1.
Counties of England
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Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical, cultural or political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and these counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several districts. As of April 2009,27 of these counties are divided into districts and have a county council, all of England is also divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Most ceremonial counties correspond to a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county of the same name, the current arrangement is the result of incremental reform. Many of the counties have their origins in the Middle Ages, although the larger counties of Yorkshire, the geographic counties which existed before the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974 are referred to as ancient counties or historic counties. From 1889 to 1974 areas with county councils were known as administrative counties, from 1974 to 1996 the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, some of which were established only in 1974, corresponded directly with the ceremonial counties. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided into 48 postal counties until 1996, in these counties most services are provided by the county council and the district councils have a more limited role. Their areas each correspond exactly to ceremonial counties and they are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. In these counties the district councils provide the majority of services, similarly, Berkshire is a non-metropolitan county with no county council and multiple districts and maps directly to a ceremonial county. Bristol, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Rutland are ceremonial counties consisting of a county of a single district. In total, there are 39 unitary authorities that do not share the names of any of the ceremonial counties, bedfordshire and Cheshire are counties that consist of a number of unitary authorities, none of which has the same name as the ceremonial county. The City of London and Greater London are anomalous as ceremonial counties that do not correspond to any metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, large ceremonial counties often correspond to a single police force. For example, the four unitary authorities which make up Cheshire correspond to the area as the Cheshire Constabulary. Some counties are grouped together for this purpose, such as Northumberland with Tyne, in other areas a group of unitary authorities in several counties are grouped together to form police force areas, such as the Cleveland Police and Humberside Police. Greater London and the City of London each have their own forces, the Metropolitan Police Service. The fire service is operated on a basis, and the ambulance service is organised by the regions of England. Most ceremonial counties form part of a region, although Lincolnshire. Economic development is delivered using the regions, as is strategic planning, as of 2009, the largest county by area is North Yorkshire and the smallest is the City of London
2.
Flag of Cheshire
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The Cheshire flag is the flag of the County Palatine of Chester. It was registered by the Flag Institute on 10 April 2013, on the flag are three golden sheaves of wheat and a golden blade on a blue background. The design has been associated with the Earldom of Chester since the 12th century, the flag has been flown alongside the Union Flag above the Department for Communities and Local Government. Stockport County have had a Cheshire Flag Day to commemorate Stockports roots in the county of Chester. The wheat sheaves and blue background are incorporated into the logo for Cheshire West and Chester Council, additionally the logo of Stockport County F. C. features the three golden sheaves of wheat and golden blade on a blue background as its Escutcheon
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
6.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
7.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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North West England
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North West England, one of nine official regions of England, consists of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011 and it is the third most populated region in the United Kingdom after the South East and Greater London. North West England is bounded to the east by the Peak District, the region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales, amongst the better known of the North Wests physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain. The highest point in North West England is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is Englands highest lake, wast Water is Englands deepest lake, being 74m deep. A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain. The region includes parts of three National parks and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, source, Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates North West Englands population accounts for just over 13% of Englands overall population. 37. 86% of the North Wests population resides in Greater Manchester,21. 39% in Lancashire,20. 30% in Merseyside,14. 76% in Cheshire and 7. 41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria. According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates,91. 6% of people in the region describe themselves as White,88. 4% White British,1. 0% White Irish and 2. 2% White Other. The Mixed Race population makes up 1. 3% of the regions population, there are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4. 7% of the population, and 1. 1% Black Britons. 0. 6% of the population are Chinese and 0. 5% of people belong to ethnic group. North West England is a diverse region, with Manchester. 19. 4% of Blackburn with Darwens population are Muslim, the third highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom, Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, one in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Manchester has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region, for council districts, Burnley has the highest rate, closely followed by Hyndburn, both in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Cheshire has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate, for council districts, Eden has the lowest rate closely followed by South Lakeland, both in Cumbria
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Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
10.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
11.
High Sheriff of Cheshire
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This is a list of Sheriffs of Cheshire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the office previously known as Sheriff was retitled High Sheriff. The High Sheriff is appointed annually, taking office in March,1184, Gilbert de Arden 1189, Richard de Pierpoint 1199, Lidulph de Twemlow County Palatine of Cheshire The High Sheriffs Association of England & Wales, Cheshire William Webb, William Smith. List of Sheriffs for England and Wales from the Earliest Times to A. D.1831
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Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
13.
Cheshire West and Chester
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Cheshire West and Chester is a non-metropolitan district and unitary authority with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 structural changes to government in England, by virtue of an order under the Local Government. The remainder of ceremonial Cheshire is composed of Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington, Chester City Council had proposed the new authority be called The City of Chester and West Cheshire but this was also rejected. In line with other district in Cheshire, the cabinet is composed of a leader. From its establishment in 2009, Cheshire West and Chester was governed by the Conservative Party, currently, as of 2015, the borough is governed by the Labour Party, with Samantha Dixon becoming the first female leader of the council upon taking office. The leader presently oversees a cabinet of eight, with each holding a specific portfolio. Opposition parties can also elect to appoint shadow cabinet members, though they have no executive power, all councillors vote to appoint a chairman for the following municipal year at the council AGM. Traditionally, this role was combined with that of the apolitical and ceremonial Lord Mayor of Chester, but in 2015 these roles were separated and the role of chairman was politicised. The cabinet is scrutinised by one general committee and four district committees made up of councillors, also upon establishment in 2009, Cheshire West and Chester Council inherited a number of buildings from the local authorities it replaced in every town in the borough. However, despite Cheshire County Council vacating its headquarters, the new authority spent £21 million of money purchasing and furbishing a new headquarters at HQ. County hall was sold to the University of Chester, who now use it as a campus. Meetings often take place at Chester Town Hall but also are held at Wyvern House in Winsford. There were twenty-four wards in total, meaning that seventy-two councillors were elected, the ward boundaries were also comprehensively re-drawn, with their number being increased by twenty-two to forty-six. The new wards were mostly single-member wards, with two and three-member wards for the populous areas. The 2015 election took place on 7 May, producing the first change of executive in the councils history, the borough is divided into forty-six wards, listed below in alphabetical order. The remaining length of their mandate is unclear after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in the referendum held in June 2016. In line with nearly every local government district in England and Wales, the exact figure -97. 5% - is comparable with metropolitan counties such as Merseyside, non-metropolitan counties such as Cumbria and principal areas throughout Wales. This would suggest that the figure is not a significant outlier nationwide, the majority of the population of Cheshire West and Chester is British-born, with the percentage standing at 95. 1%, a figure significantly above that of the UK as a whole
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Cheshire East
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Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council and it is an amalgamation of the former boroughs of Macclesfield, Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich, and includes the functions of the former Cheshire County Council. Cheshire East has historic links to textile mills of the industrial revolution and it is also home to Tatton Park, a historic estate that hosts RHS Show Tatton Park. Cheshire East lies within North West England and it borders Cheshire West and Chester to the west, Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east as well as Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. It is home to the Cheshire Plain and the hills of the Pennines. The local geology is glacial clay, as well as glacial sands. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011 Cheshire East has a population of 370,127 people, according to the 2011 Census, ethnic white groups account for 96. 7% of the population, with 3. 3% of the population being in ethnic groups other than white. A breakdown of religious groups and denominations, Christian,68. 9% Buddhist,0. 2% Hindu,0. 4% Jewish,0. 1% Muslim,0. 7% Sikh,0. 1% Other religions,0. 3% No religion,23. 4% Religion not stated,9. The first elections for Cheshire East Council took place on 1 May 2008, the Conservatives took 59 of the 81 seats with the others being held by the Liberal Democrats, Labour,3 members of Middlewich First and one Independent. The first leader of the authority was Wesley Fitzgerald who was elected at Cheshire Easts inaugural meeting on Tuesday 13 May 2008, Wesley Fitzgerald is a Councillor for the Wilmslow South ward. Having decided in February 2012 to step down, a leadership contest was triggered, michael Jones – a relatively new councillor having been elected in the May 2011 elections – was elected as the Leader of the Conservative Group on 17 March 2012. The administrative centre for Cheshire East Council is Westfields in Sandbach, the site could be expanded if needed as there is space around the newly built centre. Cheshire East is a member of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities of Greater Manchester. Motorways and primary routes in the borough which are maintained by Highways England include the M6, M56 and the A556. Other primary routes which are maintained by the council include the A6, A34, A49, A50, A51, A54, A56, A500, A523, A525, A530, A534, A536, A537, A538, A555, A556, A5020 and A5033. The new road will also contain the first green bridge wildlife crossing in the United Kingdom, the existing road will be narrowed to one lane in each direction and re-designated as the B5569 under the maintenance of Cheshire East Council. The scheme is expected to cost between £192-£274 million.5 million, the Tatton Estate is privately owned with over 1,000 people living and working on it in town, in villages such as Rostherne and Ashley, and in the rural parishes surrounding. The new Ashley Hall Showground and Event Centre hosts events such as the Cheshire Ploughing and Hedge Laying Competition, gawsworth Hall is a half-timbered hall, and possibly once home to Shakespeares Dark Lady
15.
Warrington
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Warrington is a town and unitary authority area in Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey,20 miles east of Liverpool, and 20 miles west of Manchester. The population in 2015 was estimated at 207,700, more than double that of 1968 when it became a New Town, Warrington was founded by the Romans at an important crossing place on the River Mersey. A new settlement was established by the Saxons, by the Middle Ages, Warrington had emerged as a market town at the lowest bridging point of the river. A local tradition of textile and tool production dates from this time, historically in Lancashire, the expansion and urbanisation of Warrington coincided with the Industrial Revolution, particularly after the Mersey was made navigable in the 18th century. The West Coast Main Line runs north to south through the town, the Manchester Ship Canal cuts through the south of the borough. The M6, M56 and M62 motorways form a box around the town. Warrington has been a crossing point on the River Mersey since ancient times. Local archaeological evidence indicates there were Bronze Age settlements also. In medieval times Warringtons importance was as a town and bridging point of the River Mersey. The first reference to a bridge at Warrington is found in 1285, Warrington was a fulcrum in the English Civil War. The armies of Oliver Cromwell and the Earl of Derby both stayed near the old town centre, popular legend has it that Cromwell lodged near the building which survives on Church Street as the Cottage Restaurant. The Marquis of Granby public house bears a plaque stating that the Earl of Derby had his quarters near this site, dents in the walls of the parish church are rumoured to have been caused by the cannons from the time of the civil war. The expansion and urbanisation of Warrington largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution, as Britain became industrialised, Warrington embraced the Industrial Revolution becoming a manufacturing town and a centre of steel, textiles, brewing, tanning and chemical industries. The navigational properties of the River Mersey were improved, canals were built, when the age of steam came, Warrington naturally welcomed it, both as a means of transport and as a source of power for its mills. Many people, particularly Americans, remember Warrington best as the location of RAF Station Burtonwood Burtonwood RAF base, the RAF station continued in use by the USAAF and subsequently USAF as a staging post for men and material until its closure in 1993. Warrington was designated a new town in 1968 and consequently the town grew in size, heavy industry declined in the 1970s and 1980s but the growth of the new town led to a great increase in employment in light industry, distribution and technology. On 20 March 1993, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Warrington town centre, the blasts killed two children, three-year-old Jonathan Ball died instantly, and twelve-year-old Tim Parry, from the Great Sankey area died five days later in hospital. Around 56 other people were injured, four seriously and their deaths provoked widespread condemnation of the organisation responsible
16.
Borough of Halton
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Halton is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England, with borough status and administered by a unitary authority. It was created in 1974 as a district of the county of Cheshire. Since 2014 it has been a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the borough consists of the towns of Runcorn and Widnes and the civil parishes of Hale, Daresbury, Moore, Preston Brook, Halebank and Sandymoor. The district borders Merseyside, Warrington and Cheshire West and Chester, the borough straddles the River Mersey – the area to the north is historically part of Lancashire, that to the south part of Cheshire. This proposed to create metropolitan counties constituted of metropolitan district councils in the most urbanised parts of England, the model was that of the London Boroughs and Greater London Council formed in 1965. Southern Lancashire and northern Cheshire were among these areas. However, the towns of Widnes and Runcorn which lay between these were reluctant to join either and this effectively reverses the position adopted in the 1970s which created it as an anomaly. As a unitary authority its status is similar to the district councils.01 persons per hectare. The change in population during the 20th century is shown in the following table. In 2003 Halton had the largest proportion of the population in Cheshire in the age groups under 5,5 to 15 and 16 to pension age and, at 1. 2% the proportion of non-white ethnic groups in 2001 equalled the lowest in all local authorities in Cheshire. At 11.5 per 1,000 population, the birth rate in Halton and Warrington, is the highest in the county. At 121 the standardised mortality ratio and at 21. 5% the percentage of persons with limiting long-term illness are considerably the highest in Cheshire, there has been an increase in the number of households from 47,214 in 1991 to 52,501 in 2006. The average household size has reduced from 2.70 in 1991 to 2.44 in 2001,89. 8% of houses had central heating in 2001 compared with 75. 8% in 2001. The percentage of dwellings in council tax bands A-B is, at 69% the highest in any Cheshire local authority while the percentages in bands E-F, there has been a shift in employment from manufacturing to service industries. In 1991 34% worked in the sector and 61% were in the service sector. By 2004 17% were in manufacturing jobs and 78% were in service jobs, the Borough of Halton is one of the six constituent local government districts of the Liverpool City Region. Since 1 April 2014, some of the boroughs responsibilities have been pooled with neighbouring authorities within the metropolitan area and subsumed into the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. As of July 2015, negotiations are taking place between the UK national government and the combined authority over a possible devolution deal to confer greater powers on the region
17.
Cheshire Constabulary
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Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the English unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington. The force is responsible for policing an area of 946 square miles with a population of roughly 1 million, the Chief Constable of the Cheshire Constabulary since 2014 is Simon Byrne. The Deputy Chief Constable is Janette McCormick, the two Assistant Chief Constables are Sarah Boycott and Darren Martland. A constabulary was first formed under the Cheshire Constabulary Act 1829 which was amended by the Cheshire Constabulary Act 1852, the passage of the County and Borough Police Act in 1856 led to the dissolution of this force and the creation of a second Constabulary. Many of the continued to serve in the new force. The first Chief Constable was Captain Thomas Johnnes Smith, late of the Bedfordshire Militia, the first full Cheshire Police Committee met at the Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe, on 3 February 1857 and the new Cheshire Constabulary was officially formed on 20 April 1857. The first Headquarters was established at 4 Seller Street, Chester, in 1862 this office was removed to 1 Egerton Street, Chester and remained there until 1870, when it was removed to 113 Foregate Street. In 1893 the Court of Quarter Sessions approved the building of a new Headquarters which was erected at 142 Foregate Street and designed by John Douglas, at a cost not exceeding £2,000. This continued to be used, together with the buildings, until 1967. This building served the Constabulary until 2004 when the Headquarters building moved to a complex at Clemonds Hey. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,359 and it was proposed by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006 that Cheshire should merge with the Merseyside Police, to form a strategic police force, but these proposals were later abandoned. The Museum of Policing in Cheshire preserves and researches the heritage of policing in the county, the current Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner is David Keane. From the 15 November 2012 to the 5th of May 2016, the police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, made up of elected councillors from the local authorities in the police area. Before November 2012 the Cheshire Police Authority was the police governance, the constabulary is responsible for policing one of the longest stretches of motorway in Britain. The force patrols 214 miles of the M6, M62, M53 and M56 motorways, the M6 motorway across the Thelwall Viaduct carries 140,000 vehicles every 24 hours. Delays and incidents on the motorway can have a impact on the economic life of the entire North West Region. Since December 2001 Cheshire Police have operated a Britten-Norman Islander fixed-wing aircraft and this model of aircraft is used worldwide in a variety of roles. It is particularly suited to police aviation as it is able to carry a range of equipment
18.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
19.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
20.
