h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah, lovely leafy Cheshire. Anybody born, brought up or billeted there who'd like to let us learn about more about this lovely county? Why not write an entry on it for us?

Paully

Can't do the whole entry, but I can brainstorm a little.

Cheshire occupies a section of the Northwest of England that borders North Wales, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Staffordshire and (only just) Derbyshire.

Cheshire's biggest town is Chester, a former Roman settlement that still boasts an impressive Roman wall and archaeological digs potted all over the place. There is still some debate about its most Northerly and Western points as areas of Wirral and Widnes debate whether they are or aren't part of the county (in preference to the neighbouring Merseyside).

The River Mersey continues inland through the north of the county via Runcorn, while the infamous Crew is home to Crewe Station, rail route to the North where many a northern stand-up comic has found inspiration for an opening line while awaiting a connection.

For the Domesday Book, Cheshire formed the biggest English county - by default. The Normans had massacred whole areas of Lancashire after the county resisted Norman occupation. As a punishment, Lancashire and its assets was included as part of the entries of Cheshire.

ok. I think I can take this one on if no-one else objects....

Keep posting back here so people know what you've covered

(And well done for stepping forward VV!)

Well...just to let you know, I'm going to follow the format that was suggested in the intro and add in the pointers you put in too.

Oh, for the record, Wirral became part of Cheshire when they changed from an L postcode to a CH postcode Just need to figure out the dates

I'll give you a link to the guide entry as and when I've covered a specific topic.

That ok?

But that was only part of Wirral wasn't it? South Wirral, Ellesmere Port and the like? Aren't Birkenhead, Rock Ferry and Wallasey still part of Merseyside?

Right. I've got it.

Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council mark the edge of Cheshire even though the rest of the Wirral now hold a CH postcode as well.

Question.

what kind of time scale to we have for this? Only me thinks I have a slight problem in getting carried away and putting far too much information in it.

Well, we're looking at getting the first entries compiled ASAp - so about two weeks I'd say. It's suggest starting basic by compiling the lists as outlined on the Challenge h2g2 main page. Where the county is, what its geographical neighbours are, which towns and cities can be found there. Then look at the history of the place and just include what you can find.

That's why it's best to post material here to the conversations, so that once we have what looks like 'enough', one person can collate it all into an entry.

Oooops...I think I'm sort of doing it wrong then...

I've become a bull in a china shop and gone ahead and started a guide entry.

I've taken what Paul put and what you've put and placed them in there (Paul's as a guide to help me through it so I don't miss anything out)

So far I'm up to 7 pages of A4 on the computer. Granted some of it is off the internet to guide me, but once I've been through that, I'll have approximately 4 pages of it, I'm sure

No Vicki, you go ahead and write an article if you've got the time and motivation to do it! It'll be great if any other researchers with knowledge of Cheshire put forward their own ideas and suggestions to this thread, but you run with it!

Paully

Righto...if anyone comes in with anything I haven't got, I'll put it in and include ther researcher name into it too

Re: Crewe Railway station, Bombardier's Crewe depot is now the lat place in the UK where trains are built.

Damn, lat = last.

Crewe was, until a couple of years ago, the 'home' of the Rolls-Royce motor car factory. It now only produces the Bentley, which is just as luxurious, and in the good old days the only difference between the R. R. and the Bentley was the design of the radiator grille!

Rolls-Royce also produced the diesel engines for the early diesel rail-cars (2 to 3 coaches per train). I believe this was at the Crewe R.R.factory, but cannot be sure. It could have been at the Crewe locomotive works, 'under licence'.



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Macclesfield, in east Cheshire, situate in the Pennine foothills near the eastern-most border with Derbyshire, and being of a suitable 'damp' climate, was a world famous centre of silk production, a real luxury in those early years, as now!

See:

'www.manchester2002-uk.com/history/victorian/maccsilkmill.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages'

Oodles of info there!

Today, Macclesfield is home to the research laboratories of Astra-Zenica, the pharmaceuticals giant; formerly the laboratories of Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, Pharmaceuticals Division.


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Sorry! that should read AstraZeneca,(as one compound word and the capital 'Z')

Lovely! Some really good stuff here that gives people who don't know the area a jolly good idea about what parts of Cheshire are actually like!

More! More!

Anyone else lurking out there who'd like to chip in?!

Paully

I'd like to bet that many of our Rugby playing (Union of course!) researchers have played against Macclesfield's famous King's School; known in Cheshire (casually and affectionately) as 'King's Macc'!

The other famous school in Cheshire is King's School, Chester. Both schools have clashed in Rugger regularly, no doubt!

Cheshire has a large number of private or independent sector schools of extremely high quality.

Cheshire has been referred to as 'The Home County that slipped north':

Not really surprising, since the family seat of the Duke of Westminster, the richest landowner in the UK and the owner of much of the 'posh' parts of central London (Mayfair and the like), has always been in Cheshire, from Domesday to Thisday!

Never, never, never underestimate the Cheshire Set, nor the Cheshire lad! An old Cheshire saying goes:
'Cheshire born and Cheshire bred; strong in'th arm an' wick in'th 'ed!'

'Wick', in this case means 'bright' burning like a bright candle.


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To the west of Cheshire lie the 'Welsh Marches' of old; the river Dee forming a natural barrier, or frontier, between England and Wales at Chester and a significant distance beyond that point.
The Romans built the first castle there against the Welsh marauders and would-be invaders. The Cheshire bowmen became an invincible force against the Welsh raiders.
Edward 1 rebuilt and strengthened Chester Castle to ensure that the Welsh stayed on the west bank of the Dee!
And it has been said that Cheshire bowmen also formed the backbone of the archers at Agincourt; a tremendous team of toxic toxophilites! They were said to have one forearm longer and stronger than the other, and broad chests and shoulders, as a result of a lifetime's shooting practise. Cheshire still has a selection of names linked to the tradition of archery and bowmanship. My mother's elder sister married one Archibald Stringer, the meaning of which is simply a 'bold archer'. He was so named because of his surname, based on the ancient craft of twisting a twine or string for the bow. Names like Bowyer (a carver or maker of bows); Fletcher, who made the feather flights for arrows, and Arrowsmith, which speaks for itself, are now less common than they once were in the county.