town has assumed an importance which it never never before possessed. It is now a place of resort for salt water bathing, and its quarries of freestone employ a number of people. Population of parish, 10,326; of town, 5,035. Its church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a very ancient structure, partly in the early and partly in the later style of English architecture; the living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester. K.B., £10. 4s. 2d, per year; patron. Christ Church, Oxford. Runcorn had once to boast of its castle, built by the renowned Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, and widow of Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, some traces of which are still visible by the river-side, about 300 yards below the Church. This fortress commanded the passage from the kingdom of Mercia to that of Northumberland.
Altringham, is a neat market town in the county of Chester, parish of Bowden, and hundred of Bucklow; it is 12 miles east of the Railroad. Pop. 2,708. An. As. Val. £4,547. Although it possesses several factories of yarn, cotton, and worsted, the greater proportion of its population are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The Duke of Bridgewater's canal passes the town. It has a market on Tuesday, and fairs. April 29. August 5, and November 22, for cattle and drapery. The living is a perpetual curacy, not in charge, it being a chapelry to Bowden; An. Val. P.R. £102.
