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

In mid-Cheshire, where we live, there is the ancient and pretty market town of Knutsford. (Said to be named after king Canute, or Cnut...had to be careful with my typing there...who is believed to have sallied forth (well, he hardly ever sallied first, did he now?)to the then 'village near a ford'. The ford is extant. Cnutsford?
In the vast green splendour of Tatton Park on the outskirts of Knutsford, the family of the Egerton dynasty, who came over with the Conqueror, has left the nation a splendid mansion house, and I believe about 10,000 acres of parkland and a vast clear lake. It is the venue of the Cheshire Show (agricultural and craft-skill fair) and concerts, outdoor and indoor. Deer roam freely in a large reserve area. The long approach to the house is similar to that at Blenheim Palace with two straight rows of mature Oak and Beech trees down each side of the lane. The two parks are about equal in size, and very alike.

Also in mid-Cheshire are the 'Wiches' or 'Wyches', towns built over vast deposits of salt: Northwich is the main one, then Middlewich, Leftwich, and the vast underground caverns of salt mines in Winsford. These have those large-wheeled dumper trucks you see in open cast mines. They are taken down the mine in pieces and assembled down there, never to come up in one piece! There are traffic lights and road signs in squared-off tunnels with two lanes of traffic! Much of the rocksalt is used on the roads of Britain in winter to grit and melt the ice.
The chemical industries of north-west and mid -Cheshire use brine from local brine wells in their processing of soda-ash and chlorine. The Romans were the first people to mine salt in the area. There was a Roman castle in Northwich, standing on what is now called Castle, a smaller shopping and residential district of the town.
Much of the county is still, of course, prime farming land, with a very fertile loam suitable for both arable farming and cattle rearing. Cheshire stands in the lea of the Welsh mountains, in a 'rain-shadow' region. The Cheshire plain forms what is called the Cheshire Gap by the meteorologists.
The presence of cattle and dairy farming in the county led to the development of the leather tanning industry in the four main tanneries in Runcorn, which had always been both an urban (and rural) district of Cheshire. The chemical industry of Cheshire and south-west Lancashire developed to serve the needs of the tanning industry as one of its main customers. It provided the dyes, developed by the pioneering chemists of the University of Manchester, and financed by industrial entrepreneures like Sir John Brunner and Hamilton Y. Castner, an American mining engineer and Karl Kellner, a German chemist.

Right.

Before I go any further. Can I ask someone to go have a quick look at the entry. I'll post the A number in a moment.

I think I'm taking things too far. I've only just about described Cheshire, yet alone gone into details about various areas and wot not. This entry is going to end up being huge!!!!

As for the various information that people are posting into this convo...I'm going to copy and paste it into the beginning of the guide entry and move things around as and when I get to the various places...is that ok?

A6014297

That is quite an OUTSTANDING beginning to the entry, everyone - and particular congrats to Vicki for her hard work at collating everything together so far.

Just thought you'd like to know that Cheshire is DEFINITELY in the running to be the first completed county!

Paully

Isn't Cheshire Cheese supposed to be the oldest cheese variety in the UK.

It's the oldest cheese in the UK and on me list to include into the entry </>


Oh...Paully...I'm still concerned that I'm going to have "too much" information in it.

If it was the oldest cheese, no wonder my fridge is getting smelly

The highest point in the county is Shining Tor on the border with Derbyshire and inside the Peak District National Park.
It's also close by the The Cat and Fiddle Inn - which is on the A537 Buxton to Macclesfiels road - which is the second highest inn in England (after Tan Hill in N. Yorks).

Seriously Vicki, don't worry about there being 'too much' info in the entry. If you and your wonderful fellow researchers are happy to keep adding information, then we certainly won't object to seeing a nice meaty entry in PR.

We were initially expecting that most of the completed county entries would come in at somewhere round about 4 or 5 paragraphs, but we're over the moon if there are enough facts, figures and interested people to expand on that!

The minimum information that we're hoping to get for each of the counties is:


** General location of the county in the UK (Northwest, Midlands, Highlands), including bordering counties.

** The main towns and cities there, plus any tourist attractions or places of note.

** A very basic history of the county (which, for those counties created in 1974 or after might include a little background about the region before the county was formed). Some counties will be famous for specific key events in history, which we'd also like to know about.

** Any geographical features (lakes in Cumbria, Peak District in Derbyshire, Pennines in Yorkshire/Greater Manchester)

** Links to other related entries for the region.


Cheers!

