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Alderley Edge
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Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,409, whilst the district ward "Alderley Edge" had a population of 4,408. It was an urban district from 1894 to 1974, when it became a civil parish in the Borough of Macclesfield.
Alderley Edge lies some to the northwest of Macclesfield and south of Manchester. It is situated at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone ridge - the Edge, which is the area's chief topographical feature.
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Encyclopedia
Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,409, whilst the district ward "Alderley Edge" had a population of 4,408. It was an urban district from 1894 to 1974, when it became a civil parish in the Borough of Macclesfield.
Alderley Edge lies some to the northwest of Macclesfield and south of Manchester. It is situated at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone ridge - the Edge, which is the area's chief topographical feature. The Edge overlooks the Cheshire Plain.
History
The area around Alderley Edge provides proof of occupation since the Mesolithic period with flint implements being found along the line of the sandstone outcrop. Evidence for copper mining in the Bronze Age has also been discovered to the south of the area, and in 1995 members of the Derbyshire Caving Club discovered a hoard of 564 Roman coins (now in the Manchester Museum) dating from AD 317 to AD 336. There are to date 13 recorded sites on the County Sites and Monuments Record (CSMR) in the settled area of Alderley Edge and 28 in Nether Alderley, with a further 44 along the Edge itself.
Early medieval settlements are recorded at Nether Alderley, to the south of Alderley Edge. The first written evidence of Alderley Edge, known then as 'Chorlegh' (later spelt as 'Chorley') appeared in the 13th century, with the likely derivation coming from ceorl and leah, meaning a peasants' clearing. Although it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, it is included in a charter of c.1280. The name 'Alderley' first appears in 1086 as 'Aldredelie'. Several versions of the origin are known, one says it originated from 'Aldred 'and 'leah' meaning 'Aldred's Clearing'. Another says it is most likely that the name Alderley came from Anglo-Saxon 'Alðr?ðeleah' meaning "the meadow or woodland clearing of a woman called 'Alðr?ð'.
In the 13th century and during the Middle Ages, the area comprised estates that had many different owners, since the 15th century, most of them have belonged to the de Trafford family. The principal manors being based on the 14th century Chorley Old Hall, which lies to the south-west of Alderley Edge, and the Old Hall, at Nether Alderley, a 16th century building which was burnt down in 1779. The economies of both Chorley and Nether Alderley were dominated by agriculture with a market charter being granted at Nether Alderley in c.1253. The Nether Alderley corn mill dates back to 1391, although the present timber structure is only 16th century. The millpond was adapted to form the moat, which surrounded the Old Hall, the home of the Stanley family (Baron Stanley of Alderley). The corn mill continued to be worked until 1939 when Lord Stanley was forced to sell it, along with the rest of his estate, to meet the cost of death duties. In the 1950s the National Trust bought the site and have since restored the building and opened it to the public.
Cheshire had its own system of taxes in the medieval period, the Mize, and in the records for 1405 Chorley was assessed at 20s 0d and Nether Alderley at 27s 0d.
Lead and copper mining on the Edge is documented in the late 17th and 18th centuries. After the destruction of the Old Hall in the late 18th century, the Stanley family relocated to Park House on the southern edge of Alderley Park, and both house and park were subsequently much extended. Throughout the 19th century Nether Alderley remained under the control of the Stanley's and the lack of development pressure meant that the dispersed medieval settlement pattern was retained. In 1830 Chorley consisted of only a few cottages, the De Trafford Arms Inn, a toll bar, and a smithy, straggling along the Congleton to Manchester Road.
The coming of the railway in 1842 with the construction of the Stockport to Crewe section of the main Manchester and Birmingham Railway changed all this. The Manchester and Birmingham Railway Company built the line through Chorley, offering free season tickets for 20 years to Manchester businessmen who built houses with a rateable value of more than £50 within a mile of the station. This 'season ticket' was in the form of a small silver oval which could be worn on a watch chain.
