Cautionary
Note:
These are the major old Cheshire townships, county
boroughs and villages as they existed before Local Government reorganisation
in 1974. Some of these places are now administratively within the Greater
Manchester Metropolitan County and the old County Boroughs have been
abolished. Stockport, for example, was before 1974 the County Borough
of Stockport - now it is a Metropolitan Borough within Greater Manchester
and its residents pay a portion of their Council Tax to the Greater
Manchester Metropolitan County Council and all ten Metropolitan Boroughs
are members of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. Therefore,
to deny that Greater Manchester exists is pointless.
However, confusion still exists some thirty-odd years later as to whether
some of these old townships are still in the County of Cheshire or in
Greater Manchester, and the author periodically receives mail asserting
both to be true. A similar state exists in the County of Lancashire.
Is Liverpool still within the County of Lancashire as it has been for
centuries, or is it now in Merseyside? Can it be both? The Government
has always maintained that "... new county boundaries are solely
for the purpose of defining areas of local government". They maintain
that these are "... administrative areas, and will not alter the
traditional boundaries of Counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties
of people living in them will change". So, are they in fact actually
"new county barriers" (to quote the govenment statement),
or just new "adminstrative" demarkations? Or is this simply
a governmental rationalisation of an impossibly embarassing faux pas
on their part in attempting to redraw old county borders?
Whichever is the true state, the author wishes to state categorically
here that he has no loyalties or opinion one way or another on the subject,
and does not wish to enter into the ongoing debate. Therefore, please
do not email me with your viewpoint - I have now heard all that can
be said on both sides of the argument - it is now for the reader to
judge.
Map of Pre-1974 Cheshire Townships and Major
Villages. Copyright John Moss 2003.
If you feel that your village or town ought to have
been included here, and we appear to have overlooked it, please feel
free to suggest it to us, and provided we can find sufficient material
to make an entry worthwhile, we will endeavour to add it. Please contact
us via our online Contact Form.
