Portal:Cheshire
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The Cheshire Portal
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, 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 1,028,600, 19th highest in England, with a population density of 439 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. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
Chester Rows are a set of covered walkways at the first-floor level found in each of the four main streets of Chester, which give access to shops, offices, cafés and other premises. At street level is another set of premises, many of which are entered by going down a few steps. With no counterpart anywhere else in the world, the Rows are unique, and they form one of the city's main tourist attractions. Dating from the medieval era, the Rows may have been built on top of rubble remaining from the ruins of Roman buildings, but their origin is still uncertain. Undercrofts or "crypts" were constructed beneath the buildings in the Rows in stone, while most of the buildings in the Rows were in timber. About 20 of the stone undercrofts survive, but at the level of the Rows very little medieval fabric remains. In some places the continuity of the Rows has been blocked by enclosure or by new buildings, but in others modern buildings have retained the Rows in their designs. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. The Cat and Fiddle Road, which connects Macclesfield with Buxton in Derbyshire, has frequently been named the most dangerous road in Britain. The Cat and Fiddle Inn, the second-highest pub in England, stands at the road's high point of 515 metres. Credit: Philip Halling (16 February 2008) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
Of the over 200 Scheduled Monuments in Cheshire, at least 34 date from after 1539, the end of the Medieval period. Monuments are defined as sites deliberately constructed by human activity; some sites not visible above ground. They were formerly called "scheduled ancient monuments" but as they include structures dating from as late as the 1940s and 1950s, the word "ancient" has been dropped. They range in date from the early post-Medieval period, through the Industrial Revolution, to the 20th century. Early post-Medieval monuments tend to be similar in type to those from the Medieval period, namely moats or moated sites and churchyard crosses. Unusual post-Medieval structures include a dovecote and a duck decoy. Many structures dating from the Industrial Revolution relate to the canal network, including the Anderton Boat Lift and several canal locks and bridges (example pictured). Industrial sites include the Lion Salt Works, the remains of a mine and a transporter bridge within a factory. The structures dating from the 20th century were constructed for the World Wars or the Cold War. They consist of a former Royal Air Force airfield and the remains of three sites for anti-aircraft guns.
1 April 1974: Widnes and Warrington gained from Lancashire; Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge lost to Greater Manchester; parts of the Wirral lost to Merseyside; and Tintwistle lost to Derbyshire in local government reorganisation. 1 April 1998: Halton and Warrington became unitary authorities. 1 April 2009: Unitary authorities of Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East took control. 5 April 1847: The Port of Runcorn became an independent customs port. 5 April 1847: Birkenhead Park, the UK's first publicly funded civic park, opened. 8 April 1889: Conductor Adrian Boult born in Chester. 10 April 1964: Runcorn designated a new town. 10 April 1998: Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker (pictured) opened as a museum. 11 April 1830: Architect John Douglas born in Sandiway. 17 April 1948: Train crash near Winsford killed 24 people and injured 10. 17 April 1951: Peak District became the UK's first national park. 20 April 1857: Cheshire Constabulary formed. 21 April 1913: George V and Queen Mary visited Crewe Railway Works and Worleston Dairy Institute. 23 April 1610: First St George's Day race held at Chester Racecourse. 24 April 1643: Royalist forces plundered Acton, Dorfold, Ravensmoor and Sound during the Civil War. 25 April 1956: Construction of Silver Jubilee Bridge began. 26 April 1761: Emma, Lady Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson, born in Ness. 30 April 1851: Accident in Sutton Railway Tunnel killed nine people and injured at least 30. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header 
 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. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Places: Bradwall • Middlewich • Runcorn • Widnes Sights: Adlington Hall • All Saints' Church, Runcorn • Beeston Castle • Capesthorne Hall • Chester Cathedral • Chester Rows • Cholmondeley Castle • Churche's Mansion • Crewe Hall • Eaton Hall • Gawsworth Old Hall • Halton Castle • Jodrell Bank Observatory • Little Moreton Hall History: Battle of Brunanburh • Battle of Rowton Heath • Deva Victrix • Eddisbury hill fort • Lindow Man Geography & Transport: A500 road • Bridgewater Canal • Chester Canal • Manchester Ship Canal People: Jonathan Agnew Lists: Castles Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. Thomas Harrison (1744 – 29 March 1829) was an architect and bridge engineer. He worked in northwest England, and many of his buildings were in Cheshire and Lancashire. His most important project in Cheshire was the design of new buildings within the grounds of Chester Castle, a commission on which he worked from 1786 until 1815. He created accommodation for prisoners, law courts and a shire hall. His other works include public buildings, gentlemen's clubs, churches, houses and monuments. Most of his designs, particularly those at Chester Castle, were Neoclassical in design, and he was a major influence in the emergence of the Greek Revival in British architecture. Harrison was also known for his innovative work on bridges. Skerton Bridge in Lancaster was the first substantial bridge in England to have a flat roadway, and Grosvenor Bridge in Chester, his final major commission, was the longest single-arched masonry bridge in the world at the time of its construction. He died at his home in Chester in 1829. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
21 March: An exhibition on the Gothic Revival in Cheshire opens at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester. 20 March: An exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of Macclesfield Synagogue opens in Macclesfield. 4 March: The Lion Salt Works restoration wins the conservation award at the Civic Trust Awards. 4 March: Consultation opens on Cheshire East's local plan, which has been revised to contain an extra 7,000 houses, to include greenbelt sites near Knutsford, Macclesfield and Wilmslow. 1 March: Disused offices in Runcorn are to be converted into a "healthy new town" providing 800 dwellings. 25 February: Listed railway viaducts at Holmes Chapel and Peover Superior, as well as railway bridges at Crewe, Rudheath and Davenham, reopen after refurbishment. 22 February: DONG Energy announces the first plant to convert unsorted household waste into biogas, to be built in Northwich. 22 February: Restoration work commences on the Chester Castle Propylaeum. 21 February: An exhibition celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brazilian World Cup football team's visit to Lymm opens. 13 February: The four members of Warrington band Viola Beach are killed in a car accident in Sweden. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. The 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. A selection of recent articles of interest include:
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