Cronton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The village is surrounded by green belt land. Over the county border in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

town centre is to the south-southeast.

History

Historically a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, Cronton is an ancient village and was once a centre for the makers of watch parts and movements. There is an ancient cross, now no more than a column of stone on ruined steps. This was one of many stopping places on the way to the parish church at Farnworth. The five-holed stocks next to the war memorial in Coronation Gardens are almost unique to Cronton with few other specimens found anywhere. Many of the 19th Century residents of Cronton were farmers. There was a blacksmith in Cronton Lane (opposite what is now the Black Horse pub). Family names common in Cronton during the 19th Century census returns: Leather, Haughton, Pitt, Coughlin, Critchley, Dwerryhouse, Atherton, Hillyer, Glover and Lister. The Catholic Church, Holy Family, was opened at the start of the 20th century. There is also Holy Family Primary school. Prior to this, many Cronton Catholics were carried to

St Bartholomew's Church, Rainhill St Bartholomew's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Rainhill, Merseyside. It was built in 1838-40 in the style of the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome. Grade II listed, it is situated on the A57 Warrington Road, opposite Rain ...

for burial. In the early twentieth century, Cronton was "a favourite resort for cyclists and picnic parties, both from Liverpool and Widnes, on account of a public recreation ground on Pexhill. This hill, rising to only above sea level, is covered with heather and gorse, and on the top are the Widnes Corporation reservoirs, formed in 1868". Today the

Liverpool Astronomical Society The Liverpool Astronomical Society was founded in 1881 in Liverpool, England, as a society to promote and coordinate amateur astronomy. In 1893 the Society was gifted a 5" (125mm) aperture Cooke equatorial telescope and a 2” (50mm) transit te ...

has an Observatory - Leighton Observatory - at Pex Hill. It was formerly known as Pex Hill Observatory and Visitors' Centre. The village has grown since the 1950s but in recent years has slowed with very little new housing development as it is surrounded by Green Belt. The village has two primary schools and just over the border in Widnes is Riverside College (formerly Widnes sixth-form college and then renamed Widnes and Runcorn sixth-form college with the advent of another campus being added in Runcorn), and locally referred to as "Cronton College" as the site directly borders Cronton. Two

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s are located in the village, The Unicorn and The Dandelion Tavern (formerly The Black Horse Hotel). Cronton is the location of Pex Hill JFC which is a fast-growing junior football club that utilises the Holy Family Club as its social club. It is also the home of Cronton Villa F.C who play in the Warrington and District league. Nearby stood Cronton Colliery which ceased production in March 1984, shortly before the Great UK miners' strike (1984–1985). Although Cronton 'pit' was a twentieth century enterprise, the surrounding area had supported a coal mining industry throughout the previous century. It was in the 19th century that a large number of Welsh people moved nearby to work 'down the pit' and they brought their distinctive brand of Non-Conformist Christianity with them. There were once at least 31 non-conformist chapels within just three miles (5 km) of Cronton, including three Welsh chapels ( Congregational, Methodist and

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

) in Widnes, Welsh

Calvinistic Methodists Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival and survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 1 ...

in Huyton Quarry, and a Welsh Methodist in Whiston. Methodism was especially strong in coal-mining communities and Cronton had its own Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Chapel Lane. This chapel still exists and now forms part of the Liverpool District (Widnes Circuit) of the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

Cronton Colliery

Cronton colliers mined the pit's first coal during the Great War in 1915. Cronton thrived and the pit was one of 65 Lancashire collieries at the time of nationalisation. Mainly because of the exhaustion of economically viable reserves, the number of Lancashire collieries had been reduced to 41 by 1962. Five years later this had fallen to 21. By the time Cronton colliery finally closed in 1984 it had been making heavy financial losses for many years and the remaining coal reserves were both limited and difficult to mine. Local coal miners were offered alternative jobs at one of the seven remaining Lancashire collieries. (The last Lancashire deep-pit to close was Parkside Colliery in 1993). The 43 hectare colliery site lay completely derelict for years until it was acquired by English Partnerships, the government's national regeneration agency, as part of the National Coalfield Programme. In 1995 the site was partially restored by removing both the colliery infrastructure and major earthworks, and then reclaiming colliery spoil by mixing it with paper mill crumb (provided by Brigewater newsprint mill in Ellesmere Port) and sewage cake to create soils for successful woodland planting. The colliery site's ownership was transferred to the Northwest Regional Development Agency in 1999 but it will pass the Land Reclamation Trust in the autumn of 2007. The site has a future as public access land, probably as a new

country park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a special meaning. There are around 250 recognised coun ...

. To help improve nutrient-poor topsoil conditions, which are currently hindering plant development, compost made from recycled garden waste will be added. The aim is to help improve local biodiversity; establish sustainable, low-maintenance native plant communities; and encourage natural wildlife habitats.

Governance

Since 1 April 1974, Cronton has been one of six

es within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, in the

metropolitan county The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...

, and its boundaries fall within the Whiston South ward for election of Borough councillors. From 1894 until the local government reorganisation of 1974, Cronton was part of Whiston Rural District within the administrative county of

.Youngs, F., Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991), p. 689; Before this Cronton was a township and civil parish, part of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Prescot in West Derby Hundred within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. To this day the bordering town of

recognises the village as part of its '

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

' which includes the village of Farnworth, though no other surrounding area does.

Transport links

Cronton village is on the A5080, which links Edge Hill in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

to Penketh on the outskirts of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. It lies from Junction 7 on the M62 motorway. Hough Green railway station, on the Liverpool to Warrington line, is away. There are also bus links between Liverpool city centre and Warrington.

References

External links