Knutsford

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Knutsford
Coordinates: 53.3006° N 2.3718° W
Population	19,607 (2001)
OS grid reference	SJ753782
Parish	Knutsford
District	Macclesfield
Shire county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	KNUTSFORD
Postcode district	WA16
Dial code	01565
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Tatton
European Parliament	North West England
List of places: UK • England • Cheshire

Knutsford is a town and civil parish in Cheshire, England, located south of Manchester, and west of Wilmslow.

Knutsford is situated on the Cheshire plain, and the area is famous for its beautiful countryside and pretty towns and villages. Knutsford is a popular destination for eating out, with plenty of restaurants and bars.

The origins of the name are unclear: some believe it means 'Canute's ford' (where the Danish King Canute crossed the River Lily), others think it means 'neat's ford', a crossing place for cattle.

At one end of the charming but traffic clogged narrow King Street is an entrance to Tatton Park. The Tatton estate was home to the Egerton family, and has given its name to Tatton parliamentary constituency.

Knutsford sees itself as the pre-eminent town within the constituency, which includes the neighbouring communities of Alderley Edge and Wilmslow. Tatton is the most affluent parliamentary constituency outside of London, coming third over all behind Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, with an average income of £41,868 according to a Barclays survey in 2005. The current MP is George Osborne, the Conservative Party's Shadow Chancellor. Former Parliamentary representatives include the distinguished BBC war correspondent Martin Bell, who stood as an Independent in 1997 to defeat the disgraced former Conseravtive Party MP, Neil Hamilton.

[edit] Events

Arms of Knutsford Town Council

There are many events in the town each year including the annual the Knutsford Royal May Day festival, where the town comes to a standstill as hundreds of people parade through the streets, which is followed by the crowning of the May Queen. During the May Day weekend there is also a fun fair.

There are many events at Tatton Park including the Royal Horticulture Show, The Last Night of the Proms, and pop concerts given by artists such as Will Young and Tina Turner.

[edit] Sports

Knutsford has a variety of sports teams including (but not limited to): rugby, cricket, Hockey, tennis and squash, football.

Knutsford Cricket Club play their home games in the Meller Braggins Cricket League at Mereheath Lane.

The rugby team was established in 2004, and is supported by players from Sale Sharks. It was promoted a division within its first season.

[edit] Cultural References

There is a peculiar custom of "sanding the streets" in the small British town of Knutsford. This custom is to decorate the streets with coloured sands in patterns and pictures, that continues to this day. Specifically it is carried to celebrate May Day.

Tradition has it that King Canute, while fording the River Lily, threw sand from his shoes into the path of a wedding party. The custom can be traced to the late 1600s. Queen Victoria, in her journal of 1832 recorded: "we arrived at Knutsford, where we were most civilly received, the streets being sanded in shapes which is peculiar to this town".

Man Sanding the Street in celebration of May Day 1920. This custom is gererally considered to have started with King Canute.

Knutsford was the model for Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Cranford. She lived in the town for some time, on what is now known as Gaskell Avenue, and she is buried in the Unitarian Chapel. Many of the places and people described in her books can be identified as being based on places and people in the town.

Scenes from Steven Spielberg's film Empire of the Sun were filmed on Legh Road in Knutsford.

Scenes from the George C. Scott film Patton were filmed in the centre of Knutsford, in front of the old town hall (now a furniture sale room).

Robbie Williams made reference to the town on his album Sing When You're Winning with the track "Knutsford City Limits"; the lyrics describe a man who is offended by being branded 'northern scum' and is proud of being from Knutsford. The chorus is: 'London's got its gimmicks / and New York's had its minute / But Knutsford City limits / I'll never change'. Williams himself was not born in Knutsford.

[edit] Companies

Eurocamp was founded in Knutsford, but has since relocated to Northwich.

LabWare Ltd. famous for its Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), has its European Headquarter located in Toft Hall on Toft Road.

Living Ventures, which owns well known chains such as The Living Room and Est Est Est is based in the town.

AMEC NNC, was created from the progressive amalgamation of the five consortia that were formed in the 1950s and 1960s to build the UK's commercial nuclear power stations. We have a proud heritage as principal contractor in the design and build of all the UK's Magnox, AGR and PWR nuclear power stations together with one in Italy and one in Japan.

Barclays Bank has a major facility nearby, employing thousands of people bringing much prosperity to the town.

Traveller's Tales, the computer games company most notable for creating Lego Star Wars II is based in the town.

[edit] Notable Residents

Knutsford and the surrounding villages are home or have been home to a number of celebrities including:

• Robbie Williams (Take That)
• Sir Bobby Charlton OBE
• Andrew Flintoff (England cricketer)
• Gary Barlow (Take That)
• Henry Royce (of Rolls Royce)
• The Ashbrook Family
• Elizabeth Gaskell (author)
• George Osbourne MP
• Chris Bisson (East is East, Coronation Street)
• Neil and Cristine Hamilton

• David and Victoria Beckham
• Jason Orange (Take That)
• Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girl)
• Bryan Robson
• Dick Turpin
• Edward Higgins (aka Highway-man Higgins)
• Arjan De Zeeuw (Wigan Footballer)
• Graeme Souness (Former Blackburn and Newcastle Manager)

[edit] Transport

Knutsford has excellent access to the motorway network, with junctions to the M6 (Junction 19) and M56 (Junction 7). Knutsford has a service station on the M6 motorway. The town is situated on the Mid-Cheshire Line running from Chester to Manchester (via Altrincham), with trains every hour (half hourly at peak time) and is within easy drive of both Wilmslow and Crewe, which are on the Virgin West Coast Line to London and Glasgow. Preliminary proposals (in the SEMMS modal study) exist to extend the Manchester Metrolink from its current Altrincham terminus, providing a Metrolink service to Knutsford. This would run on a shared tram-train line (as currently exists between Altrincham and Navigation Road). Manchester Airport, the largest in the UK outside of London, is just 10-15 minutes drive from the town. The town thus suffers the effects of aircraft noise, from very early in the morning (legally from 7am) until late at night (legally 11pm).

[edit] External links

• Site about Knutsford
• Tatton Park Official Site
• Royal Horticultural Society (Tatton Park flower show)
• [1] Simplification of the SEMMS modal study, outlining public transport expansion plans involving Knutsford

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Ceremonial county of Cheshire

Cheshire Portal
Unitary authorities:	Halton • Warrington
Boroughs/Districts:	Chester City • Congleton • Crewe and Nantwich • Ellesmere Port and Neston • Macclesfield • Vale Royal
Cities/Towns:	Alsager • Bollington • Chester • Congleton • Crewe • Ellesmere Port • Frodsham • Knutsford • Macclesfield • Middlewich • Nantwich • Neston • Northwich • Runcorn • Sandbach • Warrington • Widnes • Wilmslow • Winsford See also: List of civil parishes in Cheshire