Bache (, ) is a small

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

and suburb of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Located to the north of the city, Bache combines with Moston and

Upton-by-Chester Upton-by-Chester is a civil parish and a large suburb on the outskirts of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It includes the villages of Upton and Upton Heath. Hist ...

to form a joint parish council.

History

The name "Bache" comes from a large tidal lagoon that was once linked to the River Dee at Blacon. The area, which now lies under Liverpool Road and a supermarket car park, was slowly reclaimed and raised when the course of the river was diverted in the 1730s. The

Chester Canal The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative abou ...

also cut off the watercourse in the 1780s. Its course can be traced from Bache Brook which is now partially covered by the Deva Link, a highways relief road.

Bache Hall Bache Hall is a former country house in Bache, Chester, Cheshire. It replaced an earlier house that had been damaged in the Civil War. At one time a golf club house, then a hospital building, as of 2013 it provides residential accommodation for ...

, a large 18th-century building, was once the main house of the Bache estate. It occupied the land now part of the Countess of Chester Hospital. The building is currently used by the

University of Chester , mottoeng = "He that teacheth, on teaching" , former_names = , established = (gained university status in 2005) , type = Public , endowment = £395,000 (2018) , budget = £118.3 million , chancellor = Gyles Brandreth , vice_chancell ...

. In the early 1900s, Bache Golf Club occupied land to the west of the hall. Further details regarding the area's history can be foun
here
The settlement had previously been a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

in Chester St Oswald Parish, within the Broxton Hundred. It became a civil parish in 1866.

Demography

The population of Bache was recorded at only 8 in 1801, rising to 25 in 1851, 36 in 1901 and 68 in 1951. According to the 2001 census, the parish population had increased to 158 (where 69% lived in households and 31% resided in communal establishments). By the 2011 census the population had increased to 307 (80.1% lived in households and 19.9% lived in communal establishments). A significant area of the parish is occupied by the Countess of Chester Hospital, which is a communal institution.

Transport

Bache railway station is on the

Wirral line The Wirral line is one of two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line. The Wirral line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with ...

of the

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line (Merseyrail ...

network, with services running between Chester and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. It is adjacent to a Morrison's supermarket and accessible from Mill Lane. The station opened in January 1984, replacing Upton-by-Chester railway station which was located further north. The A5116 Liverpool Road passes through the area and marks the eastern boundary of the civil parish. Constructed in the early 1990s, the A5480 Countess Way connects the A5116 with the A540 road near Blacon.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire