No Man's Heath is a village in the unitary authority of

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 structural changes to l ...

and the

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. Its name has historically also been spelt Nomansheath and Noman's Heath, the latter being the version formerly favoured by the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...

.''Postal Addresses'', October 1961, HMSO, p.159 It lies east of the village of Malpas and north-west of

Whitchurch, Shropshire Whitchurch is a market town in the north of Shropshire, England. It lies east of the Wales, Welsh border, 2 miles south of the Cheshire border, north of the county town of Shrewsbury, south of Chester, and east of Wrexham. At the 2021 Unit ...

. Originally on the

A41 road The A41 is a trunk road between London and Birkenhead, England. Now in parts replaced by motorways, it passes through or near Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Bicester, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, New ...

, there is now a bypass, which opened in July 2001. Bickleywood is a very small settlement about 1000 yards (1 km) to the east. The settlement of No Man's Heath was, historically, largely within the boundaries of Macefen civil parish until 2015 boundary changes which created the civil parish of

No Man's Heath and District No or NO may refer to: Linguistics and symbols * ''Yes'' and ''no'', responses * No, an English determiner in noun phrases * No (kana) (, ), a letter/syllable in Japanese script * No symbol (🚫), the general prohibition sign * Numero sign ( o ...

.No Man's Heath & District
GENUKI There is no church in the village, due to the proximity of the church in

Tushingham Tushingham is a scattered community in the civil parish of Tushingham-cum-Grindley, Macefen and Bradley (Tushingham cum Grindley until 2015), in the Cheshire West and Chester district, in the county of Cheshire, England. St Chad's Chapel, Tush ...

. However, there are The Wheatsheaf

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

, a disused non-conformist chapel and a small

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

(which was called "Noman's Heath" in the days when exchanges had names) in close proximity to one another. The southern section of the 30-mile

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. M ...

footpath passes just east of the village, while the 200-mile Marches Way footpath passes just south. The

Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...

Regional Route 70 cycleway passes through the village, running out from Malpas. Just over two miles east of the village is the 19th-century

Cholmondeley Castle Cholmondeley Castle is a English country house, country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has be ...

and gardens. Just to the north is the well-preserved

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

Maiden Castle Maiden Castle or the Maiden's Castle may refer to: Historical fortifications in England ''Maiden'' derives from the Celtic ''Mai Dun'' which means 'great hill'. *Maiden Castle, Cheshire, an Iron Age hill fort * Maiden Castle, Cumbria, a Roman for ...

, spectacularly sited above the

Dee Dee or DEE may refer to: People Surname * Dee, an alternate spelling of the Welsh surname Day * Dee, a romanization of several Chinese surnames, including: ** Those listed at Di (surname) ** Some Hokkien pronunciations of the surname Li () ...

valley. The

Whitchurch and Tattenhall Railway The Whitchurch and Tattenhall Railway was a branch line in Cheshire built by the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) opening in 1872. The branch, which was long, connected the North Wales Coast Line from with the Welsh Marches line and ...

used to pass within a 1000 yards (a kilometre) of the village but the nearest station was

Malpas railway station Malpas railway station was a railway station that served the market town of Malpas, Cheshire, on the Whitchurch and Tattenhall Railway or Chester–Whitchurch Branch Line. The station itself was at Hampton Heath and was also known locally as ...

which was nearly three kilometres away and actually in Hampton Heath.

Name origin and documented listings

The placename was first recorded as early as 1483 in the form "Nomonheth" and as "No Mans Heath" in 1671.Dodgson (1997) ''The Place-names of Cheshire: Place-names of Broxton Hundred and Wirral Hundred'', Cambridge UP, p.9 In either case, the name refers to commonland outside specific ownership. The old parish of Malpas formerly had hundreds of acres of commonland, including some at No Man's Heath.Edwards, in ''Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society'', v.62 (1979), p.95 https://doi.org/10.5284/1070251 ''Kelly's Directory of Cheshire for 1896''
does not list No Man's Heath
and
makes no mention
under Hampton, which is listed under Malpas. ''Kelly's Directory for 1902''
shows No Mans Heath
merely as a sub-post office under Hampton. In their directory for 1914
the entry is very similar
except for the addition of a telephone and an apostrophe on Man's.

References

{{authority control Villages in Cheshire