The railway also gave Alderley Edge its current name. As the railway network expanded and travel became easier, the railway company did not want its station called Chorley any more because of the possible confusion with Chorley in Lancashire. So, in 1880 they renamed it Alderley Edge station against much opposition, taking the old name for the village and the name of the sandstone escarpment already known as The Edge. The name Chorley is retained by the civil parish to the northwest of Alderley Edge.
Following the construction of the railway, the local landowner, Sir Humphrey de Trafford, of Chorley Hall, laid out an extensive estate of new roads and new houses were incrementally added, filling-in most of the available sites by 1910. Of these, nine are now listed grade II. The area boundary largely reflects de Trafford's original estate boundaries. Also because of the railway, Alderley became a popular place to visit and the railway company popularised day trips and cheap excursions to the village.
This period also saw the appearance of buildings which are now landmarks. St Philip's Church with its 175ft spire was built in 1853 and the village school a year later whilst Alderley Edge High School (now Alderley Edge School for Girls) opened in 1876. The Mission Hall (later known as The Institute) was built as a temperance hall for the recreation of the 'lower classes' by the wealthier residents in 1878. The Methodist Church in Chapel Road was built ten years after St Philip's.
The area is notable for its heavily wooded streets and substantial Victorian villas set in spacious, well-planted gardens. The first villa was constructed in the early 1840s and by 1850 thirty "handsome residences" had been erected, some of them in what is now the Alderley Edge Conservation Area. The cotton barons from Manchester built their mansions here and now they are changing hands for several million pounds. The village itself winds up a high street bristling with chic restaurants, designer shops and speciality food shops. Around the village, winding lanes are covered in their original sandstone setts and front boundary walls are usually built from the same local sandstone. The buildings are very varied in style with examples of Tudor, Italian, neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts Movement designs. The wide range of materials used reflects this somewhat eclectic mix of styles, and include stone, brick (several colours) smooth render or roughcast for the walls, and Welsh slate or clay tiles for the roofs.
The growth of Alderley Edge is recorded in the census returns; with the population rising from 561 in 1841 to 2856 in 1902 (the return for Nether Alderley shows a drop from 679 to 522 within the same period). There was no church in Chorley until 1852, when the larger expansion of the town in the demanded enlarged accommodation, but St Mary's Church in Nether Alderley retains some 14th century work including a font.
The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1871 therefore shows "Chorley" (as it still was) with the new Queen's Hotel next to the station, new shops and terraced houses along London Road, and a Post Office at the town centre, where Macclesfield Road meets Alderley Road. To the north are wooded areas with detached villas, but to the east is a much larger area, roughly approximating with the modern conservation area, where curving roads divide generous wooded plots, usually with its own house, although some plots remained undeveloped until much later. Of interest is the use of the names "Brickfield" and "Brick kiln" on a site to the north-east of Alderley Edge, suggesting a source for the local bricks.
The 1899 map shows a similar footprint but it is much easier to make out the individual villas and their names – Holybank, Ashfield, The Larches etc. Also very evident on this map are the remains of the old mines towards and within Windmill Wood, immediately to the southeast. In the 20th century, Alderley Edge continued to expand with much Post-War housing around the northeastern and western edges. Nether Alderley has remained relatively unchanged, apart from the sale of Alderley Park to Astra Zeneca (previously ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries), which now has a large research establishment based on Alderley Hall.
Governance
Parliamentary representation
Alderley Edge has formed part of the Tatton Constituency, since 1983 and the formation of the constituency. The current Member of Parliament for the constituency is George Osborne of the Conservative party; at the 2005 General Election, in Tatton the Conservatives won a majority of 11,731 and 51.8% of the vote. Labour won 23.5% of the vote, Liberal Democrats 21.8%, the United Kingdom Independence Party 2.4% and the independent candidate 0.6%. This is one of only a small number of seats in the north-west held by the Conservative Party.
Alderley Edge has also been the seat of Conservative politician Neil Hamilton (1983-1997) and independent politician Martin Bell (1997-2001).
