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Ellesmere Port (/ˈɛlzmɪər/ ELZ-meer) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Chester, 12 miles (19 km) south of Birkenhead, 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Runcorn and 11 miles (18 km) south of Liverpool. The town had a population of 61,090 in the 2011 census.[2] Ellesmere Port also forms part of the wider Birkenhead urban area, which had a population of 325,264 in 2011.[3]

Ellesmere Port
Town

Ellesmere Port Civic Hall
Ellesmere Port
Location within Cheshire
Population61,090 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceSJ4175
• London170 mi (270 km)[1] SE
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townELLESMERE PORT
Postcode districtCH65, CH66
Dialling code0151
PoliceCheshire
FireCheshire
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
  • Ellesmere Port and Neston
List of places
UK
England
Cheshire
53.279°N 2.897°W / 53.279; -2.897

The town was originally established on the River Mersey at the entrance to the Ellesmere Canal. As well as a service sector economy, it has retained large industries including Stanlow oil refinery, a chemical works and the Vauxhall Motors car factory. There are also a number of tourist attractions including the National Waterways Museum, the Blue Planet Aquarium and Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet.


History


Ellesmere Port Dock at the Manchester ship canal looking towards the Stanlow Refinery
Ellesmere Port Dock at the Manchester ship canal looking towards the Stanlow Refinery

The town of Ellesmere Port was founded at the outlet of the never-completed Ellesmere Canal. The canal (now renamed) 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 was intended to be completed in sections. In 1795 the section between the River Mersey at Netherpool and the River Dee at Chester was opened. However the canal was not finished as first intended; it never reached the River Severn. Upon reevaluation it was decided that the costs to complete the project were not projected to be repaid because of a decrease in expected commercial traffic. There had been a loss of competitive advantage caused by steam engine-related economic advances (nationally, regionally and locally) during the first decade of canal construction. During or before the construction of the canal the village of Netherpool changed its name to the Port of Ellesmere, and by the early 19th century, to Ellesmere Port.

Settlements had existed in the area since the writing of the Domesday Book in the 11th century, which mentions Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Pool[4] (now Overpool[5]) and Hooton.[6] The settlement of Whitby was a township in the ancient parishes of Eastham and Stoak, within the Wirral Hundred. The township, which included the hamlets of Ellesmere Port and Whitbyheath, became a civil parish in 1866. To enhance the economic growth of the area, the Netherpool, Overpool and Whitby civil parishes were abolished on 1 April 1911 to become parts of the new civil parish of Ellesmere Port.[7]

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 National Waterways 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. The main employer at this time was Burnell's Iron Works which had been set up at the end of the nineteenth century. This was followed by the setting up of the Mersey Ironworks factory by the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company In 1905 who settled on Ellesmere Port as a way of exploiting the company's international trade through the nearby ports of Birkenhead and Liverpool. Initially 300 workers and their families came from Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas to work in the factory, settling in a specially built worker's village named “Wolverham”.[8] 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.

Whitby lighthouse
Whitby lighthouse
Ellesmere Port Hospital
Ellesmere Port Hospital

By the mid-20th century, thanks to the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 and the Stanlow Oil Refinery in the 1920s, Ellesmere Port 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, to an area that had once been home to a stud farm (indeed, the former Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council officially referred to the town centre as Stud Farm for housing allocation purposes) around the crossroads of Sutton Way/Stanney Lane and Whitby Road.

The foundation stone for Ellesmere Port Civic Hall was laid by the Chairman of Ellesmere Port Borough Council, Horace Black, on 2 May 1953.[9] It was designed in the modernist style and completed in 1955.[10]

In the 20th century, a number of new housing estates were developed, many of them on the sites of former farms such as Hope Farm and Grange Farm. Many estates consisted of both council housing and privately owned houses and flats.

Ellesmere Port, in more recent times has had an influx of immigrants from Liverpool. Thus demand for housing increased with the opening of the Vauxhall Motors car plant in 1962. Opened as a components supplier to the Luton plant, passenger car production began in 1964 with the Vauxhall Viva.[11] The plant is now Vauxhall's only car factory in Britain, since the end of passenger car production at the Luton plant in 2004 (where commercial vehicles are still made). Ellesmere Port currently produces the Vauxhall Astra model on two shifts, employing 2,500 people.

In the mid-1980s, the Port Arcades, a covered shopping mall was built in the town centre. 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 multiplex cinema; prior to this since the closure of the cinema in Station Road, Little Sutton (King's cinema) and the Queen's cinema adjacent to Ellesmere Port railway station in the 1960s the town's only cinema had been a single screen in the EPIC Leisure Centre.

Since 1974 Ellesmere Port has been an unparished area when the civil parish of Ellesmere Port was abolished and all its functions were assumed by the new district of Ellesmere Port and Neston. The district was abolished in 2009, and the town no longer has its own council.

In August 2012, Marks & Spencer opened their largest store (apart from Marble Arch in London) on a site near the Coliseum shopping park.[12]


Governance


Council Offices
Council Offices

Ellesmere Port was nearly included into the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, when that was formed on 1 April 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.

Plans were announced which proposed combining the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston with the Chester and Vale Royal districts to form a new "West Cheshire" unitary authority.[13] The new unitary authority came into being on 1 April 2009 as Cheshire West and Chester. The Conservatives won control of this council in shadow elections in May 2008, winning a majority of seats in the Ellesmere Port area for the first time.

At national level, Ellesmere Port is part of the Ellesmere Port and Neston parliamentary constituency. As of 2021, the current Member of Parliament (MP) is Justin Madders (Labour).


Demography


Joseph Groome Apartment blocks
Joseph Groome Apartment blocks
Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church
Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church
Population since 1901[6]
YearPopulation
190110,366
191110,253
192112,891
193118,267
195132,653
196144,681
197161,637
198163,315
199131,378
200164,100
201161,090

The 2011 census records 27,134 households in Ellesmere Port, with 40.9% of the population aged between 30 and 59. It lists the ethnicity of the town as 95.2% White British, 0.8% White Irish, 1.6% White Other, 0.8% mixed ethnicity, 1.1% Asian, 0.2% Black and 0.1% other. 97.8% speak English as a first language.[2]


Religion


According to the 2011 census, the main religion of Ellesmere Port is Christianity with 72.1% of the population. 20% have no religion, 6% are unspecified, 0.4% are Muslim, 0.2% are Buddhist, 0.1% Hindu and 0.2% other.[2]


Landmarks


Blue Planet Aquarium
Blue Planet Aquarium
Cheshire Oaks shopping centre
Cheshire Oaks shopping centre

Geography


Ellesmere Port is located at the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula, in the county of Cheshire. Its suburbs include Overpool to the north west, Westminster to the north, Rossmore to the north east, with Whitby and Wolverham to the south.


Parks and green spaces



Transport



Road


Ellesmere Port is located near the interchange of the M56 and the M53 motorways. The A41 road between Birkenhead and Chester, also passes through the area. The M56 carries the European Route E22 in this area.


Buses


There is a bus station in the town centre with frequent services to Chester, Liverpool, Runcorn, Elton, Helsby, Frodsham, Birkenhead and Neston. There are also services to Mold, North Wales operated by Stagecoach. Occasional National Express coaches serve the bus station. Most services are operated by Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire with one service operated by Helms of Eastham and another by Arrowebrook Coaches.


Rail


Ellesmere Port railway station is on the Wirral line of the Merseyrail network and has a half-hourly electric train service to Liverpool via Birkenhead. The line was electrified from Hooton to Ellesmere Port by British Rail in 1994. There is also an infrequent service to Warrington.


Canal


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 seagoing boats at what is now the National Waterways Museum).


