Historic county of England
Cheshire
A great plain between Dee and Mersey, rising east into the Pennines.
Cheshire is built around one of England’s clearest lowland landscapes: the broad Cheshire Plain, enclosed by higher country and cut by major rivers. Chester stands on the Dee in the west; the Wirral projects between Dee and Mersey; the salt towns occupy the central plain; and the ground rises markedly eastwards towards Macclesfield and the Pennine edge.
The north contains a dense belt of towns associated with the Mersey and the growth of the Manchester conurbation, while much of central and southern Cheshire remains open agricultural country. Meres, oak woodland and low sandstone ridges interrupt the plain, giving an apparently simple landscape considerable internal variety. Plain, estuary, sandstone, salt and eastern hill country combine to make Cheshire unusually coherent.
- First named in 980
- 1000s: Ceaster; Ceasterscir
- Domesday Book (1086): Cestrescir
- Area: 1,035 sq miles / 2,681 km²
- Population: 1,668,894
- County top: Black Hill 1,909 ft / 582 m
County geography
Current Census
Contemporary Census profile
England and Wales Census 2021. Detailed contemporary statistics are available in the Geographic County Census Explorer.
- Population density
- 1,692.3 people per sq mi (653.4 people per km²)
- Population
- 1,752,159
The Cheshire Plain
Most of the county lies within the great lowland gap between the Welsh hills and the Pennines. Its glacial landscape is dotted with meres and crossed by low sandstone ridges, while pasture and dairy farming have long been characteristic of the richer ground.
The Mid-Cheshire Ridge provides the clearest break in this openness, its sandstone heights rising above the surrounding plain.
Salt beneath the county
Cheshire’s geology has had a direct influence on its towns and industries. Great underground salt deposits around Northwich and Middlewich supported centuries of salt working and later chemical industry. Few counties show so clearly how something hidden beneath an otherwise pastoral landscape could shape settlement and economic life above it.
From Wirral to the Pennines
Western Cheshire is maritime: the Wirral lies between the Dee and Mersey, with Chester close to the Welsh border. Eastwards the plain gradually tightens and rises towards Macclesfield and the Pennine country. The county therefore runs through a remarkable sequence from estuary and lowland to gritstone hill.
County questions
Questions about Cheshire
Is part of Manchester in Cheshire?
The modern City of Manchester local-authority area crosses the geographic boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire. The city centre and much of Manchester are in Lancashire, while southern parts of the present city area are in Cheshire. The council boundary does not replace the county boundary.
County record
Names and continuity
- Formal name
- County of Chester
- County day
- 30-Mar
- Foundation
- c.920
Cheshire and County of Chester are forms of the same county name, both deriving from Chester. The shire name is recorded before the Norman Conquest and the county later acquired its distinctive palatine jurisdiction.