I.

Introduction

Cheshire, county, north-western England, bounded on the north by the estuary of the River Mersey, and the unitary authorities of Merseyside and Greater Manchester metropolitan councils; on the east by Derbyshire; on the south by Staffordshire and Shropshire; and on the west by the estuary of the River Dee, by the Welsh county of Flintshire, and by the Welsh county borough of Wrexham. On April 1, 1998, Cheshire lost two of its districts, Halton and Warrington, which became unitary authorities and are therefore separately administered. For ceremonial purposes the two unitary authorities are deemed part of Cheshire. The county's present borders were established in 1974, when the districts of Halton and Warrington, previously part of Lancashire, were added to Cheshire. At the same time, the county lost most of the Wirral (the peninsula between the estuaries of the rivers Mersey and Dee), and thus its Irish Sea coastline, to Merseyside. Altrincham, Sale, Gatley, Cheadle, and Stockport, and their surrounds, went to Greater Manchester.

Highly industrialized in the north, the rest of Cheshire is mainly agricultural with much pleasant countryside and some notable historic sites. It has an area of 2,328 sq km (899 sq mi). Chester is the county town.

II.

Physical Geography

Geologically, Cheshire comprises mainly sandstones and marl, and the soil and stone used for building has a characteristic red colour. In the east, the land forms part of the Pennine Hills, with some hills reaching a height of approximately 550 m (1,800 ft) above sea level. A small strip of land on the border with Derbyshire is part of the Peak District National Park. Apart from a ridge of higher land roughly in the centre of Cheshire, covered by the Delamere Forest, most of the rest of the county is low-lying, and flat or slightly undulating. Close to Congleton, near to where the plain gives way to the higher land of eastern Cheshire, is the Cloud, a hill which rises sharply to 300 m (1,000 ft).

Cheshire's main rivers are the Mersey, the Dee, the Weaver, and the Dane. The Mersey crosses the northern corner of the county for a distance of about 20 km (12 mi) before reaching the Irish Sea at Liverpool. The Dee, which rises in Snowdonia National Park, to the west of Lake Bala, north Wales, forms most of the border between Cheshire and Flintshire before reaching the Irish Sea. The Weaver, formerly an important transport artery, well supplied with locks, runs through the centre of Cheshire, and is joined by the Dane at Northwich before flowing into the Mersey estuary. The Shropshire Union Canal runs through the county from the south-east, passing through Nantwich, and on to the Dee. Linked to it, and running parallel to the north, is the Trent and Mersey Canal, which passes through Middlewich, before reaching the Mersey. The central and eastern part of Cheshire is dotted with a number of small lakes or meres, formed by glaciation during the last Ice Age.

III.

Climate

Cheshire has a moderate climate with an average January temperature of 4° C (39° F) and an average July temperature of 16° C (61° F). Rainfall averages between 760 and 1,000 mm (30 and 40 in) a year over most of the county; the hilly parts of eastern Cheshire receive most rain.

IV.

Plants and Animals

Forestry is important in Cheshire and large parts of the ancient Delamere and Macclesfield forests have been restored with plantings by the Forestry Commission. The Delamere Forest, which lies between Chester and Northwich, was once a hunting area. It is now a nature reserve, and the haunt of badgers, foxes, sparrowhawks, and kestrels, among other creatures. A short distance away to the south-east, at Little Budworth, is a country park that includes woodland, bogs, and heaths. Varieties of birds including the green woodpecker, tree pipits, wood warblers, and willow warblers are to be found there. At Stapeley Water Gardens, near Nantwich, many varieties of water lily are to be seen. The Wirral Country Park, on the south-western side of the peninsula, consists of cliffs, ponds, mudflats, and wooded embankments, and has many wading birds, foxes, and badgers.

V.

Population and Administration

The population of the county is 673,777 (2001). The principal cities and towns are Chester (2001, 118,207), Warrington (2001, 181,080), Macclesfield (2001, 150,144), Crewe (1991, 63,351), Congleton (1991, 24,897), and Ellesmere Port (1991, 64,504). Other towns and cities of note are Knutsford (1991, 13,352), Middlewich (10,100), Nantwich (11,695), Northwich (34,520), Runcorn (64,154), Widnes (57,162), Wilmslow (28,604), and Winsford (26,839). Black-and-white timber-framed houses are typical of the architecture of the county, and are to be widely seen. Some excellent examples are preserved in Nantwich and Chester.

Cheshire is administered by a county council, based at County Hall in Chester, and by eight district and borough councils: Chester, Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Halton, Macclesfield, Vale Royal, and Warrington. The boroughs of Halton and Warrington became unitary authorities on April 1, 1998, following government acceptance of the 1994 recommendations of the Local Government Commission. The police authority is the Cheshire Constabulary, with its headquarters in Chester. The Crown Court sits in Chester.

VI.

Education and Culture

The two best-known schools in the county are the King's School, Macclesfield (founded 1502), and the King's School, Chester (1541). Both are public schools. Cheshire has many literary associations. The 16th-century historian Raphael Holinshed, whose Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland were used by William Shakespeare for many of his plays, was born in the county. The Congreve family of Burton included the Restoration dramatist, William Congreve. Elizabeth Gaskell, the author, was brought up in Knutsford, which was the model for the setting of her novel Cranford. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was born in Daresbury in 1832. Other famous people from the county include Olympic yachtsman Ben Ainslie; mountaineer George Mallory; architects Maxwell Fry and Sir Terry Farrell; tennis players Lottie Dod and Fred Perry; cricketer Ian Botham; and film director Charles Crichton.

