Portal:Cheshire
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The Cheshire Portal
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in the North West of England. Chester is the county town, and formerly gave its name to the county. The largest town is Warrington, and other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Northwich, Runcorn, Sandbach, Widnes, Wilmslow and Winsford. The county is administered as four unitary authorities. Cheshire occupies a boulder clay plain (pictured) which separates the hills of North Wales from the Peak District of Derbyshire. The county covers an area of 2,343 km2 (905 sq mi), with a high point of 559 m (1,834 ft) elevation. The estimated population is 1,028,600, 19th highest in England, with a population density of 439 people per km2. The county was created in around 920, but the area has a long history of human occupation dating back to before the last Ice Age. Deva was a major Roman fort, and Cheshire played an important part in the Civil War. Predominantly rural, the county is historically famous for the production of Cheshire cheese, salt and silk. During the 19th century, towns in the north of the county were pioneers of the chemical industry, while Crewe became a major railway junction and engineering facility. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
The Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey and Holmes Chapel, is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The main Lovell Telescope (pictured) was the largest steerable radio telescope in the world on its completion in 1957; it is now the third largest. The observatory's three other active radio telescopes are the Mark II and the 42 ft and 7 m diameter telescopes. Jodrell Bank is also the base of the Multi–Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN). Established in 1945 by Sir Bernard Lovell to investigate cosmic rays, the observatory has played an important role in the research of meteors, quasars, pulsars, masers and gravitational lenses, and was also heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age. A popular tourist attraction, Jodrell Bank has also been mentioned in Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
The chimney-piece from Tabley Old Hall, now ruinous, is displayed at nearby Tabley House. It dates from 1619, and is in painted and gilded wood, with carvings including statues of Lucretia, Cleopatra and a female nude reclining on a skull. Credit: Peter I. Vardy (April 2010) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
A total of 43 churches and chapels in Cheshire are listed at grade I. Although Christian churches have existed in the county since the Anglo-Saxon era, no significant Saxon features remain in its listed churches. Surviving Norman architecture is found, notably in Chester Cathedral and St John the Baptist, Chester. Most churches in this list are in the Gothic style, dating between the 13th and the 17th centuries, predominantly in the Perpendicular style. There are some examples of Neoclassical architecture, including St Peter, Aston-by-Sutton, and St Peter, Congleton. The only buildings dating from a later period are Waterhouse's Eaton Chapel in French Rayonnant style, and Bodley's Church of St Mary at Eccleston, in Gothic Revival style, both from the 19th century. Major building materials are the local sandstone and limestone. A handful of timber-framed churches survive, some of which have been encased in brick; examples include St Michael, Baddiley (pictured), St Luke, Holmes Chapel, St Oswald, Lower Peover, and St James and St Paul, Marton. 1 February 1863: Artist and printmaker John Romney died in Chester. 1 February 1869: The first goods train crossed Runcorn Railway Bridge. 1 February 1994: Pop singer Harry Styles born in Holmes Chapel. 3 February 1646: Chester surrendered during the Civil War. 3 February 1857: First meeting of Cheshire Police committee. 3 February 1885: Foundation stone of Grosvenor Museum laid by the Duke of Westminster. 4 February 1253–4: Lordship of Chester gifted to Edward, heir of Henry III. 5 February 1977: Olympic gold medallist sailor Ben Ainslie born in Macclesfield. 6 February 1987: Lindow III discovered at Lindow Moss. 9 February 1539: First recorded race at Chester Racecourse. 13 February 1839: Riot at Chester Castle in support of poachers awaiting trial. 14 February 1926: Fire partially destroyed Oulton Hall. 15 February 1918: Physicist John Holt born in Runcorn. 19 February 1943: Nobel prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt born in Neston. 20 February 1643: Beeston Castle seized from the Royalists by Parliamentary forces commanded by Sir William Brereton (pictured). 20 February 1907: Radar pioneer Skip Wilkins born in Chorlton. 21 February 2008: Sunny Lowry, first woman to swim the Channel, died in Warrington. 26 February 1993: IRA explosive devices went off at Warrington gasworks. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header 
