KNUTSFORD

'Knutsford' is a town and civil parish in the borough of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, located south-west 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 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. 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 Conservative Party MP, Neil Hamilton.

Contents

Events

Sports

Cultural References

Companies

Notable Residents

Transport

See also

External links

Events

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 funfair run by showman John Collins. This is one of the largest funfairs in the UK.
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 Ronan Keating, Will Young and Tina Turner.

Sports

Knutsford has a variety of sports teams including (but not limited to):
rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis and squash, football.
Knutsford Hockey Club play their home games at Knutsford Leisure Centre and are based at the Crosstown Bowling Club on Chelford Road. This 100 year old club runs 4 mens teams, a ladies team, a mixed team and a badgers team. The Mens 1st XI play in Division 1 of The North West Hockey League and won the Cheshire Plate in 2007, beating Neston South Wirral 2-1 aet in the final at Oxton.
Toft Cricket Club play their home games in the ECB Premier Division of theCheshire County Cricket League at Booths Park, Chelford Road. Toft's proudest moment was lifting the National Village Championship trophy at Lords in 1989.
Knutsford Cricket Club play their home games in the Meller Braggins Cricket League at Mereheath Lane.
Knutsford Rugby Club The rugby team was established in 2004, and is supported by players from Sale Sharks. It was promoted a division within its first season.

Cultural References

There is a peculiar custom of "sanding the streets" in 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".

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.
According to rockers The Macc Lads, Knutsford is known for its Scabby Women.
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" designed by Alfred Waterhouse it is now furniture sale room, Allen and Appleyard.
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' The chorus is: 'London's got its gimmicks / and New York's had its minute / But Knutsford City limits / I'll never change'.Williams was born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent

Companies

Barclays has a large campus site at Radbroke Hall on Toft Road just outside of Knutsford, employing several thousand staff in IT and support functions.
Allen and Appleyard, a furniture retailer established in 1879 and today located at "The Old Town Hall".
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. The company was a 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.

Notable Residents

Knutsford has been home to a number of celebrities including:

★ Sir Bobby Charlton OBE

★ Andrew Flintoff (England cricketer)

★ Gary Barlow (Take That)

★ Henry Royce (of Rolls Royce)

★ Elizabeth Gaskell (author)

★ Chris Bisson (East is East, Coronation Street)

★ Jason Orange (Take That)

★ Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girl)

★ Bryan Robson

★ Edward Higgins (aka Highway-man Higgins)

★ Andy Van der Meyde (Everton Footballer)

★ Arjan De Zeeuw (Former Wigan Footballer)

★ Graeme Souness (Former Blackburn and Newcastle Manager)

★ Frank Stapleton (ex Manchester United)

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). The train service to Manchester got slower when the Manchester Metrolink started and heavy rail was banned from using the same lines as light rail.
Manchester Airport, the largest in the UK outside of London, is just 15 minutes drive from the town. Given the position of the town and the placement of the runways (especially Runway 2), the town thus suffers from the effects of aircraft noise throughout the day and night, with the east of the town worse affected. However, noise limits for aircraft are under normal circumstances lower between 22:59 and 05:59 (the times were 21:59 and 06:59 when Runway 2 was first opened.)
There is no direct train or bus link to the airport.

See also

★ Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford

External links

★ Tatton Park Official Site

★ Royal Horticultural Society (Tatton Park flower show)