Product Code Database
Cheshire ( ) "Cheshire" . Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shropshire to the south; to the west it is bordered by the Welsh counties of Flintshire and Wrexham, and has a short coastline on the Dee Estuary. The largest settlement is Warrington.
The county has an area of and had a population of 1,095,500 at the 2021 census. The areas around the River Mersey in the north of the county are the most densely populated, with Warrington, Runcorn, Widnes, and Ellesmere Port located on the river. The city of Chester lies in the west of the county, Crewe in the south, and Macclesfield in the east. For local government purposes Cheshire comprises four unitary authority areas: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington. The county historically included all of the Wirral Peninsula and parts of southern Greater Manchester and northern Derbyshire, but excluded Widnes and Warrington.
The landscape of the county is dominated by the Cheshire Plain, an area of relatively flat land divided by the Mid-Cheshire Ridge. To the west, Cheshire contains the south of the Wirral Peninsula, and to the east the landscape rises to the Pennines, where the county contains part of the Peak District. The River Mersey runs through the north of Cheshire before broadening into its wide estuary; the River Dee forms part of the county's border with Wales, then fully enters England and flows through Chester before re-entering Wales upstream of its estuary. Red Triassic sandstone forms the bedrock of much of the county, and was used in the construction of many of its buildings.
Because of the historically close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west, which became modern Wales, there is a history of interaction between Cheshire and North Wales. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds (Atiscross and Exestan) that later became the principal part of Flintshire. Additionally, another large portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as English Maelor (Maelor Saesneg) when it was transferred to North Wales.Harris, B.E. and Thacker, A.T. (1987). pp. 340–341. For this and other reasons, the Welsh language name for Cheshire, Swydd Gaerlleon, is sometimes used.
The earldom was sufficiently independent from the kingdom of England that the 13th-century Magna Carta did not apply to the shire of Chester, so the earl wrote up his own Chester Charter at the petition of his barons.
Through the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, some areas in the north became part of the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Stockport (previously a county borough), Altrincham, Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge in the north-east became part of Greater Manchester. Much of the Wirral Peninsula in the north-west, including the county boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey, joined Merseyside as the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the same time the Tintwistle Rural District was transferred to Derbyshire. The area of south Lancashire not included within either the Merseyside or Greater Manchester counties, including Widnes and the county borough of Warrington, was added to the new non-metropolitan county of Cheshire.Local Government Act 1972
A referendum for a further local government reform connected with an elected regional assembly was planned for 2004, but was abandoned following the decisive 'no' vote in a similar referendum in North East England.
| Cheshire East | Sandbach | Sam Corcoran | |||||
| Cheshire West & Chester | Winsford, Ellesmere Port | Louise Gittins | |||||
| Halton | Widnes | Mike Wharton | |||||
| Warrington | Warrington | Russ Bowden |
Local government functions apart from the Police and Fire/Rescue services are carried out by four smaller unitary authorities: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington. All four unitary authority areas have borough status.
Policing and fire and rescue services are still provided across the county as a whole. The Cheshire Fire Authority consist of members of the four councils, while governance of Cheshire Constabulary is performed by the elected Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
Winsford is a major administrative hub for Cheshire with the Police and Fire & Rescue Headquarters based in the town as well as a majority of Cheshire West and Chester Council. It was also home to the former Vale Royal Borough Council and Cheshire County Council.
Devolution talks for the county were scheduled for Autumn 2024. Plans to establish a Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority were approved by the UK government in February 2025. Halton Borough has been a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority since that authority was established in 2014.
On 25 July 2007, the Secretary of State Hazel Blears announced she was 'minded' to split Cheshire into two new unitary authorities, Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East. She confirmed she had not changed her mind on 19 December 2007 and therefore the proposal to split two-tier Cheshire into two would proceed. Cheshire County Council leader Paul Findlow, who attempted High Court legal action against the proposal, claimed that splitting Cheshire would only disrupt excellent services while increasing living costs for all. On 31 January 2008 The Standard, Cheshire and district's newspaper, announced that the legal action had been dropped. Members against the proposal were advised that they may be unable to persuade the court that the decision of Hazel Blears was "manifestly absurd".
The Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority covers the area formerly occupied by the City of Chester and the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston and Vale Royal; Cheshire East now covers the area formerly occupied by the boroughs of Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, and Macclesfield. The changes were implemented on 1 April 2009.
Congleton pursued an appeal against the judicial review it lost in October 2007. The appeal was dismissed on 4 March 2008.
The eastern half of the county is Upper Triassic Mercia Mudstone laid down with large table salt deposits which were mined for hundreds of years around Winsford. Separating this area from Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone to the west is a prominent sandstone ridge known as the Mid Cheshire Ridge. A footpath,[4] the Sandstone Trail, follows this ridge from Frodsham to Whitchurch passing Delamere Forest, Beeston Castle and earlier Iron Age forts.
The western fringes of the Peak District - the southernmost extent of the Pennine range - form the eastern part of the county. The highest point (county top) in the historic county of Cheshire was Black Hill () near Crowden in the Cheshire Panhandle, a long eastern projection of the county which formerly stretched along the northern side of Longdendale and on the border with the West Riding of Yorkshire.Bradt Guides, Stockport & the Cheshire Panhandle, accessed 8 January 2022AbeBooks, Framed 19th Century Lithograph - Map of Cheshire, showing the Panhandle to the north east of the county, accessed 8 January 2022 Black Hill is now the highest point in the ceremonial county of West Yorkshire.
Within the current ceremonial county and the unitary authority of Cheshire East the highest point is Shining Tor on the Derbyshire/Cheshire border between Macclesfield and Buxton, at above sea level. After Shining Tor, the next highest point in Cheshire is Shutlingsloe, at above sea level. Shutlingsloe lies just to the south of Macclesfield Forest and is sometimes humorously referred to as the "Matterhorn of Cheshire" thanks to its distinctive steep profile.
In 2001, the population density of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester was 32 people per km2, lower than the North West average of 42 people/km2 and the England and Wales average of 38 people/km2. Ellesmere Port and Neston had a greater urban density than the rest of the county with 92 people/km2.
| +Population totals for Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester | |||||||||
| Pre-1974 statistics were gathered from local government areas that now compose Cheshire Source: Great Britain Historical GIS. | |||||||||
Of the 2% in non-white ethnic groups:
The boundary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester follows most closely the pre-1974 county boundary of Cheshire, so it includes all of Wirral, Stockport, and the Cheshire panhandle that included Tintwistle Rural District council area. Chester Diocese (Church of England). Official website. Accessed on 30 September 2007. In terms of Roman Catholic church administration, most of Cheshire falls into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury. Diocese of Shrewsbury (Roman Catholic). Official website. Accessed on 30 September 2007.
| + GVA and GDP by local authority district in 2021 | ||||
| Cheshire East | £14.6 | £36,559 | £16.1 | £40,142 |
| Cheshire West and Chester | £11.7 | £32,846 | £13.1 | £36,518 |
| Warrington | £8.5 | £40,085 | £9.3 | £44,205 |
Cheshire has a diverse economy with significant sectors including agriculture, automotive, bio-technology, chemical, financial services, food and drink, ICT, and tourism. The county is famous for the production of Cheshire cheese, salt and silk. The county has seen a number of inventions and firsts in its history.
A mainly rural county, Cheshire has a high concentration of villages. Agriculture is generally based on the dairy trade, and cattle are the predominant livestock. Land use given to agriculture has fluctuated somewhat, and in 2005 totalled 1558 km2 over 4,609 holdings. Based on holdings by EC farm type in 2005, 8.51 km2 was allocated to dairy farming, with another 11.78 km2 allocated to cattle and sheep.