Local government
The Alderley Edge electoral ward forms part of Macclesfield Borough in Cheshire. Prior to the local government reforms in 1974, Alderley Edge had been an urban district since 1894. The ward of Alderley Edge has two out of sixty seats on Macclesfield Borough Council, and as of the 2006 local election both seats were held by Conservatives.
The Councillors representing Alderley Edge on Macclesfield Council are:
- Frank Keegan (Conservative)
- John Parkinson (Conservative)
The Edge Association
The Edge Association is a local residents' group which campaigns on matters relevant to Alderley Edge.
Geography
Alderley Edge is located to the west of Bollington, east of Knutsford and just south east of Wilmslow. Alderley Edge railway station is situated in the centre of the village.
Demography
| Alderley Edge Compared |
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| 2001 UK Census | Alderley Edge | Macclesfield District | England | | Total population | 4,808 | 150,155 | 49,138,831 | | White | 97.2% | 98.1% | 90.9% | | Asian | 1.3% | 0.7% | 4.6% | | Black | 0.2% | 0.2% | 2.3% | | Christian | 79.7% | 79.6% | 71.7% | | Muslim | 0.8% | 0.5% | 3.1% | | No religion | 12.2% | 12.8% | 14.6% | | Over 65 years old | 25.7% | 18.1% | 15.9% |
As of the 2001 UK census, the village of Alderley Edge had a total population of 4,808. The population density was 6.4 persons per hectare and for every 100 females, there were 91.3 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Alderley Edge, 13.8% had no academic qualifications, lower than the 21.3% all of Macclesfield and 28.9% in England. Of the 2189 households in Alderley Edge, 52.3% were married couples living together, 34.5% were one-person households, 6.0% were co-habiting couples and 5.4% were lone parents.
With 93.4% being born in United Kingdom there is a low proportion of foreign-born residents. There is also a low proportion of non-white people as 97.2% of residents were recorded as white. The largest minority group was recorded as Asian at 1.3% of the population. The religious make up of Alderley Edge is 79.7% Christian, 0.75% Muslim, 0.77% Hindu, 0.60% Jewish and 0.15% Buddhist. 12.15% were recorded as having no religion, 0.10% had an alternative religion and 5.81% did not state their religion.
Economy
As of the 2001 UK census, the Alderley Edge ward had a possible workforce of approximately 2157 people. The economic activity of residents in the Alderley Edge electoral ward was 36.9% in full-time employment, 10.2% in part-time employment, 29.3% self-employed, 1.7% unemployed, 1.4% students with jobs, 3.5% students without jobs, 19.3% retired, 7.5% looking after home or family, 2.8% permanently sick or disabled and 2.0% economically inactive for other reasons. Alderley Edge has a very high rate of self employment (29.3%) compared with rest of the Macclesfield borough (22.7%) and England (16.6%). Alderley Edge also has low rates of unemployment (1.7%) compared with the rest of the Macclesfield borough (2.0%) and England (3.3%). The Office for National Statistics estimated that during the period of April 2001 to March 2002 the average gross weekly income of households in Alderley Edge was £720 (£37,440 per year).
Notable people
Notable people from Alderley Edge include:
- The Beckham family, who lived in the village for many years, whilst David Beckham played for Manchester United. David and Victoria Beckham had their first child, Brooklyn Beckham, here and were popular members of the local community. The family only left the village when David was transferred to Real Madrid football club, in Spain.
- The novelist Alan Garner, who spent much of his childhood there and used it as the principal scene of his fantasy classics The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath.
The area is the home of a number of affluent people, many of whom are multi-millionaires, such as football players, pop stars and business people, living on roads such as Beechfield Road, Whitebarn Road, Mottram Road and the roads just off Macclesfield Road. These include Manchester United players Rio Ferdinand,Cristiano Ronaldo, Mikaël Silvestre (now Arsenal) and Michael Carrick, as well as Liverpool (now Portsmouth) star Peter Crouch, musicians Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. A number of Coronation Street actors, including Denise Welch and Richard Fleeshman also live in the village. Other famous members of the community include property entrepreneur Peter Jones ('Jones Homes' and 'The Emerson Group') and TV presenter and voice-over artist Stuart Hall.
