Cheshire

by Charles E. Kelsey

Ellesmere Port, where the Ellesmere Canal and Ship Canal unite, has become a thriving place in recent years, and the trade of Runcorn has also been greatly increased by the canal. Large alkali works have been built at Weston Point, the most suitable place that could have been found for them, because they are equally near to the Lancashire coal-field on the one hand and to the salt beds of Cheshire on the other. The salt is brought in the form of brine direct from Northwich to the works by pipes laid underground, a great saving of money, for salt is heavy and costly to carry.

Though the cotton industry was the one that was expected to gain most from the canal, the traffic is by no means confined to this commodity. Grain and cattle are brought from the United States and from South America, timber from Canada, and hides from the Argentine, and big cargoes of bananas, oranges, and apples, pass up the canal. In addition to this oversea traffic, the canal also has a great share of the coasting trade of the West of England, of which slates from Carnarvon, and china clay from Cornwall may be taken as the best examples.

The triumphs of engineering and mechanical skill have improved our means of travelling from one place to another. The great engines that are now turned out from the locomotive sheds at Crewe are as vastly superior to the Rocket (models of which are now but a curiosity in our museums) as the twentieth-century motor-cycle is to the velocipede or wooden 'bone-shaker' that your fathers rode. Horse carriages are fast disappearing and giving place to the motor-car, and hansoms to the taxicab. The science of aviation is turning the inventive powers of men into new channels, and 'flying men' are showing to the world that the conquest of the air is but a matter of time.

Before the reign of Queen Victoria, few of the children of the poorest classes were able either to read or write. Such education as these could receive was given in the Sunday Schools, which Robert Raikes had started in 1781. The children were hard at work in the mills all the week. Teachers volunteered for the work, which was carried on in cottages or disused factories. In 1805, Stockport built the big Sunday School which still remains, and a hundred thousand children have been grateful for the simple teaching given to them.

The Education Bills of Queen Victoria's reign brought knowledge within the reach of all. Education is cheap for the middle classes, free for the poor. Schools have been built where none existed before. Money has been found to help any Cheshire boy or girl to receive the very highest education, and to open up the way from village school to university. The municipalities have built their own municipal schools in the chief towns of Cheshire, and technical schools where you may learn a trade. At the Agricultural School at Holmes Chapel you may be instructed in the newest and most scientific ways of farming.

The people have learnt to study the laws of health, and to understand the value of light and fresh air. Towns are cleaner and your homes healthier. Open spaces, parks and playing-fields, brighten the lives of the children in the towns, and by making them stronger, fit them the better for the hard work that lies before them.

Port Sunlight shows how much can be done by those who study the needs of the working classes. This 'garden city', with its avenues of dainty cottage villas, is the home of those who work in the big soap-works on the Mersey. Here everything is done that can make for the comfort and well-being of the inhabitants. There are schools for the children, and 'institutes' for the young men and women, libraries and reading-rooms, savings banks to encourage thrift, games, clubs, swimming-baths and gymnasium for the strong, a hospital for the sick and infirm, ambulance and fire brigade and a life-saving society, and societies for the study of literature and science.

You are not all as fortunate as the dwellers of Port Sunlight. But some day many of you will perhaps see the slums of great towns cleared away, and you will take care that sunlight is let into dark places. You will have learned how foolish it is to overcrowd the towns and herd together in close and mean streets, and you will have the power to say that these things ought not to be.

The Cheshire County Council was created by Queen Victoria. Its members are elected, and the Council allows large parishes to elect a Parish or District Council to manage their own local affairs. But Stockport, Chester, and Birkenhead do not send members to this Council, for their populations are so big that they are considered as counties in themselves. The County Council also controls the education of the county, keeps roads and bridges in repair, directs the cleansing of the small towns and villages, and provides a pure water-supply.

New boroughs were made at Crewe, Hyde, and Stalybridge in Queen Victoria's reign, with a mayor and corporation to direct their affairs. Macclesfield, you will remember, was a borough in very early times. Altrincham and Over too, once had their mayors, though they have them no longer. Their mayors seem to have been men of very humble position, and to have been looked down upon by their neighbours. You have perhaps heard of the Cheshire saying: