Blackbrook is a locality and an electoral ward in

St Helens, Merseyside St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 117,308. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens which had a population of 183,200 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Census. The town i ...

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, the area is so called after the brook of the same name. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 10,639. The Blackbrook area is situated in the north east of St Helens Borough and is historically part of the Parr township. The actual brook itself forms the boundary between the townships of Parr,

Haydock Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 11,416 Haydock's historic area covers the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook ward. Haydo ...

and

Ashton in Makerfield Ashton-in-Makerfield is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, south of Wigan. As of the 2021 census, there was a population of 26,380. Historically part of Lancashire, Ashton-in-Makerfield was a tow ...

History

In 1770, the Penny Bridge branch of the

Sankey Canal The Sankey Canal in North West England, initially known as the Sankey Brook Navigation and later the St Helens Canal, is a former industrial canal, which when opened in 1757 was England's first of the Industrial revolution, and the first modern ...

was extended through Blackbrook, adjacent to the brook, to facilitate the transport of coal from the Stanley Colliery, Ashton in Makerfield.

Education

Schools in the area include

St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Academy St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Academy (formerly St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic High School) is a Roman Catholic coeducational secondary school. It is located in the Blackbrook area of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The school is na ...

, St Mary's Blackbrook Roman Catholic Primary School and Ashurst Primary School.

Sport

Blackbrook A.R.L.F.C. amateur

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

team, founded in 1975, play at Boardmans Lane. Blackbrook has been a feeder club for St. Helens,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

and

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

and many players have been produced from this amateur team who have entered into the professional ranks of rugby league. Amongst the notables being

Brian Case Brian Case (born 14 January 1958) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He played at representative level for Great Britain and England, and at club level for Warrington, Wigan and L ...

and Barry Williams Steve Ganson, a former rugby league referee, attended both Blackbrook Roman Catholic Primary School and St. Augustine of Canterbury High School. A signed Steve Ganson jersey from the Rugby League World Cup (in which he refereed) still hangs proudly at St. Augustine of Canterbury High School to this day.

References

St Helens, Merseyside Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens {{Merseyside-geo-stub