Portal:Cheshire
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The Cheshire Portal
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. The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey. When it was constructed in the mid 1950s, it was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m (250 ft) in diameter. It is now the third largest, after the Green Bank and Effelsberg telescopes. It forms part of the MERLIN and European VLBI Network arrays of radio telescopes. Originally known as the 250 ft telescope or the Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank, then as the Mark I telescope when future telescopes (the Mark II, III and IV) were being discussed around 1961, it was renamed the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Bernard Lovell. Lovell and Charles Husband were both knighted for their roles in creating the telescope. The Lovell Telescope became a Grade I listed building in 1988, and won the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest "Unsung Landmark" in 2006. Ashtree Farmhouse originally dates from the early 17th century, with a cross-wing added in 1697. It is one of the listed buildings in the large village of Willaston on the Wirral Peninsula. Credit: Rodhullandemu (26 June 2018) 5 June 1965: Engine fire on Crewe–Carlisle train between Crewe and Winsford fatally injured driver Wallace Oakes. 6 June 1690: William III stayed at Combermere Abbey on his way to the Battle of the Boyne. 7 June 1940: Actor Ronald Pickup born in Chester. 7 June 1954: Mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing died in Wilmslow. 8 June 1825: Ten to twelve thousand people attended the funeral of Sir John Grey Egerton of Oulton Park, MP for Chester and Freemason, at Little Budworth. 10 June 1878: Chester Tramways Company started operating horse-drawn trams in Chester. 10 June 1931: Chester Zoo opened. 14 June 1988: Lindow IV discovered at Lindow Moss. 16 June 1967: Daresbury Laboratory (pictured) officially opened by Harold Wilson, prime minister. 18 June 1886: Mountaineer George Mallory born in Mobberley. 19 June 2011: Fire damaged east wing of Peckforton Castle. 23 June 1999: Train crash near Winsford injured 31 people. 24 June 1604: Plague started in Nantwich, with around 430 deaths by the following March. 25 June 1897: Actor Basil Radford born in Chester. 26 June 1923: Jazz musician and bandleader Syd Lawrence born in Wilmslow. 27 June 1919: X-ray crystallographer Alexander Stokes born in Macclesfield. The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese encompasses most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula. It has its see in Chester; the seat is located at Chester Cathedral, which was formerly the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Werburgh, being elevated to cathedral status in 1541. The Bishop's residence is Bishop's House, Chester. Cheshire previously held a bishopric in 1075–1102, when Peter of Lichfield moved his seat to Chester. The seat was then at the collegiate church of St John the Baptist. The present diocese was formed in 1541, when Henry VIII created it, without papal sanction, as one of six new episcopal sees. The first bishop of the modern diocese was John Bird (1541–54), a doctor of divinity who had attracted the king's attention by his sermons preached against the pope's supremacy. As of 2020, the bishopric is held by Mark Tanner. 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): 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. 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.
Sound is a small settlement and civil parish near Nantwich. The parish covers 1,089 acres (441 ha) and also includes Newtown and Sound Heath, with a total population of around 240 in 2011. The name is of Saxon origin and means "a sandy place". The first record of the township is in 1310. It was raided by Royalist forces in 1643, during the Civil War. The Methodist chapel was built in 1838, and a primary school on the boundary with Broomhall opened in 1876. Other historic buildings include a rare example of a malt kiln. The area is mainly agricultural, with dairy farming predominating. The flat terrain has an average elevation of around 60 metres. The River Weaver runs along the southern boundary and the Welsh Marches railway line crosses the parish. Sound Heath, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve, is an important habitat for freshwater invertebrates and breeding birds. Nationally scarce species observed here include the mud snail, great raft spider, a species of water scavenger beetle and the beautiful snout moth. 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. Ere our Kennel a coal-hole envelop'd in smoke, The green collar faded, good fellowship o'er, Let Geoffrey record, in the reign of Queen Vic, From "On the Picture of the Cheshire Hunt" by Rowland Egerton-Warburton (1840)
WikiProject Cheshire There are 3,619 articles in the project's scope Related WikiProjects UK Geography • England Greater Manchester • Lancashire and Cumbria • Merseyside • YorkshireThe following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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