Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port
Canal Village
Ellesmere Port  Ellesmere Port shown within Cheshire
Population	64,100 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SJ4175
Unitary authority	Cheshire West and Chester
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ELLESMERE PORT
Postcode district	CH65, CH66
Dialling code	0151
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Ellesmere Port and Neston
List of places UK England Cheshire

Ellesmere Port /ˈɛlzmɪərpɔrt/ is a large industrial town and port in Cheshire, England. It is situated South of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, and to the north of the city of Chester. The town had a population of 64,100 as of the 2001 Census.

The town is primarily industrial, being dominated by an oil refinery at Stanlow and a former ICI chemical works. The town is also home to the Vauxhall Motors car factory, where the Astra range of cars is produced. There are a number of tourist attractions: the National Waterways Museum, the Blue Planet Aquarium and the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet which is owned by McArthurGlen Group.

History

The town of Ellesmere Port was founded as an outlet to the sea from Ellesmere, Shropshire and Wales' 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.

Manchester Ship Canal from Ellesmere Port Dock towards Stanlow

The village of Netherpool gradually 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 (now Overpool) and Hooton. 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. 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

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, 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.

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 homes and flats.

Present day

Ellesmere Port, in recent times has had an influx of Liverpool immigrants.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. Today 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, which complemented the erection of Lewis's store^{[citation needed]} which was bought out by Asda prior to the completion of the Port Arcades. 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 adjacent to the station in the 1950s 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. Marks & Spencer have built (September 2012) what is being claimed to be their largest store apart from Marble Arch on a site opposite to the Coliseum shopping park.

Governance

Civic Hall

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

Mayors

The following are the 3 most recent mayors of Ellesmere Port:

Name	From	To	Age	Ward	From	Notes
Gareth Anderson	May 2010	May 2011	29	Ledsham and Manor	Little Sutton
Angela Claydon	May 2011	May 2012	47	St Pauls	Excelsior Springs
Patricia Merrick	May 2012	Present	56	Rossmore	Hapsford

Demography

Ethnic Group	Percentage
White British	97%
White Irish	1%
White Other	0.7%
Mixed	0.4%
Asian	0.3%
Black	0.1%
Chinese	0.3%
Other	0.2%

Religion

The main religion of Ellesmere Port is Christianity with 82% of the population. 10.2% have no religion. 6.9% are unspecified. 0.3% are Muslim. 0.1% are Buddhist

Landmarks

• Blue Planet Aquarium, largest aquarium in the UK 1998-1999.
• Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, largest outlet village in the UK 1995–present, largest outlet village in Europe 1995-1998. It is the location of the UK's largest artificial Christmas tree, 90 feet (27 m) tall and 32 feet (9.8 m) wide.
• Marks and Spencer, 2nd largest store in the UK when opened in 2012.
• National Waterways Museum, largest canal boat collection in the world.
• Stanlow Oil Refinery, 2nd largest industrial space in the UK.

Geography

Localities of Ellesmere Port include:

• Backford Cross
• Canal Village
• Central
• Childer Thornton
• The Coliseum
• Grange
• Great Sutton
• Hollywood
• Hooton
• Hope Farm
• Little Stanney
• Little Sutton
• Netherpool
• Overpool
• Parklands
• Pioneer Park
• Rivacre
• Rossmore
• Stanney Grange
• Strawberry Park
• Westminster
• Whitby
• Wolverham

Transport

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. There is a bus station in the town centre with frequent services to Chester, Liverpool, Runcorn, Elton, Ince,and Neston. There are some services to Mold, North Wales. Occasional National Express coaches serve the bus station. Most services are operated by Arriva North West & Wales, First Chester & The Wirral, GHA Coaches and Helms of Eastham.

