Macclesfield is located in the east of Cheshire, on the River Bollin, a tributary of the River Mersey. It is close to the county borders of Greater Manchester, (to the north), Derbyshire, (to the east) and Staffordshire, (to the south). It is near the towns of Stockport, (to the north), Buxton, (to the east), and Congleton, (to the south). It is 30 miles, (45 km), to the east of Chester, the county town of Cheshire. To the west of the town lies the Cheshire Plain. The town is most famous for its once thriving silk industry, commemorated in the local Silk Museum. Although "Silk Town" seems to be the preferred nickname these days, Macclesfield's traditional local nickname is "Treacle Town"—supposedly from an incident where a merchant spilt a load of treacle on Hibel Road, and the poor rushed out to scoop it off the cobbles. Another, less picturesque, reason has it that the mill-owners used to provide barrels of treacle to the unemployed weavers