Warrington
Warrington is an industrial town in Cheshire, England. The town is the main settlement of the Borough of Warrington and sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was historically part of Lancashire. It is east of Liverpool and west of Manchester.
The population in 2021 was recorded as 174,970 for the built-up area and 210,900 for the wider borough, the latter being more than double that of 1968 when it became a new town. Warrington is the largest town in the ceremonial county of Cheshire.
Warrington was founded by the Romans at an important crossing place on the River Mersey. A new settlement was established by the Saxon Wærings. By the Middle Ages, Warrington had emerged as a market town at the lowest bridging point of the river. A local tradition of textile and tool production dates from this time.
The expansion and urbanisation of Warrington coincided with the Industrial Revolution, particularly after the Mersey was made navigable in the 18th century. The West Coast Main Line runs north to south through the town, and the Liverpool to Manchester railway west to east. The Manchester Ship Canal cuts through the south of the borough. The M6, M56 and M62 motorways form a partial box around the town and are all accessible through Warrington.
The modern Borough of Warrington was formed in 1974 with the amalgamation of the former County Borough of Warrington, part of the Golborne Urban District, the Lymm Urban District, part of the Runcorn Rural District, the Warrington Rural District and part of the Whiston Rural District.
Toponymy
The earliest known appearance of the name is "Weringtun", when before the Norman Conquest it was the head of a hundred. An entry in the Domesday Book in AD 1086 named it as "Wallintun". The root is likely the Old English word waru – meaning "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend." The suffix -ing is a cognate of inge, an ethnonym for the Ingaevones said variously to mean "of Yngvi", "family, people or followers of" or a genitive plural form of an inhabitant appellation. The suffix "ton" is from the Old English word tun meaning "fenced area" or "enclosure".History
Early history
Warrington has been a major crossing point on the River Mersey since ancient times and there was a Roman settlement at Wilderspool. Local archaeological evidence indicates that there were also Bronze Age settlements. In medieval times Warrington's importance was as a market town and bridging point of the River Mersey. The first reference to a bridge at Warrington is found in 1285. The origin of the modern town was located in the area around St Elphin's Church, now included in the Church Street Conservation Area, established whilst the main river crossing was via a ford approximately 1 km upriver of Warrington Bridge. Warrington was the first paved town in Lancashire, which took place in 1321.English Civil War
Warrington was a fulcrum in the English Civil War. The armies of Oliver Cromwell and the Earl of Derby both stayed near the old town centre. Popular legend has it that Cromwell lodged near the building which survives on Church Street as the Cottage Restaurant. The Marquis of Granby public house bears a plaque stating that the Earl of Derby 'had his quarters near this site'. Dents in the walls of the parish church are rumoured to have been caused by the cannons from the time of the civil war. On 13 August 1651 Warrington was the scene of the last Royalist victory of the civil war when Scots troops under Charles II and David Leslie, Lord Newark, fought Parliamentarians under John Lambert at the Battle of Warrington Bridge.Industrial history
The expansion and urbanisation of Warrington largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution, particularly after the Mersey was made navigable in the 18th century. As Britain became industrialised, Warrington embraced the Industrial Revolution, becoming a manufacturing town and a centre of steel, textiles, brewing, tanning and chemical industries. The navigational properties of the River Mersey were improved, canals were built, and the town grew yet more prosperous and popular. When the age of steam came, Warrington naturally welcomed it, both as a means of transport and as a source of power for its mills.Second World War
Warrington was the location of the Burtonwood RAF base and Risley Ordnance Factory. During World War II, RAF Burtonwood served as the largest US Army Air Force airfield outside the United States, and was visited by major American celebrities including Humphrey Bogart and Bob Hope who entertained the GIs. The RAF station continued to be used by the USAAF and subsequently USAF as a staging post for men and material until its closure in 1993.Post-war expansion
Warrington was designated a new town in 1968 and consequently the population grew in size, with many of the town's new residents moving from Liverpool or Manchester, with the Birchwood area being developed on the former ROF Risley site. New council housing was built for families rehousing from slum clearances in Liverpool or Manchester, while Warrington's new private housing estates also became popular with homeowners.Heavy industry declined in the 1970s and 1980s but the growth of the new town led to a great increase in employment in light industry, retail, distribution and technology.
