The area covered by RECORD for the collation of biological records, both species and habitat records, is designated as the Cheshire region. This includes the county of Cheshire (Modern and Vice County) as well as the administrative and unitary authorities of Halton and Warrington, and the Wirral (which was once a part of Cheshire and is now a part of Merseyside), as well as the Mersey and Dee river estuaries and the marine environment bordering the Wirral out to the 12 mile limit. The map shown below will hopefully provide a more graphical and easily comprehended boundary. This does not mean however, that we will not accept records from outside this area. Such external records will be collated and passed on to the relevant local record centre as soon as is possible, commensurate with a higher priority rating being applied to records within our boundaries. For further detail see the map below:

RECORD'S Boundary - Vice-County & Modern County Combined:

The map above shows the combined boundary of Modern Cheshire, Vice-county Cheshire and the two Unitary Authorities of Halton and Warrington. This combined boundary makes up the working boundary of RECORD.

For those who have previously been involved in biological recording, many recording schemes operate on vice-county boundaries and for these schemes we will continue to require records for the vice-county designation (i.e. Cheshire - vice-county 58) which includes the ’old’ Cheshire ’pan-handle’ around Stockport, Trafford and Tameside, and a small part of the western area of High Peak. For further detail see the map above.

Cheshire: Cheshire, as an entity, has changed its boundaries on a number of occasions over the last few decades. The first major change was in the 1970’s when the County changed dramatically from the Vice-County (VC-58) boundary by losing the panhandle around the Trafford, Tameside and Stockport areas, and the Wirral peninsular. Much of Trafford, Tameside and Stockport were moved into the new administrative county of Greater Manchester. However, small areas around the north of Halton (Widnes and Hale) and the north of Warrington were gained - these were and are strictly a part of the Vice-County of South Lancashire (VC-59), although they are also now a part of the Modern County of Cheshire.

Later, in 1999, Cheshire lost both Halton (Runcorn, Widnes and Hale) and Warrington due to their becoming Unitary Authorities. This left Cheshire as a much reduced county, though for many naturalists recording by Vice-County boundaries the new administrative boundary changes had little or no effect at all.

Halton: Halton, including Runcorn, Widnes and Hale, has been a District in Cheshire since the 1974 administrative boundary changes. In 1999 it broke away from Cheshire by becoming a self-administrating Unitary Authority. This has meant many changes for the Borough, not least being the appointment of an Ecologist / Nature Conservation Officer, Paul Oldfield, who, since 1999, has had an important impact on Nature Conservation within the area. Halton conducted a Biodiversity Audit (1999/2000) and from this has identified a large number of sites as being of nature conservation importance. Much more information in the way of biological records/observations are required by RECORD and Paul Oldfield to help guide developmental issues and decisions within Halton. Please help, if you can, by sending your observation records of plants and animals to RECORD 

Warrington: Warrington, including north Warrington parishes, has been a District in Cheshire since the 1974 administrative boundary changes. In 1999 it broke away from Cheshire by becoming a self-administrating Unitary Authority. During this period the then Warrington Principle Ecologist, Dr David Bell, worked towards improving the ecological state of the Borough. This included a Biodiversity Audit, and the setting up of the Warrington Nature Conservation Forum and its Steering Committee. This Forum has recently identified a large number of sites as being of nature conservation importance within Warrington and is currently in the process of auditing these sites for their biological potential. Much more information in the way of biological records/observations are required by RECORD  and Warrington Borough Council to help guide developmental issues and decisions within the Borough. Please help, if you can, by sending your observation records of plants and animals to RECORD.

The Wirral: The Wirral is the peninsular of land which runs between the Rivers Dee and Mersey. Up until 1974 it had always been a part of Cheshire (and is still a part of the Vice-County of Cheshire (VC-58)) but in 1974, as a part of the administrative boundary changes, it was removed from Cheshire and became a part of the new boundary area of Merseyside which includes Liverpool and its outlying districts north of the River Mersey.
In 1999, during the development of the early stages of RECORD, Mr John Entwistle (Planning Officer of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral) made the decision to have the Wirral continue as a part of the remit of RECORD and therefore for the Wirral to be included within the boundary of RECORD’s operation. It is felt, by RECORD, that this was an excellent choice as it continued the long tradition of Wirral biological recording being within Cheshire as a part of the Vice County and enabled comparison of historical records based upon the Vice-County system.

Vice-County of Cheshire:

This is an unchanging boundary, established over 150 years ago, in 1852, by Hewett Cottrell Watson (a noted English amateur botanist) to help naturalists refer to regions of Britain without having to worry about whether or not they had been altered by political and administrative changes. His system was later extended to Ireland by Praeger. Vice Counties have been widely adopted by naturalists in preference to the ever changing administrative counties. The vice-county boundaries will not move! Please do look at the maps below and notice how with a Modern Cheshire boundary we have both lost the Wirral in the north West to Merseyside and have gained areas north of the River Mersey in Halton and Warrington. Whilst politicians concern themselves with modern county boundaries, naturalists tend to care more about Vice-Counties (See: ’Watsonian Vice-Counties of Great Britain’ published by the Ray Society of London in 1969 (publication 146)). Using Vice-Counties means that species lists made 100 years ago can be compared with those made today. RECORD needs to use use both systems when mapping data.

The large grid squares, as seen on Ordnance Survey Landranger maps, are each 100 kilometres across and are called "decads". Each decad can be divided into 100 smaller squares and these are usually the broadest measurement we use in biological recording. These 10 kilometre squares are called “hectads” Each hectad can be divided into 100 smaller squares, each one kilometre across. We call these single kilometre squares “monads”.

Many biological records are submitted to an accuracy of a single monad, although you can always be more specific than that if you wish. A group of four monads is called a “tetrad” - but these tend to be mainly used by botanists and further explanation would be required to explain how they are used. A series of letters and numbers is used to specific identify points on the map. An explanation of the national grid system will be provided in due course.