Merseyside
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Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Merseyside spans 249 square miles of land which border Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the Irish Sea to the west. North Wales is across the Dee Estuary, there is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Merseyside, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. For the 12 years following 1974 the county had a system of local government. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts are now effectively unitary authority areas, Merseyside is joined by the neighbouring borough of Halton to form the Liverpool City Region, which together forms a local enterprise partnership and combined authority area. Further areas, including Widnes and Runcorn, were added to the Special Review Area by Order in 1965, draft proposals were published in 1965, but the commission never completed its final proposals as it was abolished in 1966. This would have included four districts, Southport/Crosby, Liverpool/Bootle, St. Helens/Widnes, in 1970 the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive was set up, covering Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley, but excluding Southport and St. Helens. The Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the incoming Conservative Party government, a White Paper was published in 1971. The Local Government Bill presented to Parliament involved a substantial trimming from the White Paper, excluding the northern and southern fringes of the area, excluding Chester, following the creation of Merseyside, Merseytravel expanded to take in St Helens and Southport. Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a system of local government with the five boroughs sharing power with the Merseyside County Council. However, in 1986 the government of Margaret Thatcher abolished the county council along with all other county councils. The eastern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, the territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The two parts are linked by the two Mersey Tunnels, the Wirral Line of Merseyrail, and the Mersey Ferry, to express location within the Merseyside area by the preposition on – thus on Merseyside as opposed to in Merseyside – was traditionally the more usual. Therefore, more recent usage tends to draw distinctions between the geographical Merseyside – for which on is considered appropriate – and the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, Merseyside contains the metropolitan boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens and Wirral. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Merseyside at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. This also has a usage by some local authorities and organisations and is used by Geographers A-Z Map Company for their Merseyside Street Atlas. However, a separate City region, comprising Merseyside and Halton, has official recognition as being Greater Merseyside. Halton also forms part of the Merseyside NUTS region, List of Lord Lieutenants of Merseyside List of High Sheriffs of Merseyside 1911 Liverpool general transport strike List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Merseyside Dickinson, Joseph
21.
Greater Manchester
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Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million. Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Greater Manchester spans 493 square miles, which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. It is landlocked and borders Cheshire, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, for the 12 years following 1974 the county had a two-tier system of local government, district councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts became unitary authority areas. However, the county has continued to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference, and as a ceremonial county, has a Lord Lieutenant. A further devolution of powers to Greater Manchester is set to place upon the election of the inaugural Mayor of Greater Manchester scheduled for 2017. Before the creation of the county, the name SELNEC was used for the area. Since deindustrialisation in the century, Greater Manchester has become known as an exporter of media and digital content, for its guitar and dance music. Although the modern county of Greater Manchester was not created until 1974, there is evidence of Iron Age habitation, particularly at Mellor, and Celtic activity in a settlement named Chochion, believed to have been an area of Wigan settled by the Brigantes. Stretford was also part of the believed to have been occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe. The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester, and Castleshaw Roman fort in Saddleworth, are evidence of Roman occupation. Much of the region was omitted from the Domesday Book of 1086, Redhead states that this was only a partial survey was taken. During the Middle Ages, much of what became Greater Manchester lay within the hundred of Salfordshire – an ancient division of the county of Lancashire, Salfordshire encompassed several parishes and townships, some of which, like Rochdale, were important market towns and centres of Englands woollen trade. The development of what became Greater Manchester is attributed to a tradition of domestic flannel and fustian cloth production. Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, however, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the worlds largest marketplace for cotton goods, and the natural centre of its region. In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as an entity were proposed. In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name Manchesterthum to cover the region in, however, the English term Greater Manchester did not appear until the 20th century. One of its first known recorded uses was in a 1914 report put forward in response to what was considered to have been the creation of the County of London in 1889
22.
Derbyshire
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Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire, in 2003 the Ordnance Survey placed Church Flatts Farm at Coton in the Elms as the furthest point from the sea in Great Britain. The city of Derby is a unitary authority area, but remains part of the county of Derbyshire. The non-metropolitan county contains 30 towns with between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, there is a large amount of sparsely populated agricultural upland, 75% of the population live in 25% of the area. Further occupation came with the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age when Mesolithic hunter gatherers roamed the hilly tundra, evidence of these nomadic tribes has been found in limestone caves located on the Nottinghamshire border. Deposits left in the date the occupancy at around 12,000 to 7,000 BCE. Burial mounds of Neolithic settlers are also situated throughout the county and these chambered tombs were designed for collective burial and are mostly located in the central Derbyshire region. There are tombs at Minninglow and Five Wells that date back to between 2000 and 2500 BCE, three miles west of Youlgreave lies the Neolithic henge monument of Arbor Low, which has been dated to 2500 BCE. It is not until the Bronze Age that real signs of agriculture, in the moors of the Peak District signs of clearance, arable fields and hut circles were discovered after archaeological investigation. However this area and another settlement at Swarkestone are all that have been found, during the Roman invasion the invaders were attracted to Derbyshire because of the lead ore in the limestone hills of the area. They settled throughout the county with forts built near Brough in the Hope Valley, later they settled around Buxton, famed for its warm springs, and set up a fort near modern-day Derby in an area now known as Little Chester. Several kings of Mercia are buried in the Repton area, following the Norman Conquest, much of the county was subject to the forest laws. To the northwest was the Forest of High Peak under the custodianship of William Peverel, the rest of the county was bestowed upon Henry de Ferrers, a part of it becoming Duffield Frith. In time the area was given to the Duchy of Lancaster. Meanwhile, the Forest of East Derbyshire covered the county to the east of the River Derwent from the reign of Henry II to that of Edward I. The main rivers in the county are the River Derwent and the River Dove which both join the River Trent in the south. The varied landscapes within Derbyshires have been formed mainly as a consequence of the underlying geology, the oldest rocks occur in the northern, more upland half of the county, and are mostly of Carboniferous age, comprising limestones, gritstones, sandstones and shales. In its north-east corner to the east of Bolsover there are also Magnesian Limestone rocks of Permian age, across both regions can be found drift deposits of Quaternary age – mainly terrace and river gravel deposits and boulder clays
23.
Staffordshire
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Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It adjoins Cheshire to the north west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south east, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent, which is administered separately from the rest of the county as an independent unitary authority, Lichfield also has city status, although this is a considerably smaller cathedral city. Major towns include Stafford, Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leek, smaller towns include Stone, Uttoxeter, and Rugeley, and large villages Eccleshall, Wombourne, Kinver, Penkridge, Tutbury and Stretton. Cannock Chase AONB is within the county as well as parts of the National Forest, Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich, and Smethwick were historic Staffordshire towns until local government reorganisation created the West Midlands county in 1974. Historically, Staffordshire was divided into the five hundreds of Cuttlestone, Offlow, Pirehill, Seisdon, the historic boundaries of Staffordshire cover much of what is now the metropolitan county of West Midlands. The Act also saw the towns of Tamworth and Burton upon Trent united entirely in Staffordshire, in 1553 Queen Mary made Lichfield a county separate from the rest of Staffordshire. Handsworth and Perry Barr became part of the county borough of Birmingham in the early 20th century, Burton, in the east of the county, became a county borough in 1901, and was followed by Smethwick, another town in the Black Country in 1907. In 1910 the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, including Hanley, a major reorganisation in the Black Country in 1966, under the recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England led to the creation of an area of contiguous county boroughs. Meanwhile, the county borough of Dudley, historically a part of Worcestershire, expanded. County boroughs were abolished, with Stoke becoming a district in Staffordshire. On 1 April 1997, under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, in July 2009 the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found in Britain was discovered in a field near Lichfield. The artefacts, known as The Staffordshire Hoard have tentatively dated to the 7th or 8th centuries. Some nationally and internationally known companies have their base in Staffordshire. They include the Britannia Building Society which is based in Leek, JCB is based in Rocester near Uttoxeter and bet365 based in Stoke-on-Trent. The theme park Alton Towers is in the Staffordshire Moorlands and several of the worlds largest pottery manufacturers are based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire has a completely comprehensive system with eight independent schools. Most secondary schools are from 11–16 or 18, but two in Staffordshire Moorlands and South Staffordshire are from 13–18, there are two universities in the county, Keele University in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire University, which has campuses in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury. The modern county of Staffordshire currently has three football clubs – Stoke City and Port Vale, both from Stoke-on-Trent, and Burton Albion, who play in Burton upon Trent. They were among the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888, in 1972, the club finally won a major trophy when they lifted the Football League Cup, but after relegation from the First Division in 1985 they would not experience top flight football for 23 years
24.
