Rivacre Valley is an area of parkland and woodland in Ellesmere Port,

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. Named after the Rivacre

Brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

which runs through a valley in this area, the park is an established wildlife habitat and local nature reserve. The park is over and comprises meadow and several areas of woodland. Church Wood, to the north west, is separated from the rest of the park by a golf course. The site also features an

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

course.

History

Rivacre Valley was most well known for having an outdoor swimming pool until the 1980s, with large ornamental gardens, cafe, children's playground and fountains, situated along the Rivacre Brook itself. Opened in 1934, Rivacre Baths had a main pool and a smaller shallow pool arranged in a 'T' shape. The attraction was particularly popular between the 1950s and 1970s. By the 1980s its popularity had declined due to competition from the year-round indoor heated swimming pools at the nearby EPIC

leisure centre A leisure centre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia (also called aquatic centres), Singapore and Canada is a purpose-built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people ...

and the

Northgate Arena Northgate or North Gate may refer to: Historical structures * Northgate, Chester, part of the city wall, in Cheshire, England * St Michael at the North Gate, a church in Oxford, England Places * Northgate, Gauteng, South Africa Australia * Nort ...

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 ...

. In a bad state of repair, Rivacre Baths finally closed in early 1981 and was demolished in 1985. The site is now part of the nature reserve.

References

{{Cheshire-geo-stub Parks and open spaces in Cheshire Areas of Ellesmere Port

History

See also

References