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ON-LINE GUIDE TO CHESHIRE
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This brief guide provides
summary information on towns, villages and places to visit
in Cheshire as well as some interesting
facts and anecdotes on the local area. To find a specific
place either scroll down the page or use the find
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There are many aspects to Cheshire: the rural landscape of the Cheshire Plains, the
textile towns in the east, the ancient salt towns and
the grand stately homes. Chester, the prosperous county town, was first established by
the Romans, who built a fort here to protect
against invasions from Wales. Salt had been mined
in Cheshire long before the Romans arrived but the particular need for brine for the
fledgling chemical manufacturers along the River
Mersey saw a great increase in activity. Further east
is the famous silk town of Macclesfield, while
Styal was created as a model village for one of
the first cotton mills in the area, Quarry Bank
Mill. Cheshire is also home to some of the
country's grandest country houses, including Tatton
Park, Arley Hall, Tabley Hall and Dunham Massey Hall.
Chester
It was in AD 70 that the famous 20th Legion, the Valeria
Victrix, established its headquarters and took full advantage of
Chester's strategic position on the River Dee, close to the Welsh border.
During this period the City Walls were first built; today they remain
the most complete in the country and provide an excellent 2-mile walk
as well as fine views of the River Dee, Chester's glorious buildings and
the Welsh mountains in the distance. At one point, the wall
runs alongside St John Street, which was in Roman times the
main thoroughfare between the fortress and the
Amphitheatre, the largest such construction to be
uncovered in Britain and one that was capable of seating 7,000 spectators.
The Normans began the
construction of what is now Chester
Cathedral, a majestic building of weathered pink
stone on a site that has been a place of worship for 1,000 years. It
was originally an abbey - one of the very few to survive Henry
VIII's closure of the monasteries in the 1540s - and the cloisters
are regarded as the finest in England. It was at Chester Cathedral,
in 1742, that George Frederick Handel personally
conducted rehearsals for his oratorio The
Messiah before its first performance in Dublin.
During the Civil War Chester supported the Royalist cause but
it was while watching from the city's walls that Charles I saw his
troops heavily defeated at nearby Rowton Moor. Chester has many
museums telling the city's story from Roman times through the dark days of
the Civil War to the present day. Visitors can also enjoy a
unique shopping experience - two-tiered galleries of reconstructed
medieval shops under covered walkways known as The
Rows.
The city has some ancient sporting links: Chester
Regatta hosts the oldest rowing races in the world, and Chester Races are
held on the oldest Racecourse in the country, The Roodeye. Finally,
no visit to Chester is complete without a trip to
Chester Zoo, at Upton-by-Chester on the city's
northern outskirts, and where, surrounded by landscaped gardens, over
500 different species can be seen in near natural enclosures.
Around Chester
Ashton
6½ miles E of Chester on the B5393
Maintained by the Forestry Commission since the early
1900s, Delamere Forest, once a hunting ground for royalty and the
nobility, lies just a couple of miles northeast of Ashton and although it is
an excellent place for walking and picnicking it remains a
working forest of some 4,000 acres.
Tarporley
9 miles E of Chester off the A49
At the time when most of the surrounding area was part
of Delamere Forest, Tarporley was the headquarters of the forest
wardens (the verderers) who meted out rough justice to offenders of
the forest laws from their own courts. One such court was at
Utkinton, just north of the town, and in an old farmhouse is the trunk of
an ancient forest tree with its roots still in the ground. When the court
was in session, the wardens placed the Hunting Horn of Delamere -
their symbol of authority - on the tree.
Beeston
9½ miles SE of Chester off the A49
Rising some 500 feet from the Cheshire Plain, the craggy cliff
of Beeston Hill is one of the most dramatic sights in the county and
it is made all the more impressive by the ruins of
Beeston Castle (the `Castle of the Rock') on
the summit. Although it was built in
around 1220, the castle did not see military action until the Civil
War when a Royalist captain and just eight musketeers captured
the fortress and its garrison of 60 soldiers - without even firing
a shot! Later, Cromwell ordered the castle to be partially destroyed
but it is still very imposing with walls 30 feet thick and a well 366
feet deep. An exhibition tells the 4,000-year story of the site.
