Coordinates: 53°18′11″N 2°14′10″W / 53.303°N 2.236°W / 53.303; -2.236

Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 4,638.

Alderley Edge is 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Macclesfield and 15 miles (24 km) south of Manchester. It is situated at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone ridge, Alderley Edge, which is the area's chief topographical feature and overlooks the Cheshire Plain.

Alderley Edge is well known for its affluence and expensive houses, falling inside Cheshire's Golden Triangle. Alderley Edge has a selection of cafes and designer shops and has attracted numerous Premier League footballers, actors and multi-millionaire businesspeople. It is one of the most expensive and sought-after places to live in the UK outside central London.

History

The area around Alderley Edge provides proof of occupation since the Mesolithic period with flint implements being found along the line of the sandstone outcrop. Evidence of copper mining in the Bronze Age has also been found to the south of the area. In 1995 members of the Derbyshire Caving Club found a hoard of 564 coins of the Roman Empire (now in the Manchester Museum) dating from AD 317 to AD 336. There are to date 13 recorded sites on the County Sites and Monuments Record (CSMR) in the settled area of Alderley Edge and 28 in Nether Alderley, with a further 44 along the Edge.

Alderley Edge railway station serves the large village of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, England. The station is 13¾ miles (22 km) south of Manchester Piccadilly on the Crewe to Manchester Line (via Stockport.).

History

Opened by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, then absorbed by the London and North Western Railway, it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railwayson nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways on behalf of the GMPTE until the Privatisation of British Railways.

The line was electrified in 1960 (as the first stage of the WCML electrification project) - since then, the station has acted as a terminus for some local services from the Manchester direction. Both platforms are bi-directionally signalled to facilitate this and there are turnback sidings provided close to the station to allow empty stock to be stabled clear of the main line.

A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot (see below) is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight.

It generally consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building (depot) providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts" (flag stops).

Stations may be at ground level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems.

Terminology

In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. Railway station and railroad station are less frequent; also, American usage makes a distinction between the terms railroad and railway.

In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, traditional usage favours railway station or simply station, even though train station, which is often perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing; railroad station is not used, railroad being obsolete there. In British usage, the word station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified.