Bickerton is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England, about north of Whitchurch in Shropshire. The parish also includes the small settlement of Gallantry Bank,Genuki: Bickerton
(accessed 21 February 2008) with a total population of over 200. The two

Bickerton Hill Bickerton Hill refers to two low red sandstone hills that form the southern end of the Mid Cheshire Ridge in Cheshire, north-west England. The high point, Raw Head, lies on the northerly hill and has an elevation of 227 metres. Parts of the ...

s also lie partly within the civil parish.

History

Bickerton appears in the Domesday survey as ''Bicretone''. It was owned by Drogo from Robert FitzHugh, baron of Malpas, and was found waste at the time of the survey. Woodland extending to half a league (about ¾ mile or 1.2 km) was recorded. The name is

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

in origin, and relates to bees. A proposal to build a wind farm at Bickerton was abandoned in 2010 after the company responsible decided the proposed site did not receive enough wind.

Governance

Bickerton is administered jointly with

Egerton Egerton may refer to: People * Egerton (name), a list of people with either the surname or the given name * Egerton family, a British aristocratic family * George Egerton, pen name of Mary Dunne Bright (1859–1945), Australian-born writer Place ...

by the Bickerton & Egerton Parish Council. From 1974 the civil parish was served by

Crewe and Nantwich Crewe and Nantwich was, from 1974 to 2009, a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It had a population (2001 census) of 111,007. It contained 69 civ ...

Borough Council, which was succeeded on 1 April 2009 by the unitary authority of

. Bickerton falls in the parliamentary constituency of Eddisbury, which has been represented by Edward Timpson since 2019, after being represented by

Stephen O'Brien Sir Stephen Rothwell O'Brien, (born 1 April 1957) is a British politician and diplomat who was the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. O'Brien assumed office on 29 May 2015, succeed ...

(1999–2015) and Antoinette Sandbach (2015–19).

Geography

The majority of the two

s falls within the civil parish, although the parts of the hills are in the

Duckington Duckington is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated some 10½ miles (17 km) south-east of Chester, 10 miles (16 km) east o ...

Larkton Larkton is a former civil parish, now in the parish of No Man's Heath and District, in the Cheshire West and Chester district and ceremonial county of Cheshire in England. In 2001 it had a population of 28. The name Larkton is likely derived fro ...

and Harthill parishes. Raw Head (; 227 metres) lies north of the A534, while the southerly hill (212 m) lies south of the road, immediately northwest of Bickerton village.Cheshire East Council & Cheshire West and Chester Council: Interactive Mapping: Bickerton CP
(accessed 28 May 2008) The area around Raw Head and much of the southerly hill are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest. A wider area covering much of the north and west of the civil parish is also designated an Area of Special County Value. Around of the southerly hill are managed by the National Trust.

Demography

Holy Trinity Church, Bickerton, Cheshire

According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 234, in 90 households.Neighbourhood Statistics: Bickerton CP
(accessed 26 May 2008) In the 2011 Census, the population of Bickerton and adjacent Egerton was assessed as 278. The population has fallen since the nineteenth century; the historical population figures were 270 (1801), 398 (1851), 323 (1901) and 256 (1951).

Places of worship

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Bickerton village dates from 1839, and became a parish church in 1869. Built of red sandstone, with

Edmund Sharpe Edmund Sharpe (31 October 1809 – 8 May 1877) was an English architect, architectural historian, railway engineer, and sanitary reformer. Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, he was educated first by his parents and then at schools locally and in ...

as the architect, it is listed at grade II. A war memorial stands in the adjacent graveyard, overlooking the crossroads of Goldford Lane and Long Lane.

Other landmarks

A disused copper mine chimney in red sandstone is located near Gallantry Bank, adjacent to the A534. Dating from the early 19th century, it is a rare remnant of the copper mining industry in this area. The copper mine was owned by the Egerton family of Oulton, and is thought to have been operational in 1697. The Bickerton Poacher public house stands on the A534 by the junction with Stone House Lane.

Transport

The A534 runs east–west through the parish. Other major through routes include Long Lane running south from the A534 towards Malpas, and a lane running southeast from Long Lane to Cholmondeley which connects with the A49. The

Sandstone Trail The Sandstone Trail is a long-distance walkers' path, following sandstone ridges running north–south from Frodsham in central Cheshire to Whitchurch just over the Shropshire border. The path was created in 1974 and extended in the 1990s. ...

runs east from the summit of the southerly Bickerton Hill, crosses the A534, runs northwest to the summit of Raw Head and then turns south east to climb

Bulkeley Hill The Peckforton Hills are a sandstone ridge running broadly northeast–southwest in the west of the English county of Cheshire. They form a significant part of the longer Mid Cheshire Ridge which extends southwards from Frodsham towards Malpas ...

Education

Bickerton Holy Trinity CE Primary School stands on Long Lane. It serves Bickerton as well as the nearby civil parishes of

Bulkeley Bulkeley () is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village is on the A534 road, west of Nantwich. In the 2011 census it had a population of 239. History Th ...

, Cholmondeley,

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...

, Ridley and part of

. Bickerton civil parish falls within the catchment area of

Bishop Heber High School Bishop Heber High School is a comprehensive secondary school in Malpas, Cheshire, England. The school is named after bishop Reginald Heber (1783–1826), who was born in Malpas and is remembered as a hymn-writer. In 2011, the school was rated o ...

in Malpas.Cheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Bishop Heber High School
(accessed 25 May 2008)

References

External links

{{authority control Civil parishes in Cheshire Villages in Cheshire