Preston on the Hill is a village in the

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 ...

Preston Brook Preston Brook is a village and civil parish in the borough of Halton, a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England. It is located to the south-east of Runcorn and south-west of Warrington, adjacent to the M56 ...

and the unitary authority of Halton, 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 ...

, England. It is between the villages of

Daresbury Daresbury is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Borough of Halton, Halton and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. At the 2001 United Kingdom census, 2001 census it had a population of 216, in ...

to the north and Dutton to the south. The village comprises the hamlets of Windmill Lane, Waterfront, Cotton's Bridge, Tunnel End North, Tunnel Top and Barker's Hollow as well as several farms including White House, Little Manor, New Manor, Windmill Farm and Humble Bee House.

Etymology

The name Preston means "priest's house, farm or settlement" and is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''prēost'' (a priest) and ''tūn'' (a farmstead or settlement). The meaning may refer to a priest from

Norton Priory Norton Priory is a historic site in Norton, Runcorn, Cheshire, England, comprising the remains of an abbey complex dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, and an 18th-century country house; it is now a museum. The remains are a scheduled an ...

being housed on the edge of the priory estates.

History

Despite its prominent position on a hilltop no evidence has been found in Preston-on-the-Hill of Neolithic, Bronze Age or Iron Age man having a settlement or even a fortification there. The

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from their settlement at

Wilderspool Wilderspool is a district of Warrington, Cheshire, near the town centre. It consists of Wilderspool Causeway and the streets coming off it, the limits being the River Mersey into Stockton Heath (where it turns into London Road), Bridgefoot (nea ...

near

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 ...

to the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

(

Deva Victrix Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II ''Adiutrix'' in the 70s AD as the Roman army advanced north ag ...

) ran through the village, more or less along the lines of what is now the A56. Preston is not mentioned directly in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of AD1086 but it was part of the lands held by

William fitz Nigel William fitz Nigel (died 1134), of Halton Castle in Cheshire, England, was Constable of Chester and Baron of Halton within the county palatine of Chester ruled by the Earl of Chester. Origins Traditionally, he succeeded his father Nigel as bar ...

Baron of Halton The Barony of Halton, in Cheshire, England, comprised a succession of 15 barons and hereditary Constables of Chester under the overlordship of the Earl of Chester. It was not an English feudal barony granted by the king but a separate class of ...

who was one of the most powerful men in the country in

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

times. This part of the manor of Dutton was recorded as having just two farms in AD1086. The first recorded reference to the name Preston is in the Chartulary of the

Abbey of St. Werburgh Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese of Chester. It is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Sai ...

, Chester between 1157 and 1194. During the reign of King John from 1167 – 1216 the township of Preston was purchased by Hugh Dutton of Dutton from Henry de Nuers and his wife Julien. The township rendered eight shillings yearly at the feast of St. Martin (11 November). In the early 17th century the manor passed by marriage to the second

Baron Gerard There have been three baronies created for the Gerard family who lived historically at Bryn, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire and Kingsley, Cheshire, in the 13th century. The third and current barony was created in 1876. History The earliest ...

of Gerards Bromley. This family became

Earls of Macclesfield Earl of Macclesfield is a title that has been created twice. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1679 in favour of the soldier and politician Charles Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard. He had already been created Baron Gerard, of Bran ...

. In 1705 Lord Gerard conveyed the manor to trustees to be sold for the payment of debts. The manor of Preston-on-the-Hill passed to the Fleetwood family by whom it was conveyed to the Grevilles who sold it to Thomas Brock of Chester and then he bequeathed it to Thomas Yates his nephew. He held the manor at the time that

George Ormerod George Ormerod (20 October 1785 – 9 October 1873) was an English antiquary and historian. Among his writings was a major county history of Cheshire, in North West England. Biography George Ormerod was born in Manchester and educated first ...

wrote his History of the

County Palatine In England, Wales and Ireland a county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman enjoying special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom. The name derives from the Latin adjective ''palātīnus'', "relating to ...

and City of Chester in 1817. He is named as the main landowner in the 1843 Tithe Apportionment. The manor then passed by marriage to Richard Barker. Later in the 19th century the manor was purchased by

Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baron Daresbury Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baron Daresbury, (30 March 1867 – 24 October 1938), known as Sir Gilbert Greenall, 2nd Baronet, from 1894 to 1927, was a British brewer, business man, landowner, peer, and master of foxhounds. Greenall was the son of Si ...

of the

Greenall's De Vere is a hotels and leisure business, which until the late 1990s was a brewing company known as Greenall's. It used to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Greenall's Brewery was fo ...

brewery family and added to the Walton estate. Manor House - geograph

A number of old houses were renovated or demolished and re-built at the end of 19th century. In 1941 Lord Daresbury sold the estate mainly to his tenants. Historical references to the area are to the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

of Preston-on-the-Hill. Preston-on-the-Hill became a

in the 1870s, but in 1936 the civil parish was named

. At the time of the

Hearth Tax A hearth tax was a property tax in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on wealth. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, or fireplaces, within a municipal area and is cons ...

in 1664 the population was 130, and it probably remained at about that level until the opening of the canal. By the time of the first headcount of population in 1801 the number was 333, rising to 594 in 1851 but dropping back to 454 in 1901 as the canal became less active. The 1951 census showed 401 but recent housing development had pushed this figure to 716 in the 2001 census.

Religion

The village of Preston-on-the-Hill is in the ecclesiastical parish of All Saints

. The first reference to a religious house in the village is of a Meeting House for the Methodists in 1764. This was a house almost directly opposite the present chapel. This house was soon found to be too small and so a move was made across the road to a house on the site of the present chapel. It was at this house that

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

preached on two occasions, on 7 April 1781 and 12 May 1783. The first part of the 19th century saw a religious revival and the need for larger premises. In 1818 a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

Methodist chapel was built on Aston Lane in the neighbouring village of Preston Brook. The Society of Primitive Methodists was formed in 1812, and supporters of this group stayed at the Meeting House in Preston-on-the-Hill. The present chapel was opened formally on 4 January 1883. It was considerably altered in 1975. Perhaps the best known church in the area was the converted canal boat built in about 1840 by Lord Francis Egerton. For some years this boat went up and down the canal to be used by boatmen and their families. By1860 it had been lifted out of the water and placed by the side of the Runcorn arm of the canal near its junction with the Bridgewater Canal. Charles Dodgson, the vicar of Daresbury and the father of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

, held services there for the boat people. It became known as the Watermen's Church. St. Faith's, a mission church from All Saints Daresbury was built in 1887, with funds from the Greenall family. It went out of use in the late 1990s and was subsequently sold for development into a house.

Education

Morris & Co.'s Directory of 1874 records a National School for children of both sexes in Preston-on the-Hill, supported by the Bridgewater Navigation Co. A Board School was built in 1877 for 30 children. In 1892 the average attendance was 27, with Miss Stormont as mistress. Board schools came into being following the Education Act of 1870, and were able to raise funds from the local rates.

Bridgewater Canal

The single most influential thing to happen in the history of the villages of Preston on the Hill and neighbouring Preston Brook was the opening of the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

in 1776. The canal was linked with the

Trent & Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Midd ...

in 1772 at a point just 11 yards inside the north end of the Preston Brook tunnel. This spot is marked today by a milepost on the path over the tunnel, which was used to walk the horses that pulled the boats the three-quarters of a mile to the other end near Dutton Locks. In January 1776 the final mile of the canal through the

estate was cut and the canal opened for through traffic. Many trans-shipment warehouses were soon being built and the area really came into being as a very busy transport centre. Few of these original buildings are left but examples still standing are the Stafford Warehouse on the main canal, which has now been converted into apartments, and Stitt's Warehouse on the Runcorn arm which is now a commercial building. The business activities in Preston Brook were encouraged by the opening in 1837 of the railway with a passenger station and a goods yard to allow materials to be transhipped to and from the canal. It was not until the third quarter of the 19th Century that canal traffic declined as the railway network spread throughout the country. The passenger station was closed on 1 March 1948, and the Goods Depot on 1st. September 1958. For almost one hundred years all boats were horse drawn and were "legged" through the tunnel, however in 1865 steam tugs were introduced, but the tunnel had no air vents, resulting in a number of boatmen being overcome by fumes and dying. Very soon ventilation shafts were sunk. A section of the Preston Brook tunnel collapsed much more recently in November 1981, and the tunnel was closed for repair until April 1984.