Paully

That's alright by me Vicki.
Copy and paste anything I've written , by all means. I just like writing about the county.
All that I have written to this point is from my personal knowledge of the area, but I have booklets, bought some years ago and researched by Cheshire County Council Archives Department, relating to the Runcorn area, with Halton, Norton, and Frodsham, all originally rural areas of the Runcorn District. These date back a little beyond the Conquest. This, often neglected north-west area of Cheshire is laden with history; particularly Norton, with its Priory. They contain letters, sent by a local sheriff to Henry VIII's Chancellor, and the replies from him to the sheriff, Sir Piers Dutton of Dutton, about the resistance of the Prior and some of his canons to the dissolution of the house. The Prior and his associates were imprisoned in Halton Castle. Henry ordered their summary execution for the offence against his decree and against the king's majesty! All very interesting stuff to read. I cannot, of course, type any of these word for word, as my purchase of the pamphlets is for personal consumption and is subject to copyright laws. But I can paraphrase much of their content that I consider to be generally interesting.

Next week I shall write more about the county in general. Other things are pressing for my attention in the meantime.


Ron

Well, I think, apart from waiting for a quote from a famous person, who has promised to get back to me, and apart from doing the thing in *shudders* guideml, it's pretty much full I would imagine.

The only thing I haven't done is famous people from the county. There's loads of them!!!! Albeit not "that" famous, but famous enough.

Just waiting on that quote I mentioned earlier now.

If you're going to talk about Runcorn and Warrington in North Cheshire, you should probably mention Widnes too... Okay, okay, I'm biased.

There are other places that could go in the "places to visit" section, such as Alderley Edge (where, apparently, lots of 'famous' people live; well, okay most of them are footballers I guess) and Lymm.

I didn't see Delamere Forest mentioned anywhere, that would be worth a sentence or two.

I can't think of anything else right now - the entry looks really good by the way.

me[Andy]g, originally from Widnes (how did you guess?)

Delamere Forest - the place where lots of people from the surrounding areas go to 'liberate' their Christmas Trees every year! lol

Paully

Hi Andy g,

I quite understand your reaction on the question of Widnes and Warrington being in Cheshire. The simple difference is that Widnes and Warrington, both, were boroughs of Lancashire until about the mid 1960s when they were given the honour of becoming constituents of Cheshire for a certain political party's electoral advantage. Runcorn, Halton and all parts south of the river Mersey to the southern borders of Cheshire have been Cheshire towns since 1066 and all that! So, smoke your pipe of peace and calm down; you are now Cheshire people! At least until the next Boundary Commission sits to judge us all to be what they decide!
I speak as an ex-pat Runcornian from an old Runcornian family who lived in Halton and was Christened in St, Mary's Church on Halton Castle hill when it was a really quiet and rural haven!
Even Lancashire didn't want you; so you became Merseyside people politically speaking.
Anyway Andy, I would have thought you would have been very proud of being (originally) a Lancashire lad. The Queen is the Duke of Lancaster, and it has always had a special status in the land. You could have played county cricket for Lancashire only if you were Lancashire born!
Cheshire was only a minor county in the earlier centuries. Wise up, and consider yourself lucky to be within the Cestrian fold (the latter really means a Chester person; the County Town of Cheshire. My dear wife is a true Cestrian, who has performed in the Cathedral of that noble City when at her Chester school).

f.

"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"

********************

Sorry to be pedantic, but large parts of Flintshire also have (or fairly recently had) CH postcodes: does Cheshire therefore also incorporate parts of Wales? Traditionally, Wales begins just outside Chester's city walls (which were after all built to keep us out of England) and the law that says "any Welshman caught inside Chester after the gates close may be slain by the longbow, without penalty, unless it be done on a Sunday in the Cathedral grounds" has never been repealed...

In these modern times, you are motoring through the western suburbs of the city of Chester when a phenomena occurs. The signs on the road that previously said "SLOW" suddenly and for no apparent reason also say "SLOW - ARAF" and bus stops also become "safle bws", and you know, with no fuss or drama, you are now in Wales. Although you could have sworn you haven't yet left Chester.

Musical connections - late 90s indie band Mansun were from Chester, and were quite vocal about refusing to move to London. Then there's the Macc Lads, I suppose...

Incidentally, this expat Welshman, after a series of moves around the place, is now resident in Stockport.

I have contributed ideas to the Stockport, Cheshire thread and written a possible Guide entry on the local peculiarites of Cheadle, A4478907, which may be of use here, although Cheadle residents might find ti unfair...

A1945154: Stockport, Cheshire.

My comments are in the "clulture and History" discussion thread....

If anything's useful, Vicky, it's all yours, I'm not proud, I'll settle for a "co-reasearcher" credit at the side of the page!

You should use the bit about it being still (technically) legal to slay Welshmen caught at large within Chester's walls (except on Sundays. There might also have been an exemption clause about Welsh people who make it to sanctuary in a church or the Cathedral)

The law was enacted circa 1140 and has never been repealed....