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Helsby is a village, civil parish and
electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...
in the unitary authority of
Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 str ...
and the ceremonial county of
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. Overlooking the Mersey estuary, it is approximately north east 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 ...
and south west of Frodsham. In the 2001 census the civil parish of Helsby had a population of 4,701. By the 2011 census this had risen to 4,972.


Geography

The village is situated on the A56 main road between
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 ...
and Runcorn. The neighbouring settlements are Dunham-on-the-Hill, Frodsham, Elton and
Alvanley Alvanley is a small rural village and civil parish near Helsby, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village is on the B5393 road and near junction 14 of the M56 motorway. ...
. Helsby is a semi-rural village, with many
dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
and arable farms, but is also in close proximity to a number of industrial plants around the Mersey estuary including the
Essar Essar Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, founded by Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia in 1969. As Essar Global Fund Limited (EGFL), the company controls a number of assets across the core sectors of energy (oil refining, oil a ...
Stanlow Oil Refinery Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, North West England. Until 2011 it was owned by Shell UK. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne ...
, the Encirc glass bottle manufacturing plant, the Kemira fertiliser plant on Ince Marshes and the Ineos Chlor chemical manufacturing site and power station at
Rocksavage Rocksavage or Rock Savage was an Elizabethan mansion, which served as the primary seat of the Savage family. The house now lies in ruins, at in Clifton (now a district of Runcorn), Cheshire, England. Built for Sir John Savage, MP in 1565–156 ...
. There are few jobs in Helsby itself, due to the larger surrounding cities of Chester and Runcorn offering better prospects and a wider range of careers. The Tesco supermarket is one of the biggest employers in Helsby. The village is popular with commuters as a residential area, due to its links to the M56 motorway and rail networks.


History

On Helsby Hill, the remains of a promontory hillfort, 1.9ha in area, have been excavated. A buried soil was found under the hillfort containing fossilised pollen dating to the late Mesolithic to early Neolithic, between 7000 and 3001BC. Further evidence suggests a burning episode dating to the early Neolithic occupation or woodland clearance dating to 4000BC to 2351 BC. The bivallate hillfort is protected on the south and east by two parallel ramparts and an unusual type of inturned entrance 11 yards (10 m) wide. There were three phases of hillfort construction at Helsby. The first stone rampart was constructed in the middle to late Bronze Age (1250-1050 cal BC) and consisted of a bank of well dressed, outer face of sandstone blocks and an irregular inner face, which was built on a slight batter; it was approximately 4 yards (3.5m) wide. A socketed bronze axe found at Helsby in 1925. This was followed by a series of colluvial deposits against the internal face of the stone rampart that formed the second phase of activity. The third and final phase was the re-building of the rampart in the post-Roman period, dating as late as 530 AD suggesting early Saxon re-occupation of the hillfort. Helsby was located on the strategically important
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 ...
between Chester and Wilderspool near Warrington. The road existed between c. 79–410 AD to link the garrison of Deva to Wilderspool, which produced pottery that supplied the north west of England. The Roman road passed at the foot of Helsby Hill probably following the route of Old Chester Road. On the top of the hill a Roman bronze sestertius of the emperor Tiberius minted in Rome in AD22 was found and just off Vicarage Lane in 1958, an uninscribed Roman altar of red sandstone was discovered with a carved jug on one side and an axe and knife on the other. The first known settlers of Helsby were the Vikings in the 10th century. In fact, the name 'Helsby' is likely to be derived from the Viking name ''Hjallr-by'', meaning "the village on the edge" (placenames with the
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''"by"'' often denote Viking/Danish origins, e.g. Derby, Grimsby, Whitby, etc.). However, Old Norse suggests that Hjalli means edge and Hjallr means constructed platform or scaffold. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the
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 ...
name of ''Hellesbe''. The Manor of Helsby was owned by a series of aristocratic landowners, most recently the Marquess of Cholmondeley. In the 13th century Helsby was deemed a demesne manor under the lordship of Dunham-on-the-Hill, by a family called Hellesby. Later it passed to Thornton and then to Frodsham. The earliest mention of the original, timber Old Hall, was in a contract for the construction of additional work in stone in the mid 15th century. The wooden part of the hall perished in a fire in the 16th century when it was leased to one of the Hatons of Helsby. The later hall probably derived its name from its proximity to the older site. It was built of brick at the end of the 18th century and was used as a farmhouse. Helsby Hill was the location of a rare public execution when William Henry Clarke was hung in chains on 21 April 1791 after being convicted of robbing the Warrington Mail. In 1968, Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), a Welsh republican movement, blew up a water pipe at Hapsford near Helsby. The water pipe was carrying water from
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 ...
to Liverpool.


