B. E. Harris - Böcker

This volume contains the administrative and parliamentary history of the county, a chapter on its forests, and a table of population. As a County Palatine in the later middle ages Cheshire developed institutions which differed from those of other English counties. No justices of the peace were appointed there until the 16th century, and the palatine courts were abolished only in 1830. The first part of the volume describes Cheshire's government in the middle ages and its gradual assimilation to `normal' counties, the work of the justices of the peace from the 16th to the 19th century, and that of the County Council until local government reorganization in 1974. Cheshire was also unusual in its failure to achieve parliamentary representation until the 16th century. The story of Cheshire's representation, including that of the city of Chester, is carried from that time to the second general election of 1974.It reveals the influence of many of the leading county families, and particularly that of the Grosvenors in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Much of Cheshire lay within the forests of Delamere and Mondrem, Macclesfield, and Wirral, whose administration is described in this volume. A table sets out the population of the county, and of all boroughs, urban and rural districts, ancient parishes with their constituent townships, and civil parishes, at everycensus between 1801 and 1971; the table therefore serves also as a key to the administrative geography and economic expansion of the county in the 19th and 20th centuries.

VOLUME III contains the history of eccle-siastical organization in Cheshire, both before and after the Reformation, medi-eval religious houses, Chester cathedral, education before 1903, and the more historically important endowedgrammar schools in the county. In the Middle Ages the organization of the church in Cheshire was based on parishes which in the east of the county were exceptionally large, while those of the west resembled more closely the nor-mal English parish. Between 1075 and 1102 Chester was the seat of a bishop; for the rest of the Middle Ages the county lay in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield. In 15411 the vast but poorly endowed diocese of Chester was formed, extending into Westmorland and the North Riding of Yorkshire. In the 19th century it was reduced in size until it included little more than the county of Cheshire. The county produced both protestant and Catholic martyrs, and the nonconformist sects were well represented. The largest and most important of the religious houses were St. Werburgh's abbey at Chester, which became the cathedral church of the new diocese in 1541, and Vale Royal, a Cistercianhouse founded by Edward I. Recent archaeological work has revealed much about some of the smaller houses, especially Norton. The city of Chester contained, in addition to St Werburgh's, a nunnery, friaries, and hospitals. Like thediocese, Chester cathedral suffered from an inadequate endowment, but its standing among English cathedrals improved under ener-getic deans in the late 19th and the 20th century. The rapid growth of industrial towns, especiallyin north-east Cheshire, created a pressing need for schools, bur the institution of school boards, the late 19th-century solution favoured by central government, failed to make headway. Grammar schools were endowed in many of thetowns and villages in the 16th cen-tury and later, and the histories of seven-teen of them are described in the volume.