Neston

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For the village in Wiltshire near Corsham, see Neston, Wiltshire.

Neston
Town
Neston Town Centre - geograph.org.uk - 180564.jpg
Neston is located in Cheshire
Neston
Neston
Location within Cheshire
Population15,221 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceSJ285775
• London175 mi (282 km)[1] SE
Civil parish
  • Neston
Unitary authority
  • Cheshire West and Chester
Ceremonial county
  • Cheshire
Region
  • North West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townNESTON
Postcode districtCH64
Dialling code0151
PoliceCheshire
FireCheshire
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
  • Ellesmere Port and Neston
List of places
UK
England
Cheshire
53°17′20″N 3°04′26″W / 53.289°N 3.074°W / 53.289; -3.074Coordinates: 53°17′20″N 3°04′26″W / 53.289°N 3.074°W / 53.289; -3.074

Neston is a town and civil parish in the borough of Cheshire West and Chester, in the part of the Wirral Peninsula that remains in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England.[2] Parkgate is located to the north west and the villages of Little Neston and Ness to the south of the town. At the 2001 census the population of Neston ward was recorded as 3,521,[3] increasing to 4,329 at the 2011 census.[4][5] The town and civil parish also includes Little Neston; Parkgate; and Riverside wards; along with part of Burton and Ness ward, and had a population of 15,162 in 2001,[6][7] increasing to 15,221 in 2011.[8]

History[]

The name is of Viking origin, deriving from the Old Norse Nes-tún, meaning 'farmstead or settlement at/near a promontory or headland'.[9][10] Another Nesttun town can be found near Bergen, Norway. It is also mentioned in the Domesday Book as Nestone under the ownership of a William Fitznigel, with a population of eight households.[11][12]

Civic history[]

A royal charter was granted to Neston in 1728 in support of its status as a market town.[13]

Historically, the current town was known as Great Neston, in order to be distinct from the smaller nearby hamlet of Little Neston. Before the rise of Birkenhead in the 1820s, it was the largest town in the Wirral Hundred. Created in 1866, the civil parish of Great Neston included the hamlets of Clayhill, Hinderton, Moorside and part of Parkgate. The population of Great Neston was 1,486 in 1801 and 1,524 in 1851. In 1894, both Great Neston and Little Neston were combined to create the Neston-cum-Parkgate civil parish and by 1901, the population had risen to 2,201.[14] Between 1894 and 1974 Neston was governed by its own urban district council.[15][16] On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation in England and Wales created the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston.

Port[]

Neston was a major port before the River Dee silted up. The port was then shifted further downstream to the nearby town of Parkgate, although by early nineteenth century, most traffic had ultimately transferred to Liverpool.

Mining[]

Neston is also a former mining town with a small extension of the Flintshire Coalfield occurring on its southern edge. There were two periods during which coal seams within these coal measures rocks were mined.[17]

Between 1759 and 1855 Ness Colliery worked using shafts largely clustered around the Harp Inn in today's Little Neston.[18] It was opened by John Stanley Massey, a member of the leading Stanley family of Hooton, in partnership with four others.[19] Because of the local geology most working was carried out under the Dee Estuary.[20] The mine was remarkable in using canals deep underground for boats to haul coal.[21] It was also remarkable for blatant acts of sabotage committed by the Stanleys against a rival, neighbouring mine established in about 1820 by the Cottingham family; their mine went out of business in the 1840s.[22] Due to exhaustion of many of the coal seams, and difficulty in transporting coal, Ness Colliery was closed in 1855.[23]

The later period of mining started in 1875 with the establishment of Neston Colliery (later becoming Wirral Colliery).[24] By this time the Chester and Birkenhead Railway had come to nearby Parkgate; a branch line to the colliery enabled coal to be shifted in bulk. The mine worked seams further north than those worked by Ness Colliery.[25] Wirral colliery was taken over by the British government during the First World War. The pit subsequently returned to private ownership after the war, but increasing competition from larger mines brought about its closure in 1927 with a loss of 180 jobs.[26]

Geography[]

Suburban localities of Neston are:

Former suburbs of Neston:

  • Leighton
  • Nessholt

Transport[]

Neston railway station

The A540 road links Neston to Heswall and West Kirby to the north, and Cheshire, Chester and North Wales to the south. Neston is also close to the M53 and M56 motorways, giving it access to Liverpool, Manchester, and the larger M6 motorway.

Neston railway station is situated on the Borderlands Line, providing direct services southbound to Flintshire and Wrexham, and northbound to Bidston in Birkenhead, with connecting services to the Merseyrail network. In 2008, Merseytravel investigated the possibility of linking up the Bidston – Wrexham line to the electrified Merseyrail system.[27]

Community[]

One of the main local attractions is Ness Botanic Gardens, opened in 1898 and administered by the University of Liverpool.[28]

On the first Thursday of June, Neston annually celebrates Ladies (Club) Day. This is a unique marching day that has links to the Neston Female Friendly Society during the Napoleonic War.

Neston Cricket Club is located in Parkgate and play in the Cheshire County Cricket ECB Premier League.[29] Neston Hockey Club is also based on the same site.[30] Club members can also play bowls, squash, racketball and tennis.[31]

Neston High School serves the local secondary age students.[32]

Neston Market Town Initiative[]

From 2006, Neston underwent an assessment to attract more income and tourists, in the form of the Neston Market Town Initiative (NMTI).[33] The project also included the launch of a new town website.[34] the NMTI involved improving the 'look' of the town centre (which included new shop fronts) and controversial plans regarding a new supermarket[35] on the site of Brook Street car park. Work for the new supermarket began in March 2009 with a full archaeological dig being carried out on the car park site before construction work began. Work to excavate the site began in August 2009, a total of 28,000 cubic metres of earth was removed to allow for the construction of a multi storey car park. The new Sainsbury's store was opened on 1 December 2010.