Shropshire
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Shropshire Council was created in 2009, a unitary authority taking over from the previous county council and five district councils. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a unitary authority since 1998. The county has many towns, including Whitchurch in the north, Newport north-east of Telford. The Ironbridge Gorge area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covering Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, there are other historic industrial sites in the county, such as at Shrewsbury, Broseley, Snailbeach and Highley, as well as the Shropshire Union Canal. The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers about a quarter of the county, Shropshire is one of Englands most rural and sparsely populated counties, with a population density of 136/km2. The Wrekin is one of the most famous landmarks in the county, though the highest hills are the Clee Hills, Stiperstones. Wenlock Edge is another significant geographical and geological landmark, the River Severn, Great Britains longest river, runs through the county, exiting into Worcestershire via the Severn Valley. Shropshire is landlocked and with an area of 3,487 square kilometres is Englands largest inland county, the county flower is the round-leaved sundew. The area was part of the lands of the Cornovii. This was a tribal Celtic iron age kingdom and their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hill fort on the Wrekin. Ptolemys 2nd century Geography names one of their towns as being Viroconium Cornoviorum, after the Roman occupation of Britain ended in the 5th century, the Shropshire area was in the eastern part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, known in Welsh poetry as the Paradise of Powys. It was annexed to the Angle kingdom of Mercia by King Offa in the 8th century, in subsequent centuries, the area suffered repeated Danish invasion, and fortresses were built at Bridgnorth and Chirbury. Many defensive castles were built at this time across the county to defend against the Welsh and enable effective control of the region, including Ludlow Castle, the western frontier with Wales was not finally determined until the 14th century. Also in this period, a number of foundations were formed, the county largely falling at this time under the Diocese of Hereford. The county contains a number of historically significant towns, including Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, additionally, the area around Coalbrookdale in the county is seen as highly significant, as it is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. The village of Edgmond, near Newport, is the location of the lowest recorded temperature in England, the origin of the name Shropshire is the Old English Scrobbesbyrigscīr, which means Shrewsburyshire. The name may, therefore, be derived indirectly from a name such as Scrope. Salop is an old name for Shropshire, historically used as a form for post or telegrams
25.
Flintshire
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Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales, bordering the English county of Cheshire to the east, Denbighshire to the west and Wrexham County Borough to the south. It is named after the county of Flintshire which had notably different borders. Flintshire is considered part of the Welsh Marches and formed part of the historic Earldom of Chester, the county is governed by Flintshire County Council. Flintshire takes its name from the county of Flintshire established in 1536 which existed until 1974 when it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972. Its re-establishment in 1996 under the Local Government Act 1994 does not follow those original boundaries, lead and silver mine workings are evident in the area, with several sows of lead found bearing the name DECEANGI inscribed in Roman epigraphy. The Deceangli appear to have surrendered to Roman rule with little resistance, following Roman Britain, and the emergence of various petty kingdoms, the region had been divided into the Hundred of Englefield, derived from the Latin Deceangli. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 it was under the control of Edwin of Tegeingl, edwins mother is believed to have been Ethelfleda or Aldgyth, daughter of Eadwine of Mercia. Flintshire today approximately resembles the boundaries of the Hundred of Atiscross as it existed at the time of the Domesday Book. Atiscross, along with the Hundred of Exestan, was transferred from the Earldom of Chester to the expanding Kingdom of Gwynedd from the west in the 13th century following numerous military campaigns. This region, as well as a formed from part of the Hundred of Dudestan, later formed the main areas of Flintshire. It was administered with the Palatinate of Chester and Flint by the Justiciar of Chester, the county was consolidated in 1536 by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 under the Tudor King Henry VIII, when it was incorporated into the Kingdom of England. Flintshire remained in existence until 1974 when it was merged with Denbighshire, Clwyd was abolished only 22 years later and Flintshire re-established in its present form in 1996. The current administrative area of Flintshire came into existence in 1996, the principal area was formed by the merger of the Alyn and Deeside and Delyn districts. See List of places in Flintshire for a list of towns, Flintshire is a maritime county bounded to the north by the Dee estuary, to the east by Cheshire, to the west by Denbighshire and to the south by Wrexham County Borough. The coast along the Dee estuary is heavily developed by industry, the Clwydian Mountains occupy much of the west of the county. The highest point is Moel Famau, the chief towns are Buckley, Connahs Quay, Flint, Hawarden, Holywell, Mold, Queensferry, and Shotton. The main rivers are the Dee and the Clwyd, parts of Flintshire have major manufacturing industries. Amongst these are an advanced Toyota plant that manufactures engines, a TATA steelworks, Shotton Paper, and Airbus, making the wings for the A330, there are daily flights of the Airbus Beluga transport aircraft of Airbus wings from Broughton for the smaller aircraft
26.
Wrexham County Borough
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Wrexham County Borough is a local government principal area centred on the town of Wrexham in north-east Wales. The county borough has a population of nearly 135,000 inhabitants, just under half of the population live either within the town of Wrexham or its surrounding conurbation of urban villages which has a population of around 63,000 people. The remainder live to the south and east of the town in rural areas. The area has links with coal-mining. The county borough was formed on 1 April 1996, Borough status was inherited from the town of Wrexham, granted over 150 years ago. Most of the area was part of the district of Wrexham Maelor – with several communities coming from Glyndŵr – in the county of Clwyd. The area includes a portion of the half of the historic county of Denbighshire. The region is governed as an authority by Wrexham County Borough Council. Most offices of the council are situated within Wrexham town centre, around Llwyn Isaf, the headquarters of the organisation is at the Guild Hall, Queens Square. Wrexham County Borough forms part of the Wales constituency, which four members to the European Parliament using the dHondt method of party-list proportional representation. Top performing Secondary Schools in Wrexham County Borough, the first twinning was established on 17 March 1970 between the former Kreis Iserlohn and Wrexham Rural District. In 2001 Märkischer Kreis entered an arrangement with Racibórz, a county in Poland. In September 2002, a delegation from Racibórz visited Wrexham and began discussions about co-operation which led to the signing of Articles of Twinning between Wrexham and Racibórz in March 2004, the Wrexham area has strong historical links with Poland. Following World War II, many personnel from the Free Polish armed forces who had been injured received treatment at Penley Polish Hospital. Many of their descendants remain in the area. com Website North Wales Police Wrexham Ward Map NHS Review of substance misuse including Ward Deprivation Map and detailed population/age group figures
27.
