| St Helens, Merseyside |
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GEOGRAPHY St Helens covers an area of roughly 30 sq/km over an area that is mainly soft rolling hills which mainly serve Agricultural purposes; mainly Pastoral . The highest point in the Metropolitan Borough of St. Helens and in the locality is Billinge Hill, 5km from the town centre. The town is land locked with two notable streams running through; Mill Brook/Windle Brook running through Eccleston and connecting with the (disused) St Helens Canal in the town centre and Black Brook/Sankey Brook starting on Billinge Hill in Billinge and running through the Carr Mill Dam; the largest body of water in mersyside, through Moss Bank, Blackbrook and Earlestown before its confluence with the River Mersey 8km downstream. St Helens is twenty five metres above sea level. HISTORY As late as the start of the 19th Century , St Helens did not exist. It was formed from the townships of Eccleston , Windle, Parr and Sutton, all of which were in the Parish of Prescot approximately 12 miles (19km) north east of Liverpool . As such, it was named after St. Helen's Parish Church in Hardshaw, within Windle. The parish church was rebuilt in 1816 and rededicated to St Mary; however, when the church was rebuilt between 1916 and 1926, after a fire, the dedication returned to the historic "St Helen, St Helens". A Glass industry was established in St Helens, owing to the ready availability of Sand and Coal . The St Helens Canal was built in 1757 to transport raw materials and finished products to and from the River Mersey . In the 1830s , the St Helens And Runcorn Gap Railway was built for the same purpose. The town grew rapidly. In 1868 , it was incorporated as a borough and was then made a County Borough in 1889 . The Town Hall was built between 1872 and 1876 . Its clock tower originally had a steeple but this was destroyed in a fire in 1913 . In the centre of the modern town centre, adjacent to the Town Hall, is the Gamble building, which was built in 1896 and is named after Sir David Gamble who was the first Mayor and who also gifted the land for the building. Today, the Gamble Building serves as the Central Library and also houses other municipal offices and archives. Other buildings of note are the Friends' Meeting House, the Beecham Clock Tower, which is now part of St Helens College, and St Mary's Lowe House Catholic church. The town, and old county borough, included the suburbs of Clock Face , Sutton and part of Windle. In 1974 , under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, St Helens became the centre of Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in the newly created Merseyside County . The glass industry is no longer the major employer it once was, however it still employs over a thousand people in the town. The large Pilkington Brothers works dominates the town's industrial quarter although major investment is currently transforming the quarter into a retail and communications hub with former industrial land being reclaimed for use as hotels, shopping areas and housing. The many Coal Mines including Clock Face, Sutton Manor and Lea Green were closed between the 1960s and early 1990s . The last colliery in the modern Metropolitan Borough and on the Lancashire Coalfield, at Parkside in Newton Le Willows , was closed in 1992 . TRANSPORT & INFRASTRUCTURE Road St Helens lies in the heart of a motorway network with the M6 running along the east side of the town, with Junction 23 at Haydock . The M62 runs along the south of the town with Junction 7 at Rainhill Stoops. The M57 's Junction 2 lies ¾ mile east of the border at Prescot. The M58 is 2¾ miles north from Rainford. The A580 East Lancashire Road runs north of the town centre alongside Eccleston, Moss Bank and Haydock. It is a former trunk road taking traffic from Manchester to the Liverpool Docks. It was built between 1929 and 1934 and was opened by King George V . It was intended to take away pressure from the A58 , a major road running from Liverpool through the town centre and Haydock. The A570 is the transport route from Southport and West Lancashire through St Helens and the M62 at Rainhill Stoops. A major development in communication was the opening of the St Helens Linkway (classified as part of the A570) in 1994, which linked the town directly with the M62 and, by proxy, an alternative connection to the M6. The A572 takes traffic from the town centre in to Earlstown and Newton-le-Willows . Rail Rail is a growing means of transport in the Borough. St Helens Central serves as the town's central railway station, which lies on the Wigan to Liverpool line. Other stations on this line in the town are Thatto Heath and Eccleston Park . The Liverpool to Manchester line serves St Helens at Rainhill, St Helens Junction Railway Station and Lea Green which was opened in 2000 in order to bring people away from the now dilapidated St Helens Junction Station. St Helens Central is currently undergoing redevelopment at a cost of £6m, which the Council argues will encourage investment, create more jobs and improve the gateway into the town. Air and sea St Helens has no Airfield , though the RAF once had an camp in the village of Haydock . The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport , approx. 10 miles south west of the town, around a 25 minute drive and is serviced with Arriva Bus Service 89 from the town centre. Manchester Airport is approximately a 45 minute drive away. St Helens is a landlocked borough but easy access to the ports of Liverpool and those on the River Mersey and River Dee. The St Helens canal is no longer used for transporting goods. CULTURE Residents of St Helens are known as St Helenians or Sintelleners. Religion and ethnicity Christianity is the main religion in St Helens, being about 87% according to the 2001 census. This makes St Helens the "most Christian town in Britain". {Link without Title} . There is a very small ethnic minority in St Helens and one of the lowest in the country with 98.8% British White. EDUCATION Primary & high schools The borough of St Helens has over fifty primary schools including several special need schools. Out of these primary schools 26% scored below the national average, the lowest being Lymm Primary School, scoring only 171 points in 2005. The two best primary schools were St Aidan's and St Mary's Birchley Primary School, there are also many top performers and these schools are in high