History
The area is believed to have been occupied during the Bronze Age; there is a Bronze Age barrow near High Low Farm to the west of Macclesfield Forest and another earthwork east of the forest near Toot Hill. After the Norman Conquest the modern area known as Macclesfield Forest formed part of the much larger region of the Royal Forest of Macclesfield, a hunting reserve owned by the Earls of Chester, which formerly stretched from the foothills of the Pennines east into the High Peak near Whaley Bridge and south to the Staffordshire Moorlands.
South of the forest stands the Greenway Cross (SJ955692), a standing stone carved on each side with a cross, which was probably erected as a waymarker by Dieulacresse Abbey in Leek during the Middle Ages. Tradition holds that poachers in the royal forest were executed at a nearby gallows, which might be the source of the name of the Hanging Gate public house, from the Norse gata, meaning "path".
Ridgegate Reservoir was constructed in the late 19th century to provide drinking water for the town of Macclesfield, with Trentabank Reservoir following in the 1920s. The conifer plantation largely dates from 1930–50, and was planted around the reservoirs to protect water catchment areas from pollution.
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