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Culcheth

Coordinates: 53°27′06″N 2°31′18″W / 53.4517°N 2.5218°W / 53.4517; -2.5218
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Culcheth
Methodist church
Culcheth is located in Cheshire
Culcheth
Culcheth
Location within Cheshire
Population11,454 [1] (2001)
OS grid referenceSJ653951
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWARRINGTON
Postcode districtWA3
Dialling code01925
PoliceCheshire
FireCheshire
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cheshire
53°27′06″N 2°31′18″W / 53.4517°N 2.5218°W / 53.4517; -2.5218

Culcheth is a village in the civil parish of Culcheth and Glazebury, in the Warrington district, in Cheshire, England, six miles (10 km) north-east of Warrington.

Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Culcheth is primarily residential, with a large village green. The old railway line is now known as Culcheth Linear Park.

Toponymy

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The name Culcheth is first attested in 1201, in the form Culchet; other early attestations include Kulchit (1242) and Culchith, Kilchiche, Kylchiz (1292).[2][3] The name derives from the Common Brittonic words that survive in modern Welsh as cul ("narrow") and coed ("woodland"), a pairing found in the names of several other British places, such as Culgaith (Cumbria), Colquite (Cornwall), Blaencilgoed (Dyfed), and Culcoed (Dyfed and Gwynedd).[3][4]: 316 [5][6]

History

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The area is known to have been established before or around the time of the Norman conquest, from its mention in the Domesday Book. Culcheth Hall was latterly owned by the Withington family until its demolition after the Second World War.[7]

The infamous Colonel Thomas Blood, who nearly succeeded in stealing the Crown Jewels, was married at Winwick, and lived for a while at Holcroft Hall (on Holcroft Lane, Culcheth).

The Culcheth Laboratories were established in 1950, in the south-west of the village.

On 11 February 2023 Brianna Ghey was murdered in Culcheth Linear Park.[8]

Governance and politics

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Local Government in Culcheth has been administered by Lancashire County Council (1889–1974), Leigh Rural District Council (1894–1933), Culcheth Parish Council (1894–1933) and Golborne Urban District (1933–1974).

Today, Culcheth is administered by Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council, as well as by Warrington Borough Council (both since 1974). On 1 April 1998, the Warrington unitary authority was created, of which Culcheth is a part.

Culcheth was formerly a township in the parish of Newchurch-Kenyon,[9] in 1866 Culceth became a civil parish, on 1 October 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Golborne and Croft.[10] In 1931 the parish had a population of 2730.[11]

Culcheth (along with its neighbouring villages Glazebury and Croft) form the Warrington Borough Council ward of Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft. Although the Labour Party took all three seats in this ward in the local elections of 2016,[12] in 2021 they all changed hands to the Conservatives.[13]

The ward forms part of the Warrington North parliamentary constituency, which has been represented by Labour MP Charlotte Nichols since 2019. Nichols replaced Helen Jones as MP, who lives in the village centre with her family.

At the 2012 municipal elections, Chris Vobe (son of Helen Jones MP) became the first Labour Party Councillor for Culcheth since the mid-1990s, taking his seat on Warrington Borough Council at the Town Hall on 14 May 2012, with Culcheth having been represented on Warrington Borough Council by three Conservative councillors from 1996 to 2012. Chris Vobe stood down from his position in 2016.

Cheshire Constabulary has established a police community base in Culcheth Scout Centre in agreement with the local scout group. This innovation allows local police officers to spend more time in the community and makes it easier for people to contact them. Without this arrangement police officers would have to be based at Warrington Police Station, which is several miles away from their 'beat'.[14]

Transport

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Road

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One of the reasons for Culcheth's popularity as a place to live is its proximity to the main road links into Warrington (A574), and the M62 motorway into Liverpool and Manchester. It is also accessible via Common Lane (the B5207 from Lowton), linking to the A580 East Lancashire Road, and Holcroft Lane (the B5212) which meets the A57 Warrington-Manchester road near Warburton Toll Bridge.

Bus

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Warrington's Own Buses operate two bus services between Warrington town centre and Leigh via the village centre. A combined 30-minute frequency is provided by services 19 and 28/28A on Monday to Saturday daytimes, with a combined 30-minute frequency on Sundays and an hourly 28E service Monday to Saturday evening. The two services operate via the same route to Leigh, but the route to Warrington alternates between Croft/Winwick (service 19)[15] and Birchwood/Padgate (service 28/28A).[16]

Rail

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Between 1884 and 1964, Culcheth was served by two railway stations on the Great Central Railway (GCR) line from Manchester Central between Glazebrook and Wigan Central railway station. These have been turned into Culcheth Linear Park, with the park's HQ situated on top of Culcheth station's foundations.

The nearest operating railway stations are at Birchwood and Glazebrook, both on the line from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly.