Cheshire is home to some of England's oldest cultural events. Knutsford's May Day (May 1) celebrations are among the oldest in Great Britain, involving a May Queen, jesters, decorated floats, and much spirited dancing around the maypole. Chester holds a summer music festival and every few years puts on a medieval miracle play, drawn from the 25 scenes of the Chester cycle, one of the 5 important English miracle play cycles.

The county is possibly best known, though, as the source of one of England's classic cheeses. Cheshire cheese is the oldest variety of English cheese, having been made in the county since before the time of the Romans. It comes in three forms: red, white, and blue. It has a salty flavour, which is directly attributable to the salt beds that underlie so much of the county.

Crewe Alexandra is Cheshire’s most successful football club. The team plays at Gresty Road in Crewe. Macclesfield Town also plays league football; the team is based at Moss Rose in Macclesfield. Chester Racecourse is the oldest racing venue in England.

VII.

Places of Interest

The most important centre of tourism is Chester, the only city in England to have preserved the entire length of its Roman and medieval walls, which surround the city centre. At the north-eastern corner of the walls is King Charles Tower, from which Charles I is said to have watched his army defeated at the Battle of Rowton Moor in 1645. The Anglican cathedral church of Christ and the Virgin Mary is mainly from the 14th century. The attractions of Chester also include the partially excavated Roman amphitheatre, the largest in Great Britain, an ornate clock erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, and the Rows—shops dating from the 13th century, or earlier, which are set at first-floor level to remove pedestrians from the danger of traffic and, in bygone days, mud-filled streets. There are a number of stately homes in Cheshire, including the Tudor house Little Moreton Hall at Congleton, the Victorian Arley Hall near Northwich, 18th-century Capesthorne Hall in Macclesfield, and Bramall Hall, a black and white timber-framed building in Stockport.

The older part of Runcorn is almost entirely surrounded by the Bridgewater Navigation and the Manchester Ship canals. The ruins of a Norman castle are to be seen high on a hill at Beeston, and some 14 km (9 mi) to the south-west are the ruins of the 13th-century Holt Castle. Great Neston, on the Wirral, was the birthplace of Emma, Lady Hamilton. Near to Northwich is the Anderton Lift, a remarkable engineering device that lifts barges some 15 m (50 ft) from the River Weaver to place them on the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Cheshire has a number of museums. The astronomical centre at Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, which has a planetarium and exhibitions, is dominated by the 76 m (250 ft) radio-telescope dish. At Macclesfield there is a museum devoted to silk manufacture, and in Northwich a salt museum. Grosvenor Museum in Chester offers the history of Chester through the ages, and Halton Chemical Industry Museum is in Widnes. Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, at Nantwich, has been opened to the public who can explore the extensive underground complex. A 28-m (91-ft) high sculpture, known as Encounter, was erected near Birchwood in 2002 and is one of the tallest pieces of public art in the country.

VIII.

Economy

Despite the industrial areas of north Cheshire, the county is still largely agricultural, and there is extensive dairy farming. Very little Cheshire cheese is still made by traditional farmhouse methods, the bulk being produced in factories. Fruit is also grown. Macclesfield was renowned for centuries as a centre of the silk-weaving industry, which was also carried on at Congleton. Silk mills still exist in Macclesfield, but output has declined at Congleton.

One of the oldest industries in Cheshire (and England) is salt-mining. Northwich, Nantwich, and Middlewich grew wealthy on salt, which is still mined today, supplying both the household market and the chemical industry. Crewe is one of Britain's most important railway junctions, and indeed can be considered a railway town, although it is also the site of factories producing engines for luxury cars. At Ellesmere Port there is a large oil refinery. The northern part of the county—including the two former Lancashire districts, Halton and Warrington, and the areas of Cheshire lost to Greater Manchester in 1974—was once a thriving area for the cotton industry. This has now largely been replaced by metal manufacturing in Warrington, and by chemical works in Halton, Warrington, Runcorn, and Widnes. While tourism is one of the main industries in Chester today, the city was once an important port until Liverpool took over this role in the 15th and 16th centuries.

IX.

History

The land covered by modern Cheshire has considerable evidence of early settlement. There are Iron Age hill forts at Brown Knowl, Castle Ditches, and Helsby; at Alderley Edge, north of Macclesfield, there are Bronze Age copper and lead mines. In Lindow Marsh, not far from Knutsford, the preserved body of a man dating from 500 bc, the “Lindow Bogman”, was discovered in 1984 (See bog bodies).

Before the county existed as such, the city of Chester was founded by the Romans in about ad 48 as a fortress on the western frontier of Britain. It was captured by the Northumbrian king, Ethelfrith in about 614. Some 200 years later the whole area of Cheshire was part of the kingdom of Mercia. When Mercia disintegrated in the 10th century, it became recognized as a shire; the county borders were firmly established by 1536 and remained unchanged until the reorganization of 1974. At the time of the Norman invasion, the people of Cheshire offered stubborn resistance; Chester was the last town to yield to William I (the Conqueror). After the Norman Conquest and until the 16th century, Cheshire was a county palatine, or a feudal province, under the Earl of Cheshire, with its own parliament. During the 12th and 13th centuries incursions by the Welsh were frequent, and the fortified city of Chester was used in a number of military campaigns, notably by Edward I in 1276 when he made his first attempt to subdue the Welsh. During the Wars of the Roses, the county allied itself to the Lancastrian cause. In the Civil War, Chester became the headquarters of the royalist forces until its surrender in 1646, while Nantwich was occupied by the Parliamentarians.