Manchester
& the Northwest Region of England
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Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester
Including
Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside,
Trafford & Wigan
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The
County of Cheshire
Cheshire
Townships, Cities & Major Villages
Alphabetical
Listing Continued:
Disley
The village
of Disley is situated on the main A6 trunk road from Stockport
to Buxton on the edge of the boundary between Greater Manchester
and the High Peak district of Derbyshire. The village was not
mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but its history can
be traced back to a time when it was merely a clearing in the
ancient Forest of Macclesfield. The town's most important buildings
include the parish church of St Mary, dated from around 1558 and
the Ram's Head pub, an old Victorian coaching inn, built in a
Tudor style, still complete with outer stables, on the corner
of the old Roman Road over higher Disley. The village itself is
an attractive stone built affair strung along the A6 highway,
with a direct railway link to Buxton and Manchester, as well as
being almost invisibly bypassed by the Upper
Peak Forest Canal on its way to Bugsworth and the terminus
at Whaley bridge..
Ellesmere
Port
Ellesmere
Port is the largest of the townships in the southern end of the
Wirral Peninsular of Cheshire. The town has been well known for
the Shell petrochemical refinery at Stanlow since 1922 and for
its largest employer, the Vauxhall Motor Company, which has been
manufacturing cars there since the early 1960s.
Before the construction of the Manchester
Ship Canal the town of Ellesmere Port actually lay
on the south bank of the River Mersey. In 1792, under the chairmanship
of Lord Edward Clive, several Shropshire businessmen planned to
construct an artificial canal which would connect the rivers Severn,
Mersey and Dee, and on 30th April 1793 Parliament Granted permission
to begin its construction. The canal basin area into which the
Ellesmere Port to Chester Canal connected via Whitby Locks came
to be known as Ellesmere Port.
The so-called Ellesmere Canal, later to become known as the Shropshire
Union Canal, surveyed and built by the celebrated engineer, Thomas
Telford, came into being. Telford bequeathed the town a complete
scheme of locks, docks and warehouses, and maintenance facilities.
Contemporary Ellesmere Port has a main shopping centre, the Port
Arcades, as well as its busy Market. Ellesmere Port's association
with the canal system is commemorated at the Boat Museum, which
has become a major tourist attraction in the region.
Frodsham
Frodsham is
a small pretty township located on the A56 trunk road, near to
Junction 12 on the M56 motorway which connects Chester to Manchester.
It stands on the River Weaver and the Manchester Ship Canal. The
old township of Frodsham Parish was once part of the Eddisbury
Hundred. Frodsham was an important River Mersey port during its
early history as well being an important stopover for stage coaches
in the 18th and 19th centuries. The nearby Delamere Forest overlooks
the township, which still holds an ancient and ever-popular weekly
street market. The town's 11th century parish church is actually
located half a mile up the hill northwards at Overton. Frodsham's
first known settlers were Anglo-Saxons from the southern Kingdom
of Mercia based in the Midlands, and the two possible origins
of the placename reveals these origins. One explanation has it
that"ham" signifies a small village, or hamlet,
and "frod" (or "froda"), believed
to be the name of a local Saxon leader who founded it - hence
"Frod's hamlet". The other explanation translates
as "ham on the ford" or "ford ham"
(meaning, possibly, "the hamlet on the ford, or crossing
over the local river" - the Weaver).
Hazel Grove
Hazel grove
is a large village township in Stockport and Cheadle Parishes,
once part of the old Macclesfield Hundred. It was formerly known
as Bullock Smithy, due to the old blacksmith's forge stopover
en route by stagecoach from Manchester to Buxton. It was situated
partly in the townships of Bosden, Norbury, Offerton and Torkington,
which were united to create Hazel Grove cum Bramhall civil parish
in 1900. Local history has it that coach passengers, availing
themselves of the hazel nuts from trees around the smithy, began
to refer to the place as "The Hazel Grove", and
thus the name stuck.
The township is now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport,
in the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County, and is located
about 3½ miles south of Stockport town centre on the main
A6 trunk road to Buxton. A busy transit town, it is conveniently
well placed for touring the Peak District, which lies a few miles
to the south, as well as the urban conveniences of shops and theatres
in Stockport and Manchester a few miles to the north. In 1939
the civil parish was extended to include Woodford, and transferred
to the county of Greater Manchester in 1974.
Holmes Chapel
Holmes Chapel,
a village in the Congleton Borough of central Cheshire, is located
about one mile from Junction 18 of the M6 Motorway. Once also
known as Church Hulme, (and originally simply 'Hulme'), probably
derived from the old Saxon "hulm" or "holm",
meaning rising ground, or dry land surrounded by bog or marshland.
After the Norman Invasion of 1066 the lands were held by the Barony
of Halton. Historically it has had many names - Church Hulme,
meaning the "hill with the church" - was its last name
preceding the present Holmes Chapel. The village centre is dominated
by the old Parish Church of St. Luke.
On the village northern boundary lies the River Dane - its name
still bearing witness to Danish settlers who founded the settlement.
