Cheshire
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Cheshire is a county in north west England. It shares borders with Merseyside and Greater Manchester in the north, Derbyshire in the east, Shropshire and Staffordshire in the south, and the Welsh county of Clwyd to the west.
Cities, towns and villages
Cities
- Chester – the county town situated on the River Dee, with a rich Roman history, famously beautiful architecture and good shopping along the historic Cheshire rows. Chester Races at The Roodee, the oldest racecourse still in use in England.
Towns
- Crewe
- Knutsford with Tatton Park an historic estate with Tudor hall, neo-classical mansion, lavish gardens, a deer park and playground.
- Macclesfield
- scenic town in the middle of cheshire and home to the infamous "hack green" nuclear bunker turned museum
- Neston
- See the Anderton Boat Lift and Delamere Forest Park
- Runcorn
- Warrington
- Wilmslow
Villages
- , just north is Jodrell Bank, home of the Lovell Radio Telescope
- Lymm
- Wybunbury
- , just on the border to the Peak District national park, half an hour from Manchester on the train. It's home to Lyme Park, the filming location of Pride and Prejudice, a Manor House with extensive and famed garden; and the gritstone trail, a 35 mile footpath. It is possible, at some of its sections, to see into seven counties: Lancashire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Clwyd, and Yorkshire.
Understand
Prior to boundary changes in 1974 and the creation of areas like Greater Manchester and Merseyside, Cheshire included everything south of the Mersey such as Sale, Hyde, and Stockport, and continued up to the Welsh border near Chester. The boundary changes led to some gains and some losses, Widnes and Warrington were added to Cheshire.
Talk
The Cheshire accent is not a strong regional accent and is often associated with Received Pronunciation (RP), but several regional accents and dialects like Scouse are common in Cheshire, due to the proximity to cities like Liverpool and Manchester.
Get in
By train
Crewe, Wilmslow and Warrington Bank Quay are on the West Coast Mainline, which gives them good connections to London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and a variety of other destinations. Chester has more infrequent services to and from London and the Midlands, and regular services to and from North Wales, Manchester and Liverpool served by Merseyrail. These last two are largely commuter lines, so do not expect major luxury, though they pass through enjoyable country scenery.
Neston station in Cheshire also serves the Borderlands Line to mid-Wirral.
By plane
- Manchester Airport (MAN) is located just north of Cheshire and serves a large number of international and domestic destinations.
- Liverpool John Lennon (LPL) is similarly close, and has mainly budget airline connections to European destinations. It will not be possible to get to most places in Cheshire direct from here, rather you must go to the main train stations in that city and use that.
See
Do
-
phone: + 44 303 040 4040 (non-geographic number)canal cruising circuit
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phone: +44 1606 288543walk along the Mid Cheshire Ridge and through the Cheshire plane