Historically part of Lancashire and now part of Merseyside, St Helens grew initially as an industrial town during the industrial revolution when the area’s resources provided an immense opportunity for business. The thriving coal mining industry spawned chemical and copper smelting industries and with the addition of good quality local sand, the glass manufacturing industry grew, which today stands fast as a local enterprise. Originally St Helens developed at the junction of the boundaries of four townships, namely Windle, Eccleston, Sutton and Parr, and it was from the Chapel-of-ease located at this boundary that the name St Helens was taken. Located at the crossroads between the major cities of Liverpool and Manchester, St Helens is today a thriving and busy commercial centre and home to an estimated 170,000 residents in the greater metropolitan area.
St Helens is still renowned for its glass making with the Tank House, a pioneering glass making building, being an integral part of the ‘World of Glass Museum’ and Visitor’s Centre. Pilkington Brothers, established in 1826, invented the float glass process upon which the company based its success which continues to this day, with the company still dominating St Helens industrial area and which produces all of the U.K.’s output of flat glass. The rapid industrialisation of St Helens demanded improvements in transport which today can be seen in the Stevenson Sankey Viaduct, also called the Nine Arches Viaduct, which is a stone and brick railway bridge and which was the first of its kind in Britain, and the Sankey Navigation, the first fully man made canal opened in 1757. Later the railways developed in the area with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway being opened in 1830, becoming the first main-line passenger service. The stretch of track in the St Helens area known as Rainhill, became a testing ground for steam locomotives during the Rainhill Trials, Britain’s first steam locomotive competition, which was won by the Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’!!
Today St Helens is known not only for the ‘World of Glass Museum’, but also for the ‘North West Museum of Road Transport’ which houses an extensive collection of vintage road vehicles including buses, fire-engines, classic cars and trucks. Just outside the city at Eccleston can be found a small museum called the ‘Smithy Heritage Centre’. It is located in the Blacksmith’s Forge in Kiln Lane and displays original artefacts that detail the heritage of the town.
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