Portal:Cheshire
|
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
The Peak District is an upland area of England that forms the southern end of the Pennines. Lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, the region also covers the east of Cheshire, as well as several other counties. Most of the area falls within the Peak District National Park, the first National Park in England and Wales to be designated and, as of 2018, the fifth largest. The Cheshire region forms part of the South West Peak area of the Dark Peak, whose gritstone and shale supports heather moorland and blanket bog environments. Rough sheep pasture and grouse shooting are the main land uses. Features include the hills and edges of Shining Tor, Shutlingsloe, Tegg's Nose, The Cloud and Windgather Rocks, the Dane, Dean and Goyt rivers, and the woodland of Macclesfield Forest. The national park attracts millions of visitors every year, with tourism forming a major part of the economy. Recreational activities include walking, climbing, caving, fell running, orienteering, horse riding, cycling, hang gliding, paragliding and birdwatching on the fells; sailing, fishing and canoeing on reservoirs such as Lamaload; and visiting historic houses such as Lyme Park. Selected image
Three Shires' Head on Axe Edge Moor is the point at which Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire meet. The old packhorse bridge over the River Dane suggests that silk was carried from Hollinsclough in Staffordshire to the mills in Macclesfield via this spot. Credit: Rob Bendall (3 June 2009) In this month
September 1707: Physician Nathan Alcock born at Aston. 1 September 1858: Crewe and Shrewsbury Railway opened. 1 September 1876: Activist and editor Harriet Shaw Weaver born in Frodsham. 1 September 2007: Cheshire Regiment merged into the Mercian Regiment. 7 September 1917: Pilot and charity founder Leonard Cheshire born in Chester. 8 September 1949: Bernard Lovell and Charles Husband first meet at Jodrell Bank to discuss the 250-ft radio telescope. 14 September 1804: Landowner and poet Rowland Egerton-Warburton born in Norley. 16 September 1947: Comedian Russ Abbot born in Chester. 21 September 1642: Charles I brought his army to Chester during the Civil War. 24 September 1645: Battle of Rowton Heath (memorial pictured). 29 September 1908: Cheshire County Cricket Club founded. Selected list
The 23 listed buildings in Widnes include five at Grade II* and the remainder at Grade II. Widnes's oldest listed building is St Luke's Church, Farnworth, which dates from the 12th century. Other early structures include two 18th-century houses and a bridewell dating from 1827. In 1833, the Sankey Canal reached the area; the lock at the canal's terminus is another early listed structure. The St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway established a terminus adjacent to the canal, the world's first railway dock was constructed there and, in 1847, a chemical factory was established nearby. More chemical factories were built during the second half of the 19th century, and the town grew, absorbing the previously separated hamlets of Appleton, Cronton, Farnworth and Upton. The listed structures dating from after 1847 – including churches, cemetery chapels, the town hall, a war memorial, a health centre, railway stations, two bridges crossing the River Mersey, and the former power house of the demolished Widnes–Runcorn Transporter Bridge – largely reflect the growing population of the town and its increasing transport links. Structures relating to the chemical industry include Tower Building (pictured), formerly an office, and a sewer vent. Post-war listed structures include the Silver Jubilee Bridge (1956–61) and a Roman Catholic church and campanile (1960). 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
Rowland Eyles Egerton-Warburton (14 September 1804 – 6 December 1891) was a Cheshire landowner, garden designer and poet. Born at Norley, he inherited the Arley and Warburton estates, and is best remembered for rebuilding Arley Hall and its chapel, in association with the young Nantwich architect George Latham. With his wife, he designed formal gardens for the hall, including one of Britain's earliest herbaceous borders. The hall and its gardens are now an important tourist attraction. A keen fox hunter, he served as president of the Tarporley Hunt Club. His poetry collection, Hunting Songs, ran to eight editions, and some of his rhymes remain on signposts in the Arley Hall grounds. A major local benefactor, he built or restored three churches, two schools, a church hall, post office, public road and multiple cottages, many of which were designed by Chester architect John Douglas. He is particularly known for his work in giving the village of Great Budworth, "one of Cheshire's most charming villages", its present picturesque appearance. Did you know...
Selected town or village
Warmingham is a village and civil parish on the River Wheelock, near the towns of Crewe, Middlewich and Sandbach. The parish had a population of just under 250 in 2011. The land is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, with a village being documented from the 13th century. The oldest surviving building dates from the late 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries the parish had a finery forge, which was among the earliest in the county. The area is agricultural, with dairy farming the predominant land use. The Northwich Halite Formation, a Triassic salt field, underlies the parish, and there is a long history of local salt production, with the Warmingham brine field remaining an important source of the mineral. Cavities in the salt-bearing stratum are used to store natural gas. Several flashes were created in the 20th century by subsidence after natural brine pumping in the area, some of which form part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The village maintains the tradition of holding a wake each May. 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. QuotationThe tortuous wall—girdle, long since snapped, of the little swollen city, half held in place by careful civic hands—wanders in narrow file between parapets smoothed by peaceful generations, pausing here and there for a dismantled gate or a bridged gap, with rises and drops, steps up and steps down, queer twists, queer contacts, peeps into homely streets and under the brows of gables, views of cathedral tower and waterside fields, of huddled English town and ordered English country. Subcategories
TopicsRecommended articles.svg) Things you can do
WikiProject Related portalsAssociated WikimediaThe following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
Discover Wikipedia using portals | ||||||