Chester
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Chester is a walled city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales. With a population of 81,340 in 2014, it is the most populous settlement of Cheshire West and Chester, Chester was granted city status in 1541. Chester was founded as a castrum or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in 79 AD, one of the main army camps in Roman Britain, Deva later became a major civilian settlement. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans, william the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border. Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in Britain and it has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are Victorian restorations. Apart from a 100-metre section, the listed Grade I walls are almost complete, the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian founded Chester in AD79, as a castrum or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix. The victrix part of the name was taken from the title of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix which was based at Deva, Central Chesters four main roads, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridgegate, follow routes laid out at this time. A civilian settlement grew around the base, probably originating from trade with the fortress. The civilian amphitheatre, which was built in the 1st century and it is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain, and is also a Scheduled Monument. The Minerva Shrine in the Roman quarry is the rock cut Roman shrine still in situ in Britain. The fortress was garrisoned by the legion until at least the late 4th century, after the Roman troops withdrew, the Romano-British established a number of petty kingdoms. Chester is thought to have part of Powys. Deverdoeu was a Welsh name for Chester as late as the 12th century, another, attested in the 9th century History of the Britons traditionally attributed to Nennius, is Cair Legion, this later developed into Caerlleon and then the modern Welsh Caer. King Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the city of the legions and later St Augustine came to the city to try to unite the church, and held his synod with the Welsh Bishops. In 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated a Welsh army at the brutal and decisive Battle of Chester and her name is still remembered in St Werburghs Street which passes alongside the cathedral, and near the city walls. It was Alfreds daughter Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, that built the new Saxon burh, a new Church dedicated to St Peter alone was founded in AD907 by the Lady Æthelfleda at what was to become the Cross. Taking the helm of a barge, he was rowed the short distance up the River Dee from Edgars Field to the great Minster Church of St John the Baptist by six tributary kings called reguli. In 1071 he made Hugh dAvranches, who built Chester Castle, from the 14th century to the 18th century the citys prominent position in North West England meant that it was commonly also known as Westchester
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Congleton
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Congleton is a town and civil parish in Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Dane 21 miles south of Manchester and to the west of the Macclesfield Canal. The town had a population of 26,482 according to the Census 2011, of unknown origin, the first recorded reference to the towns name was in 1282, when it was spelt Congelton. The element Congle could relate to the old Norse kang meaning a bend followed by the element the Old English tun meaning settlement, the first settlements in the Congleton area were Neolithic. Stone Age and Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the town, Congleton was once thought to have been a Roman settlement, although there is no archaeological or documentary evidence to support this. Congleton became a town after Vikings destroyed nearby Davenport. Godwin, Earl of Wessex held the town in the Saxon period, the town is mentioned in the Domesday Book, where it is listed as Cogeltone, Bigot de Loges. William the Conqueror granted the whole of Cheshire to his nephew the Earl of Chester, in the 13th century, Congleton belonged to the de Lacy family. Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln granted the town its first charter in 1272, enabling it to hold fairs and markets, elect a mayor and ale taster, have a merchant guild and behead known criminals. In 1451, the River Dane flooded, destroying a number of buildings, the river was diverted and the town rebuilt on higher ground. Congleton became notorious in the 1620s when bear-baiting, as well as cockfighting, were popular sports, the town was unable to attract large crowds to its bear-baiting contests and lacked the money to pay for a new, more aggressive bear. The town used money it had saved to buy a Bible and it became legend that Congleton sold its Bible to pay for a new bear. The chorus of 20th-century folk song Congleton Bear, by folk artist John Tams, runs, Congleton Rare, the legend earned Congleton the nickname Beartown. During the Civil War, former mayor and lawyer, John Bradshaw and his signature as Attorney General was the first on the kings death warrant. A plaque on Bradshaw House in Lawton Street commemorates him, almost opposite the town hall, the White Lion public house bears a blue plaque, placed by the Congleton Civic Society, which reads, The White Lion, built 16–17th century. Said to have housed the office where John Bradshaw, regicide. King Edward I granted permission to build a mill, Congleton became an important centre of textile production, especially leather gloves and lace. Congleton had a silk throwing mill, the Old Mill built by John Clayton. More mills followed, and cotton was also spun, the towns prosperity depended on tariffs imposed on imported silk
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Crewe
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Crewe /kruː/ is a railway town and civil parish within the borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The area has a population of 72,863, from 1946 until 2002 it was also the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production. The Pyms Lane factory on the west of the town now produces Bentley motor cars exclusively, Crewe is 158 miles north of London and 35 miles south of Manchester. Crewe was thus named after the station, rather than the other way round. The name derives from an Old Welsh word criu, meaning weir, Crewe was founded in the township of Monks Coppenhall which, with the township of Church Coppenhall, formed the ancient parish of Coppenhall. The railway station was named after the township of Crewe in which it was located, eventually, the township of Crewe became a civil parish in its own right also named, rather confusingly, Crewe. This civil parish changed its name to Crewe Green in 1974 to avoid confusion with the adjacent town, the railway station remained part of the civil parish of Crewe, outside the boundary of the municipal borough until 1936. An old, local riddle describes the unusual states of affairs, The place which is Crewe is not Crewe. Until the Grand Junction Railway company chose Crewe as the site for its works and railway station in the late 1830s. Winsford,7 miles to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, Crewe railway station was built in fields near to Crewe Hall and was completed in 1837. A new town grew up, in the parishes of Monks Coppenhall and Church Coppenhall, alongside the increasingly busy station, GJR chief engineer Joseph Locke helped lay out the town. The town has a park, Queens Park, the land for which was donated by the London and North Western Railway. It has been suggested that their motivation was to prevent the rival Great Western Railway building a station on the site, the railway provided an endowment towards the building and upkeep of Christ Church. Until 1897 its vicar, non-conformist ministers and schoolteachers received concessionary passes, the company provided a doctors surgery with a scheme of health insurance. A gasworks was built and the water supply was adapted to provide drinking water. The railway also opened a market in 1854 and a clothing factory for John Compton who provided the company uniforms. During World War II the strategic presence of the railways and Rolls-Royce engineering works made Crewe a target for air raids. The borough lost 35 civilians to these, the worst raid was on 29 August 1940 when some 50 houses were destroyed, Crewe crater on Mars is named after the town of Crewe
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Ellesmere Port
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Ellesmere Port /ˈɛlzmɪərpɔːrt/is a large town and port in Cheshire, England, south of the Wirral. The town had a population of 55,715 in 2011, as well as a service sector economy, the town has retained large industries including Stanlow oil refinery, a chemical works and the Vauxhall Motors car factory. There are also a number of tourist attractions, the National Waterways Museum, the town of Ellesmere Port was founded at the outlet of the never completed Ellesmere Canal. The canal now renamed was designed and engineered by William Jessop and Thomas Telford as part of a project to connect the rivers Severn, Mersey, the canal was intended to be completed in sections. In 1795 the section between the River Mersey at Netherpool and the River Dee at Chester was opened, however the canal was not finished as first intended, it never reached the River Severn. Upon reevaluation it was decided that the costs to complete the project were not projected to be repaid because of a decrease in expected commercial traffic, there had been a loss of competitive advantage caused by steam engine-related economic advances during the first decade of canal construction. During or before the construction of the canal the village of Netherpool changed its name to the Port of Ellesmere, settlements had existed in the area since the writing of the Domesday Book in the 11th century, which mentions Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Pool and Hooton. The first houses in Ellesmere Port itself, however, grew up around the docks and the first main street was Dock Street, which now houses the National Waterways Museum. Station Road, which connected the docks with the village of Whitby, also developed and as more shops were needed. As the expanding industrial areas growing up around the canal and its docks attracted more workers to the area, Whitby was a township in the ancient parishes of Eastham and Stoak, Wirral hundred, which became a civil parish in 1866. It included the hamlets of Ellesmere Port and Whitbyheath, to enhance the economic growth of the area, the Netherpool, Overpool and Whitby civil parishes were abolished on 1 April 1911 to become parts of the new civil parish of Ellesmere Port. The town centre itself had moved from the Station Road/Dock Street area, to an area that had once been home to a farm around the crossroads of Sutton Way/Stanney Lane. In the 20th century, a number of new housing estates were developed, many of them on the sites of former farms such as Hope Farm, many estates consisted of both council housing and privately owned houses and flats. Ellesmere Port, in recent times has had an influx of Liverpool immigrants. Thus demand for housing increased with the opening of the Vauxhall Motors car plant in 1962, opened as a components supplier to the Luton plant, passenger car production began in 1964 with the Vauxhall Viva. The plant is now Vauxhalls only car factory in Britain, since the end of car production at the Luton plant in 2004. Ellesmere Port currently produces the Vauxhall Astra model on two shifts, employing 2,500 people, in the mid-1980s, the Port Arcades, a covered shopping mall was built in the town centre. By the 1990s, it was the retail sector rather than the industrial that was attracting workers, since 1974 Ellesmere Port has been an unparished area when the civil parish of Ellesmere Port was abolished and all its functions assumed by the town