Economy

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The science and business parks at nearby Birchwood employ around 5,000 people. The Taylor Industrial Estate / Taylor Business Park[17] provides rented premises and facilities to many small and medium-sized businesses on the outskirts of the village on the road between Culcheth and Risley.

There are two supermarkets in the village centre as well as a wide range of smaller specialist shops. There is also CPS shopping centre which is located in the centre of Culcheth village, and has been home to a wide variety of small independent shops for more than 50 years.

Religion

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Culcheth has four churches: Newchurch Parish Church,[18] Culcheth Methodist Church, Culcheth Christian Fellowship, Hob Hey Lane and the Grace Fellowship Church which meets at Culcheth High School. The nearest Roman Catholic church is St Lewis's, which is in the nearby village of Croft.

Education

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The village is well provided with schools. Culcheth High School opened in 1931, and received a 'good' rating by Ofsted (2014), with 'The Class of 2013' attaining the best results the school has produced so far, with 79% of pupils attaining 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths. The school also had a successful sixth form which closed in 2014. The school was picked as Warrington's 'Pathfinder' school under the now-defunct 'Building Schools for the Future' scheme, and the brand new school buildings opened in July 2010. The old school buildings were demolished to make way for the new school playing fields.

The village also has three primary schools: Twiss Green Community Primary School (rated "outstanding" by OFSTED), Culcheth Community Primary School and Newchurch Community Primary School.

Sport

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Leigh Golf Club is located to the north of Culcheth.

The Culcheth Sports Club (formerly the Daten) provides a wide range of sports facilities such as table tennis, cricket, tennis, croquet and bowls. The Sports Club also has teams in various leagues in different sports, including numerous table tennis teams, a football team, a tennis league and a croquet team.

Culcheth Eagles ARLFC is a successful rugby league team, which runs many youth teams and an open age team, which all compete in the North West Counties leagues.

Culture and community

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The Culcheth and Glazebury Christmas Market (formerly Victorian Day) is a village event held in late November each year with gazebos and market stalls complementing the Gift and Craft Fayres taking place in the Parish and Methodist Halls. The whole event is crowned by carols and the Christmas light switch-on at the village green.

Notable people

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Helen Jones MP, 2017
  • Sir Thomas Holcroft (1505 in Holcroft Hall, Culcheth – 1558) was an English courtier, soldier, politician and landowner.
  • Colonel Thomas Blood (1618–1680) adventurer, made a failed attempt to steal the Crown Jewels, may have lived in Culcheth.[19]
  • Walton Newbold (1888 in Culcheth – 1943) the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom.
  • Ralph Greaves[20] (1889–1966) English composer.
  • Roger Hunt (born 1938 in Glazebury) an English former footballer, 404 appearances for Liverpool F.C. with 286 goals, member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning team.
  • Donald Adamson (born 1939 in Culcheth) a British literary scholar, author and historian.
  • Daniel Ryan (born 1968 ) an English actor [21] and writer.
  • Andy Burnham (born 1970) is a British Labour politician, Mayor of Greater Manchester since May 2017, previously the MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017. He was brought up in Culcheth.

Twin town

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See also

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References

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Notes
  1. ^ Neighbourhood Statistics. "Office for National Statistics". Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  2. ^ "Townships: Culcheth | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Watts, Victor, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521168557., s.v. Culcheth.
  4. ^ Coates, Richard; Breeze, Andrew (2000). Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain. Stamford: Tyas. ISBN 1900289415..
  5. ^ Mills, A. D. (9 October 2003). A Dictionary of British Place-Names. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-157847-2.
  6. ^ James, Alan G. "A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence - Guide to the Elements" (PDF). Scottish Place Name Society - The Brittonic Language in the Old North. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  7. ^ www.culcheth.org
  8. ^ "Teenage boy and girl guilty of Brianna Ghey murder". BBC News. 20 December 2023.
  9. ^ "History of Culceth, in Warrington and Lancashire". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Relationships and changes Culceth Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Population statistics Culceth Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Culcheth". culcheth.org.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  13. ^ "Warrington Local Election Results 2021" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 May 2021.
  14. ^ "culcheth.org.uk". culcheth.org.uk.
  15. ^ "Warrington to Culcheth buses" (PDF). Warrington Borough Transport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007.
  16. ^ "Busses from Warrington to Culcheth" (PDF). Warrington Borough Transport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2007.
  17. ^ "Warrington Office Business Park". Archived from the original on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  18. ^ "www.newchurch-christchurch.net". Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  19. ^ "Culcheth".
  20. ^ "Greaves, Ralph (Nordic Authors)". runeberg.org. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  21. ^ IMDb Database retrieved 9 July 2018
Bibliography
  • Butt, R.V.J. (1995), The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, ISBN 1-85260-508-1
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