Landmarks
The Edge
The Edge itself sits above the village of Alderley and is a popular destination for day trippers from Manchester and the nearby towns of Wilmslow and Macclesfield; it is now owned by the National Trust and maintained as a public access wooded area. The whole woodland is riddled with old mine workings and relics of by-gone times. The Edge is an escarpment formed partly by the weathering of resistant sandstone which lies on top of a softer sandstone and partly by faulting of the rocks. The scarp or slope is repeated 8 times by faults of up to 200 metres which has thrown down blocks of sandstone west to Alderley and east to the village of Kirkleyditch (OS Reference SJ8778).
In 1882, George Ormerod in his book The History of Cheshire described Alderley Edge as "an abrupt and elevated ridge, formerly the site of a Beacon, which bears the appearance of having been detached by some great convulsion of nature from the range of the Macclesfield hills, as Helsby and Beeston seem to have been from those of Delamere and Peckforton. Near the summit, "cobalt ore, lead, and copper have been got in small quantities. The sides are varied with cultivated "land, wood, and rock; and the entire mass presents a striking object to all the surrounding district, over which it commands a most extensive prospect."
The Edge was described as a dreary common till the year 1779, when it was enclosed together with all the other waste lands of Alderley. Some hundreds of Scotch firs were planted on the highest points by Sir James and Sir Edward Stanley (Baron Stanley of Alderley), between the years 1745 and 1755, before that time, it does not appear that a single tree grew on it. An edge was a name used as a descriptive term for high land in Cheshire and adjacent counties, such as in Wenlock Edge and Blackstone Edge. Here it describes a ridge of land which separates a narrow and short valley from the higher ground of south east Cheshire and Derbyshire. It rises gradually from the town of Macclesfield, until, at a distance of 7 or 8 kilometres, it terminates abruptly, having reached a height of nearly 215 metres above sea level, and 110 above the Cheshire Plain below it. The form assumed by the Edge towards the north, in its steepest descent from the Beacon, is that of an inverted horse-shoe or hough (pronounced huff), as this type of ridge is called in Cheshire.
From the Edge, The Cheshire Plain, can be seen extending from the area of Macclesfield Forest on the south east side with its with undulating land and woods, towards the extreme easterly point of the Derbyshire peaks, and northerly to Manchester and Blackstone Edge in Yorkshire, On its southern side, it extends from a richer and more varied foreground, south to the Wrekin in Shropshire, and west to the mountains of North Wales. To the south west, the Plain is interrupted by similar high ground at The Cloud near Bosley and Mow Cop as it reaches its extremities at Peckforton Hills, Beeston Castle, and the Delamere Forest. These views unite into one when you reach the highest point of the Edge, where before the trees were planted, now concealing part of the view, one could have seen the full 360° panorama of the country around to a great distance. Today the view from the Edge itself is limited to the northerly and easterly directions. The Edge also marks the line of a hamlet of scattered houses called "The Hough" which descend towards Alderley village.
National Trust
The red sandstone escarpment over the village of Alderley Edge is in the custodianship of the National Trust. Alderley Edge has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its unique geology.
The escarpment has long been a site of copper mining, going back to prehistoric and Roman times. The mines are accessible to the public twice a year, during events organised by the . The property affords views across Cheshire and the Peak District and walking paths through the property, as well as one to nearby National Trust property Hare Hill.
Alderley Edge Mines
Copper and lead mining at Alderley Edge is known, from archaeological evidence, to have taken place in Bronze Age and Roman times and, from written records, to have continued from the 1690s to the 1920s.
