Cheshire. Cheshire is a county in North West England, bordering Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, and Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough in Wales to the west.
Cheshire's county town is the City of Chester; the largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Runcorn, Widnes and Winsford, Northwich The county covers 905 square miles and has a population of around 1 million.
It is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages supporting the agricultural and other industries which produce Cheshire cheese, salt, chemicals and silk. Main articles: History of Cheshire and Timeline of Cheshire history Cheshire's name was originally derived from an early name for Chester, and was first recorded as Legeceasterscir in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, meaning the shire of the city of legions.
Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920. In the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir, derived from the name for Chester at the time.
A series of changes that occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire, as it occurs today. Because of the historically close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west, which