Alderley Edge
A Superlative Walk at Alderley Edge in Cheshire. An extract from the draft walk directions:
The original name for Alderley Edge was Chorley. The railway gave Alderley Edge its current name. The railway company did not want its station called Chorley because of the possible confusion with Chorley in Lancashire, so in 1880 they renamed it Alderley Edge railway station, against much opposition, taking the old name for the village and the name of the sandstone escarpment already known as The Edge.
David Howell Evans of U2 was also previously known as Chorley.
The Edge is a wide red sandstone escarpment. An edge is used as a descriptive term for high land in Cheshire and adjacent counties, such as at Wenlock Edge and Blackstone Edge. The Edge at Alderley rises gradually from the town of Macclesfield, until, at a distance of 7 or 8 kilometres, it terminates abruptly, having reached a height of nearly 215 metres above sea level, and 110 metres above the Cheshire Plain.
The Edge was described as a "dreary common" till the year 1779, when it was enclosed together with all the other waste lands of Alderley. Some hundreds of Scots pines were planted on the highest points by Sir James and Sir Edward Stanley between 1745 and 1755; before that time, it does not appear that a single tree grew on it.
In 1882, George Ormerod in his book The History of Cheshire described the Edge as "an abrupt and elevated ridge, formerly the site of a beacon, which bears the appearance of having been detached by some great convulsion of nature from the range of the Macclesfield hills." Near the summit, "cobalt ore, lead, and copper have been got in small quantities."
The Pilkington family (of Pilkington’s Glass) owned all of the woodland now known as The Edge until 1948, when their daughters donated the land to the National Trust.
The Edge has been designated a SSSI for its unique geology. Its woodland area is riddled with the old Alderley Edge mines.
Two proposed superlatives:
More tanning lotions, sprays and mousses are sold in Alderley Edge than anywhere else in Britain, according to a 2013 sales study.
Nearby Alderley Park, once a base for Astra Zeneca is now home to 150 science companies and is the UK's largest single-site life-science facility.
Spot the deliberate mistake and choose which of the two claimed superlatives will match our exacting standards.
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