History of Cheshire - 18th and 19th Centuries

18th and 19th Centuries

At the end of the 18th century, land enclosure and district reorganisations took place. As well as local industries, industrialisation of the Lancashire and Manchester mill towns saw Cheshire farms abandoned as workers sought a better living in the industrial towns. These lands were absorbed into bigger estates culminating in 98% of Cheshire land belonging to only 26% of the population. For example, by 1870 Peckforton Castle was over 25,000 acres (100 km2).

However, industrialisation also bought benefits to Cheshire. The completion of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777 and innovations such as the Anderton Boat Lift, allowed Cheshire cheese and salt to become major county exports. Also the silk industry was developing in Macclesfield, triggered by Charles Roe building a watermill in Macclesfield in 1744.

Cheshire continued to develop into a wealthy county in the 19th century. Tatton Hall and Dunham Massey are examples of country houses developed during the period. The Egerton family extensively remodelled Tatton Hall between 1760 and 1820, and the 17th century house at Dunham Massey saw significant 19th century development and expansion.

The railways came through Cheshire in the 1830s. The Grand Junction Railway was authorised by Parliament in 1833 and designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke. It opened for business on 4 July 1837, running for 82 miles (132 km) from Birmingham through Wolverhampton, Stafford, Crewe, Hartford and Warrington, then via the existing Warrington and Newton Railway to join the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at a triangular junction at Newton Junction. The GJR established its chief engineering works at Crewe, moving there from Edge Hill, in Liverpool.

In 1874, John Brunner and Ludwig Mond founded Brunner Mond in Winnington near Northwich and started manufacturing soda ash using the Solvay ammonia-soda process. This process used salt as a main raw material. The chemical industry used the subsided land for the disposal of waste from the manufacture of soda-ash. The waste was transported through a network of cranes and rails to the produce limebeds. This was a dangerous alkaline substance and caused the landscape to be abandoned as unusable.

Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887) described Cheshire's industry:

The chief rivers are the Mersey with its affluent the Bollin, the Weaver, and the Dee. The soil consists of marl, mixed with clay and sand, and is generally fertile. There are numerous excellent dairy farms, on which the celebrated Cheshire cheese is made; also extensive market gardens, the produce of which is sent to Liverpool, Manchester, and the neighbouring towns. Salt has been long worked; it is obtained from rock salt and saline springs; the principal works are at Nantwich, Northwich, and Winsford. Coal and ironstone are worked in the districts of Macclesfield and Stockport. There are manufacturers of cotton, silk, and ribbons, carried on chiefly in the towns of the East division; and shipbuilding, on the Mersey.

The 19th century also saw the creation of formal civic organisations in Cheshire. Cheshire Constabulary was founded in 1857 and Cheshire County Council was created in 1889.