Since 1842, the river valley has been spanned by a large brick-built
railway viaduct which rises 105 feet above the valley below, still
carrying the main railway line on its way from Manchester to Crewe.
Near to the village is located the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope
complex - its giant reflector dish, which dominates the Cheshire
Plain, can be seen from many miles away.
In July 1753 a major catastrophe struck when fire burnt down all
but two of the village's 20 cottages. These, and the Church were
all that survived of the former village, and they can still be
seen today in Church House Close.
The town has a railway station with regular services to Manchester
and Crewe. Manchester Airport is 15 miles away. The village of
Holmes Chapel is still mainly a residential area within the commuter
belts of Greater Manchester, Chester and the Staffordshire Potteries.
Ince
Ince is a
township and parish in the old Eddisbury Hundred which became
part of Ellesmere Port Civil Parish in 1950. The name "Ince"
or Inys" is derived from the Welsh word for island.
Shortly after the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Manor of Ince became
the property of the secular canons of St. Werburgh, after the
Norman Earl of Chester, Hugh Lupus, gave it to the Benedictines
in 1093. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the lands manor
passed into the hands of Sir Richard Cotton, and from his son
George to Sir Hugh Cholmondley. The land then passed on to the
Vale Royal branch of the Cholmondleys where they continued until
1724, when they were sold by Charles Cholmondley to Sir George
Wynn of Leeswood. From his heiress, Margaret, the manor passed
into the Waring family. Former monastery land at Stanlow is now
the site of a major oil refinery, which tends to give the area
a rather unfortunate industrial character, surrounded as it is
by an otherwise pleasant rural Cheshire landscape.
Knutsford
Knutsford
is a market town and was created a civil parish in 1895 by the
union of Knutsford Inferior and Knutsford Superior civil parishes.
In 1936 Knutsford was extended to include parts of Bexton, Tabley
Superior and Toft civil parishes.
The name of Knutsford is thought to come from King Canute (or
in Danish, "Knut"), who supposedly forded the
River Lily at this point in 1016. It appears under the name Cunetesford
in the Domesday Book of 1086.
In 1292 William de Tabley was granted a charter to establish a
market and an annual fair. Later the Lordship of the Manor fell
to the Massey family of Tatton, and thence on to their successors,
the Egertons. (See Old
Cheshire Families).
The town was first granted a charter in 1292 and for many years
it was virtually the capital of central Cheshire.
One of its most celebrated inhabitants was Mrs
Gaskell. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, the novelist,
lived much of her life and was married in Knutsford. Her novel
'Cranford' is said to be based on life in Victorian Knutsford.
In 1955 Knutsford received its own Armorial Bearings featuring
the motto 'Respice, Aspice, Prospice' (Look to the Past,
the Present, and the Future) and today it is one of Cheshire's
most visited places .
Lymm
The township
of Lymm was a parish in the old Bucklow Hundred, and is mentioned
in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1933 the northern boundary of
the civil parish was altered to follow the course of the Manchester
Ship Canal. Lymm now includes the hamlets of Booths, Broomedge,
Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little Heatley,
Oughtrington, Reddish, Rush Green and Statham. Lymm is a medium-
sized village in the north of rural Cheshire, situated near the
intersection of the M6 and M56 motorways. The Bridgewater
Canal passes through the town and featured as an important
transportation link during the 19th century, though nowadays,
as part of the so-called Cheshire
Ring, it has become a popular cruise route for holidaymakers.
Lymm is a popular dormitory commuter town for several major conurbations
that surround it, including Greater Manchester and Warrington,
and is a much sought after place to live well away from inner
city town life.
Macclesfield
is a borough in Prestbury Parish, in the old Macclesfield Hundred.
The civil parish was extended in 1894 to include parts of Hurdsfield
and Sutton, in 1936 to include Tytherington and Upton and part
of Gawsworth, and in 1955 to include a further part of Gawsworth
civil parish. Nowadays it also includes the hamlets of Broken
Cross, Longmoss, Moss Side, Sycamore Hill and Whirley Green.
The earliest written reference to Macclesfield is found in the
Domesday Survey of 1086. As a medieval town it developed its distinctive
street patterns and place names. It is a major township and one
of the largest in Cheshire. Its charter was granted by Prince
Edward in 1262, establishing it as a free borough with its own
merchant guild.
Macclesfield became a major woven silk producing town in the late
18th century, and is justly proud of its heritage. It became the
greatest silk weaving centre in England during the mid-19th century,
and though this industry has now declined, it is still a major
manufacturer of neck ties and silk covered buttons. Several of
its early mills still survive and the Macclesfield
Silk Museum and Paradise Mill are now open to the public
as museums of silk production. The arrival of the Macclesfield
Canal in 1831 further accelerated its industrial development,
though this was short lived. Nowadays the Macclesfield
Canal is a popular holiday venue for canal hire boats
and canal cruising. Macclesfield's Georgian houses are distinctive
and plentiful, and still bear witness to the former wealth of
the town.
