Lyme Handley

Lyme Handley
Cheshire
Lyme Hall and lake
Location
Grid reference:	SJ965825
Location:	53°20’20"N, 2°3’14"W
Data
Population:	151  (2001)
Post town:	High Peak
Postcode:	SK23
Dialling code:	01663
Local Government
Council:	Cheshire East
Parliamentary constituency:	Macclesfield

Lyme Handley, sometimes known as Lyme, is a small civil parish in Cheshire between Disley and Stockport. It originates as a township in the ancient parish of Prestbury. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 151.

It is also a greenbelt area on the fringes of the conurbation of towns spreading out from Manchester, attracting many visitors in the summer months for walking and picnics and in winter for sledging. The most famous feature of Lyme is Lyme Park, a Tudor house with gardens created in the 1720s. This was made most famous when it featured as Mr Darcy's house in the BBC dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice. The three-storey house has 17 acres of well-maintained Victorian-era gardens and is also open to visitors for guided tours of the house, which contains a large collection of clocks.

The rest of the area consists of small farms which were all once part of the Handley estate but parcelled off at the turn of the 20th century. These mostly farm sheep with some cattle. In the past Lyme Handley had its own flax mill, providing a use for a crop other than grass that could be grown on a relatively infertile soil type; although the mill remains, it is no longer functional.

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lyme Handley)

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