Ellesmere Port

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Ellesmere Port
Coordinates: 53.279° N 2.897° W
Population	64,100 (2001)
OS grid reference	SJ4175
District	Ellesmere Port and Neston
Shire county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ellesmere Port
Postcode district	CH65, CH66
Dial code	0151
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Ellesmere Port and Neston
European Parliament	North West England
List of places: UK • England • Cheshire

Ellesmere Port is an industrial town in the district of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Cheshire, England, situated in the south of the Wirral Peninsula on the estuary of the River Mersey, to the north of Chester. The town has a population of 64,100 as of the 2001 Census.

Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Government and politics 3.1 Twin Towns 4 Communications 5 Transport 6 Famous people from Ellesmere Port 7 Suburbs and villages 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Description

The town is primarily industrial, being dominated by a Shell oil refinery at Stanlow and a former ICI chemical works. The town is also home to the Vauxhall Motors car factory, noted for producing the Astra range of cars in the UK. There are a number of tourist attractions: the Boat Museum, the "Blue Planet" aquarium and the McArthur Glen Cheshire Oaks outlet village.

[edit] History

The town of Ellesmere Port was founded as an outlet to the sea from Ellesmere, Shropshire and the Welsh border area around Llangollen via a canal initially called the Ellesmere Canal. The canal was designed and engineered by William Jessop and Thomas Telford as part of a project to connect the rivers Severn, Mersey and Dee. The canal connected to the Mersey in the village of Netherpool, and the basin was known as Whitby Locks. The section between Whitby Locks and Chester was opened in 1795, connecting two of the rivers; but the connection to the Severn was never completed.

The village of Netherpool gradually changed its name to the 'Port of Ellesmere', and by the early 19th centry, to Ellesmere Port. Settlements had existed in the area since the writing of the Domesday Book (the suburbs of Great Sutton, Little Sutton and Hooton are all mentioned). Many of the village names are derived from Old Norse, in common with much of the rest of the Wirral Peninsula, which had been an extensive Viking settlement. The first houses in Ellesmere Port itself, however, grew up around the docks and the first main street was Dock Street, which now houses the Boat Museum. Station Road, which connected the docks with the village of Whitby, also gradually developed and as more shops were needed, some of the houses became retail premises. As the expanding industrial areas growing up around the canal and its docks attracted more workers to the area, the town itself continued to expand.

By the mid-20th century, thanks to the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 and the Stanlow Oil Refinery in the 1920s, the town had expanded so that it now incorporated the villages of Great and Little Sutton, Hooton, Whitby, Overpool and Rivacre as suburbs. The town centre itself had moved from the Station Road/Dock Street area (now part of the Westminster housing estate) to an area that had once been home to a stud farm (indeed, Ellesmere Port and Neston borough council officially refer to the town centre as 'Stud Farm' for housing allocation purposes) around the crossroads of Sutton Way/Stanney Lane and Whitby Road. Demand for housing was further increased with the opening of the Vauxhall Motors car plant in 1962. Between the 1950s and 1980s, a number of new housing estates grew up, many of them on the sites of former farms such as Hope Farm and Grange Farm. Most of these estates consisted of both council housing and privately-owned homes and flats. In the mid-1980s, the Port Arcades, a covered shopping mall was built in the town centre, which complemented the erection of an Asda supermarket. By the 1990s, it was the retail sector rather than the industrial that was attracting workers and their families to the town. This was boosted with the building of the Cheshire Oaks outlet village and the Coliseum shopping park, which also included a cinema; prior to this, following the demolition of the King's Cinema in Little Sutton, the town's only cinema had been a single screen in the EPIC Leisure Centre.

The town continues to grow and expand, and more housing estates and shops are being built. The industrial sector is still a major employer in the town although in recent years, a number of factories have been closed and jobs lost.

[edit] Government and politics

Ellesmere Port was nearly included into the Merseyside borough of Wirral when that was formed in 1974. It was removed from the proposals before the Local Government Act 1972 had its first reading, and instead remained in Cheshire as part of the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston. The two towns, and the other villages that comprise the borough, are thus the only places on the Wirral that are not included as part of Merseyside.

Ellesmere Port is part of the Ellesmere Port and Neston parliament constituency. The current MP is Andrew Miller (Labour).

In 2007 it was announced that plans had been made to merge the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston with the City of Chester, although this would be a council merger rather than a geographical merger (meaning that Ellesmere Port and Neston would remain as separate from the city of Chester).

[edit] Twin Towns

Reutlingen, Germany.

[edit] Communications

Prevously, the post code of Ellesmere Port began with 'L' for Liverpool, and letters were often addressed to Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, rather than Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. After a campaign by local residents, the postcodes for Ellesmere Port (and the rest of Wirral) were changed in the mid-1990s to 'CH' for Chester.

The UK telephone numbering code for the area remains 0151 (Liverpool).

[edit] Transport

Ellesmere Port has a railway station with frequent electric trains to Liverpool and occasional trains to Helsby. It is also located at the interchange of the M56 and the M53.

The Manchester Ship Canal joins the Mersey estuary north-west of Ellesmere Port at Eastham, but the town is also the northern terminus of the Shropshire Union Canal (which used to exchange goods with sea-going boats at what is now the boat museum).

[edit] Famous people from Ellesmere Port

• Joe Mercer, legendary Everton and Arsenal player and caretaker-manager of the England national football team in 1974. There is a street in the town centre (Mercer Walk) named after him. The street is now part of the Port Arcades shopping mall.
• Stan Cullis, former Wolves player and manager. His niece, Rita Cullis, a renowned opera singer is also from the town.
• Lee Latchford Evans, singer with the pop group Steps.
• Rob Jones, former Liverpool and England defender.
• Sam Chedgzoy, another footballer, who played for Everton between 1910-1926.
• Tony Woodley, head of the Transport and General Workers Union.
• John Prescott, the British deputy prime minister attended Grange Secondary Modern School in Ellesmere Port, although he was not originally from the town.

[edit] Suburbs and villages

• Whitby
• Great Sutton, including Hope Farm and Grange.
• Little Sutton
• Westminister
• Rivacre
• Overpool
• Childer Thornton
• Hooton
• Great Stanney (locally called Stanney Grange) including Cheshire Oaks and Wolverham.
• Little Stanney
• Willaston
• Elton

Since Ellesmere Port is an expanding town, it is possible that other outlying villages may be absorbed into the urban area in the future.

The nearby smaller town of Neston, including the villages of Ness, Burton, Parkgate and Little Neston, is part of the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston.

[edit] See also

• Ellesmere Port (dock)
• Hooton, Cheshire

[edit] External links

• Ellesmere Port Standard (local newspaper)
• The Boat Museum
• The Blue Planet Aquarium
• Ellesmere Port & Neston Community Transport (Local Charity)