Marbury Park
Encyclopedia
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. It lies in the heart of Northwich Community Woodlands
Northwich Community Woodlands
Northwich Community Woodlands is an area of 374 hectares of publicly-accessible countryside to the north of Northwich in Cheshire, England. Much of the land was formerly industrial and used for mining salt and manufacturing chemicals. The extraction of salt caused subsidence leading to the...
, an integral part of the Mersey Forest
Mersey Forest
This article is about a community forest in the United Kingdom. See also Mersey Forest, Tasmania.The Mersey Forest is a network of woodlands and green spaces being created across Merseyside and North Cheshire by a wide-ranging partnership of different organisations including local authorities,...
. Former industrial land is gradually being transformed to create a rich and green environment stretching from Marbury
Anderton with Marbury
right|thumb|Map of civil parish of Anderton with Marbury within the former borough of Vale RoyalAnderton with Marbury is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It had a population of 582 according to the 2001 census, and...
to Northwich
Northwich
Northwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane...
.
Many of the features of the Country Park, including the lime avenues and the arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
, are a legacy of the days when Marbury was a grand estate. The last Marbury Hall
Marbury Hall, Anderton with Marbury
Marbury Hall was a country house in Marbury, near Northwich, Cheshire, England. Several houses existed on the site from the 13th century, which formed the seat successively of the Marbury, Barry and Smith-Barry families, until 1932. An extensive collection of artwork and sculpture was housed at the...
, built in the 1850s, was a fine looking house modelled on the French chateau at Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, with an imposing carriage drive entrance.
Originally owned by the Smith-Barry family, the hall became a country club in the 1930s, and then a P.O.W. camp during the Second World War. After this the hall served as a hostel for ICI employees during its considerable post-war expansion and some of the P.O.W. camp huts persisted as accommodation for the workforce. By the 1960s the hall had fallen into disrepair and had to be demolished. The history of the hall was told in a community play in 2002 (see ).
The Friends of Anderton and Marbury (FOAM) are an active group who get involved in looking after both parks and have a busy programme of walks, talks, conservation tasks and events.