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Knutsford in Cheshire County England History and GeographyKNUTSFORD, a parish in the hundred of BUCKLOW, county palatine of CHESTER, comprising the market town of Knutsford, and the townships of Bexton, Over Knutsford, Ollerton, and Toft, and containing 3535 inhabitants, of which number, 2753 are in the town of Nether Knutsford, 24¾ miles (N.E. by E.) from Chester, and 172½ (N.W. by N.) from London. This place, which is of great antiquity, is situated on the banks of a small stream, and near a ford, over which Canute the Dane is said to have passed with his army for the conquest of the northern parts of the kingdom, in the reign of Ethelred II., or that of Edmund Ironside, and thence called Canute's Ford, from which the town derives its name. At the Conquest, Knutsford formed part of the barony of Halton, but in the reign of Edward I. it came into the possession of William de Tableigh, who obtained for it a charter of incorporation and various privileges, all which are become obsolete. The town consists principally of two long streets, and is well paved and supplied with water. The houses are in general indifferently built, and of mean appearance; but in the immediate neighbourhood are several handsome villas: the environs are pleasant; and near the town is a good race-course, the races being held on the last Tuesday in July. Assemblies take place in the town, in November and December. The manufacture of thread, which formerly flourished here to a considerable extent, has, since the introduction of machinery, given place to the weaving of cotton, in which the principal part of the population is employed, working with hand-looms, for the manufacturers at Manchester and the adjacent towns. The Trent and Mersey canal passes within five miles of the town, affording a communication with Liverpool, and thence with various other parts of the kingdom. The market is on Saturday: the fairs, to which a small number of cattle are brought from the neighbouring villages, are, April 23rd, July 10th, and November 8th; a cattle fair is also held at Over Knutsford, on the Tuesday in Whitsun-week. Constables and other officers are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, who also holds a court baron: the hundred court, and the Midsummer and Michaelmas quarter sessions for the county, are held in the town. The sessions-house and house of correction for the county were erected in 1817: the former is an elegant edifice, comprising spacious court-rooms, with the requisite accommodation for the business of the sessions; the latter, a spacious and commodious building, contains a governor's house, infirmary, and schools, eight day-rooms, seven airing-yards, in some of which are tread-mills, and one hundred and fifty separate cells, for the classification, employment, and instruction of the prisoners. Knutsford, with its several townships, was formerly included in the parish of Rostherne, from which it was severed by act of parliament, in 1714, and formed into a separate parish. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, endowed with £16 per annum private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and in the alternate patronage, according to the following order, of the Lords of the Manors of Over Knutsford, Nether Knutsford, Ollerton, Toft, and Bexton. The church, erected in 1744, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a neat edifice of brick, with a stone tower. There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians. The free grammar school was founded and endowed with sixteen marks per annum, in the reign of Edward VI., by an ancestor of the family of Peter Leigh, Esq., of Over Knutsford, who appoints the master and nominates the scholars, with the exception of three, who, under a special endowment, are appointed by the vicar. A parochial school has lately been established, in which seventy boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic; and a school, in which one hundred girls are instructed in reading and needlework, is supported by Mrs. Egerton of Tatton. There are also various charitable bequests for distribution among the poor, the proceeds of which, about £100 per annum, are divided by the vicar, churchwardens and overseers of the parish. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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