Macclesfield, an ancient municipal borough and important manufacturing town in the Macclesfield, parliamentary division of Cheshire, is situated on the river Bollin, and on the western declivity of a range of low hills, 15 miles SSE. of Manchester and 167 NW. of London. Among its buildings are the fine old church of St Michael, founded by Queen Eleanor in 1278, the town-hall (1823-70), the infirmary (1872), and King Edward's grammar-school (1553), rebuilt in 1866, and reorganised in 1880, with an endowment of £2000 a year, which also supports a modern free school. Macclesfield has a public park of 16 acres (1852), public baths, a free library, a technical school, a school of science and art, etc. The old button trade belongs to the past, and the silk manufacture, established in 1756, is now the staple industry; cotton goods and small-wares are also manufactured, and there are dye-works and breweries. In the vicinity coal, slate, and stone are obtained. Macclesfield possesses nine charters (the first by Prince Edward, Earl of Chester, in 1261), and returned two members from 1832 till 1880, but was disfranchised in 1885. Pop. (1851) 39,048; (1901) 34,624, See works by Corry (1817) and Earwaker (1877).