Seen clearly from the top of Beeston Hill is another
of Cheshire's fortifications, Peckforton
Castle. Further south again from Beeston is
another marvellous mock medieval construction,
Cholmondeley Castle, built in the early
19th century and particularly noted for its gardens.
Farndon
7 miles S of Chester off the B5130
During the Civil War, Farndon's strategic position, between
Royalist North Wales and Parliamentarian Cheshire, along with its bridge,
led to many skirmishes and these events are depicted in the
stained glass windows of the parish church.
Farndon's most famous son, the cartographer John Speed,
was born in the village in 1542. Speed followed his father's trade as
a tailor, married, had 18 children and was nearly 50 before he began
to devote his time to researching and producing his beautifully
drawn maps.
Neston
10 miles NW of Chester on the B5135
Right up until the early 19th century, Neston was the
most significant town on The Wirral, the once desolate and wind
swept peninsula that, following the rise of shipbuilding and other industries
in the 19th century, has not only become a desirable place to live
but has also been justifiably dubbed the `Leisure Peninsula' by
tourism officials.
One of the Wirral's major attractions is Ness
Botanic Gardens, just to the southeast of Neston and situated on the
banks of the Dee Estuary. Now run by the University of Liverpool as
an Environmental and Horticultural Research Station, the
64-acre gardens have been planned to provide magnificent displays all
year round.
After Neston became useless as a port, maritime traffic
moved along the Dee estuary to Parkgate and, as the new gateway to
Ireland, this still attractive village saw some notable visitors: John
Wesley preached here while waiting for favourable winds to take him
to Ireland, Handel landed here after conducting his first performance
of The Messiah in Dublin, and Turner came here to sketch the
panoramic views across the estuary of the Flintshire hills.
To the east of Neston, centrally placed between the Dee
and Mersey estuaries, is the village of
Willaston, the home of Hadlow Road
Station. Although a train has not run through here
since
1962, the station, along with its signal box and ticket office,
has been restored to appear as it would have done in the early 1950s.
This is one of the more intriguing features of the
Wirral Way, a nature reserve and walk that follows the track bed of the
old railway between Hooton and West Kirkby. On the Mersey side of
the Wirral peninsula lies Eastham Woods Country
Park, an area of woodland that is home to all
three species of native woodpecker.
Further up the Mersey lies Ellesmere
Port, situated at the point where the Shropshire
Union Canal meets the River Mersey. The canal basin is now home to
The Boat Museum, where the world's largest collection of historic
narrow boats and barges has been assembled.
Nantwich
This attractive market town surrounded by the rich
dairy farmlands of south Cheshire was once second only in importance
in the county to Chester, its prosperity built on the mining of salt.
The most disastrous event in Nantwich's long history was
its great fire in 1583 that saw some 600 thatched and
timber-framed buildings destroyed. The most striking building to survive the
fire, probably because it was surrounded by a moat, is the lovely black
and white house in Hospital Street that is known as
Churche's Mansion after the merchant,
Richard Churche, who built it in 1577. The
upper floor has been furnished in the Elizabethan style and is open
to the public during the summer. Another building spared from
the fire is the town's impressive 14th century church that is often
called the Cathedral of South Cheshire.
During the Civil War Nantwich supported
Cromwell's Parliamentarian army and, after several weeks of fighting,
the Royalist forces were finally defeated on 25th January 1644 and
the townspeople celebrated the victory by wearing sprigs of holly in
their hair. There are records of the Civil War in the
Nantwich Museum, which also contains exhibitions
on the town's long history and its salt, dairy and cheese-making industries.
Around Nantwich
Crewe
4 miles NE of Nantwich on the A534
Crewe is very much a product of the railway age and it was
only when the Grand Junction Railway arrived here in 1837 and, five
years later, moved all its construction and repair workshops to this site
that the town was founded. The Railway Age
Museum, re-opened Easter 2006, offers a
fascinating insight into Crewe's place in railway history.
Congleton
14½ miles NE of Nantwich on the A534
In the foothills of the Pennines, the land around Congleton has
been inhabited since the Stone Age and the remains of a
5,000-year-old
chambered tomb, known as The Bridestones, can be seen
beside the road running eastwards from the town towards Leek.
