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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
Cholmondeley Castle is a grade-II*-listed country house in Cholmondeley in the form of a battlemented sandstone castle. Built in 1801–5 for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who was responsible for much of the design, it was extended in 1817 and again in 1828–29 by Robert Smirke, who added a round tower. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall on a moated platform, largely demolished in the late 18th century. In the grounds stands the grade-I-listed St Nicholas' Chapel, which dates originally from the 13th century and was encased in brick in 1717. The original grounds were designed in the 17th century by George London as a formal garden and re-modelled by William Emes, who converted part into a landscape park with two lakes. The remaining formal gardens include the Silver Garden, the Lily Pool Garden, the Rose Garden and the Temple Garden, which has a temple structure on an island. The gardens are open to the public in summer. Selected image
Elizabeth Gaskell's novel, Cranford, serialised in 1851–53, is set in a fictionalised version of Knutsford, where Gaskell grew up. Gaskell describes many Cheshire customs in her works. Credit: Sybil Tawse (1914) In this month
July 1538: Dissolution of Combermere Abbey. July 1804: Runcorn to Latchford Canal opened. 1 July 1869: Statue of Richard Grosvenor unveiled in Grosvenor Park. 4 July 1837: First trains crossed Dutton Viaduct. 4 July 1887: Queens Park, Crewe dedicated. 11 July 1910: Pulp author Hugh B. Cave born in Chester. 11 July 1978: Hybrid elephant Motty born at Chester Zoo. 14 July 1876: Chapel builder Thomas Hazlehurst born in Runcorn. 17 July 924: Edward the Elder (pictured) died at Farndon or Aldford. 17 July 1256: Edward, heir of Henry III and Lord of Chester, first visited Chester. 17 July 2015: An explosion at a wood-treatment mill in Bosley killed four employees. 20 July 1376: Charter of disafforestation of Wirral issued. 20 July 1816: Histologist and ophthalmologist William Bowman born in Nantwich. 21 July 1961: Silver Jubilee Bridge officially opened by Princess Alexandra. 23 July 1403: Sir Richard Venables and Richard de Vernon executed for supporting Henry "Hotspur" Percy in the Battle of Shrewsbury. 27 July 1962: Olympic gold medallist swimmer Neil Brooks born in Crewe. 29 July 1940: Crewe hit by first Cheshire air raid of Second World War. Selected list
The 55 listed buildings in Lymm include one at Grade I, one at Grade II* and the remainder at Grade II. Lymm's oldest listed building is the late-16th-century Lymm Hall, on the site of the medieval manorial seat. Industries developed from the 16th century, and workers' cottages from the fustian-cutting industry have survived. The Bridgewater Canal, completed in 1776, runs through the town, and many of the listed structures are associated with it, including three aqueducts, two bridges and a dock. The damming of Bradley Brook with Lymm Dam in 1821–24 to enhance the water supply created a lake to the south of the town; two associated bridges are listed. After the arrival of the railway in 1853, substantial mid-Victorian houses were built in Gothic and Italianate styles. Lymm stands on the Mid Cheshire Ridge and many of the listed buildings are sandstone. Surface outcrops occur, for example, under the Grade-I-listed Lymm Cross (pictured). There are also a few listed timber-framed buildings, which are relatively rare in the borough of Warrington. Unusual listed structures include an octagonal water tower with battlements, icehouse, pigeon house, mounting block, milepost, stone-lined well, war memorial, water-point case and the village stocks. 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
Plegmund (or Plegemund) was a medieval scholar and archbishop who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries. Little is known about his early life, but a later tradition holds that he lived as a hermit at Plemstall, which means "holy place of Plegmund". By 887, King Alfred the Great had summoned him to court, where he worked to translate Pope Gregory the Great's treatise Pastoral Care into Old English. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the king in 890. He reorganised the Diocese of Winchester, creating four new sees, and continued to translate religious texts. In 908, he travelled to Rome, the first Archbishop of Canterbury to do so for nearly a century. Plegmund was canonised after his death, on 2 August in either 914 or 923. The second of August was celebrated as his feast day. Did you know...
Selected town or village
Bradwall is a small village and civil parish near Sandbach. The name derives from the Old English, and means "broad spring". It covers an area of 1,938 acres (7.84 km2) and had a population of 182 in 2011. Archaeological finds include a Late Bronze Age axe head and a hoard of Roman coins. The village is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but became known from the 13th century as the manorial estate of Richard de Bradwall and his successors, including the families of Venables, Berington and Oldfield. From the early 19th century, it became the seat of the Latham family who lived at Bradwall Hall (pictured) until its demolition in the early 20th century. Surviving historic buildings include the hall's coach-house, Bradwall Reformatory School, built by the Latham family in 1855, and the Wesleyan Methodist Church, founded in 1882. The manufacturer of Foden Trucks and their award-winning Fodens Motor Works Band were based in the civil parish until a 1936 boundary change. The area is now predominantly agricultural, with a mix of dairy and arable. Visitor activities include coarse fishing, horse riding and eventing (horse trials). 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. QuotationIn the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble, distant only twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever does become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford. ... The ladies of Cranford are quite sufficient. "A man," as one of them observed to me once, "is so in the way in the house!" From Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1851–3)
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