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Macclesfield
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Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire, England. The population of Macclesfield at the 2011 census was 52,044, a person from Macclesfield is sometimes referred to as a Maxonian. Macclesfield, like other areas in Cheshire, is a relatively affluent town. Situated in the ancient Hundred of Hamestan, the town is recorded in the Domesday Book as Maclesfeld, the English Place-Name Society gives its name as being derived from the Old English name, Maccel, and field, yielding the meaning Maccels open country. Although Silk Town seems to be its preferred nickname, the nickname of Macclesfield is Treacle Town. This refers to an incident when a horse-drawn wagon overturned and split its load of treacle onto the street. Macclesfield was granted a charter by Earl Ranulf III of Chester, in the early 13th century. The parish church of All Saints was built in 1278, an extension of a built in approximately 1220. The borough had a market and two annual fairs, the Barnaby fair, was on St Barnabas day, the other on the feast of All Saints. Macclesfield was the centre of the Hundred of Macclesfield, which occupied most of east Cheshire. The Earl of Chesters manor of Macclesfield was very large, the manor house was on the edge of the deer park, on the west of the town. The Earls of Chester established the Forest of Macclesfield, which was larger than its present-day namesake. It was used for hunting deer and pasturing sheep and cattle, by the end of the 13th century, large areas of the forest had been ploughed because of the pressure of population growth. In 1356, two trees from the forest were given to archer William Jauderell to repair his home, Macclesfield Castle was a fortified town house built by the dukes of Buckingham in the later Middle Ages. Macclesfield was once surrounded by walls and ramparts with three gates, the Chester Gate, the Jordan Gate and the Church Wall Gate. These names are preserved in the names of three streets in the town, Chestergate, Jordangate and Back Wallgate, during the Civil War, in 1642 the town was occupied for the King by Sir Thomas Aston, a Royalist. The walls and castle were damaged when the town was subsequently bombarded, after the war the walls were completely destroyed on the orders of Cromwell and the Council of the Commonwealth. In the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Charles Stuart and his army marched through Macclesfield as they attempted to reach London, the mayor was forced to welcome the prince, and the event is commemorated in one of the towns silk tapestries
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Northwich
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Northwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver, the town is about 18 miles east of Chester and 15 miles south of Warrington. 19 miles south of Manchester and 12 miles south of Manchester Airport, Northwich has been part of the Manchester City region since 2004. Northwich has been named as one of the best places to live in the United Kingdom according to The Sunday Times in 2014, the area around Northwich has been exploited for its salt pans since Roman times, when the settlement was known as Condate. The town has severely affected by salt mining, and subsidence has historically been a significant problem. Recent investment has been designated in mine stabilisation, during Roman times, Northwich was known as Condate, thought to be a Latinisation of a Brittonic name meaning Confluence. There are several sites of the same name, mostly in France, in Northwichs case, it lies at the junction of the rivers Dane. Northwich can be identified through two contemporary Roman documents, the first of these is the Antonine Itinerary, a 3rd-century road map split into 14 sections. Two of these sections, or Itinerary, mention Condate, Route II, the second document is the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography. This document refers to Condate between the entries for Salinae and Ratae, at the time the capital of the Corieltauvi tribe, the Romans interest in the Northwich area is thought to be due to the strategic river crossing and the location of the salt brines. Salt was very important in Roman society, the Roman word salarium, linked employment, salt and soldiers and it is also theorised that this is the basis for the modern word salary. Another theory is that the word itself comes from the Latin sal dare. See History of salt for further details, there is archaeological evidence of a Roman auxiliary fort within the area of Northwich now known as Castle dated to AD70. This and other forts were built as the Romans moved north from their stronghold in Chester. The association with salt continues in the etymology of Northwich, the wich suffix applies to other towns in the area, Middlewich, Nantwich and Leftwich. This is considered to have derived from the Norse, wic, for bay. Therefore, a place for making salt became a wych-house, Northwich was the most northern of the towns in Cheshire. The existence of Northwich in the medieval period is shown by its record in the Domesday Book, In the same Mildestuic hundred there was a third wich called Norwich
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Runcorn
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Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in Cheshire, England, located within the Borough of Halton. In 2010, Runcorns population was estimated to be 61,000, the town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north across the River Mersey is the town of Widnes, upstream and 8 miles to the northeast is the town of Warrington, and downstream 16 miles to the west is the city of Liverpool. Runcorn railway station is on a branch of the West Coast Main Line and provides frequent services to the Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street, and London Euston stations. The A533 road passes through the town from the south, crossing the Runcorn Gap over the Silver Jubilee Bridge, Runcorn was a small, isolated village until the Industrial Revolution. It was a resort in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Towards the end of the 18th century, a port began to develop on the bank of the River Mersey. During the 19th century, industries developed the manufacture of soap and alkali, quarrying, shipbuilding, engineering, in the early 20th century, the prime industries were chemicals and tanning. The original village has grown to include what were outlying villages, the earliest written reference to the town is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is spelled Rumcofan, literally meaning a wide cove or bay. This word is derived from the Old English words rúm and cofa, other historical spellings of Runcorn include Rumcoven, Ronchestorn, Runckhorne, and Runcorne. Little is known about the history of the settlement but isolated findings of objects from the Stone, Bronze. The earliest recorded event in its history is the building by Ethelfleda of a fortification at Runcorn to protect the frontier of her kingdom of Mercia against the Vikings in 915. The fort was built on Castle Rock overlooking the River Mersey at Runcorn Gap, following the Norman conquest, Runcorn was not mentioned in the 1086 Domesday survey, although surrounding settlements were. William the Conqueror granted the earldom of Chester to Hugh dAvranches who granted the barony of Halton to Nigel and it is likely that Nigel erected a motte and bailey castle on Halton Hill in the 1070s. In 1115, Nigels son, William Fitznigel, founded an Augustinian Priory at Runcorn, in 1134 the priory was moved to Norton, about 3.5 miles away. In 1391 the priory was raised to the status of abbey. During the Civil War Halton Castle was held for the Royalists by John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers and it fell twice to Parliamentarian Roundheads. The first siege was led by Sir William Brereton in 1643, following this, a Council of War was held in Warrington in 1646 at which it was decided that the castle should be slighted
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Widnes
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Widnes is an industrial town in the unitary authority of Halton and the ceremonial county of Cheshire in Northwest England. In 2011 it had a population of 60,221, historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Directly to the south across the Mersey is the town of Runcorn, upstream and 8 miles to the east is the town of Warrington, and downstream to the west is Speke, part of the city of Liverpool. Before the Industrial Revolution Widnes was made up of settlements on marsh. In 1847, the first chemical factory was established and the town became a major centre of the chemical industry. The demand for labour was met by large-scale immigration from Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, the town continues to be a major manufacturer of chemicals. Widnes and Hough Green railway stations are on the Liverpool to Manchester line, the main roads through the town are the A557 in a north–south direction and the A562 east–west. The disused Sankey Canal terminates in a known as Spike Island. Earlier spellings of the name have been Vidnes, Wydnes and Wydness, there is little evidence of any early human occupation of the area although a flint arrowhead was discovered at Pex Hill, suggesting there was some human presence in the Stone Age. Pex Hill is a quarry, located to the north of the town. Roman roads by-passed the area but some Roman coins were found where the Ditton railway station stands today, in the 9th century Vikings had invaded the country and Widnes was at the extreme south of the Danelaw. The River Mersey derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon maeres ea, which means boundary river, following the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror granted the Earldom of Lancaster to Roger de Poictou who in turn granted the barony of Widnes to Yorfrid. Yorfrid had no sons and his daughter married William FitzNigel. On Yorfrids death the barony of Widnes passed to that of Halton, the current St. Lukes, a Norman church, was built in Farnworth. Its date of origin is uncertain but it is likely to be around 1180, in 1500 the South Chapel was added to the church and in 1507 a grammar school was established in Farnworth, both were endowments from Bishop William Smyth. Until the middle of the 19th century the area consisted of the hamlets of Farnworth, Appleton, Ditton, Upton. Nearby were the villages of Cronton and Cuerdley, in the 1750s the Sankey Canal was constructed. This linked the area of St. Helens with the River Mersey at Sankey Bridges and it was extended to Fiddlers Ferry in 1762 and then in 1833 a further extension to Woodend was opened