Community

A Methodist church was established in 1800, seventy years before the
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church was built in 1870. Helsby is home to two primary schools (Helsby Hillside and Hornsmill) that serve the east and west of the village respectively, with the former being in close proximity to one of the most successful secondary schools in Cheshire for the 2018/2019 academic year:
Helsby High School (''Unto thyself so unto others'') , established = 1897 , closed = , type = Community school , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headma ...
. The village was once home to many pubs, the majority of which were adjacent to the A56 road. In the centre of the village, the Railway Inn currently offers
Greenalls 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 fou ...
cask ale and is frequently host to live music; it recently changed licensee and a refurbishment is rumoured for January 2018. The old Helsby train station waiting rooms houses the very popular Beer Heroes craft ale Tap Room which provides a vast library of craft ales to buy and take away, as well as beers on draft. Two other pubs, the Robin Hood and the Horse & Jockey, were acquired by developers for conversion to residential properties. On 23 September 2011, the Robin Hood pub caught fire, causing roads to be closed throughout the village for some hours, and subsequently the building(s) were demolished. The Horse & Jockey was demolished in 2019 and a housing development has been built. The pub sign is to be displayed in the local community centre. On the western edge of the village is the Horns Mill (formerly the Helsby Arms and before that the Brown Cow), a pub and restaurant that has changed hands on several occasions during recent years, and also closed down briefly, but reopened in January 2014. The village has been in the press for its hugely successful community Christmas event, Ho Ho Helsby, which was held for the second time on 2 December 2017. There was an estimated attendance of 2,500 people enjoying artisan stalls, ice skating, reindeer, live music from local musicians on stage all day and a twilight procession of floats featuring local schools, community groups and businesses. The village is known for its community spirit, epitomised in the fund raising efforts for Ho Ho Helsby which is entirely voluntary, as well as knitted angels which are hidden around the village in the run up to Christmas Day. The village also has its own craft beer, Ho Ho Helsbeer, brewed in a brewery less than two miles away. Behind the Railway Inn is the Courtyard, Helsby, a development of holiday cottages in period
barn conversion The conversion of barns involves the conversion of old farming barns to structures of commercial or residential use. Responsible residential conversion According to the United States National Park Service, a medium-sized barn with sufficient ext ...
s offering a place to stay in the village, close to the
North Cheshire Way The North Cheshire Way is a long-distance footpath in Cheshire, England. It runs approximately eastwards from Hooton railway station on the Wirral peninsula to Disley railway station on the edge of the Peak District, where it connects wit ...
footpath. There is also "Homestead Boutique Cottages" offering accommodation on Lower Robin Hood Lane.


