Residents include Coronation Street actress Barbara Knox and footballers Peter Crouch, Sam Ricketts, Michael Jacobs and Phil Jagielka.

Knutsford, situated in Cheshire, England, was recorded in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 as Cunetesford ("Canute's ford").

Local tradition says that King Canute blessed a wedding that was taking place and forded the River Lily, which was said to be dangerous then, though other reports say it was the Birkin Brook at or near Booth Mill.

In 1915, due to the low population and there being an ongoing World War the gaol was used as a military prison, for the detention of soldiers found guilty of committing offences.

[7] Knutsford was the place in which General George S. Patton, shortly before the Normandy invasion, delivered a speech perceived to be critical of the Soviets, and to have "slap(ped) the face of every one of the United Nations except Great Britain", which nearly ended his career.

At the end of the 20th century, all of the homes on the estate that had not already been sold to their occupants were transferred to Manchester Methodist Housing.

[13] The current mayor of Knutsford and chairman of the town council is Cllr Peter Coan (Conservative).

Knutsford railway station is a stop on the Mid-Cheshire Line that runs from Chester to Manchester Piccadilly, via Altrincham.

The CMR was absorbed into the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) in August 1867; this entity continued to serve Knutsford until nationalisation on 1 January 1948.

Trains operate to Northwich and Chester to the south-west; northbound services travel to Altrincham, Stockport and Manchester.

Barclays has a large campus site at Radbroke Hall on Toft Road just outside Knutsford,[20] employing approximately 3000 staff in IT and support functions.

The current church includes a plaque blessed by Pope John Paul II on his visit to Manchester in 1982.

[21] The church was modified in 1999 to include an apse with a stained glass window, which had previously been installed at Cross and Passion Sisters convent chapel, Maryfield, Dublin.

[25] By Michaelmas 1939, when the Old Rectory was required for housing refugees,[26] the school relocated one last time to Hawarden Castle before closing finally the next year.

Toft play in the ECB Premier Division of the Cheshire County Cricket League[35] It won the National Village Championship trophy at Lords in 1989.

[39] Regional local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada.

The annual Knutsford Royal May Day festival is where hundreds of people parade through the streets, and the May Queen is crowned.

Local folklore claims that Edward "Highwayman" Higgins had a tunnel running under The Heath, where he hid his booty.

The Knutsford Guardian, established in 1860, is the only weekly paid-for paper dedicated to covering the town and its surrounding villages.

Queen Victoria, in her journal of 1832 recorded: "we arrived at Knutsford, where we were most civilly received, the streets being sanded in shapes which is peculiar to this town".

Despite several references to Knutsford, including King Street and The Heath, the TV adaptation was actually filmed in Lacock, Wiltshire.

Notably, in 1987 Legh Road in Knutsford, designed by Richard Harding Watt, doubled for Colonial Shanghai in the opening scenes from Steven Spielberg's film Empire of the Sun.

Now known by the name of the building it occupies, Knutsford Little Theatre continues to produce a selection of plays each year, including an annual pantomime.

Knutsford Heritage Centre is situated in a 17th-century timber-framed building just off King Street, which was a blacksmith's forge in the 19th century.

[45] The building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, and for much of the 20th century was home to Knutsford Boys' Club and latterly a furniture show room and post office.