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Wilmslow
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Wilmslow is a town and civil parish in Cheshire, England, that is 11 mi south of Manchester. The area, which lies between Handforth and similarly affluent Alderley Edge, is known for its lifestyle and its many rich. It is one of the most sought-after places to live in the UK after central London and it has one of the highest proportions of wealthy residents in the North of England. The town has boutique shops, cafes and restaurants, and high-marque car showrooms which cater for those associated with the Cheshire Set lifestyle. The population of Wilmslow was 30,326 in the 2001 Census, the town is in the parliamentary constituency of Tatton, represented by George Osborne MP. Wilmslow derives its name from Anglo-Saxon Wīghelmes hlāw = mound of a man called Wīghelm, much about the local Iron Age history of Wilmslow was uncovered with the discovery of Lindow Man, in Lindow Moss. Preserved in the bogs for 2000 years, Lindow Man is one of the most important Iron Age finds in the country. Despite a campaign to keep Lindow Man in the area, he was transferred to the British Museum and is a feature of the Iron Age exhibition. Lindow Man returned to Manchester Museum in April 2008 for a year-long exhibition, Wilmslow was in the international media in March 1997, when an IRA bomb exploded near the railway station damaging signalling equipment. The original IRA message was confusing and led to the evacuation of the Wilmslow Police Station to the leisure centre not far from the explosion. Tatton MP, Neil Hamilton, was accused of accepting cash for tabling Parliamentary questions, Bell was supported in his door to door canvasing for votes by David Soul and served a single term as MP. Wilmslow held its first Scarecrow Festival in July 2010 with 85 local businesses taking part and 93 different scarecrows, organised by the Rotary Club of Wilmslow Dean and the members of the Wilmslow Business Group, the week-long festival has transformed the town centre and received a tremendous response. Wilmslow was one of the eight ancient parishes of the Macclesfield Hundred of Cheshire and it was subdivided into the townships of Bollinfee, Chorley, Fulshaw and Pownall Fee. Under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 the townships became civil parishes in their own right, Wilmslow was recreated as a civil parish on 30 September 1894 when Pownall Fee and Fulshaw were abolished. Wilmslow gained the whole of Fulshaw and part of Pownall Fee, the Wilmslow Urban District Council came into being in 1895 consisting only of the previous civil parish of Wilmslow. On 21 June 1951 it was granted its own Coat of Arms, on 1 April 2009 it became part of the Cheshire East unitary authority. On 1 April 1936, Wilmslow lost 19 acres to Alderley Edge, however it gained 3 acres from Chorley and on the abolition of Bollinfee, Handforth and Styal civil parishes it gained 1,1080 and 1,521 acres respectively. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the wards of Wilmslow North and Wilmslow South have a population of 25,498
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Winsford
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Winsford is a town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Many Winsfordians consider the town to be the heart of Cheshire however other towns in Cheshire also claim this title. Kings Henry III and Edward I occasionally held court at Darnhall near Winsford The latter king founded Vale Royal Abbey at Darnhall, but then moved it in 1277 to near Whitegate. A charter to hold a Wednesday market and a fair at Over was granted on 24 November 1280 by Edward I to the Abbot. From this charter can be traced the origins of the market that is held in the town. In 2012, the grant was used to revive an annual fair in Winsford. The Government gave permission for artificial improvements to the River Weaver in 1721 to allow barges to reach Winsford from the port of Liverpool. Cornish china clay was used in the production of earthenware and stoneware, the clay was taken overland from Winsford by pack horse to manufacturers in the Potteries, a distance of about 30 miles. Locally produced salt was transported to the Potteries, for use in the manufacture of salt-glazed stoneware. Finished ceramics from the Potteries were brought back to Winsford, for export through the port of Liverpool and that trade ended in the 1780s when the Trent and Mersey Canal opened and carried the goods through Middlewich, bypassing Winsford. From the 1830s, salt became important to Winsford, partly because the mines under Northwich had begun to collapse. A new source was discovered in Winsford, leading to the development of an industry along the course of the River Weaver. As a result, a new town developed within 1 mi of the old Borough of Over which had focused on Delamere Street. Most of the development took place on the other side of the river, with new housing, shops, pubs, chapels. As the prevailing winds blew the smoke away from Over, it became the place for the inhabitants to live. However, barge workers and others working in Winsford started to develop the area along the old Over Lane, the old Borough tried to keep itself separate but had been connected by the 1860s. By the World War II, employment in the trade had declined as one company took control of all the salt works. Slum clearance started in the 1930s and, by the 1950s three new housing estates had been built on both sides of the river to replace sub-standard homes
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Cheshire cheese
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Cheshire cheese /ˈtʃɛʃər/ is a dense and crumbly cheese produced in the English county of Cheshire, and four neighbouring counties, two in Wales and two in England. Cheshire cheese is one of the oldest recorded named cheeses in British history, it is first mentioned, along with a Shropshire cheese, the claim that Cheshire cheese is referred to in Domesday Book has become widespread but it is nonsense. Cheshire was the most popular cheese on the market in the late 18th century, in 1758 the Royal Navy ordered that ships be stocked with Cheshire and Gloucester cheeses. By 1823, Cheshire cheese production was estimated at 10,000 tonnes per year, in around 1870, until the late 19th century, the different varieties of Cheshire cheeses were aged to a sufficient level of hardness to withstand the rigours of transport to London for sale. It was a cheese to make as it required less storage. Sales of Cheshire cheese peaked at around 40,000 tonnes in 1960, Cheshire cheese remains the UKs largest-selling crumbly cheese, with sales of around 6,000 tonnes per year. The county remains an important centre for cheese and holds the Nantwich International Cheese Awards, Cheshire cheese is dense and semi-hard, and is defined by its moist, crumbly texture and mild, salty taste. Industrial versions tend to be drier and less crumbly, more like a mild Cheddar cheese, the Cheshire family of cheeses is a distinct group that includes other crumbly cheeses from the North of England such as Wensleydale and Crumbly Lancashire. Cheshire cheese comes in three varieties, red, white and blue, the original plain white version accounts for the majority of production. Red Red Cheshire, coloured with annatto to a shade of orange, was developed in the hills of North Wales. Blue Blue Cheshire has blue veins like Stilton or Shropshire blue, historically, it was much favoured in London clubs since the Georgian period. It has a history, but production ceased in the late 1980s. Recently it has been revived by several manufacturers in England, Nantwich Museum, including an exhibition on Cheshire cheese. History of agriculture in Cheshire Cheshire cheese at the British Cheese Board
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History of Cheshire
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The history of Cheshire can be traced back to the Hoxnian Interglacial, between 400,000 and 380,000 years BP. Primitive tools that date to that period have been found, the Romans occupied Cheshire for almost 400 years, from 70 AD, and created the town and fort of Deva Victrix, now Chester. After the Romans withdrew, Cheshire formed part of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Norman Conquest in 1070 saw Cheshire harshly ruled by the occupiers as local people resented the invaders and rebelled. War again swept the county during the English Civil War in 1642, the industrial revolution saw population changes in Cheshire as farm workers moved to the factories of Manchester and Lancashire. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a resurgence in the houses of Cheshire and canals. Contemporary Cheshire is now a ceremonial county administered by four unitary authorities, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, Cheshire retains the offices of Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff for ceremonial purposes. Cheshires name was derived from an early name for Chester. Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920, in the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir, derived from the name for Chester at the time. A series of changes occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire. Cheshire periodically lay under ice until the end of the Younger Dryas ice age about 11,500 years ago, there is evidence of Old Stone Age occupation with axe heads being found at Tatton dating to 10,000 B. C. More permanent occupation of Cheshire occurred during the New Stone Age, for example, there is a chambered tomb known as the Bridestones, near Congleton. It belongs to the megalithic culture characterised by the practice of burial in stone-built chambers beneath mounds of earth. It lies approximately three miles east of Congleton and is the oldest megalithic structure in the whole of Cheshire. Farming is also likely to have started to develop during the Neolithic period, with flint artefacts and burnt grain being found at Tatton dating to 2,600 B. C. and the Oversley Farm find. During Bronze Age, occupation of upland sites at Beeston Castle. Into the Iron Age, Cheshire became occupied by the Celtic Cornovii, bordering the Brigantes to the North, the Cornovii tribe had their capital at The Wrekin, Shropshire and were known to trade in salt from mines at Middlewich and Northwich. For the important Oversley Farm neolithic and Bronze Age longhouse find, the Romans arrived in the lands of the Cornovii in 48 AD and defeated them at a battle at The Wrekin. The civilian amphitheatre, which was built in the 1st century and it is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain, and is also a Scheduled Monument
