Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port
Town
Canal Village
Population	55,715 (2011 Census)
OS grid reference	SJ4175
• London	170 mi (270 km) SE
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
UK Parliament	Ellesmere Port and Neston

Ellesmere Port /ˈɛlzmɪərpɔːrt/ is a large town and port in Cheshire, England, south of the Wirral. The town had a population of 55,715 in 2011.

As well as a service sector economy, the town 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: the National Waterways Museum, the Blue Planet Aquarium and Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet.

History

Ellesmere Port Dock at the Manchester ship canal pointing 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 (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 was a township in the ancient parishes of Eastham and Stoak, Wirral hundred, which became a civil parish in 1866. It included the hamlets of Ellesmere Port and Whitbyheath. 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.

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, 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.

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 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. 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 assumed by the town.

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 Justin Madders (Labour).

Mayors

The following are the 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	May 2013	56	Rossmore	Hapsford
Bob Crompton	May 2013	May 2014	57	Whitby	Chester
Brian Jones	May 2014	May 2015		Whitby
Lynn Clare	May 2015	May 2016		Ellesmere Port Town
Peter Rooney	May 2016	Present	49	Ledsham & Manor	Ellesmere Port

Demography

The 2011 UK census listed the ethnicity of the town as follows;

White British	95.2%
White Irish	0.8%
White Other	1.7%
Mixed	0.9%
Asian	1.1%
Black	0.2%
Other	0.1%

Religion

The main religion of Ellesmere Port is Christianity with 70% of the population. 10.2% have no religion. 6.9% are unspecified. 0.8% are Muslim and 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.
• The Coliseum Retail Park, retail outlet located next to Cheshire Oaks Outlet.
• Sports and Leisure Village, £15 million sports village due to open in late 2015.
• Marks & Spencer, 2nd largest store in the UK.
• National Waterways Museum, largest canal boat collection in the world.
• Stanlow Oil Refinery, 2nd largest industrial space in the UK.

Geography

Ellesmere Port is located in the county of Cheshire.

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. Ellesmere Port railway station has a half-hourly electric train service to Chester and Liverpool. The railway was electrified by British Rail with the Merseyrail connecting stations in Birkenhead and Liverpool with Hooton and Chester. There is also an infrequent service to Warrington via Helsby and Frodsham with the route passing through Stanlow and Ince & 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).

There is a bus station in the town centre with frequent services to Chester, Liverpool, Runcorn, Elton, Ince, 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 Arriva North West & Wales, Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire, GHA Coaches and Helms of Eastham.

Sports

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. 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.

Construction began in January 2014 for the new multimillion-pound Sports Village in Stanney Grange which will incorporate an Olympic sized swimming venue, 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 will be situated on site of the old Stanney High School by Cheshire Oaks, the Coliseum and M&S.

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 worked 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
• Stove King, bass player with Chester band Mansun, born and grew up here
• 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.
• James Madden and Callum McFadden from current indie band Hooton Tennis Club, grew up in the area.
• 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.
• Charles Salvador, later changed his name to Charles Bronson which he is now commonly known as. Often considered the most violent criminal in the UK.

See also

• Listed buildings in Ellesmere Port

External links

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