St Helens, Merseyside

From Freepedia

St Helens is a town in Merseyside in North West England and traditionally part of Lancashire. It gives its name to the metropolitan borough of St Helens. The population of the town is 102,629.

Contents

History

As late as the start of the19th century St Helens did not exist.[1] It was formed from the townships of Eccleston, Windle, Parr, and Sutton, all of which were in the Parish of Prescot and was named after St. Helen's parish church in Hardshaw within Windle, about 12 miles (19 km) north east of Liverpool. (The name of the town is these days written without an apostrophe.)

Image:2004-10-09 Sankey Canal.jpg
The glass industry was established here owing to the ready availability of sand and coal. The St Helens Canal was built in 1757 to transport raw materials and finished products to and from the River Mersey. In the 1830s the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway was built for the same purpose.

The town grew rapidly. In 1868 it was incorporated as a borough and was made a county borough in 1889. Glass is still a major employer, the large Pilkington Brothers works dominating the town. Former industrial land has been reclaimed for use as hotels, shopping areas and housing. The many coal mines including Clock Face, Sutton Manor and Lea Green were closed from the 1960s to the 1980s. The last colliery in the modern Metropolitan Borough and on the Lancashire coalfield,at Parkside in Newton le Willows, closed in 1992.

The town itself (that is, the old county borough) included the suburbs of Clock Face, Sutton and part of Windle.

In the Local Government reorganisation of 1974 St Helens became the centre of the Metroplitan Borough of St Helens in the newly created Merseyside County which was formed from large parts of the area surrounding the Mersey River. Many "Sintelliners" (a nickname for inhabitants due to their accent) were in uproar about joining the county as they had always been in Lancashire.

Transport

St Helens has two main railway stations, St Helens Central on the Liverpool to Wigan North Western Line and St Helens Junction on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway is 2 miles (3 km) south of the town centre.

The town is close to the M6, M62 and M57 motorways. It is also served by the A580, East Lancs Road.

The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, with Manchester Airport also within easy travelling distance.

Tourism

The main tourist attraction is St Helens' World of Glass, a museum dedicated to the glass industry. This is located next to the towns highly-regarded Hilton Hotel

The major sports team in the district is St Helens Rugby League Club.

Famous people

Trivia

  • A famous Punch cartoon had Napoleon lamenting, "Oh, no! I've been banished to St Helens!"

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/St_Helens%2C_Merseyside.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links