Transport


Railway services

The railway came to Helsby in 1850, with the construction of the line between Chester and Warrington. Helsby railway station has won awards as one of the best kept unmanned stations in the UK. The
signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
at Helsby Junction is still operated manually. Services are operated at approximately hourly intervals by Transport for Wales to
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 ...
and in the other direction to
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 ...
and
Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craigsi ...
. There is also an occasional Transport For Wales service connecting Helsby from Chester to Liverpool Lime Street during the day and early evening as of 2021. The village had another railway station,
Helsby and Alvanley railway station Helsby and Alvanley railway station was one of two railway stations serving the village of Helsby in Cheshire. The station was the terminus of the Helsby branch operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee and later British Railways. It has since b ...
, which is closed. There is also a minimal ( Parliamentary) service operated by
Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...
to neighbouring Ince & Elton and Stanlow & Thornton with trains terminating at Ellesmere Port where a connection is made with the Merseyrail electric service to Liverpool.


Bus services

There are frequent bus links: X30 (Warrington to Chester), and X2 (Runcorn to Ellesmere Port). All these run Monday to Saturday only.


Industry and economy

The factory site at the western end of the village has for many years been the main source of employment in the village. Originally built in 1884 by the Telegraph Manufacturing Company as the Britannia Telegraph Works, it manufactured telegraph and telephone cables. Early advertisements for cable hands specified that he "must be a good cricketer"! The company was taken over by the Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company and the telephone equipment and instrument manufacturing sections moved to Liverpool in 1892. The cable works was more recently owned by BICC to make electronic cables. At peak employing 5,000 people, the number of workers declined from the Second World War. The decline continued following a series of redundancy initiatives started in 1970, and the site eventually closed in 2002. The site was then redeveloped for retail, light industrial and residential purposes. The first completed development on the site was a Tesco supermarket, which opened in September 2005. In 2005 cable manufacturing returned to Helsby when Heat Trace Limited, a British specialist cable manufacturer, took over one of the last remaining industrial buildings on the site to expand their operations, taking advantage of the existence of the electron beaming unit on the site for the irradiation of their specialist heating cables. North west of Helsby, near the village of Ince, landowners The Peel Group are developing a industrial site on marshland. In 2009 a public inquiry gave permission to build a
biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
power station, which opened in 2018 as part of the Protos "energy and resource hub". The site also houses a timber recycling plant and designated "nature areas". The construction of a facility to recover energy from non-recyclable waste began in 2020.


Landmarks


Helsby Hill

The village sits at the foot of a wooded sandstone hill
above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...
. Helsby Hill has steep cliffs on the northern and western sides and is a prominent landmark rising above the Cheshire Plain and overlooking the Mersey estuary. Much of the hill is owned and managed by the National Trust. It is the site of
Helsby hill fort 250px, Helsby Hill, on which the hill fort sits Helsby hill fort is an Iron Age hillfort overlooking the village of Helsby in Cheshire, northwest England. Helsby Hill has steep cliffs on the northern and western sides, providing a natural semic ...
, an ancient British hillfort, and more recently acquired a concrete pillar trig point on its summit. The top of the hill also has a former Royal Observer Corps post, which was abandoned in 1992. Visitors who see Helsby Hill from the M56 or on the train can sometimes see a man's face within the cliff face from east, west and sometimes from the north. This is referred to as the "Old Man of Helsby". ;Access to hill Numerous footpaths, running from the public roads encircling the hill, give ready access for walkers. One such path, known as Hill Road, runs through a large sandstone cutting, which was the route of a railway in the Second World War. The hilltop offers views of the Welsh hills and, on exceptionally clear days,
Snowdon Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (historic ...
. The landmarks of Liverpool can clearly be seen beyond the Helsby marshes,
Stanlow Oil Refinery Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, North West England. Until 2011 it was owned by Shell UK. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne ...
, the Kemira fertiliser plant and the
Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...
. Also on very clear days, visitors can see across Lancashire, past Bolton, to Winter Hill; in mid-morning (when the sun is reflecting off it), it is often possible to see the large white section on top of the Winter Hill TV Mast. The view looking back is not as diverse, but the Peckforton Hills and Beeston Castle can be discerned. During the particularly dry summer of 2018 a wild fire on top of the hill was visible for many miles. Mainly gorse and bracken the fire blazed over the cliff face and was contained after several hours. ;Rock climbing The craggy face of the hill provides many routes for rock climbers at a range of grades from easy climbs suitable for beginners (some of which do not require ropes), to challenging climbs up to a grade 6c. The cliff is also split into two lateral sections. The main face is easily accessible from the ground. At the top is a large grassy area, followed by an easily accessible 10-foot (or thereabouts) cliff to the summit, which is excellent for bouldering. Despite its often slimy appearance, the cliff's sandstone composition means it dries out quickly after rain, and, after several accidents, several large metal spikes were placed at the top of the main cliff for top-rope climbing that offer extra safety for climbers worried about the sandstone's crumbly nature. Two quarries in
Harmers Wood Harmers Wood is a small woodland with sandstone quarries in Helsby village in the north of Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester t ...
, southwest of Helsby Hill, feature over sixty climbs of varying difficulty.