Developments

The M56 motorway was officially opened on 23 September 1971. Its building had resulted in the compulsory purchase of a significant quantity of farmland. Of the residential developments in the village, the Waterfront houses were completed at the end of 1999, having been built on the site of the house of the manager of the warehouse known as The New Stafford Warehouse. The building became a restaurant under the name Neptunes Landing and then a nightclub called The Old No.1. It was converted into apartments as part of the Waterfront development. The Granary apartments at the corner of Hilltop Road is a new building, but the site has been the home of a milk distribution depot and for its last few years a scaffolding yard. The apartments were completed in 2002. The Runcorn

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

Workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

once stood on a site at the corner of Barkers Hollow Road and Northwich Road (A533) now occupied by three bungalows. The original workhouse was built between 1855 and 1857 for 280 inmates. The workhouse infirmary was enlarged in 1881–82, with further extensions in 1895 and a nurses' home in 1906. Sumner's Farm and its outbuildings on Windmill Lane were converted to residential in 2005. Windmill Cottage and farm was significantly redeveloped in 2020 with two barn conversions, extension and refurbishment of windmill cottage farm and two new five bedroom dwellings currently on sale for £950,000.

Governance

Preston on the Hill is administered as part of the civil parish of

within the unitary authority of Halton. The village is within the parliamentary constituency of

Weaver Vale Weaver Vale is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Mike Amesbury, a member of the Labour Party. Constituency profile The constituency takes its name from the River Weaver, which f ...

Transport

Main Roads

A short section of the A56 Chester Road runs through the northwest of the village from the M56 Junction 11 Daresbury roundabout to the Preston Brook canal and railway bridges. This section is approximately equidistant between the small market town of

Frodsham Frodsham is a market town, civil parish, and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population was 8,982 in 2001, increasing to 9,077 at the 2011 Census. It is s ...

and the main population centre of

providing the village with good access to both. The junction with the M56 provides the village with easy access to

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

, the M6

Lymm Lymm is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, which incorporates the hamlets of Booths Hill, Broomedge, Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little Heatley, Oughtrington, Reddish, Rushgreen and ...

Interchange,

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

and

City Centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

. A short section of the A533 Northwich Road runs through southwest the village at Tunnel Top. This road provides the village with easy access to the centres of the small towns of

Northwich {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

to the southeast and

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

and

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 ...

to the northwest. The village again lying at a point approximately equidistant.

Minor Roads

The main village infrastructure comprises a small number of minor roads. The main artery through the village is Windmill Lane joining with Barker's Hollow Road, which runs north to south connecting the A56 and the A533. Hilltop Road forms a junction with Windmill Lane and Barker's Hollow Road and runs west downhill to another junction with the A56 at St.Faith's Mission. It provides access to the no through road along Waterfront leading to Cotton's Bridge. Cotton's Bridge canal bridge was demolished circa 1890. Little Manor Farm - geograph

Summer Lane provides access from Windmill Lane to the neighbouring villages of

and

Hatton Hatton may refer to: Places Canada * Hatton, Saskatchewan England * Hatton, Cheshire West and Chester, a former civil parish * Hatton, Derbyshire * Hatton, Lincolnshire * Hatton, London, in the London Borough of Hounslow * Hatton, Shropshire, a ...

. Higher Lane to the south of the village forms an approximate boundary with Dutton and joins with Daresbury and the A533.

Rail

The Warrington to

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

section of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

runs along the western edge of the village and can be embarked easily from Warrington Bank Quay station. The

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

line can also be accessed easily at

and provides access to the

North Wales Coast Line The North Wales Coast Line ( cy, Llinell Arfordir Gogledd Cymru), also known as the North Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell Gogledd Cymru or cy, label=none, Prif Linell y Gogledd), is a major railway line in the north of Wales and Cheshire, ...

via Chester. The

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

service from

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the Birmingham station group, three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the Rail transport in the United Kingdom, British railway system. It is a ma ...

can be accessed easily at

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

References

{{authority control Villages in Cheshire