Cheshire

Cheshire, a maritime county in the west of England, on the Welsh border, bounded N. by the river Mersey, separating it from Lancashire, and partly also by the Irish Sea. Its greatest length from north to south is 48 miles; greatest breadth from east to west, 32; total area of land and water, 1102 sq. m., of which 76 per cent. is under cultivation. The coast-line is confined to the hammer-headed peninsula, called Wirral, about 8 miles broad, between the estuaries of the Mersey and Dee. The surface forms an extensive nearly level plain between the Derbyshire and Welsh mountains, well wooded, and studded with small lakes or meres. This plain, comprising fourths of the surface, rests on new red sandstone, and is crossed, near the middle, by a tract of high ground running south-west from a promontory overlooking the Mersey, near the mouth of the Weaver, to Beeston Castle rock, 366 feet high. On the east border of the county is a line of new red sandstone hills. In the east are large tracts of peat, and much of the county is wet and rusly. Coal-measures appear on the Flintshire border, and also on the borders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The chief rivers are the Dee, Mersey, and Weaver, which are navigable. The Dee skirts the county to the west for 55 miles, and the Mersey on the north for 40 miles. The Weaver rises in the east part of the county, and runs 40 miles west-north-west to the Mersey. In addition to its river navigation, the county has an almost unrivalled system of canals, and contains the greater part of the Manchester Ship Canal. It is well intersected by railways. The chief mineral products are rock-salt and coal. The rock-salt, discovered in 1670, and mined by gunpowder, is found near the Weaver and its branches, especially near Northwich (q.v.), and at Middlewich, Winsford, and Sandbach. Much salt is also made from brine-springs 20 to 40 yards deep. Coal is worked near Chester and on the eastern borders of the county. Lead and copper mining is now almost extinct. In almost every part of the county freestone, limestone, millstone, and marl are found. The climate is moist. The soil is mostly a clayey or sandy loam, with marl and peat, and very fertile. The soil and climate are well fitted for pasturing, and dairy-farming is largely carried on, the county being noted for its cheese (see CHEESE). About 90,000 cows are kept in Cheshire, capable of producing about 15,000 tons of cheese. In the cattle-plague of 1865-66 upwards of 70,000 cattle perished, 36,000 of these being slaughtered as a preventive measure. Pop. (1801) 194,305; (1881) 664,037; (1891) 730,052. There are extensive manufactures in the principal towns, especially Birkenhead, Congleton, Chester (the county town), Crewe, Macclesfield, Stalybridge, and Stockport. The county is formed into eight parliamentary divisions, each returning one member, and includes the parliamentary boroughs of Birkenhead and Chester, with portions of the boroughs of Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Stockport, and Warrington. It contains 503 civil parishes, and is mostly in the diocese of Chester. Cheshire has some Roman roads, tumuli, barrows, remains of religious houses, and many old castles and halls. Egbert, in 828, added Cheshire to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. William the Conqueror erected Cheshire into a county palatine, under Hugh Lupus, with an independent parliament and eight barons. Henry VIII. subordinated it to the English crown; but Cheshire did not send representatives to the English parliament till 1549. See Ormerod's History of Cheshire (3 vols. 1819; new ed. 1875), and Earwaker's East Cheshire (1877).