IRA bombing
On 20 March 1993, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Warrington town centre. The blasts killed two children: three-year-old Johnathan Ball died instantly, and twelve-year-old Tim Parry, from the Great Sankey area, died five days later in hospital. Around 56 other people were injured, four seriously. Their deaths provoked widespread condemnation of the organisation responsible. The blast followed a bomb attack a few weeks earlier on a gas-storage plant in Warrington.Tim Parry's father, Colin Parry, founded The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace as part of a campaign to reconcile communities in conflict. The centre opened on the seventh anniversary of the bombing, 20 March 2000. He and his family still live in the town.
Other history
In 1981, Warrington was the first place to field a candidate for the new Social Democratic Party: former Home Secretary Roy Jenkins stood for Parliament but lost to Labour Party candidate Doug Hoyle by a small number of votes.There was a RAF training camp at Padgate, a Royal Naval air base at Appleton Thorn and an army base at the Peninsula Barracks in O'Leary Street. The Territorial Army was based at the Bath Street drill hall until they moved to Peninsula Barracks.
In October 1987, Swedish home products retailer IKEA opened its first British store in the Burtonwood area of the town, bringing more than 200 retail jobs to the area.
Governance
The borough of Warrington covers the town and surrounding areas. It is administered by Warrington Borough Council, which is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The central part of the modern borough, corresponding to the pre-1974 borough boundaries, is an unparished area; the rest of the borough is covered by civil parishes, which form a second tier of local government for their areas. The borough council meets at Warrington Town Hall and has its main offices at 1 Time Square in the town.National representation
At Westminster, Warrington is represented by two MPs: Charlotte Nichols represents Warrington North, and Sarah Hall represents Warrington South. Both are Labour MPs.Administrative history
Warrington was an ancient parish comprising five townships, being Burtonwood, Poulton-with-Fearnhead, Rixton-with-Glazebrook, Woolston-with-Martinscroft and a Warrington township covering the town itself and adjoining areas. The parish was part of the West Derby Hundred of Lancashire, and the River Mersey formed the county boundary. The land on the south bank of the river was in the township of Latchford, in the parish of Grappenhall in Cheshire. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Warrington, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so each of the five townships of the old Warrington parish became a separate civil parish.In 1813 improvement commissioners were appointed for the township of Warrington, being the town's first form of urban local government; prior to that the town was governed by its vestry and manorial courts. The town was incorporated as a municipal borough by a royal charter dated 3 April 1847. The borough boundaries differed from the township in some areas: more rural parts of the Warrington township were excluded from the borough, whereas the built-up parts of Latchford on the south bank of the Mersey in Cheshire were included within the borough.
From 1847 until 1889 the borough straddled Lancashire and Cheshire. In 1889 boroughs which straddled county boundaries were placed entirely in the county which had the majority of the population, and so the part of the borough south of the Mersey was transferred from Cheshire to Lancashire. The borough boundaries were subsequently enlarged on several occasions, notably in 1890, 1933 and 1954.
The town had its own police force from 1847 to 1969.
Warrington acquired county borough status in 1900 after its population exceeded the 50,000 threshold for such boroughs. The borough council therefore took over county-level services from Lancashire County Council, and until 1974 the borough was known as the County Borough of Warrington. As part of proposed local government reforms of England, in 1969 the Redcliffe-Maud Report suggested incorporating Warrington into either the new Merseyside or Greater Manchester metropolitan counties. Lobbying by the borough council averted this. Instead, under the local government reforms of 1974, an enlarged borough of Warrington was created, incorporating Lymm Urban District and part of Runcorn Rural District from Cheshire, and part of Warrington Rural District. The enlarged borough was placed in Cheshire with county-level functions provided by Cheshire County Council.
On 1 April 1998, Warrington Borough Council became a unitary authority, taking over county-level functions from Cheshire County Council. The borough is still served by Cheshire Police and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, and forms part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes, such as the Lord Lieutenancy. Warrington has applied unsuccessfully for city status, the most recent attempt being after the opening of the Peace Centre as a "City for Peace".