Main heading

The Changing Shape of Cheshire

The boundaries of the area covered by Cheshire County Council have changed 3 times in the last fifty years. Many places that have a postal address of Cheshire are no longer in the area covered by Cheshire County Council. The map outlines are shown below.

Links to the councils that now cover those areas no longer covered by Cheshire County Council can be seen on our Neighbouring Authorities page.

The current area of Cheshire County Council is also covered by six borough councils.

Cheshire before 1974.

At the time Cheshire included the Wirral in the west of the County and places such as Stockport, Hyde, Stalybridge, Cheadle, Bramhall and Altrincham in the northeast of the County.  The Manchester Ship Canal defined the boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire.

Cheshire from 1974 to 1998

Local government was re-organised in 1974 and many boundaries were redrawn.   The Wirral became a metropolitan borough in Merseyside.  Many places in the northeast of the county also became Metropolitan boroughs within Greater Manchester.   However Runcorn and Warrington became borough councils in Cheshire.

Cheshire today

In April 1998 Warrington and Halton (which covers Widnes and Runcorn) became unitary councils separate from the administrative county of Cheshire in terms of local government service provision.
Cheshire still covers from Neston in the west to Disley in the northeast, Alsager in the southeast, and from Audlem and Malpas in the south to High Leigh and Frodsham in the north.

The current area of Cheshire County Council is also covered by six borough councils.