On 31 March 2008 the Market Town Initiative project was officially completed. The community regeneration work will be continued by a new local community association, ch64inc, and by the establishment of a Town Council in 2009.[36]

Governance[]

Neston Town Hall

Neston is part of the parliamentary constituency of Ellesmere Port and Neston. The current Member of Parliament is Justin Madders, a Labour representative.

At local government level, the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester replaced Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council and Cheshire County Council on 1 April 2009. Neston is a ward within Cheshire West and Chester. The most recent local elections took place on 2 May 2019.

The residents of Neston, Little Neston and Parkgate have also been represented by an elected town council, who meet at Neston Town Hall, since 2009.[37]

Demography[]

Ethnic Group Percentage[38]
White British 98.5%
White Irish 0.1%
White Other 0.5%
Mixed 0.2%
Asian 0.1%
Black 0.1%
Chinese 0.3%
Other 0.2%

Religion[]

Christianity: 82.6%

No Religion: 10.7%

Non Specified: 6.1%

Muslim: 0.2%

Jewish: 0.1%

Buddhism: 0.2%

Sikh: 0.1%

Other: 0.1%

(Source Office for National Statistics)[39]

Notable people[]

Lady Hamilton by George Romney, 1782
  • Thomas Wilson (1663 in Burton and Ness – 1755) Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1697 and 1755.
  • Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765 in Swan Cottage, Ness – 1815) an English model and actress, mistress of Lord Nelson and muse of the portrait artist, George Romney
  • Sir Wilfred Grenfell KCMG (1865 in Neston – 1940) a medical missionary to Newfoundland
  • Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Bushell VC DSO (1888 in Neston – 1918 in Morlancourt, France) an English recipient of the Victoria Cross
  • Billy Congreve VC, DSO, MC (1891 in Neston – 1916 in Longueval, France) an English recipient of the Victoria Cross
  • Rosalind Hill (1908–1997), historian
  • George Ward Gunn VC MC (1912 in Neston – 1941 in Sidi Rezegh, Libya) an English recipient of the Victoria Cross
  • Ralph Millington (1930 in Neston – 1999) an English footballer who played 357 games for Tranmere Rovers F.C.
  • Sir Tim Hunt FRS FMedSci FRSE MAE (born 1943 in Neston) a British biochemist and molecular physiologist, jointly awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries about protein molecules
  • Patrick Wormald (1947 in Neston – 2004) a British historian and academic

See also[]

References[]

Citations

  1. ^ "Coordinate Distance Calculator". boulter.com. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Neston website". The Neston Market Village Initiative. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
  3. ^ UK Census (2001). "Local Area Report – Neston Ward (13UEGB)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  4. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Neston Ward (E05000963)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  5. ^ "Ward population 2011". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Election Maps : Cheshire West and Chester". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  7. ^ "Census 2001: Boundary Viewer: Wards 2003: Neston". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  8. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Neston built-up area (E34003804,E12000002,E92000001)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  9. ^ Sulley, Philip (1889). The Hundred Of Wirral.
  10. ^ "Key to English Place-Names: Great & Little Neston". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  11. ^ "Cheshire L-Z". Domesday Book Online. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  12. ^ Powell-Smith, Anna. "[Great] Neston". Open Domesday. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. ^ "History of the Villages: Neston". neston.org.uk. Neston Town Council. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  14. ^ "Great Neston". GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  15. ^ "Neston and Parkgate UD". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Neston UD". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  17. ^ "GeoIndex Onshore". British Geological Survey. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  18. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 51
  19. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 18
  20. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 6
  21. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 70-72
  22. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 37-46
  23. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 35
  24. ^ Place 1996, p. 65
  25. ^ Annakin-Smith 2019, p. 248
  26. ^ Collieries Closed, Berks and Oxon Advertiser, 18 March 1927, p. 6
  27. ^ Down, Richard (6 March 2008). "Merseytravel bosses pledge a further £600k to investigate electrification of rail line on Wrexham-Wirral-Liverpool route". Liverpool Daily Post. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  28. ^ "Ness Botanic Gardens". University of Liverpool. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  29. ^ "Neston Cricket Club". Retrieved 31 May 2009.
  30. ^ "About Us". Neston Hockey Club. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  31. ^ "Tennis section". Neston Cricket Club. Retrieved 16 October 2007.
  32. ^ "Neston High School". www.nestonhigh.com. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  33. ^ "Timeline for CH64: 2006". Neston Town Council. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  34. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  35. ^ "Planning Application for Neston Supermarket and Town Square". Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council. Archived from the original on 31 March 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  36. ^ "History of Neston Town Council". Neston Town Council. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  37. ^ "Councillors". Neston Town Council. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  38. ^ "Table KS06 Ethnic group". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  39. ^ "Table KS07 Religion". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 December 2015.

Sources

  • Annakin-Smith, Anthony (2019). The Neston Collieries 1759–1855: An Industrial Revolution in Rural Cheshire. University of Chester Press. ISBN 978-1-908258-04-5.
  • Place, Geoffrey W., ed. (1996). Neston 1840-1940. Burton and Neston History Society. ISBN 9780950914510.

External links[]


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