In Elizabethan times, the people of the town had such a passion
for bear baiting that it became known locally as the Bear Town,
and Congleton was the very last town in England to outlaw this
cruel practice.
The town developed as an important textile centre during
the 18th century with many of its mills involved in silk
manufacturing, cotton spinning and ribbon weaving. In
Mill Green, near the River Dane, part of the very
first silk mill to operate here still stands.
Just a couple of miles south of Congleton lies the pretty village
of Astbury set around a triangular village green. Black and white
half-timbered houses have almost become a symbol for the county
of Cheshire and one of the most stunning examples of all is
Little Moreton Hall, the `wibbly wobbly' house
that provided the memorable location for the
television adaptation of Moll Flanders.
Further south again lies the famous folly,
Mow Cop, which
was built by Randle Wilbraham in the 18th century on his Rode
Hall estate to enhance the view from his house. This mock ruin stands on
a rocky hill, some 1,100 feet above sea level and, from its summit, on
a clear day, there are magnificent views across the Pennines to
the northeast, Cheshire to the west, and northwards to Alderley Edge.
Sandbach
8½ miles NE of Nantwich on the A534
The handsome market square of this former important
coaching town is dominated by its two famous stone crosses.
Although only the superbly carved shafts have survived, the crosses
were created sometime in the 9th century and the striking scenes they
depict are believed to represent the conversion of Mercia
to Christianity during the reign of King Penda.
Knutsford
The Knutsford of the 19th century that Elizabeth Gaskell wrote
about so vividly has expanded a great deal, but its centre still evokes
the intimacy of a small Victorian town with its narrow streets and
cobbled alleyways. More recent is the Gaskell Memorial
Tower, a tall blank-walled building that was erected in her memory
by entrepreneur and glove manufacturer Richard Harding
Watt in 1907.
It was back in 1262 that Edward I granted the town
a charter and the Knutsford
Heritage Centre, housed in a timber-framed 17th century
former smithy, is an ideal place to discover more of the town's long history.
Close by is an unusual exhibition, the Penny
Farthing Museum. These curious machines were in fashion for just 20
years before the last model was manufactured in 1892, and
the collection here includes a replica of the famous `Starley Giant' with
a front wheel that is seven feet in diameter!
Just north of Knutsford is Tatton Park, a historic
country estate that is centred on a magnificent Georgian mansion.
A short walk from the grand house is Home Farm, the heart of
the estate, where there are the old estate offices and many
original farm animal breeds to be seen. Surrounding the mansion is a
vast deer park that has a history stretching back to 8000 BC
when the deer here were hunted for meat and clothing.
Another grand Georgian mansion, Tabley
House, lies to the west of Knutsford. Designed
by John Carr for the 1st Lord de Tabley in 1761, the house today
is home to a wonderful collection of English paintings, including
works by Turner, Reynolds and Opie, that were put together by Lord
Tabley and his son, who were the founders of London's National Gallery.
To the south of Knutsford is the charming Cheshire village
of Lower Peover and the delightful old coaching inn the Bells
of Peover, which flies not only the
Union Flag but also the American Stars and Stripes to
commemorate the visit made here by General Patton and Eisenhower
during World War II. For a time, in those dark days, General Patton lived
at nearby
Peover Hall.
Around Knutsford
Wilmslow
6 miles NE of Knutsford on the A538
Just to the north of the bustling commuter town of Wilmslow
and surrounded by the 150-acre Styal Country Park is
Quarry Bank Mill, a grand old building
dating from 1784 that was one of the first generation of cotton mills.
Visitors can follow the history of the mill through a series of
museum displays, see weaving and spinning demonstrations and discover
what life was like for the children who lived at the Apprentice House.
Also within the park is the delightful factory village of
Styal, which was established by the mill's original owner, Samuel Greg,
a philanthropist and pioneer of the factory system.
To the south of Wilmslow lies the long wooded
escarpment, Alderley Edge, nearly two
miles long, that rises to 600 feet and culminates in sandy
crags overlooking the Cheshire Plain. Walkers can roam through
the woods along the many footpaths, one of which leads to
Hare Hill Gardens, whose Victorian grounds
include fine woodland and a walled garden themed
in blue, white and yellow flowers.