Pre-history
In the nineteenth century, crudely shaped stones were found in the bottom of old workings and were thought to be Bronze Age hammer stones (Boyd Dawkins, 1876). At the same time, a wooden shovel was found and recorded in 1878. Roeder and Graves wrote two papers in the early 1900s (Roeder, 1902 and Roeder and Graves, 1905) about the findings in 1878 and added to the theory of Bronze Age working that there was a possibility of Roman mining. The picture was transformed when in 1993 the wooden shovel was rediscovered by Alan Garner and carbon-dated to around 1780 BC (Garner et al., 1994). Subsequently, the Alderley Edge Landscape Project was set up and excavation around Engine Vein revealed what are believed to be Bronze Age smelting hearths dating to around 2000 BC (Timberlake and Prag, 2005).
Roman mining was considered unlikely until the finding in 1995 of a 4th century Roman coin hoard in an abandoned shaft at Engine Vein. This dated the shaft to the 4th century or earlier and its regularity and depth suggested that the Romans may well have worked it. An archaeological excavation was undertaken by DCC members supervised by the Alderley Edge Landscape Project archaeologists and, at the bottom, timbers were revealed which were carbon-dated to the last century BC. Given that they were heartwood from cut timbers, the dating cannot be precise and the shaft is now believed to be Roman in origin. The passage from the shaft to the Vein was driven from the direction of the shaft and resembles other Roman workings in the United Kingdom, such as at Dolaucothi.
Between the Roman working and 1690, there is scant evidence of mining except a reference to "mine holes" (reference in AELPHER archive which is currently inaccessible - May 2007) which cannot be relied on as evidence of mining in progress.
17th and 18th centuries
From 1693 (Anon, 1696) to the mid-1800s, various people are reported to have explored the Edge for copper and work was done at Saddlebole, Stormy Point, Engine Vein and Brinlow (Stanley, 1843). It is likely that the near-surface sections of Wood Mine were investigated during this period. One operator of note was Charles Roe of Macclesfield who worked the mines from 1758 to 1768 before moving over to Anglesey on the discovery of major deposits of copper at Parys Mountain (Bentley Smith, 2005).
Early 19th century
Apart from Roe, the history of working up to 1857 is patchy. The best recorded period was between about 1805 and 1815 when a company of local men including a Derbyshire miner, James Ashton, tried to exploit the mines for lead. During the course of their work, they identified the presence of cobalt which was in demand during the Napoleonic blockade of supplies (Bakewell, 1811). Evidence in the field points to the working of a series of mines on a north-south fault running from Saddlebole to Findlow Hill Wood. Some parts of Engine Vein and possibly West Mine appear to have been excavated at this time. The work ended when the price of cobalt fell. The leases for the period tell the story for Ashton who sacrificed his salary for his share in the company, but even lost this when the company called for more capital than he could provide — and yet he was the man down the mine doing the work (Anon, 1808).
Late 19th century
In 1857, a Cornish man, James Michell, started work at West Mine and moved on in the 1860s to Wood Mine and Engine Vein. His company lasted 21 years (the length of the lease) although Michell died in an accident in the mines in 1862. During this working period, nearly 200,000 tons of ore were removed yielding 3,500 tons of copper metal. The mines closed in 1877 and the Abandonment Plan of 1878 shows all the workings open at that date. This period saw the mining of West Mine and Wood Mine and the reworking of Engine Vein, Brinlow, Doc Mine and other smaller mines on the Edge (Warrington, 1981 and Carlon, 1979).
20th century
There were some small and unsuccessful attempts to re-open the mines in 1911 (Anon, 1911), during the First World War and shortly after but these ended in a sale of equipment in 1926 (Warrington, 1981). From the 1860s onwards, there have been many thousands of visitors to the mines, many - including the earliest - with good lighting and experienced leaders. However, many other visitors, especially between 1940 and 1960, were ill-equipped and unprepared. This led to a series of tragic accidents which gained the mines a notoriety which still haunts them today. The West and Wood Mines were finally blocked in the early 1960s (Jones, 1961). In 1969, the Derbyshire Caving Club obtained permission from the National Trust (the owners) to re-open Wood Mine and since then much has been found by excavation and exploration and thousands of people have visited the mines in supervised groups.
