Helsby
Helsby is a
village and
civil parish with a population of approximately 4700 in the borough of
Vale Royal which is in the county of
Cheshire in the
North West of England.
It is situated on the
A56 main road between
Chester and
Runcorn. The neighbouring villages are
Dunham-On-The-Hill,
Frodsham,
Elton and
Alvanley. Helsby is a semi-rural village, with many
dairy and
arable farms, but is also in close proximity to a number of industrial plants around the Mersey estuary including the
Shell oil refinery at Stanlow, the Quinn Glass manufacturing plant, the Kemira
fertiliser plant on Ince marshes and the chemical manufacturing site (previously
ICI chemicals, now Ineos Chlor) and power station at Rocksavage. Although there are now few jobs in Helsby itself, the village is popular with
commuters as a residential area, due to its good transport links to the
motorway (
M56) and rail networks, despite being less attractive than many due to the nearby industrial landscape.
It has recently been proposed that a 95 Kilowatt
power station and various
recycling plants be sited on a water meadow near Helsby, this is a controversial project. The land is owned by Peel Holdings and the proposal is in its embryonic stage.
There are traces of
Stone Age and Iron Age settlements on the hills around Helsby (Helsby Hill is the site of an
Iron Age hill-fort called Woodhouses), but the first known settlers of Helsby were the
Vikings in the
tenth century AD. In fact the name 'Helsby' is derived from the Viking name
Hjallr-by, meaning "the village on the edge".
The village was recorded in the
Domesday book (1086) under the
Norman name of
Hellesbe. The Manor of Helsby was owned by a series of
aristocratic landowners, most recently the Marquis of Cholmondeley. The
Anglican Church was built in 1870. Helsby also has one of the most successful schools in cheshire: Helsby High School.
In 1968
Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), a Welsh republican movement, blew up a water pipe in Helsby. The water pipe was carrying water from
Lake Vyrnwy to
Liverpool.
Helsby has a wooded
sandstone hill (height 123 metres), which is a clear landmark on the Cheshire plain overlooking the
Mersey estuary. The
woodland on the hill, is a
National Trust property.It is the site of an ancient British fort. The hill, which has steep cliffs on the northern and western sides which are now popular with
climbers, is also a
triangulation point, with a concrete pillar
trig point at the top.
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, and provides links to
Chester,
North Wales and
Manchester. The
signal box at Helsby Junction is one of very few in the UK still operated manually.
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 the 1880s by the Telegraph Manufacturing Company, as the Britannia Telegraph Works, the factory was used to manufacture
cables, and was most recently owned by
BICC Electronic Cables. It employed up to 5000 people at its peak (from the
Second World War until
1970), but continued to decline following a series of
redundancy initiatives started in 1970, and the site eventually closed in 2002. The site is currently being redeveloped for retail, light industrial and residential purposes. The first completed development on the site is
Tesco's
supermarket, which opened in September 2005.
Sandstone was extracted from a working quarry (Mountskill Quarry) from the early 1800s until the 1920s. Much of the stone was transported by ferry to
Liverpool and
Birkenhead, where several buildings, including the customs house at Canning dock were built of Helsby stone. The quarry had its own dedicated tramway/ rail 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 Borough Council in 1988, and transformed into a woodland park, which was opened in 1990. The park contains a range of trees- including
oak,
sycamore,
rowan,
silver birch,
willow and
beech - some of which were grew naturally during the sites period of dereliction, and some 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 main features and it is designated a Regionally Important Geological site. The site features exposed rock walls and a tunnel, which enable Sandstone formations from the
Triassic period (280-250 million years ago) to be viewed.
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Vale Royal Borough Council*
Helsby High School*
Helsby News Online*
Viking Wirral
