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 article
Gawsworth Old Hall is a timber-framed, "black and white" country house in the village of Gawsworth, near Macclesfield; it is listed at grade I. Built between 1480 and 1600, the existing hall replaced an earlier Norman house. It was probably built as a courtyard house enclosing a quadrangle, but only three sides are still standing. Mary Fitton, perhaps the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, was born here, and the grave of Samuel "Maggoty" Johnson, a playwright described as the last professional jester in England, is in the grounds. In 1712, a long-running dispute about the ownership of the estate between the Fittons and the Gerards culminated in a duel in which both the combatants were killed. The hall is surrounded by formal gardens and parkland, listed at grade II*, which once included an Elizabethan pleasure garden and, possibly, a tilting ground for jousting. The house and grounds remain in private ownership and are open to the public; a collection of items salvaged from other historic buildings is on display. An open-air theatre in the grounds hosts plays and concerts in summer. Selected image
Delamere Forest is the remnant of the medieval Forests of Mara and Mondrem, which stretched from the Mersey almost to Nantwich in the 11th century. At around 2,400 acres, it is now the largest area of woodland in Cheshire. Credit: David Crocker (24 October 2004) In this month
1 January 1894: Manchester Ship Canal first opened to traffic. 2 January 1644: Dorfold Hall taken by Royalist forces during the Civil War. 3 January 1866: Crewe Hall gutted by fire. 13 January 1984: A cooling tower at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station (pictured) collapsed in high winds. 17 January 1644: Royalist forces attacked Nantwich during the Civil War. 20 January 1540: Dissolution of St Werburgh's Abbey. 20 January 1971: Singer–songwriter Gary Barlow born in Frodsham. 24 January 1909: Film star Ann Todd born in Hartford. 25 January 1837: Fire damaged the new wing of Vale Royal Abbey. 26 January 1644: Battle of Nantwich. 27 January 1832: Author and mathematician Lewis Carroll born in Daresbury. 27 January 1941: Cosmologist Beatrice Tinsley born in Chester. 28 January 1643: First battle of Nantwich. Selected list
The 59 listed buildings in Great Budworth include two at Grade I, one at Grade II* and the remainder at Grade II. Most are in the village of Great Budworth, formerly within the Arley Hall estate. In 1860–1900, Rowland Egerton-Warburton, the hall's owner, commissioned new buildings and the restoration of existing ones in the village, employing architects working in the Vernacular Revival style, including John Douglas, Edmund Kirby and William Eden Nesfield. Almost all the buildings in the village centre, those in Main Street, Church Street (pictured) and School Lane, are listed. The Grade-I-listed St Mary and All Saints Church originated in the 14th century and was virtually complete by the end of the 16th century. The Grade-I-listed Belmont Hall, designed by James Gibbs in about 1750, incorporates Palladian features. The Grade-II*-listed Old School House dates from 1615. Many of the Grade-II-listed buildings are 17th-century timber-framed houses and farm buildings, most of which have been recased in brick. There are two listed public houses: the Cock Inn and the George and Dragon. More unusual listed structures include the churchyard walls, a sundial, stocks, lychgate, guidepost, two wellhouses and a telephone kiosk. 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
Lindow Man, sometimes called Pete Marsh, is a naturally preserved bog body of an Iron Age man, discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Mobberley in 1984. The body has been preserved by freeze drying and is usually on display at the British Museum. Lindow Man was a healthy male in his mid-20s, perhaps someone of high status, such as a druid, as his body has manicured fingernails and shows little evidence of heavy or rough work. He would have stood around 5'7" (1.7 m) tall and have weighed about 132 pounds (60 kg). He had healthy teeth but was suffering from slight osteoarthritis and an infestation of whipworm and maw worm. The body retains a trimmed beard, moustache and sideburns of brown hair, and was naked apart from a fox-fur armband. The nature of his death was violent, possibly ritualistic. After a last, charred meal, he was strangled, hit on the head, and his throat was cut. His body was deposited into Lindow Moss, face down, in around March or April some time between 2 BC to 119 AD. Did you know...
Selected town or village
Sandbach is a market town and civil parish near Crewe. The town is Cheshire East Council's administrative centre. The civil parish covers 10.7 km2 (4.1 sq mi), and also contains Elworth, Ettiley Heath and Wheelock villages, with a total population of nearly 18,000 in 2011. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon and means "sand stream" or "sand valley". There are traces of Saxon settlement and two Saxon crosses, believed to have been completed by the 9th century, stand in the market square. Sandbach appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has been a market town since 1579. Sandbach School was founded in 1677. The population increased during the 19th century, when the town was engaged in the silk industry. In the 20th century, Sandbach was the site of Foden and ERF lorries, and remains known for Foden's Brass Band. The parish's many listed buildings include Old Hall Hotel and other former coaching inns, as well as several buildings by George Gilbert Scott. Sandbach Flashes, fourteen pools created by subsidence due to underlying salt deposits, form an important wildlife habitat. 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. QuotationBefore the advent of the London and North Western and the establishment of its works there was no Crewe. Let the London and North Western depart tomorrow, and Crewe would perish out of the list of living towns as completely as Nineveh or Pompeii. The grass would grow in its streets, its houses would stand in empty rows, its churches would become nesting places for the rooks and owls, its people would fly from it; and pasture fields for sheep and oxen, dotted with, perhaps, half a dozen peasant homesteads, would take the place of one of the most progressive and flourishing towns of modern England. From "The King of Crewe" in Crewe Chronicle (1902)
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