 The ceremonial county of Cheshire is administered by four unitary authorities (click on the map for details): 2 – Cheshire East 3 – Warrington 4 – Halton In the local government reorganisation of 1974, Cheshire gained an area formerly in Lancashire including Widnes and Warrington. The county lost Tintwistle to Derbyshire, part of the Wirral Peninsula to Merseyside, and a northern area including Stockport, Altrincham, Sale, Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge to Greater Manchester. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Places: Bradwall • Middlewich • Runcorn • Widnes Sights: Adlington Hall • All Saints' Church, Runcorn • Beeston Castle • Capesthorne Hall • Chester Cathedral • Chester Rows • Cholmondeley Castle • Churche's Mansion • Crewe Hall • Eaton Hall • Gawsworth Old Hall • Halton Castle • Jodrell Bank Observatory • Little Moreton Hall History: Battle of Brunanburh • Battle of Rowton Heath • Deva Victrix • Eddisbury hill fort • Lindow Man Geography & Transport: A500 road • Bridgewater Canal • Chester Canal • Manchester Ship Canal People: Jonathan Agnew Lists: Castles Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
Robert Tatton (1606 – 19 August 1669) was a Cheshire landowner who supported King Charles I in the Civil War. He inherited the family estate in Wythenshawe, then in Cheshire, aged ten, and married Anne Brereton in 1628. When Civil War broke out, he joined the Royalist side, despite his wife being closely related to Sir William Brereton, who commanded the Parliamentary forces in Cheshire. Tatton is perhaps best known for his defence of his family home, Wythenshawe Hall (pictured), during its three-month siege in the winter of 1643/44 by a Parliamentary force commanded by Robert Duckenfield. Parliamentary casualties included Duckinfield's second-in-command, but their victory was inevitable when cannons were brought in. On surrender, the hall's contents were valued at almost £1650 (now around £230,000). Tatton served as the High Sheriff of Chester between 1645 and 1646. Although heavily fined by Parliament for fighting on the side of the king, he was subsequently rewarded for his loyalty by Charles II following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The Wythenshawe estate remained in the Tatton family until the 1920s. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. 
21 March: An exhibition on the Gothic Revival in Cheshire opens at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester. 20 March: An exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of Macclesfield Synagogue opens in Macclesfield. 4 March: The Lion Salt Works restoration wins the conservation award at the Civic Trust Awards. 4 March: Consultation opens on Cheshire East's local plan, which has been revised to contain an extra 7,000 houses, to include greenbelt sites near Knutsford, Macclesfield and Wilmslow. 1 March: Disused offices in Runcorn are to be converted into a "healthy new town" providing 800 dwellings. 25 February: Listed railway viaducts at Holmes Chapel and Peover Superior, as well as railway bridges at Crewe, Rudheath and Davenham, reopen after refurbishment. 22 February: DONG Energy announces the first plant to convert unsorted household waste into biogas, to be built in Northwich. 22 February: Restoration work commences on the Chester Castle Propylaeum. 21 February: An exhibition celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brazilian World Cup football team's visit to Lymm opens. 13 February: The four members of Warrington band Viola Beach are killed in a car accident in Sweden. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. There is a whiff of Stalinism in the air. Councillors who oppose the plan are threatened with de-selection. The accountants who have costed it believe that it is not financially viable: a single unitary authority would serve the county better. The chief executive of the County Council describes it as "perverse and deeply flawed". The children are especially at risk, since a single education authority which is a model of its kind would be replaced by two of unknowable quality. The people of Cheshire are up in arms yet feel powerless to resist. Martin Bell on the split into two unitary authorities, The Guardian (18 February 2008)
A selection of recent articles of interest include:
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