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Timeline of Cheshire history
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The timeline of Cheshire history shows significant events in the history of the English county of Cheshire. 70, The Romans found the fortress and town of Deva Victrix,90, Legio XX Valeria Victrix arrive in Chester. 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeats a Welsh army at the Battle of Chester,689, Church of St John the Baptist founded outside Chester city walls by King Æthelred of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid. 874 or 875, St Werburghs remains brought to Chester for protection against Danish invaders,890, Plegmund, probably of Plemstall, becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. 893, First mention of Scandinavian settlers in Chester, 893–894, A Danish force overwinters in Chester. 894–895, King Alfred drives the Danes from Chester,907, Chester refounded as a burh by Æthelflæd and King Edward the Elder, and re-fortification starts. 907, Church to St Werburgh, later Chester Cathedral, founded by Æthelflæd, rebuilt from a church dedicated to St Peter. 907, Æthelflæd founds new church dedicated to St Peter and St Paul in Chester,914, The Iron Age hill fort at Eddisbury is re-fortified by Æthelflæd. 915, Æthelflæd builds a burh at Runcorn, 915–920, Re-fortification of Chester probably completed. 919, Edward the Elder builds a burh at Thelwall, 923–924, Chester revolts against rule from Wessex and is subdued by Edward the Elder. 17 July 924, Edward the Elder dies at Farndon or Aldford,937, King Æthelstan defeats the armies of Dublin, Alba and Strathclyde at the Battle of Brunanburh, probably near Bromborough. 958, King Edgar of England grants a charter to St Werburghs Abbey,973, Edgar of England visits Chester. 980, First recorded use of the shire or county of Chester,1007, Eadric Streona becomes the Kings ealdorman of Mercia. 1017, King Cnut executes Eadric Streona, and makes Leofric Earl of Mercia,1062, Edwin succeeds as Earl of Mercia. 1069–1071, William I leads the Norman Conquest into Cheshire, besieges Chester and kills Edwin,1070, Hugh dAvranches created as first Earl of Chester. 1075, St John the Baptists Church, Chester becomes a cathedral,1092, Monastery founded on site of current Chester Cathedral by Hugh dAvranches. 1150, Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester founds a Benedictine nunnery in Chester,1157, Henry II entertained at Chester Castle. 1165, Henry II entertained at Chester Castle again,1182, Cheshire land north of the Mersey becomes part of the new county of Lancashire
40.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were independently updated. In one case, the Chronicle was still being updated in 1154. Nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part, though not all are of historical value. The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfreds reign and these manuscripts collectively are known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Taken as a whole, however, the Chronicle is the single most important historical source for the period in England between the departure of the Romans and the following the Norman conquest. Much of the information given in the Chronicle is not recorded elsewhere, in addition, the manuscripts are important sources for the history of the English language, in particular, the later Peterborough text is one of the earliest examples of Middle English in existence. Seven of the nine surviving manuscripts and fragments now reside in the British Library, the remaining two are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. All of the manuscripts are copies, so it is not known for certain where or when the first version of the Chronicle was composed. It is generally agreed that the version was written in the late 9th century by a scribe in Wessex. After the original Chronicle was compiled, copies were made and distributed to various monasteries, additional copies were made, for further distribution or to replace lost manuscripts, and some copies were updated independently of each other. Some of these copies are those that have survived. The earliest extant manuscript, the Winchester Chronicle, was written by a single scribe up to the year 891, the scribe wrote the year number, DCCCXCII, in the margin of the next line, subsequent material was written by other scribes. It is known that the Winchester manuscript is at least two removes from the original Chronicle, as a result, there is no proof that the Chronicle was compiled at Winchester. The Chronicle, as well as the distribution of copies to other centres of learning, of the nine surviving manuscripts, seven are written entirely in Old English. One, known as the Bilingual Canterbury Epitome, is in Old English with a translation of each annal into Latin, another, the Peterborough Chronicle, is in Old English except for the last entry, which is in early Middle English. The oldest is known as the Winchester Chronicle or the Parker Chronicle, six of the manuscripts were printed in an 1861 edition for the Rolls Series by Benjamin Thorpe with the text laid out in columns labelled A to F. He also included the few remnants of a burned seventh manuscript
41.
Edward the Elder
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Edward the Elder was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father and he captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister. All but two of his charters give his title as Anglorum Saxonum rex, a title first used by his father, Alfred. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Kings of Scotland and Strathclyde and the rulers of Northumbria chose as father and lord in 920, Edwards cognomen the Elder was first used in Wulfstans Life of St Æthelwold to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr. Mercia was the dominant kingdom in southern England in the eighth century, thereafter the two kingdoms became allies, which was to be an important factor in English resistance to the Vikings. In 865 the Danish Viking Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia, the East Anglians were forced to buy peace and the following year the Vikings invaded Northumbria, where they appointed a puppet king in 867. They then moved on Mercia, where spent the winter of 867–868. The following year, the Danes conquered East Anglia, and in 874 they expelled King Burgred, in 877 the Vikings partitioned Mercia, taking the eastern regions for themselves and allowing Ceolwulf to keep the western ones. The situation was transformed the following year when Alfred won a victory over the Danes at the Battle of Edington. He was thus able to prevent the Vikings from taking Wessex and western Mercia, although they still occupied Northumbria, East Anglia, Alfred the Great married his Mercian queen Ealhswith in 868. Her father was Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, and her mother, Alfred and Ealhswith had five children who survived childhood. Their first child was Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, Edward was next, and the second daughter, Æthelgifu, became abbess of Shaftesbury. The third daughter, Ælfthryth, married Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and this would usually suggest that he was intended for the church, but it is unlikely in Æthelweards case as he had sons. There were also a number of children who died young. Æthelflæd was probably born about a year after her parents marriage, yorke argues that he was therefore probably nearer in age to Ælfthryth than Æthelflæd. However, he led troops in battle in 893, and he must have been of age in that year as his oldest son Æthelstan was born about 894. They were taught the courtly qualities of gentleness and humility, and Asser wrote that they were obedient to their father and this is the only known case of an Anglo-Saxon prince and princess receiving the same upbringing. As a son of a king, Edward was an ætheling, however, even though he had the advantage of being the eldest son of the reigning king, his accession was not assured, as he had cousins who had a strong claim to the throne
42.
Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth
43.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
44.
Hundreds of Cheshire
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The Hundreds of Cheshire, as with other Hundreds in England were the geographic divisions of Cheshire for administrative, military and judicial purposes. They were introduced in Cheshire some time before the Norman conquest, later on, both the number and names of the hundreds changed by processes of land being lost from Cheshire, and merging or amalgamation of remaining hundreds. The Ancient parishes of Cheshire were usually wholly within a specific hundred, Cheshire, in the Domesday Book was recorded as a larger county than it is today. There is a disagreement in published sources about where the northern boundary of Cheshire lay. One source states that the border was the River Ribble. This area is included as Inter Ripam et Mersam in the Domesday Book, however, more recent sources confirm that the actual boundary at that time was the River Mersey. The hundreds in between the Mersey and the Ribble were, West Derby, Newton, Warrington, Blackburn and this uncertain nature of the northern border lasted until 1182, when the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire. Later, the hundreds of Atiscross and Exestan became firmly part of Wales, over the years the remaining ten hundreds consolidated to just seven with changed names, Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich and Wirral. The date at which this happened is not clear, These newer names are reported to be all in use by 1259 to 1260. The same source reports research that has found Macclesfield Hundred to be named in 1242, Chester lost its hundred status, but was subsequently given the status of county of itself and was known as the City and County of Chester. This hundred was formed from the old Dudestan hundred, the southern part of Dudestan was transferred to Wales where it was known as Maelor Saesneg, and Flintshire Detached Bucklow was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1260. It was formed from the earlier Domesday hundreds of Bochelau and Tunendune, Eddisbury included the ancient parishes of Barrow, Delamere, Ince and others. Macclesfield was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1242 and it was formed to a great extent from the earlier Domesday hundred of Hamestan. Wirral was formed from the earlier Domesday hundred of Wilaveston
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