Hartford and Cheshire
Hartford is a village in the county of Cheshire in north-west England. It is less than 2 miles (3.2 km) south west of the town of Northwich. Manchester is to the East – 25 miles (40 km), so about 45 minutes in the car, or about an hour on the train. The population in 2001 was 5,515.
Cheshire is a county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although the largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow. Historically the county contained the Wirral, Stockport, Altrincham and other towns. The county is bordered by Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, and Flintshire and Wrexham in Wales to the west. The county is a part of the Welsh Marches.
Cheshire's area is 2,343 square kilometres (905 sq mi) and its population is around 700,000. Apart from the large towns along the River Mersey and the historic city of Chester, it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages that support an agricultural industry. It is historically famous as a former principality and for the production of Cheshire cheese,salt, bulk chemicals, and woven silk.
Cheshire is considered to be an affluent county. Due to Cheshire's proximity to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, urbanisation is common. Cheshire West has a fairly large proportion of residents who work in Liverpool, while Cheshire East falls within Manchester's sphere of influence.
Culture, media and sport
Cheshire has one league football team, Crewe Alexandra who play in League One, and two Conference National teams, Stockport County and Macclesfield Town.
Sale Sharks, originally from Cheshire, are the region's top Rugby Union team and play in Salford (near to Manchester). Warrington Wolves are the premier Rugby League team in Cheshire and play in the Super League.
The county has produced several notable musicians, including popular artists John Mayall (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers), Ian Astbury (The Cult), Tim Burgess (Charlatans) and Ian Curtis (Joy Division). Another artist from Cheshire is a singer from the British/Irish boy band One Direction that got third place in the X Factor UK in 2010 and is now the most popular boy band worldwide, Harry Styles, who was born and raised in Holmes Chapel. Concert pianist Stephen Hough, singer Thea Gilmore and her producer husband Nigel Stonier also reside in Cheshire. The county has also been home to several writers, including Hall Caine (1853–1931), popular romantic novelist and playwright; Alan Garner; Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, whose novel Cranford features her home town of Knutsford; and most famously Lewis Carroll, born and raised in Daresbury, hence the Cheshire cat. Artists from the county include ceramic artist Emma Bossons and sculptor and photographer Andy Goldsworthy. Actors from Cheshire include Daniel Craig, the 6th James Bond.
The county is home to some of the most affluent areas of Northern England, including Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Tarporley and Knutsford, named in 2006 as the most expensive place to buy a house in the north of England. The former Cheshire town of Altrincham was in second place. The area is sometimes referred to as The Golden Triangle on account of the area in and around the above mentioned towns and villages.
