Portal:Cheshire

Eaton Hall, the country house of the Duke of Westminster, stands near the village of Eccleston. A 17th-century house designed by William Samwell was replaced in the early 19th century by a much larger house by William Porden in the Gothic style, described by the future Queen Victoria as "magnificent". This in turn was replaced in 1870 by an even larger house by Alfred Waterhouse. Nikolaus Pevsner called this "the most ambitious instance of Gothic Revival domestic architecture anywhere in the country". By 1960 the fabric of the house had deteriorated and it was demolished, although the chapel and many of the outbuildings were retained. The new house by John Dennys was considered unsympathetic to the local landscape, and was recased in the late 1980s to give the appearance of a French château.

The house has been surrounded by formal gardens since the 17th century, designed and redesigned by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, John Webb and William Andrews Nesfield, among others. They are open to the public on three days a year. The estate also includes parkland, farmland and woodland, with a total area of around 10,872 acres (4,400 ha).

Stanlow Refinery at Ellesmere Port, near the River Mersey, has its origins in a small bitumen plant established in 1924. The complex now employs 800 people and handles 12 million tonnes of crude oil annually.

Credit: Peter Gordois (24 October 2006)

1 August 1984: Lindow Man bog body discovered.

2 August 1957: Lovell Telescope took its first image.

3 August 1952: Pianist Martin Roscoe born in Halton.

4 August 1643: Attack on Nantwich by Royalists led by Lord Capell during the Civil War.

4–6 August 1896: Princess Louise visited Crewe Hall and opened bazaar in aid of Crewe Memorial Hospital.

6 August 2012: Astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell died in Swettenham.

8 August 1953: First (private) motor race at Oulton Park.

9 August 1886: Grosvenor Museum officially opened by the First Duke of Westminster.

10 August 1933: Acton swing bridge over the Weaver opened.

11 August 1642: Confrontation between Sir William Brereton and Royalist forces near Ravensmoor during the Civil War.

13 August 1277: Foundation stones of Vale Royal Abbey laid by Edward I (pictured) and Eleanor of Castile.

15 August 1538: Dissolution of Chester's three friaries.

23–26 August 1617: James I visited Chester, Nantwich and Utkinton Hall, and hunted in Delamere Forest.

24 August 1538: Warrant issued for the dissolution of Vale Royal Abbey.

27 August 1781: First recorded game of cricket in the county.

29 August 1940: An air raid destroyed around fifty houses in Crewe.

Of the over 200 Scheduled Monuments in Cheshire, at least 34 date from after 1539, the end of the medieval period. Monuments are defined as sites deliberately constructed by human activity; some sites not visible above ground. They were formerly called "scheduled ancient monuments" but as they include structures dating from as late as the 1940s and 1950s, the word "ancient" has been dropped. They range in date from the early post-medieval period, through the Industrial Revolution, to the 20th century.

Early post-medieval monuments tend to be similar in type to those from the medieval period, namely moats or moated sites and churchyard crosses. Unusual post-medieval structures include a dovecote and a duck decoy. Many structures dating from the Industrial Revolution relate to the canal network, including the Anderton Boat Lift and several canal locks and bridges (example pictured). Industrial sites include the Lion Salt Works, the remains of a mine and a transporter bridge within a factory. The structures dating from the 20th century were constructed for the World Wars or the Cold War. They consist of a former Royal Air Force airfield and the remains of three sites for anti-aircraft guns.

Warrington

Chester

Crewe

Runcorn

Widnes

Ellesmere Port

Macclesfield

Winsford

Wilmslow

Congleton

Northwich

Sandbach

Nantwich

Poynton

Neston

Middlewich

Alsager

Knutsford

Lymm

MERSEYSIDE

GREATER MANCHESTER

D
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R
B
Y
S
H
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STAFFORD-SHIRE

SHROPSHIRE

WALES

Alderley Edge

Bickerton Hill

Bosley
Minn

The Cloud

Croker Hill

Old Pale

Helsby Hill

Peckforton Hills

Shining Tor

Shutlingsloe

Tegg's Nose

Windgather

Kerridge

Top: 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.

The ceremonial county of Cheshire is administered by four unitary authorities (click on the map for details):

1 – Cheshire West and Chester

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.

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