Visit Ellesmere Port Places

Welcome to Visit Ellesmere Port Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Ellesmere Port

  

Ellesmere Port Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Ellesmere Port

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Ellesmere Port history

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The town of Ellesmere Port was founded at the outlet of the never-completed Ellesmere Canal. The canal (now renamed) was designed and engineered by William Jessop and Thomas Telford as part of a project to connect the rivers Severn, Mersey and Dee. The canal was intended to be completed in sections. In 1795 the section between the River Mersey at Netherpool and the River Dee at Chester was opened. However the canal was not finished as first intended; it never reached the River Severn. Upon reevaluation it was decided that the costs to complete the project were not projected to be repaid because of a decrease in expected commercial traffic. There had been a loss of competitive advantage caused by steam engine-related economic advances (nationally, regionally and locally) during the first decade of canal construction. During or before the construction of the canal the village of Netherpool changed its name to the Port of Ellesmere, and by the early 19th century, to Ellesmere Port. Settlements had existed in the area since the writing of the Domesday Book in the 11th century, which mentions Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Pool (now Overpool) and Hooton. The settlement of Whitby was a township in the ancient parishes of Eastham and Stoak, within the Wirral Hundred. The township, which included the hamlets of Ellesmere Port and Whitbyheath, became a civil parish in 1866. To enhance the economic growth of the area, the Netherpool, Overpool and Whitby civil parishes were abolished on 1 April 1911 to become parts of the new civil parish of Ellesmere Port. The first houses in Ellesmere Port itself, however, grew up around the docks and the first main street was Dock Street, which now houses the National Waterways Museum. Station Road, which connected the docks with the village of Whitby, also gradually developed and as more shops were needed, some of the houses became retail premises. The main employer at this time was Burnell’s Iron Works which had been set up at the end of the nineteenth century. This was followed by the setting up of the Mersey Ironworks factory by the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company In 1905 who settled on Ellesmere Port as a way of exploiting the company’s international trade through the nearby ports of Birkenhead and Liverpool. Initially 300 workers and their families came from Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas to work in the factory, settling in a specially built worker’s village named “Wolverham”. As the expanding industrial areas growing up around the canal and its docks attracted more workers to the area, the town itself continued to expand. By the mid-20th century, thanks to the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 and the Stanlow Oil Refinery in the 1920s, Ellesmere Port had expanded so that it now incorporated the villages of Great and Little Sutton, Hooton, Whitby, Overpool and Rivacre as suburbs. The town centre itself had moved from the Station Road/Dock Street area, to an area that had once been home to a stud farm (indeed, the former Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council officially referred to the town centre as Stud Farm for housing allocation purposes) around the crossroads of Sutton Way/Stanney Lane and Whitby Road. The foundation stone for Ellesmere Port Civic Hall was laid by the Chairman of Ellesmere Port Borough Council, Horace Black, on 2 May 1953. It was designed in the modernist style and completed in 1955. In the 20th century, a number of new housing estates were developed, many of them on the sites of former farms such as Hope Farm and Grange Farm. Many estates consisted of both council housing and privately owned houses and flats. Ellesmere Port, in more recent times has had an influx of Liverpool immigrants. Thus demand for housing increased with the opening of the Vauxhall Motors car plant in 1962. Opened as a components supplier to the Luton plant, passenger car production began in 1964 with the Vauxhall Viva. The plant is now Vauxhall’s only car factory in Britain, since the end of passenger car production at the Luton plant in 2004 (where commercial vehicles are still made). Ellesmere Port currently produces the Vauxhall Astra model on two shifts, employing 2,500 people. In the mid-1980s, the Port Arcades, a covered shopping mall was built in the town centre. By the 1990s, it was the retail sector rather than the industrial that was attracting workers and their families to the town. This was boosted with the building of the Cheshire Oaks outlet village and the Coliseum shopping park, which also included a multiplex cinema; prior to this since the closure of the cinema in Station Road, Little Sutton (King’s cinema) and the Queen’s cinema adjacent to Ellesmere Port railway station in the 1960s the town’s only cinema had been a single screen in the EPIC Leisure Centre. Since 1974 Ellesmere Port has been an unparished area when the civil parish of Ellesmere Port was abolished and all its functions were assumed by the new district of Ellesmere Port and Neston. The district was abolished in 2009, and the town no longer has its own council. The town continues to grow, and more housing estates and shops are being built. The industrial sector is still a major employer in the town although in recent years, a number of factories have been closed and jobs lost. In August 2012 Marks & Spencer opened their largest store (apart from Marble Arch in London) on a site near the Coliseum shopping park.

Ellesmere Port landmarks

It is the location of the UK’s largest artificial Christmas tree, 90 feet (27 m) tall and 32 feet (9.8 m) wide. Ellesmere Port Sports Village a £15 million sports village opened in late 2015. Blue Planet Aquarium, largest aquarium in the UK 1998–1999.

Ellesmere Port geography / climate

Ellesmere Port is located at the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire. Its suburbs include Overpool, Westminster, Westminster and Rossmore.

Parks and green spaces

Whitby Park Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve Stanney Woods Nature Reserve is located in Whitby. The reserve includes a number of nature reserves.

You can visit Ellesmere Port places with Walkfo Ellesmere Port to hear history at Ellesmere Port’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Ellesmere Port has 33 places to visit in our interactive Ellesmere Port map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Ellesmere Port, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Ellesmere Port places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Ellesmere Port & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 33 audio facts unique to Ellesmere Port places in an interactive Ellesmere Port map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Ellesmere Port Places Map
33 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Ellesmere Port historic spots	Ellesmere Port tourist destinations	Ellesmere Port plaques	Ellesmere Port geographic features
Walkfo Ellesmere Port tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Ellesmere Port

  

Best Ellesmere Port places to visit

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Ellesmere Port has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Ellesmere Port’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Ellesmere Port’s information audio spots:

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the “Shroppie”, is a navigable canal in England. It links the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, 66 miles (106 km) distant. The SU main line was the last trunk narrow canal route to be built in England. It was not completed until 1835 and was the final major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford.

St Lawrence’s Church, Stoak St Lawrence’s Church is in the village of Stoak, Cheshire, England. It lies between the M56 and M53 motorways and the Shropshire Union Canal. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

St Paul’s Church, Hooton St Paul’s Church is in the village of Hooton, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Wirral South, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the diocese of Chester. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

River Gowy River Gowy is a tributary of the River Mersey. It rises in western Cheshire in the hills near Peckforton Castle, very close to the source of River Weaver. Its total length is around 20 miles (32 km) Perennially popular with fishermen.

Visit Ellesmere Port plaques