Stalybridge
6 miles E of Manchester on the A57
Set beside the River Tame and with the North Pennine
Moors stretching for miles to the east, Stalybridge was one of the
earliest cotton towns. One of the cotton workers' most prominent
leaders was the Rev Joseph Rayner Stephens, and a granite obelisk
in his memory stands in the town's Stamford Park.
Bollington
11 miles E of Knutsford on the B5091
A striking feature of this former cotton town is the splendid
20-arched viaduct that once carried the railway over the River Dean
and which today is part of the Middlewood
Way, a 10-mile country trail that follows a
scenic, traffic-free route from Macclesfield to Marple. Just as remarkable
as the viaduct is White Nancy, a round stone tower that stands
on the 900-ft summit of Kerridge Hill; it was built to
commemorate the Battle of Waterloo.
Macclesfield
11 miles SE of Knutsford on the A523
The town nestles below the High Peak, and it was on this rock
that Edward I and Queen Eleanor founded a church. Reached via
a gruelling flight of 108 steps, the Church of St Michael and
All Angels was extended in the 1890s, but its early core remains,
including the Legh Chapel that was built in 1422 to receive the body of
Piers Legh, who had fought at Agincourt and died at the Siege of Meaux.
It was in Macclesfield in 1743 that Charles Roe built the first
silk mill beside the River Bollin. The industry flourished and, 150
years later, it had become known as the Silk Town. Several
excellent museums tell the story of the town's connection with silk.
On the northwestern edge of the town is the West Park
Museum, whose exhibits include a collection of Egyptian antiquities and a
gallery devoted to the work of Charles Tunnicliffe.
To the east of the town centre runs the Macclesfield
Canal, one of the highest waterways in England, that was opened in
1831 and which links with the Trent and Mersey and the Peak Forest canals.
Between Macclesfield and Congleton, the canal descends
over 100 feet in a spectacular series of 12 locks before crossing the
River Dane by Thomas Telford's handsome iron viaduct.
Another unusual feature of this superbly engineered canal are the
two `roving bridges' south of Congleton
that swing from one bank to the other, where the towpath
changes sides, and enable horses to cross over without having to unhitch
the towrope.
Close to the village of Warren, a couple of miles southwest
of Macclesfield, is the black and white half-timbered
Gawsworth Hall that was built in 1480 by the
Fitton family. The celebrated beauty Mary Fitton is believed to be the
`Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets. Gawsworth's famous
open-air theatre stages a summer programme that ranges
from Shakespeare to Gilbert and Sullivan opera.
Lower Withington
6½ miles SE of Knutsford on the B5392
To the northwest of this village, and visible from miles around,
is the huge white dish of the world famous Jodrell
Bank radio telescope that first came into service in 1957. The
Science Centre here offers visitors a wonderful array of
hands-on exhibits, and a superb 35-acre Arboretum is planted with
2,500 species of trees and shrubs. It houses the National Collections
of Sorbus and Malus.
Northwich
7 miles SW of Knutsford on the A559
Although salt production in Cheshire began even before
the Roman occupation, its extraction and processing at Northwich
began on a major scale in 1670 when rock salt was discovered in
nearby Marston. Its extraction from the
Keuper marl of the Cheshire Plain has had some spectacular
side effects - in Elizabethan times, John Leland recorded that a hill
at Combermere suddenly disappeared into underground workings!
Northwich later became notorious for the number of its
buildings leaning at crazy angles due to the subsidence - the White Lion
Inn lies a complete storey lower than its original height.
Cheshire's and Northwich's long involvement with salt is
vividly recorded at the Salt Museum which is housed in what used to
be the Northwich Workhouse, a handsome Georgian
building designed by the architect of Arley Hall.
To the north of the town is one of the most impressive feats
of engineering of the canal age and one of the country's
most fascinating attractions - the Anderton Boat
Lift, constructed in 1875 to transfer boats from
the Trent and Mersey Canal to the Weaver Navigation 50 feet below.
It was designed by Edward Leader Williams, the engineer behind
the
Manchester Ship Canal, and is now fully restored; two barges
could enter the lift's upper tanks, two the lower, and, by pumping water
out of the lower tank, the boats exchanged places and canals.
