Victoria Park is the premier urban park in Widnes, Cheshire, England. It is managed by Halton Borough Council. [1]
Victoria Park is the premier urban park in Widnes, Cheshire, England. It is managed by Halton Borough Council. [1]
The park was opened in 1900 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. [2] It is on the former Appleton House estate and was created by the local council with funds collected via a public subscription. [3]
There are paved walking routes, grass open spaces, formal gardens, a lake with a fountain, a café with toilets, ice cream parlour, children's play area, tennis courts, bowling greens, a skate park, climbing boulder, bandstand, basketball courts, an enclosed dog run and a butterfly house. [4]
The park contains a Grade II listed war memorial pillar. Incorporating detailed carvings and standing more than 16m high, the memorial is a striking and prominent architectural building. [5] The pillar was designed by Harold E Davies and unveiled by the 17th Earl of Derby in a ceremony on 28 September 1921 after a civic parade from Widnes Town Hall. The memorial cost £6,000 and was paid for by public subscription. The sculptural additions were undertaken by the national artist Herbert Tyson Smith. [5]
There is a memorial fountain in honour of William Ewart Gladstone. A milestone marker with plaque commemorates the last effective Zeppelin air raid of World War I in England. Five Zeppelins dropped bombs in Widnes, Ince and Wigan. [3] There is a statue of Sgt. Thomas Mottershead V.C., DCM (1892–1917) who was born in Widnes and was awarded a Victoria Cross and Distinguished Conduct Medal in World War I. There is a combined memorial headstone for Mottershead and two other recipients of the V.C. from Halton: Thomas Wilkinson and Thomas Alfred Jones.
Each year the park hosts North West England's largest Vintage Steam Rally, featuring a vintage fair, and vintage steam machinery. [6]
A 5 km parkrun takes place every Saturday morning beginning at 9am. [7]
Cheshire is a ceremonial and historic county in northwest England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county town is the cathedral city of Chester, while its largest town by population is Warrington. Other towns in the county include Alsager, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Nantwich, Neston, Northwich, Poynton, Runcorn, Sandbach, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford.
Merseyside is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral and the city of Liverpool. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, takes its name from the River Mersey and sits within the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool 11 mi (18 km) to the northwest across the River Mersey. Runcorn is on the southern bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap.
Thomas Mottershead VC, DCM was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Halton is a constituency in Cheshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Derek Twigg of the Labour Party.
Spike Island is a park in Widnes, Halton, North-West England. It is an artificial island between the Sankey Canal and the estuary of the River Mersey containing parkland, woodland, wetlands and footpaths. It is next to the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, an interactive science and technology museum.
Halton, formerly a separate village, is now part of the town of Runcorn, Cheshire, England. The name Halton has been assumed by the Borough of Halton, which includes Runcorn, Widnes and some outlying parishes.
Queens Park in Crewe, Cheshire, is a 44.5 acre (18ha) Grade II* listed public park opened in 1887, little changed from its original plan.
Endcliffe Park is a large park in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The park was opened in 1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. When travelling West from the city centre it is the first in a series of parks and green spaces, known collectively as the Porter Valley Parks, all of which lie along the course of the Porter Brook. The next park in the sequence is Bingham Park, separated from Endcliffe Park by Rustlings Road. In 1924 Patrick Abercrombie said of the parks, "The Porter Brook Parkway, consisting as it does of a string of contiguous open spaces, is the finest example to be found in this country of a radial park strip, an elongated open space, leading from a built-up part of the city direct into the country, the land occupied being a river valley and so for the greater part unsuitable for building."
Ditton railway station, originally Ditton Junction, was a railway station which served the Ditton area of Widnes in Cheshire, England. It was located on Hale Road on the border between Ditton and Halebank.
The Barony of Halton, in Cheshire, England, comprised a succession of 15 barons and hereditary Constables of Chester under the overlordship of the Earl of Chester. It was not an English feudal barony granted by the king but a separate class of barony within the County Palatine of Chester.
Widnes is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464.
Widnes is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey where it narrows at Runcorn Gap. The town contains 24 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, 5 are classified at Grade II*, and the rest are at Grade II; Widnes has no Grade I listed buildings. In the United Kingdom, the term "listed building" refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical, or cultural significance. Listed buildings are categorised in three grades: Grade I consists of buildings of outstanding architectural or historical interest; Grade II* includes particularly significant buildings of more than local interest; Grade II consists of buildings of special architectural or historical interest. Buildings in England are listed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on recommendations provided by English Heritage, which also determines the grading.
Albert Park is an open access, free public park, located in Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England.
Wade Deacon High School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Widnes, Cheshire, England.
The Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum is a science and technology museum in Widnes, Halton, North-West England. The centre has interactive exhibits, reconstructed historical scenes, an observatory, a live-science theatre and family workshops. It is next to Spike Island, a public park, located between the River Mersey and the Sankey Canal that has woodlands, wetlands, footpaths and industrial archaeological history.
The timeline of Cheshire history shows significant events in the history of the English county of Cheshire.
Widnes War Memorial stands in Victoria Park, Widnes, Cheshire, England. It commemorates the serving men who lost their lives in the two world wars. The memorial consists of an obelisk in Portland stone on a plinth of York stone. It was unveiled in 1921, and more names were added in 1950. The monument is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
