The basin is just one part of a wider complex of basins that includes the Worcester Basin, the Stafford Basin and the East Irish Sea Basin. These basins developed while the crust of this region was experiencing east-west tension during the Permian period. It is traversed by a series of largely north-south aligned normal faults, some of which help to define the Mid Cheshire Ridge and Alderley Edge, two upstanding areas within the Cheshire Plain.