Route No.	From	To	Via	Frequency	Company	Notes
1	Liverpool	Chester	Birkenhead, Cheshire Oaks	Every 15 minutes	Stagecoach	Quality Partnership
2	Liverpool	Chester	Birkenhead, Hope Farm	Every 10 minutes	Arriva/Stagecoach	Quality Partnership
272	Neston	Ellesmere Port	Willaston	Hourly	Helms of Eastham
6	Glenwood Road	Stanney Grange	Bus Station	Every 30 minutes	GHA Coaches
6R	Stanney Grange	Pacific Heights	Bus Station	one evening journey	GHA Coaches	one northbound evening journey from 6 July 2012
7/7A	Rivacre	Kendal Drive	Bus Station	Every 30 minutes	GHA Coaches
36	Ellesmere Port	Runcorn (Halton Lea)	Helsby, Frodsham	Every 30 minutes	GHA Coaches	Sunday service Ellesmere Port to Cheshire Oaks only
359	Neston High School	Ellesmere Port	Willaston	1 return journey on schooldays	Helms of Eastham
360	Neston High School	Overpool	Willaston	1 return journey on schooldays	Helms of Eastham
106	Little Sutton	Cheshire Oaks	Bus Station	Hourly (Sundays)	Arrowebrook
DB2	Ellesmere Port	Saltney Ferry	Chester	Every 2 hours	GHA Coaches
SP1/SP2	Mold	Ellesmere Port Railway Stn	Deeside	Every 30 minutes	GHA Coaches	SP1 via Mercia Drive. SP2 via Buckley Cross
X2	Ellesmere Port	Chester	Whitby	Every 30 mins	Arriva/Stagecoach	Quality Partnership, Fast Service
PB1	Childer Crescent	Rugby Road	Bus Station	Hourly	PlusBus
PB2	Grace Road	Dolphin Crescent	Train Station	Hourly	PlusBus
-	Ellesmere Port	London/Birmingham/Pwlhelli	-	1 daily	National Express

Ellesmere Port railway station has frequent electric trains to Chester and Liverpool via the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. There is also an infrequent service to Helsby, with the route passing through Stanlow and Elton.

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

Speedway racing operated at the stadium in Thornton Road in the mid to late 1970s and in the 1980s; as of March 2013, the stadium will be back in use for Greyhound Racing. Ellesmere Port Gunners raced in the lower tier Leagues. 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.

Notable people

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

• Comedian Russ Abbot grew up in the town's Wolverham district.
• Lillian Beckwith, author, grew up in Ellesmere Port the daughter of a grocer as chronicled in her book About My Father's Business.
• Sam Chedgzoy, footballer who played for Everton between 1910-1926.
• Rita Cullis, operatic soprano, was born in Ellesmere Port.
• Stan Cullis, former Wolverhampton Wanderers player and manager was born in Ellesmere Port on 25 October 1916. Like his friend Joe Mercer he played football for Cambridge Road School and Ellesmere Port Boys.
• Anastasia Dobromyslova, former Women's World Professional Darts Champion lives in the town.
• Dave Hickson, footballer who played for Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers. Born in Ellesmere Port in 1929. He worked for Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council before returning to Everton, where he works as an ambassador for the club.
• Beverley Hughes, Labour MP and former government minister, born and educated in the town and still has family connections
• Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV presenter and personality lived briefly in the Little Sutton area.
• Lee Latchford Evans from pop group Steps grew up here.
• Joe Mercer, England football international and manager was born in Ellesmere Port on 9 August 1914. He played football for Cambridge Road School and was selected to play for Ellesmere Port Boys against Chester Boys in January 1929. Mercer led Manchester City to the 1968 First Division championship, and went on to win the FA Cup (1969), League Cup (1970) and European Cup Winners' Cup (1970).
• John Prescott, The Ex-Deputy Prime Minister attended the Grange Secondary Modern School in 1948.
• Ian Prowse, singer/songwriter formerly of Pele and Amsterdam
• Joshua Shaw, an Anglo-American artist and inventor
• Rob Jones, former footballer for Liverpool and England, grew up in the town.
• Graham Turner, current Shrewsbury Town and former Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Hereford United manager
• Johannah Leedham, Team GB women's basketball captain for London 2012 is from Ellesmere Port.

External links

• Local Newspaper
• National Waterways Museum (formerly the Boat Museum)
• The Blue Planet Aquarium
• Ellesmere Port & Neston Community Transport (Local Charity)