Historic buildings
There are many historic buildings including Chorley Old Hall, which is the oldest surviving manor house in Cheshire.
To the south of the village is the Alderley Park estate, former ancestral home of the Stanley(s).
Local legends
There are several local legends, the most famous being that of the Iron Gates.
The Iron Gates
The location of the Iron Gates is unknown but they are supposed to lie between Stormy Point and the Holy Well.
Tradition says that a farmer from Mobberley was taking a milk white horse to sell at the market in Macclesfield. Whilst walking along the Edge, he reached a spot known locally as "Thieves Hole." Suddenly an old man clad in a grey and flowing garment stopped him. The old man offered the farmer a sum of money for his horse but the farmer refused, saying he could get a better price at the market. The old man told the farmer that he would be at this spot again that evening when the farmer returned, not having found a purchaser for the horse. The farmer failed to sell the horse and, cursing his luck, made the journey back home along the Edge. At the same point, the old man appeared again, offering the farmer the money, which this time was accepted. The old man told the farmer to follow him with the horse. As they approached an area just past Stormy Point, the old man banged on the ground with his stick and, to the farmer’s shock, the rock opened up to reveal a set of Iron Gates. The old man beckoned the farmer to follow him through the gates into a large cavern. In the cavern, the farmer saw countless men and white horses, all asleep. The old man explained that all these sleeping warriors were ready to awake and fight should England fall into danger. The farmer was shown back to the gates and stepped outside back onto the path. Immediately the gates slammed shut and the rock face returned to its previous state.
There are several versions of the same legend from different places. A letter published in the Manchester Mail in 1805 signed by a gentleman known as "A Perambulator" supposes that this gentleman has knowledge of the location of the Iron Gates near Stormy Point, but no other person has claimed to have found them. Further variations say that the Wizard was Merlin and the sleeping men were King Arthur and his army. Yet another version sees the old man saying to the farmer "There will come a day when these men awake from their enchanted slumber and will descend the plain, decide the fate of a great battle and save their country. This shall happen when George the son of George shall reign."
Cheshire Enchanter
A tale told by , former Clerk and Curate of Alderley (who was in the post from 1753 until his death in 1776 and is buried in Alderley Church), is similar to the Iron Gates legend. In this tale, the old man is named as Thomas of Erceldoune and the horses are black. Once in the cave, the old man asks the farmer to choose between a sword and a horn. The farmer chooses the horn, and immediately the horses all jump up and start to stamp their hooves on the ground. The terrified farmer is expelled from the cave by a whirlwind and hears the words "Woe is the coward that ever was born, that did not draw the sword but blew the horn". This tale is actually very similar, including the sword and horn words, to a tale told by Sir Walter Scott where the action takes place not at Alderley but in the Eildon Hills in Scotland.
An alternative reading of this and other local legends can be found in Alan Garner's novels The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. Garner, born in Congleton, was raised in Alderley Edge.
Alderley Gold
Several ancient gold bars have been found at Alderley Edge. The first was found at the side of Artists Lane. Because this bar was obviously old and consisted of gold, it was declared treasure trove. A treasure trove inquest was held in Congleton on 26 February 1993.
John Cherry from the British Museum along with Adrian Tindall, the Principal Conservation Officer (Archaeology) for Cheshire County Council made reports on the bar, and determined the gold bar weighed 97.01 grams and was determined to be 73% gold,
Following this inquest the media interest increased and numerous people descended on the Edge hoping to find their own gold bars. The result of all the searching was that 5 more gold bars were found. These bars were also analysed by the British Museum. The weight and gold content of the bars has been given as:
Bars 1/2/3 found on 23 June 1993 - 101.2 grams bar determined to be 76% gold / 97 grams bar determined to be 76% gold / 100.06 grams bar determined to be 75% gold
Bar 4 found on 9 October 1997 - 81.9 grams bar determined to be 60% gold
Bar 5 was found in the 1960s but not declared to the authorities until 1997 - 100.7 grams bar determined to be 74% gold
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