County town: Chester
Cheshire was established as a county palatine following the Norman Conquest, with the earldom of Chester granted to Hugh d'Avranches to defend the border against the unconquered Welsh kingdoms.
Cheshire occupies the lowland plain between the Pennines and the Welsh hills, drained by the River Dee and the Weaver. Its distinctive red sandstone gives a warm colour to Chester's famous Roman walls and medieval rows. Salt has been extracted from its brine springs since at least the Iron Age — the county's salt towns (Nantwich, Northwich, Middlewich) reflect its ancient industrial importance. The county's dairy farming tradition, which gave rise to Cheshire cheese, is rooted in its fertile clay soils. Chester itself, founded as the legionary fortress of Deva Victrix, retains more of its Roman street plan than almost any other English city.
Cheshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 408 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 408 Domesday settlements in CheshireEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Cheshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Read in-depth research reports on notable historical places across the UK — explore →
Cheshire contains 247 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in EnglandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Cheshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.