The Forest of Lyme (pronounced "Lime") is a former, mainly

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

tree, forest in the present day counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire and parts of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. Parts of the forest remain and its name is preserved in many local place-names.

Location and toponymy

The Forest of Lyme was a historic tract of forest land stretching from

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

all the way roughly along Cheshire's border to the town of

Audlem Audlem is a village and civil parish located in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England, approximately south of Nantwich. Close to the border with the neighbouring county of Shropshire, t ...

on the Cheshire/

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

border. Macclesfield Forest is a part of it which remains, although most of it now consists of non-native conifers. It takes in the modern towns and villages of Ashton-under-Lyne, Macclesfield, Lyme, Congleton, Madeley, Newcastle-under-Lyme and others. It is found in early records of the Honour of Lancaster which refer to those parts of the honour outside

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

as being "extra Limam" i.e. beyond the Lyme. Lyme Handley is recorded as "Lyme" in 1313. The name is derived from a British word for elm which is also the word from which Welsh "llwyf" is derived.{{cite book , title=The Concise Dictionary of English Place-names; 2nd ed. , last=Ekwall , first=Eilert , year=1940 , publisher=Clarendon Press , location=Oxford , page=294

History

In historic times the forest was inhabited by the British Celts who would have been a part of the

Cornovii The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was in Caithness in northernmost Scotland, and there was probably one in Cornwall. The name has ...

tribe, or more probably the Brigantes tribe. The Forest seemed to act as a barrier to

Anglo-Saxon conquest The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually develop ...

of Cheshire because when Cheshire finally came under Anglo-Saxon control, the army which effectively captured it came from the North,

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

. There is also evidence in the continuity of ancient pagan festivals into the modern age as well. One of these was

Beltaine Beltane () is the Gaelic May Day festival. Commonly observed on the first of May, the festival falls midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The festival name is synonymous with the month marking th ...

, practised around Leek. Another pagan custom that formerly took place in the Forest of Lyme is

well dressing Well dressing, also known as well flowering, is a tradition practised in some parts of rural England in which wells, springs and other water sources are decorated with designs created from flower petals. The custom is most closely associated with ...

. This practice, which is also associated with Derbyshire, is known to have been performed in Rushton Spencer near Biddulph. Indeed, many pagan festivals have been Christianized and continue to be carried out. There is also some evidence for the towns and land located around Biddulph and Leek as formerly belonging to Cheshire in the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Today the forest survives as large tracts of

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

, particularly in the valley of the River Dane, the Western

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

and in a few other areas.

Name in modern place-names

The name "Lyme" is preserved in various forms in many local place-names. These include: *

(a corruption of "Lyme") *

(Old Lyme or perhaps Alda's Lyme) *

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. ...

(Burgheard's Lyme) *

Lyme Park Lyme Park is a large estate south of Disley, Cheshire, England, managed by the National Trust and consisting of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens and a deer park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Ches ...

near Disley * Lyme Handley, Sutton (unofficially called Lyme Green) * Newcastle-under-LymeEkwall (1940); p. 294

References

Forests and woodlands of Cheshire Forests and woodlands of Staffordshire Forests and woodlands of Derbyshire

Location and toponymy

History

Name in modern place-names

See also

References