The chemical industry in Cheshire was founded in Roman Britain times, with the mining of salt in Winsford, Middlewich and Northwich. Salt is still mined in the area by British Salt. The salt mining has led to a continued chemical industry around Northwich, with Brunner Mond based in the town. Other chemical companies, including Ineos (formerly ICI), have plants at Runcorn. The Essar Refinery (formerly Shell Stanlow Refinery) is at Ellesmere Port. The oil refinery has operated since 1924 and has a capacity of 12 million tonnes per year.
Crewe was once the centre of the British railway industry, and remains a major railway junction. The Crewe Works, built in 1840, employed 20,000 people at its peak, although the workforce is now less than 1,000. Crewe is also the home of Bentley cars. Also within Cheshire are manufacturing plants for Jaguar and Vauxhall Motors in Ellesmere Port.
The county also has an aircraft industry, with the BAE Systems facility at Woodford Aerodrome, part of BAE System's Military Air Solutions division. The facility designed and constructed Avro Lancaster and Avro Vulcan bombers and the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod. On the Cheshire border with Flintshire is the Broughton aircraft factory, more recently associated with Airbus.
Tourism in Cheshire from within the UK and overseas continues to perform strongly. Over 8 million nights of accommodation (both UK and overseas) and over 2.8 million visits to Cheshire were recorded during 2003.
At the start of 2003, there were 22,020 VAT-registered enterprises in Cheshire, an increase of 7% since 1998, many in the business services (31.9%) and wholesale/retail (21.7%) sectors. Between 2002 and 2003 the number of businesses grew in four sectors: public administration and other services (6.0%), hotels and restaurants (5.1%), construction (1.7%), and business services (1.0%). The county saw the largest proportional reduction between 2001 and 2002 in employment in the energy and water sector and there was also a significant reduction in the manufacturing sector. The largest growth during this period was in the other services and distribution, hotels and retail sectors.
Cheshire is considered to be an affluent county. However, towns such as Crewe and Winsford have significant deprivation. The county's proximity to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool means counter urbanisation is common. Cheshire West has a fairly large proportion of residents who work in Liverpool and Manchester, while the town of Northwich and area of Cheshire East falls more within Manchester's sphere of influence.
Actors from Cheshire include Russ Abbot, Warren Brown, Julia Chan, Ray Coulthard, Daniel Craig, Tim Curry, Wendy Hiller, Tom Hughes, Tim McInnerny, Ben Miller, Pete Postlethwaite, Adam Rickitt, The Independent (Adam Rickitt - True Blue Hunk) John Steiner, and Ann Todd. The most famous author from the county is Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and named the Cheshire Cat character after it. Other notable Cheshire writers include Hall Caine, Alan Garner, and Elizabeth Gaskell. Artists from Cheshire include ceramic artist Emma Bossons and sculptor/photographer Andy Goldsworthy.Stonard, John Paul (10 December 2000). "Goldsworthy, Andy". Grove Art Online . Retrieved on 15 May 2007.
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter.
Local radio stations in the county include Chester's Dee Radio, Capital North West and Wales, Smooth Wales, Silk FM and Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire. It is one of only four counties in the country (along with County Durham, Dorset, and Rutland) that does not have its own designated BBC radio station; the south and parts of the east are covered by BBC Radio Stoke, while BBC Radio Merseyside tends to cover the west, and BBC Radio Manchester covers the north and parts of the east. The BBC directs readers to Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire when Cheshire is selected on their website. There were plans to launch BBC Radio Cheshire, but those were shelved in 2007 after the BBC license fee settlement was lower than expected.
Cheshire has one Football League team, Crewe Alexandra, which plays in . The next highest-placed teams are Chester and Warrington Town, who both compete in the National League North, the sixth tier of English football. Northwich Victoria, another ex-League team which was a founding member of the Football League Division Two in 1892/1893, now represents Cheshire in the Northern Premier League along with Nantwich Town. Macclesfield Town another former League club, went into liquidation in 2020; a phoenix club, Macclesfield, was formed in 2021.
