot born in Chester. 21 September 1642: Charles I brought his army to Chester during the Civil War. 24 September 1645: Battle of Rowton Heath (memorial pictured). 29 September 1908: Cheshire County Cricket Club founded. Selected list
Around 300 buildings in Chester centre are listed at Grade II, the lowest grade. The oldest Grade-II-listed buildings in central Chester date from the medieval era and retain some of their medieval fabric, for example, St Nicholas Chapel (1300). Early buildings are often timber framed, with some later encased in brick. Examples include the Old Custom House Inn, Nine Houses, Ye Olde Edgar and Stanley Palace. Many Georgian houses, in local sandstone or brick, are listed at this grade, including Park House and 10–28 Nicholas Street, as well as some Neoclassical buildings, such as Chester City Club. From the mid-19th century, Chester was at the forefront of the Black-and-white Revival (example pictured), reintroducing timber-framed buildings into the city. Grade-II-listed examples include The Chester Grosvenor Hotel, St Werburgh's Mount, St Oswald's Chambers, 30 and 38 Bridge Street, and several houses on Northgate Street. A few modern structures have been listed, including Newgate (1937–38), and Modernist buildings such as the former Odeon Cinema (1936) and Addleshaw Tower (1973–75), a free-standing bell-tower. Unusual listed structures include a scale model of Grosvenor Bridge, the War Memorial, a Cenotaph to Matthew Henry, a tombstone commemorating a soldier, a sundial, a birdbath and two telephone kiosks. GeographyTop: Map of modern Cheshire showing urban areas (grey) and the major road network. Chester (red) is the county town, and Warrington has the greatest population. Towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants in 2011 are highlighted; the size of dot gives a rough indication of the relative population. Wales and the adjacent English counties are shown in capitals. Bottom: Relief map showing the major hills. The Mid Cheshire Ridge is a discontinuous ridge of low hills running north–south from Beacon Hill (north of Helsby Hill) to Bickerton Hill. Most other high ground falls within the Peak District in the east of the county. Shining Tor (559 metres), on the boundary with Derbyshire, forms the county's high point.
Administration The ceremonial county of Cheshire is administered by four unitary authorities (click on the map for details): 2 – Cheshire East 3 – Warrington 4 – Halton In the local government reorganisation of 1974, Cheshire gained an area formerly in Lancashire including Widnes and Warrington. The county lost Tintwistle to Derbyshire, part of the Wirral Peninsula to Merseyside, and a northern area including Stockport, Altrincham, Sale, Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge to Greater Manchester. Selected biography
Robert Tatton (1606 – 19 August 1669) was a Cheshire landowner who supported King Charles I in the Civil War. He inherited the family estate in Wythenshawe, then in Cheshire, aged ten, and married Anne Brereton in 1628. When Civil War broke out, he joined the Royalist side, despite his wife being closely related to Sir William Brereton, who commanded the Parliamentary forces in Cheshire. Tatton is perhaps best known for his defence of his family home, Wythenshawe Hall, during its three-month siege in the winter of 1643/44 by a Parliamentary force commanded by Robert Duckenfield. Parliamentary casualties included Duckinfield's second-in-command, but their victory was inevitable when cannons were brought in. On surrender, the hall's contents were valued at almost £1650 (now around £230,000). Tatton served as the High Sheriff of Chester between 1645 and 1646. Although heavily fined by Parliament for fighting on the side of the king, he was subsequently rewarded for his loyalty by Charles II following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The Wythenshawe estate remained in the Tatton family until the 1920s. Did you know...
Selected town or village
Marbury is a small village near Whitchurch, in the civil parish of Marbury cum Quoisley, which borders Shropshire. The parish covers 2,168 acres (877 ha); it includes the small settlements of Hollins Lane, Marley Green, Quoisley, and part of Hollyhurst, Willeymoor and Combermere Abbey park, with a population just under 250 in 2001. Marbury is thought to have been inhabited since the Anglo-Saxon period. In the Civil War, the parish was plundered by both sides during 1642–44, after Thomas Marbury declared for Parliament. It contains many historic buildings, the earliest being the 15th-century St Michael's Church. The area is agricultural with undulating terrain, 75–120 metres in elevation. Dairy farming is the main industry. The Llangollen Canal runs along the northern boundary, and five meres form important wildlife habitats. Marbury Big Mere is a fishing lake and the Quoisley Meres are a Wetland of International Importance; they originate in glacial kettle holes. "Marbury Merry Days", a traditional country fair, is held in May. In the news.JPG) Crewe Market Hall 29 October, 1 November: Warrington council and the mayor of Crewe each announce plans to bid for city status in 2022. 13–14 October: Prince Edward visits Chester and opens a Fire Service training centre in Winsford. 8 October: Castle Street shopping area in Macclesfield reopens after refurbishment. 4 October: Restoration of the grade-I-listed Bridgegate, part of Chester city walls, is completed. 25 September: A bronze frieze by the sculptor Tom Murphy is unveiled in Warrington, as a memorial to the band Viola Beach. 9 September: The fifth stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race takes place in Cheshire, starting at Alderley Park and finishing in Warrington. 24 July: The grade-II-listed Crewe Market Hall (pictured) formally reopens after refurbishment. 15 July: Crewe, Runcorn and Warrington are awarded potential funding under the "Town Deal" government scheme. QuotationNever had huger From Battle of Brunanburh (c. 10th century), translated by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1880)
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