Petty Sessions (Magistrates Courts)
Petty sessions were first held in the early nineteenth century, taking the places of earlier informal meetings of justices. The first petty sessional divisions largely corresponded to the boundaries of the old Cheshire hundreds but were gradually split to take account of increasing business and large populations. Towns which achieved borough status were given their own sessions. Boundaries remained largely unaltered from 1913 to 1952 when some divisions were amalgamated, and again in 1967. A major reorganisation of divisions took place in 1974, with further reorganisation taking place in the 1980s and 1990s. Cheshire Archives and Local Studies holds records from Cheshire divisions except:
Records held at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies are from:
- Broxton (Cheshire Archives and Local Studies reference QPBr)
- Bucklow (QPBu)
- Chester Castle (QPCa)
- Chester City (ZQP)
- Congleton Borough (QPCb)
- Congleton (QPC)
- Crewe Borough (QPCr)
- Daresbury (QPD)
- Dukinfield (QPDu)
- Eddisbury (QPEd)
- Ellesmere Port and Neston (QPEp)
- Halton (QPHa)
- Hyde (QPH)
- Leftwich (QPL)
- Macclesfield (QPM)
- Macclesfield Borough (QPMb)
- Middlewich (QPMi)
- Nantwich (QPNa)
- Northwich (QPNo)
- Prestbury (QPP)
- Runcorn (QPR)
- Sandbach (QPS)
- South East Cheshire (QPC)
- Vale Royal (QPV)
- Warrington (QPWa)
- Warrington Borough (QPWb)
- Widnes (QPWd)
- Winsford (QPWs)
- Wirral (QPW)