Ridley is a former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Bulkeley and Ridley, in the unitary authority area of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with borough status in Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council, which is based in the town of Sandbach. Other towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Wilms ...

and the ceremonial county of

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, which lies to the north east of Malpas and to the west of

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

. The parish is largely rural with scattered farms and buildings and no significant settlements. In 2001, the population was 120. Nearby villages include Bulkeley, Bunbury, Faddiley, Peckforton and Spurstow. At the 2011 Census the population had fallen less than 100. Details are included in the civil parish of Peckforton.

Governance

Ridley is administered jointly with Bulkeley by the Bulkeley & Ridley Parish Council. Ridley was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the parish of Bunbury, and from 1866 was a civil parish in its own right. On 1 April 2023 the parish was abolished and merged with Bulkeley to form "Bulkeley and Ridley". From 1974 Ridley 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 ci ...

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

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. Since 2024 Ridley has been in the parliamentary constituency of Chester South and Eddisbury which is represented by

Aphra Brandreth Aphra Kendal Alice Brandreth (born 18 July 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chester South and Eddisbury since 2024. Background Brandreth was born in Middlesex Hospital in Lo ...

Geography and transport

The

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1721 and the work, which included ...

runs north–south through the west of the civil parish and the River Gowy runs east–west along part of its northern border. Both rivers are close to their sources in the Peckforton Hills, which rise to the north west of Ridley. There is a low hill in the east of the civil parish, with a high point of 127 m at , at the north part of Chesterton Wood. A mast and a covered reservoir are located on the top of the hill, and a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The station is usually set up by a map ...

stands at , around 100 metres north of the reservoir, at an elevation of 125 metres. The ground slopes gently downwards towards the Weaver in the west of the civil parish, with a low point of around 90 metres. The land use is predominantly agricultural, particularly cattle pasture. Several small meres and ponds are scattered across the farmland. There are four small woods – Ridley Wood and Chesterton Wood in the north west of the parish, and The Moss and The Bache in the south east – as well as several smaller areas of unnamed woodland. The A49 and A534 roads run north–south and east–west through the parish, respectively.Cheshire East Council & Cheshire West and Chester Council: Interactive Mapping: Ridley
(accessed 30 March 2010)

Landmarks

The Ridley Hall gatehouse () might have formed part of the "fine Ridley Hall" mentioned in Leland's ''Itinerary'', which would date it at around 1530. It is listed at grade II*. The stone archway is topped with a brick storey under a slate roof, and is now flanked by later brick farm buildings. Above the archway on the south face is a carved stone tablet bearing the escutcheon of the Egerton family, flanked with horn players and animals. The grade-II-listed former primary school stands on the south side of the A534 at . A T-shaped building of rock-faced sandstone incorporating a teacher's house, the school is in Gothic style and dates from 1876.

Demography

According to the 2001 census, the civil parish had a population of 120.Combining Cheshire County Council: Local Statistics: Peckforton - Ridley
Neighbourhood Statistics: Peckforton CP
(accessed 17 August 2007) The population has been relatively constant since 1801, with historical population figures of 122 (1801), 133 (1851), 109 (1901) and 138 (1951).

Education

There are no educational facilities within the civil parish. Ridley falls within the catchment areas of Bickerton Holy Trinity CE Primary School in Bickerton and Bishop Heber High School in Malpas.Cheshire County Council: Interactive Mapping: Bishop Heber High School
(accessed 25 May 2008)

References

External links

Bulkeley and Ridley Parish Council
{{Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Borough of Cheshire East