Alderley Edge is a sandstone ridge rising above the Cheshire plain, a dozen miles south of Manchester. Beneath lie copper and lead mines and, according to legend, a sleeping king and his knights ready to save England in the last battle of the world. The Edge itself is now owned by the National Trust and the village below, formed by the railway as a commuter dormitory for Manchester cotton-kings, has become a honeypot for Mancunians.
The story of Alderley begins in 1953, when the schoolboy Alan Garner rediscovered an old wooden shovel found in the mines. Nearly forty years later - and by now a world-famous author - he presented the shovel to the Manchester Museum in the University of Manchester, inspiring a research project that called on every discipline of the museum and more, attracting specialists of the highest calibre.
The Alderley Edge Landscape Project, a joint venture by the Museum and the National Trust, set out to study every aspect of Alderley's story. Its first report in 2005 was The Archaeology of Alderley Edge. This second volume, The story of Alderley, covers everything else, from the natural world to the story of the mines, from social history to conservation. It includes the discovery of two new species of bramble and a retelling of the legend by Alan Garner that takes the story back into prehistory - and his shovel was radiocarbon-dated to the Bronze Age.
No other book provides such a detailed story of the village and its landscape setting. It will appeal not just to landscape and local historians but students and scholars in all those disciplines and to all those interested in any aspect of history and the countryside.

A. J. N. W. Prag is Honorary Professor at the Manchester Museum and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Manchester

Part I. Introductory
1. The background to the Alderley Edge Landscape Project - A. J. N. W. Prag
2. Approach to the Edge: a personal view - Alan Garner
Part II. The bedrock of the Edge - geology and geography
3. The geological story of Alderley Edge - David B. Thompson and Simon Timberlake
4. Rocks, minerals and landforms: an overview - Simon Timberlake
5. The solid geology of Alderley Edge - David B. Thompson, Geoffrey Warrington, John E. Pollard and John R. Nudds
6. The minerals of the Edge - David I. Green, Richard S.W. Braithwaite, David B. Thompson and Geoffrey Warrington
7. Geomorphology: The evolution of the landscape - Richard H. Johnson and David B. Thompson
Part III. Natural history - the flora and fauna
8. The natural history of Alderley: an introduction - A.J.N.W. Prag with Sean R. Edwards, Simon Timberlake and Laurence Cook
9. The vegetation of the Edge - Sean R. Edwards, Simon Timberlake and Jonathan Guest
10. The trees of Alderley Edge - Simon Timberlake and Sean R. Edwards
11. The birds of Alderley Edge - Jonathan Guest, M.V. Hounsome and Edward Stanley with John Adams, Alan Straw and Henry McGhie
12. Alderley Edge pondlife - Jonathan Guest and Jill Smethurst
13. The insects and other invertebrates of Alderley Edge - Dmitri V. Logunov and Roger L. H. Dennis
Part IV. Human history - archaeology and underground
14. The archaeology of Alderley Edge - A. J. N. W. Prag and Simon Timberlake
15. Early mining: the evidence before 1598 - Simon Timberlake
16. Mining in the Alderley district: the documented period - Geoffrey Warrington
17. Working the mines at Alderley Edge: a contemporary perspective - Nigel Dibben
18. The quarries of Alderley Edge - Nigel Dibben (based on an original text by Simon Timberlake, Tom Burke and Clare Pye)
Part V. Human history - overground: the social history
19. The history of Alderley Edge - Clare Pye
20. The Archive - Jean Wearne
21. Living memory: the people of the Edge - John L. Ecclestone
22. The graffiti on stone and wood - Carolanne King, Clare Pye, Nigel Dibben, Simon Timberlake and Alan Garner
23. Alderley Edge: the villas and the village - Matthew Hyde
24. The Stanley Estate - Matthew Hyde
25. Nether Alderley mill: a historical and architectural study - Mike Redfern
26. Crossing the Edge - Clare Pye with Simon Timberlake and Carolanne King
27. Round the ragged edge: recumbent rocks and standing stones - Jeremy Milln and John Adams
28. Alderley: the names of street, house and field - J. S. Adams
Part VI. Looking back, looking forward
29. Close to the Edge - ensuring the future of the Edge for everyone - Christopher Widger
30. By Seven Firs and Goldenstone: an account of the Legend of Alderley - Alan Garner
31. Envoi - A. J. N. W. Prag
Appendices
Glossaries
References
Index - Compiled by Simon Timberlake