The Warrington Wolves and Widnes Vikings are the premier rugby league teams in Cheshire; the former plays in the Super League, while the latter plays in the RFL Championship. There are also numerous junior clubs in the county, including Chester Gladiators. Cheshire County Cricket Club is one of the clubs that make up the minor counties of English and Welsh cricket. Cheshire also is represented in the highest level basketball league in the UK, the BBL, by Cheshire Phoenix (formerly Cheshire Jets). Europe's largest motorcycle event, the Thundersprint, is held in Northwich every May.
Cheshire also produced a military hero in Norman Cyril Jones, a World War I flying ace who won the Distinguished Flying Cross.Shores, et al, p. 217.
The distinctive local red sandstone has been used for many monumental and ecclesiastical buildings throughout the county: for example, the medieval Beeston Castle, Chester Cathedral and numerous parish churches. Occasional residential and industrial buildings, such as Helsby railway station (1849), are also in this sandstone.
Many surviving buildings from the 15th to 17th centuries are timbered, particularly in the southern part of the county. Notable examples include the moated manor house Little Moreton Hall, dating from around 1450, and many commercial and residential buildings in Chester, Nantwich and surrounding villages.
Early brick buildings include Peover Hall near Macclesfield (1585), Tattenhall Hall (pre-1622), and the Pied Bull Hotel in Chester (17th-century). From the 18th century, orange, red or brown brick became the predominant building material used in Cheshire, although earlier buildings are often faced or dressed with stone. Examples from the Victorian period onwards often employ distinctive brick detailing, such as brick patterning and ornate chimney stacks and gables. Notable examples include Arley Hall near Northwich, Willington Hall near Chester (both by Nantwich architect George Latham) and Overleigh Lodge, Chester. From the Victorian era, brick buildings often incorporate timberwork in a mock Tudor style, and this hybrid style has been used in some modern residential developments in the county. Industrial buildings, such as the Macclesfield silk mills (for example, Waters Green New Mill), are also usually in brick.
Thingwall, currently in the county of Merseyside but historically part of Cheshire until 1974, is known for having once been the base of a Viking parliament established by Norse settlers in the area.
There is currently one city in the county officially, Chester. However, it remains a disputed piece of folklore that the village of Thelwall (today administratively paired with its neighbour Grappenhall in a civil parish) was at one time considered a city. Warrington is currently the largest urban settlement in the county overall despite its town status, and was one of the third wave of post-Second World War UK new towns designated for expansion. Other core settlements across Cheshire are:
| Cheshire | Cheshire East (unitary) | Sandbach | Alderley Edge, Alsager, Bollington, Crewe, Congleton, Handforth, Holmes Chapel, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Nantwich, Poynton, Wilmslow |
| Cheshire West and Chester (unitary) | Chester | Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, Malpas, Neston, Northwich, Saltney (eastern part), Tarporley, Tarvin, Winsford | |
| Halton (unitary) | Widnes | Runcorn | |
| Warrington (unitary) | Warrington | Birchwood, Culcheth, Grappenhall and Thelwall, Lymm |
Some settlements which were historically part of the county now fall under the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester:
In the east of Cheshire, Macclesfield station is served by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and Northern, on the Manchester–London line. Services from Manchester to the south coast frequently stop at Macclesfield. Neston on the Wirral Peninsula is served by a railway station on the Borderlands line between Bidston and Wrexham.
Bus transport in Cheshire is provided by various operators. The major bus operator in the Cheshire area is D&G Bus. Other operators in Cheshire include Stagecoach Chester & Wirral and Warrington's Own Buses.
There are also several operators based outside of Cheshire, who either run services wholly within the area or services which start from outside the area. Companies include Arriva Buses Wales, Aimee's Travel, High Peak, First Greater Manchester, D&G bus and Stagecoach Manchester.
Some services are run under contract to Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Borough of Halton and Warrington Councils.
The Manchester Ship Canal is a wide, stretch of water opened in 1894. It consists of the rivers River Irwell and River Mersey made navigable to Manchester for seagoing ships leaving the Mersey estuary. The canal passes through the north of the county via Runcorn and Warrington. Rivers and canals in the county are:
|
|
|
|