Sports


Ellesmere Port Greyhound Stadium
Ellesmere Port Greyhound Stadium

Speedway racing operated at the stadium in Thornton Road in the mid to late 1970s and in the 1980s; since March 2013, the stadium has been back in use for greyhound racing. Ellesmere Port Gunners raced in the lower tier Leagues. The Gunners' best season was their last, 1985, when they won the National League championship. The campaign was marred by a career-ending injury sustained by inspirational captain Joe Owen. Owen was hurt in a track crash at Birmingham. Ellesmere Port Town F.C. was once of town's main football team before the founding of Vauxhall Motors F.C. in 1963. Ellesmere Port Town F.C. was founded in 1948 and folded in 1973. The club's main achievements were playing in the Northern Premier League (The 7th tier in the English Football Pyramid) and reaching the F.A. Cup First Round in the 1971–1972 season, losing 3–0 to Boston United. Vauxhall Motors F.C. are the local football team.

In 2009 Eddie Izzard and his run around the UK for Sport Relief saw him pass through Little Sutton village centre and Hooton. The footage is only minutes long however.

In 2012 Ellesmere Port played host to the Paralympic Flame as part of the Paralympic Torch Relay celebrations. West Cheshire Colleges campus in Ellesmere Port was one of the drop off points for the flame as well as the EPIC leisure centre and the David Lloyd Leisure Centre. Events included sporting demonstrations and the parade of the Paralympic flame.[17]

Construction began in January 2014 for the new multimillion-pound Sports Village in Stanney Grange which initially was to incorporate an Olympic sized swimming venue (now smaller), tennis courts, football pitches and other sport halls, and will be the new home of Cheshire Phoenix, the local professional British Basketball League team from the start of the 2015/16 BBL Championship season. The village is situated on site of the old Stanney High School by Cheshire Oaks, the Coliseum and M&S.


Notable people


Sir Herbert Williams, 1924
Sir Herbert Williams, 1924
John Prescott, 2007
John Prescott, 2007

The following people are natives of Ellesmere Port, or have lived there for a period of time.

Politics
Creative Arts
Ian Prowse, 2010
Ian Prowse, 2010
Lee Latchford-Evans, 2009
Lee Latchford-Evans, 2009
Sport
Stan Cullis Statue
Stan Cullis Statue
Ian Bowyer, 2009
Ian Bowyer, 2009
Rob Jones, 2008
Rob Jones, 2008
Johannah Leedham, 2015
Johannah Leedham, 2015

See also



References


  1. "Coordinate Distance Calculator". boulter.com. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  2. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Ellesmere Port Built-up area (E35001428)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  3. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Birkenhead Built-up area (E34004654)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  4. Powell-Smith, Anna. "Place: [Nether and Over] Pool". Open Domesday. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  5. Harrison, Henry (1898). The place-names of the Liverpool district; or, the history and meaning of the local and river names of south-west Lancashire and of Wirral. Elliot Stock. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  6. "Cheshire Historic Towns Survey, Ellesmere Port, Archaeological Assessment" (PDF). Cheshire County Council. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  7. "Whitby". GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  8. Royden, Mike. "Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company" (PDF). Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  9. "The Laying of the Foundation Stone at the new Civic Hall". Manchester Metropolitan University. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  10. "Ellesmere Port Civic Hall". Ellesmere Port Music Society. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  11. "Ellesmere Port car factory- Vauxhall, Opel". Factorytour.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  12. "M&S Cheshire Oaks Store". Marks and Spencer. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  13. "Future of local government in Cheshire". Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  14. "Cheshire Oaks bosses plan huge Christmas event". The Chester Standard. NWN Media Ltd. 24 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  15. NHS, Ellesmere Port Hospital, accessed 25 May 2022
  16. "Whitby Hall, home to Action Transport Theatre". Action Transport Theatre. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  17. "Ellesmere Port welcomes Paralympic flame". Chesterfirst. NWN Media. 30 August 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2012.


Media related to Ellesmere Port at Wikimedia Commons
Ellesmere Port travel guide from Wikivoyage


На других языках

- [en] Ellesmere Port

[ru] Элсмир-Порт

Элсмир-Порт (англ. Ellesmere Port) — город и порт в графстве Чешир Великобритании, входит в состав унитарной единицы Западный Чешир и Честер.


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