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
Eddisbury hill fort, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, is the largest and most complex of the seven Iron Age hill forts, or fortified hill-top settlements, in Cheshire. Located on Eddisbury Hill of the Mid Cheshire Ridge near the village of Delamere, Eddisbury falls within the southern group of Cheshire forts, together with Kelsborrow Castle and Oakmere hill fort. Eddisbury was constructed before 200–100 BC and expanded in 1–50 AD. The fort was partially destroyed by the Romans in the 1st century AD, to prevent the site being reused. It was reoccupied in the 6th–8th centuries AD, and an Anglo-Saxon burh was probably established there in 914 by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. Excavations were carried out on the site in 1935–38. The fort measures 200 by 380 metres and is surrounded by two ramparts separated by a ditch 10 metres wide and 0.5 metres deep. Quarrying and ploughing have damaged the site, leading to it being assessed as "at high risk". The land is partly owned by the Forestry Commission and partly in private ownership. Selected image
Scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in a panel at All Saints' Church, Daresbury, honouring Lewis Carroll, whose father Charles Dodgson was the priest (1827–1843). It was designed by Geoffrey Webb, based on John Tenniel's illustrations. Credit: Peter I. Vardy (7 April 2007) In this month
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. Selected list
A total of 43 churches and chapels in Cheshire are listed at grade I. Although Christian churches have existed in the county since the Anglo-Saxon era, no significant Saxon features remain in its listed churches. Surviving Norman architecture is found, notably in Chester Cathedral and St John the Baptist, Chester. Most of the grade-I-listed churches are in the Gothic style, dating between the 13th and the 17th centuries, predominantly in the Perpendicular style. There are some examples of Neoclassical architecture, including St Peter, Aston-by-Sutton, and St Peter, Congleton. The only buildings dating from a later period are Waterhouse's Eaton Chapel in French Rayonnant style, and Bodley's Church of St Mary at Eccleston, in Gothic Revival style, both from the 19th century. Major building materials are the local sandstone and limestone. A handful of timber-framed churches survive, some of which have been encased in brick; examples include St Michael, Baddiley (pictured), St Luke, Holmes Chapel, St Oswald, Lower Peover, and St James and St Paul, Marton. 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
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult (8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Born in Chester, he was educated at Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Leipzig Conservatory, where he learned to conduct by watching the eminent Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch. He made his concert debut in 1914, and conducted the first performance of Holst's The Planets in 1918. Boult conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 1924–30 and 1959–60, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for twenty years from its inception in 1930. After his controversial enforced retirement from the BBC Symphony, he became Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 1957. He continued to conduct and make recordings until 1981. Particularly associated with 20th century British music, Boult's prolific recordings include the complete Vaughan Williams symphonies, as well as many works by Elgar and Holst. The main auditorium (pictured) of the Birmingham Conservatoire was named for him. Did you know...
Selected town or village
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the borough of Halton. It stands on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap, spanned by the Silver Jubilee Bridge (pictured) and the Mersey Gateway. The Manchester Ship Canal runs between the town and the Mersey, and is joined by the Bridgewater Canal. The earliest reference to the settlement is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Rumcofan, meaning "a wide cove or bay". A small, isolated village until the coming of the Industrial Revolution, various industries developed in Runcorn during the 19th century, in particular, soap and alkali manufacture, quarrying, shipbuilding, engineering and tanning. Only the chemical industry remains important, and diversification has been driven by good access to the transport network. A new town was built to the east of the existing town in the 1960s and 1970s which, together with later developments further east, has resulted in the population doubling to more than 60,000. In the newsQuotationThere is a whiff of Stalinism in the air. Councillors who oppose the plan are threatened with de-selection. The accountants who have costed it believe that it is not financially viable: a single unitary authority would serve the county better. The chief executive of the County Council describes it as "perverse and deeply flawed". The children are especially at risk, since a single education authority which is a model of its kind would be replaced by two of unknowable quality. The people of Cheshire are up in arms yet feel powerless to resist. Martin Bell on the split into two unitary authorities, The Guardian (18 February 2008)
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