demand from locals. There is quite an even split between the number of Catholic and Church of England schools. There are eleven high schools, soon to be ten with the future closure of Broadway Community High School. With the exception of Newton and Broadway high schools, St Helens's schools perform quite averagely. While De La Salle and Rainford high are the top schools in the borough, the closeness of their results fluctuates year to year. De La Salle was the best in 2005 with a value added score of 195. St Helens has a private school located in Rainhill named Tower College which annually receives some of the best grades in the country both at GCSE and at A Level. Further education The town has five sixth form colleges that are Cowley, Rainford, Rainhill, St Alreds and Sutton. There are two further colleges: Carmel College and St Helens College. Carmel College is a leading college in the country with a value added score of 328. The college forms part with the University Of Liverpool . St Helens College offers a great variety of courses mainly AVCEs and GNVQs in specialised subjects and it has a growing reputation for its standards and its improving grades. There is no university in St Helens; locals who stay in the area and go to university often take advantage of the surrounding universities such as Edge Hill , Ormskirk and Liverpool University . MEDIA St Helens has no television or radio broadcasters in the borough. However 102.4 Wish FM gives the second part of its name (sh) to St Helens while the first half goes to Wigan (Wi), were they are based. There are two local weekly newspapers which are freely distributed; these are the ''St Helens Star'' and the ''St Helens Reporter''. TOURISM, ENTERTAINMENT & INVESTMENT The past 20 years have seen major redevelopment in the town centre. This has included mass pedestrianisation of much of shopping area, with traffic being directed around the town centre on existing roads. The principal Theatre is the Theatre Royal which has been recently renovated with a modern glass exterior. It has a large capacity and stages many performances, including comedy, music, drama and pantomime. The highly acclaimed Citadel Arts Theatre is a smaller theatre on Waterloo Street and is open more to Alternative Music and the arts. The principal hotel is the four star Hilton Hotel , built during a massive period of commercial augmentation in the town during the mid 1990s. Two other large hotels are the Travelodge and Thistle Hotel in Haydock. There are numerous smaller hotels, inns and B&B 's across the borough. The World of Glass Museum , which opened in 2000, incorporating the Pilkington Glass Museum, has received many awards including North West Attraction of the Year. The St. Helens Canal, built between 1757 and 1774 making it one of the oldest in Britain, has been cleaned up in recent years and has become a Habitat for aquatic plants, marine life and birds. The St. Helens Transport Museum on Hall Street, which opened in 1980 , but closed in 2000 due to massive underinvestment, is currently undergoing a multi-million pound redevelopment, including a more modern exterior. The George Street Quarter Regeneration programme left an impressive stamp on the town. The George Street area receives foot traffic from the train station so the area was enhanced to leave a positive impression on tourists. Major improvements were made to building exteriors, parking, security, street furniture and paving. This has attracted several new businesses to the quarter including award winning restaurants. The surrounding areas are now receiving attention with the Hardshaw Centre receiving a new Car Park exit stairway into the George Street quarter. The stairway spirals around a tall needlike structure and is named 'The Needle.' The main shopping areas, Church Street and Church Square, are currently undergoing extensive regeneration and there is a proposal for Duke Street, which extends into the town centre, to also receive funding. St Helens Rugby League Club's ( St Helens RFC ) stadium is located in Eccleston in Dunriding Lane/Knowsley Road's residential area. During the summer the 100 year-old stadium receives thousands of fans from St Helens and England's other rugby towns, although it faces an uncertain future with rumours rife that the Rugby Club intends to build a new stadium on the edge of the town with better transport links and parking facilities. The club has won the Challenge Cup nine times and has played in many finals. The club was crowned World Club Champions in 2001. The boom in Britain's ' Binge Drinking ' culture in the mid 1990s has fuelled the nightlife industry over the past 10 years. The town centre has exploded over this time with many new or relaunched drinking establishments. Many of the new bars and pubs are centred around the Bridge Street area of the town centre. Although several bars have licences to serve alcohol until 2am, the town still only has one major nightclub which is notorious for attracting younger revellers. A second nightclub was planned for Bridge Street, with building work being completed for the end of 2002 , but has remained closed since completion due to a number of financial and licensing problems. The building has been up for sale for many months but with no buyer. There are several restaurants in the town centre with an increasingly mixed cuisine on offer. A local newspaper, The St Helens Reporter awarded its 2005 'Restaurant of the Year' prize to The Griffin Inn, Eccleston. RETAIL St Helens's shopping area is centred on the Parish Church around which Church Square was built in the early 1970s . Church Street, the main shopping street runs parallel to Church Square. Three indoor Shopping Centre s meet at Church Square: the LaGrange Arcade, St Mary's Arcade and the Hardshaw Centre. Other main shopping streets include Bridge Street, Westfield Street and Duke Street. Until approximately ten years ago St Helens was criticised by residents for not attracting major chain stores, however the recent growth and investment in the town has bucked this trend with many chain stores now unable to find suitable premises. St Helens has two retail parks, one on either side of the St Helens Linkway. The older of these, St Helens Retail Park, is home to discount stores and wholesale retailers, while Ravenhead Retail Park houses more mainstream retail stores, such as Currys and Next. FAMOUS PEOPLE
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