Macclesfield Forest is a part of it which remains, although most of it now consists of non-native conifers.
It takes in the modern towns and villages of Ashton-under-Lyne, Macclesfield, Lyme, Congleton, Madeley, Newcastle-under-Lyme and others.
[citation needed] The forest seemed to act as a barrier to Anglo-Saxon conquest of Cheshire because when Cheshire finally came under Anglo-Saxon control, the army which effectively captured it came from the North, Northumbria.
[citation needed] There is also some evidence for the towns and land located around Biddulph and Leek as formerly belonging to Cheshire in the early Middle Ages.
Today the forest survives as large tracts of ancient woodland, particularly in the valley of the River Dane, the Western Peak District and in a few other areas.