Burtonwood

Burtonwood is a village in the civil parish of Burtonwood and Westbrook, in the outermost suburbs of Warrington, Cheshire, England. The name Burtonwood is known worldwide as the location of the former RAF Station Burtonwood military camp. Burtonwood village itself is a few miles away from the site of the former station. The civil parish also includes Westbrook, which is a council ward and suburb of Warrington. According to the 2001 census, the population of the entire civil parish was 11,265.[1]

Burtonwood

St. Michael's Church, Burtonwood
Burtonwood
Location within Cheshire
Population11,265 [1]
OS grid referenceSJ561928
Civil parish
  • Burtonwood and Westbrook
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWARRINGTON
Postcode districtWA5
Dialling code01925
PoliceCheshire
FireCheshire
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament

History

Burtonwood was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Warrington, in the West Derby Hundred of Lancashire. It was later created a civil parish and was part of the Warrington Poor Law Union and then the Warrington Rural District. In 1974 it became part of Warrington District and is now part of the Warrington Unitary Authority. It is still a civil parish (now named Burtonwood and Westbrook) and thus has its own parish council. Burtonwood's population rose from 990 in 1861 to 2,408 in 1911 as the mining and brewing industries grew. The parish population leaped to 8,238 in 1951 due to the Americans with the arrival of the United States Air Force (USAF) personnel but dropped to 4,899 in 1971, before rising to 11,265 today[1] as a result of housing development on the old RAF station site. Nowadays, there is work being done on the station and two of the camps have been knocked down. This is because of the Omega Project.

Burtonwood Air Base

RAF Burtonwood was mainly used by the United States Air Force between 1942 and closure of the main airfield in 1958 and was the biggest US airbase in Europe.

Brewery

The village is known for its brewery, which brewed the Burtonwood ales. The brewery was founded in 1867, and built up a large estate of pubs. In 1964 Burtonwood Breweries became a public company, but retained its head office in the village. In 1998 the company formed a joint venture with Thomas Hardy Holdings, known as Thomas Hardy Burtonwood. Soon after the company stopped producing Burtonwood-brand beers and was recently contracted to produce Brakspear ales.[2]

Facilities

Burtonwood had four public houses. Three that have since been demolished are The Bridge House Inn, The Elm Tree Inn, and The Limerick Hotel. The Bridge House Inn and the Elm street Inn were both owned by the Marstons Group, and were demolished in 2014. The first was located in Phipps lane built in the early 1900s, the second was located on the corner of Phipps Lane and Chapel Lane, built around 1885s. The Limerick Hotel was located on what was Cow Lane, now Burtonwood Rd, built in 1911 and demolished in the early 1940s because the pub was too close, to the (fully operational) Burtonwood Air Base and runway. The Village currently has two public houses, the Chapel House and the Fiddle i'th Bag Inn, three social clubs and three churches, St. Michael's, St. Paul of the Cross and the Methodist church.

The two primary schools are Burtonwood Community Primary School and St Paul of the Cross Primary School. The village does not have a secondary school or college and the nearest high school is Great Sankey High School, which has a sixth form attached to it. Also Hope Academy in nearby Newton-le-Willows which also has a sixth form attached, and Priestley Sixth Form College in Warrington town centre is the nearest specialised sixth form college.[3]

Burtonwood village also has two doctors' surgeries, known as Burtonwood Surgery on Clay Lane, and Kinnock Park Surgery. There is also a large Co-operative store brand new since 2018 (Chapel Lane), as you walk into the village there is a fish and chip shop, a Village Barbers, a beauty salon and a Lloyd's chemist and a post office, located on Chapel Lane.

There are two recreational parks. Burtonwood also has three nature reserves. Wheatacre Woods (access via Clay Lane / Gorsey Lane), the Old Colliery Moss (access via Bold Lane / Back Lane) and an area known as the Picnik Area which is accessed primarily from the footpath adjacent to the bowling green.

More information can be found on the Burtonwood Village history on the Burtonwood Village Facebook site.

Transport

The village is small, with only three bus routes through it, (Arriva North West 329 to St Helens, Warrington's Own Buses 24E to Newton Le-Willows which only runs through the village twice a day (subject to rural bus grant) and Ogden 141 (St Helens to Newton) run on behalf of Merseytravel).[4] The nearest major bus interchanges are in Warrington (6 miles) and Wigan (8.19 miles). The nearest railway station was Collins Green, but is now St. Helens Junction, two miles to the north-west of the village. Liverpool John Lennon Airport is the nearest airport (10 miles to the west).[3]

Statistics

Civil parish

The following statistics are for the civil parish of Burtonwood and Westbrook.[1]

Population and gender
  • Population: 11,265
  • Population, Males: 5,554
  • Population, Females: 5,711

Housing
  • Total households: 4,264

Council ward

The following statistics are for the council ward of Burtonwood and Winwick.[5]

Population and ethnicity
  • Population: 5,595
  • Population ratio (Male:Female): 49.2%:50.8%
  • White origin: 98.48%
  • Mixed origin: 0.00%
  • Asian origin: 0.57%
  • Black origin: 0.01%
  • Other origin: 0.23%

Housing
  • Total households: 2,265
  • Owner occupied: 84.68%
  • Shared ownership: 0.26%
  • Council accommodation: 10.64%
  • Housing association accommodation: 0.18%
  • Other rented accommodation: 4.24%
gollark: ++magic sql ALTER TABLE marriages ADD COLUMN married_at INTEGER
gollark: ++magic sql ALTER TABLE marriages ADD COLUMN information TEXT
gollark: Oh, that's fair.
gollark: Wait, do I need a metadata column too?
gollark: ++magic sql CREATE TABLE marriages (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,e1 TEXT NOT NULL,e2 TEXT NOT NULL);

See also

Notes and references
  1. "Official 2001 Census Figures for Burtonwood and Westbrook". Office for National Statistics. Retrieval Date: 8 September 2007.
  2. The Independent, 24 June 2001
  3. Burtonwood Information. Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine UpMyStreet website. Retrieval Date: 8 September 2007.
  4. Warrington Borough Council Public Transport Guide (09/06)
  5. Office for National Statistics for Burtonwood and Winwick ward, Warrington.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.