About a mile north of Anderton, Marbury Country
Park was formerly part of a large country estate but the area is
now managed by Cheshire County Council whose wardens
have created a variety of habitats for plants, trees and animals.
In Victorian times, the Old Salt Mine at
Marston, just northeast of Northwich, was a huge tourist attraction: in 1844,
the Tsar of Russia sat down to dinner, along with eminent members of
the Royal Society, in a huge cavern that was lit by 10,000 lamps. The
village is home to the Lion Salt Works
Museum, where volunteers keep alive the only surviving
open-pan saltworks in the country.
Great Budworth
6 miles W of Knutsford off the A559
To the north of this village of attractive old cottages lies
another of Cheshire's great estates, Arley Hall and
Gardens, where visitors can find one of its
grandest houses in perfect harmony with one of the county's
finest gardens.
Along with the sumptuous stately home that had all the latest
state-of-the-art innovations, the conservationist Squire
Egerton-Warburton and his wife masterminded the
magnificent gardens; he is credited with creating what is believed to be the
first herbaceous border in England.
Warrington
Warrington is North Cheshire's largest town - an
important industrial centre since Georgian and Victorian times and
with substantial buildings of those days to prove it. Its imposing
Town Hall was built in 1750 in very grand style with windows
framed in painfully expensive copper, and elaborately designed
entrance gates. A major Victorian contribution to the town is
its excellent Museum and Art Gallery in Bold Street, one of
the earliest municipal museums. The exhibits are remarkably
varied: among them are shrunken heads, a unique china teapot collection,
a scold's bridle, Egyptian mummies, Roman artefacts and some very
fine Victorian watercolours and oils.
Around Warrington
Widnes
6 miles SW of Warrington on the A557
Widnes stands on the north shore of the Mersey, linked to
Runcorn by a remarkably elegant road bridge. A popular attraction
is Spike Island, which provides a landscaped walk from which
the superstructures of ships passing along the Manchester Ship
Canal can be seen gliding past.
Daresbury
5 miles SW of Warrington on the A558
All Saints Church in Daresbury has a unique stained glass window:
there are panels depicting a Gryphon and a Cheshire Cat, others show a
Mock Turtle, a March Hare and a Mad Hatter. This is of course the
Lewis Carroll Memorial Window, commemorating the author of
Alice in Wonderland. Carroll himself is shown at one side, dressed
in clerical garb and kneeling. His father was Vicar of Daresbury
when Carroll was born here in 1832 and baptised as Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson. The boy enjoyed an apparently idyllic childhood
at Daresbury until his father moved to another parish when
Charles/Lewis was eleven years old.
Runcorn
7 miles SW of Warrington on the A557
Runcorn is one of Britain's best known post-war new
towns, developed around a much older town bearing the same
name. Here, Norton Priory is always a delightful and intriguing place for
a family outing, whatever the weather. The Augustinian
priory was built in 1134 as a retreat for just 12 `black canons', so
named because they wore a cape of black woollen cloth over a white
linen surplice. Work by the Norton Priory Museum Trust
has
uncovered the remains of the church, chapter house,
cloisters and dormitory, and these finds are informatively explained in
an audio-visual presentation. The Museum is open every
afternoon, all year; the Gardens, which include a charming walled
garden, are open from April to October.
Lymm
4 miles SE of Warrington on the A56
During the stage coach era, Eagle Brow was notorious, a
dangerously steep road that dropped precipitously down the hillside
into the village of Lymm. To bypass this hazard, a turnpike was built
(now the A56), so preserving the heart of this ancient village with its
half-timbered houses and well preserved village stocks. Lymm Dam,
popular with anglers and bird-watchers, is part of a lovely woodland
centre which is linked to the surrounding countryside and the canal
towpath by a network of footpaths and bridleways.
Dunham Massey
4 miles E of Lymm on B5160
Dunham Massey Hall and Park (National Trust) has 250 acres
of parkland where fallow deer roam freely and noble trees planted in
the late 1700s still flourish. A restored water mill is usually in
operation every Wednesday, and there are splendid walks in every
direction. The Hall, once the home of the Earls of Stamford and
Warrington, is a grand Georgian mansion of 1732 that boasts an
outstanding collection of furniture, paintings
and Huguenot silver. The Hall is open most days from April
to October; the Park is open every day.
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