Mountskill Quarry

Sandstone was extracted from a working quarry from the early 19th century until the 1920s. Much of the stone was transported by ferry to Liverpool and Birkenhead, where several buildings, including the Customs House near
Canning Dock Canning Dock on the River Mersey is part of the Port of Liverpool in Northern England. The Dock (maritime), dock is in the southern dock system, connected to Salthouse Dock to the south and with access to the river via the Canning Half Tide Doc ...
, were built of Helsby stone. The quarry originally had its own dedicated horse-drawn tramway link to Ince Pier. After stone production ceased, it was not until the late 1980s that an alternative use was found for the site and in the intervening decades the derelict site was used as a tip by local residents. The site was acquired by the former Vale Royal Borough Council in 1988 and transformed into a woodland park, which was opened in 1990. 'Helsby Quarry Woodland Park' is now managed by
Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 str ...
Council. It contains a range of trees including oak, sycamore,
rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...
, silver birch, willow and
beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
—some of which grew naturally during the site's period of dereliction, and some of which were planted specifically in preparing the woodland park. The woodland and grassland are inhabited by many animal and bird species. Aside from the wildlife, the geology of the site is one of its most significant features and it is designated a
Regionally Important Geological Site Regionally important geological and geomorphological sites (RIGS) (also known as regionally important geological sites or, especially in Wales, regionally important geodiversity sites) are locally designated sites of local, national and regional imp ...
. The site features exposed rock walls and a tunnel, which enable sandstone formations from the Triassic period (251–199 million years ago) to be viewed.


Notable people

*
J. Slater Lewis Joseph Slater Lewis MICE FRSE (4 June 1852 – 27 July 1901) was a British engineer, inventor, business manager, and early author on management and accounting, known for his pioneering work on cost accounting.Chatfield (2014, p. 379). Biograph ...
MICE FRSE (1852 in Rake House, Helsby – 1901) a British engineer, inventor, business manager and early author on management and accounting, known for his pioneering work on cost accounting. *
Ted Oldfield John Edward Oldfield (13 July 1918 – 2006) was an English footballer who played at right-half for Port Vale shortly after World War II. Career Oldfield played for Helsby, before joining Port Vale as an amateur in December 1945. He became a r ...
(1918 in Helsby – 2006) an English footballer who played at right-half for Port Vale * Heathcote Williams (1941 in Helsby – 2017) an English poet, actor, political activist and dramatist


See also

*
St Paul's Church, Helsby St Paul's Church is in the village of Helsby, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chest ...
*
Listed buildings in Helsby Helsby is a village and a civil parish in Cheshire West and Chester, England. The A56 road passes through it in a north–south direction. To the east is the former Helsby hill fort and to the west are the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Me ...


References


External links


Helsby Parish CouncilCheshire West and Chester CouncilHelsby High SchoolViking WirralHelsby Methodist ChurchHelsby Village Action GroupHelsby Football ClubHelsby Golf ClubHelsby Running ClubNorth Cheshire Rail Users Group
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire National Trust properties in Cheshire