Knutsford – Sunday 10th September 2023

Knutsford is an affluent market town in Cheshire with a mix of upmarket independent shops and larger national stores, and there are more than 100 listed buildings in the town.   We arrived by train, and the first thing we saw was a man riding a Penny Farthing bike!  Shortly afterwards we saw another, and it turned out that we’d timed our visit well, as “The Knutsford Great Race” was taking place, and it is only held every 10 years – in total 102 Penny Farthings took part!  Local legend has it that the town was named Knutsford after the English King Canute, who is said to have forded the river there, although this is disputed.  After coffee and a spot of bike watching we went for a stroll around the town, visiting the Waterstones, which is located in a red brick building in the middle of the main shopping street.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Knutsford’s most famous resident is the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell and the titular town in her novel Cranford is based on Knutsford.  Many of the locations in the book are here and have blue plaques on them. There are lots of references to Mrs Gaskell in Knutsford including a Gaskell Avenue in the town, a Cranford Drive just outside, and even a café bearing her name.  She married unitarian minister William Gaskell in the chapel here in 1832 and the pair are buried in the chapel’s graveyard along with two of their daughters.

Gaskell Memorial Tower

Opened in 1907, this was originally council offices, a coffee shop and a ballroom and was designed by Richard Harding Watt as a memorial to Elizabeth Gaskell.  Titles of some of her novels are carved into the building, and there is also a bust and a carving of her on the outer walls.

Brook Street Unitarian Chapel

Some of Knutsford’s many listed buildings

Penny Farthings in ‘The Great Race’

King Canute