Alderley Edge

There are many historic buildings including Chorley Old Hall, which is the oldest surviving manor house in Cheshire. To the south of the village is the Alderley Park estate, former ancestral home of the Stanleys. The village is notable for its Victorian villas. The first villa was constructed in the early 1840s and by 1850 thirty "handsome residences" had been erected, mainly by the cotton barons from Manchester who moved out of the city as the railway was built. The buildings are varied in style with examples of mock Tudor, Italian, neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts Movement designs. The wide range of materials used reflects this somewhat eclectic mix of styles, and includes stone, brick,…

The Edge is a wide red sandstone escarpment situated above the village of Alderley. An edge is used as a descriptive term for high land in Cheshire and adjacent counties. The Edge rises gradually from Macclesfield until, at a distance of 7 or 8 kilometres, it terminates abruptly, having reached a height of nearly 215 metres above sea level and 110 metres above the Cheshire Plain below it. It was formed by weathering of resistant sandstone over layers and faulting. The northern side, shaped like a horse shoe or hough, gives its name to The Hough, a hamlet of scattered houses descending towards Alderley village. Owned by the National Trust, it is a public access wooded area attracting 300,000…