Porsche-noir: Ellesmere Port : The Boars head London Rd, Walgherton, Nantwich CW5 7LA, UK. Cheshire, England

On the way to Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port (/ˈɛlzmɪər ˈpɔːrt/) is a town and port in Cheshire, England, part of the Cheshire West and Chester local authority.

The town was originally established on the River Mersey at the entrance to the Ellesmere Canal. As well as a service sector economy, it has retained large industries including Stanlow oil refinery, a chemical works and the Vauxhall Motors car factory. There are also a number of tourist attractions including the National Waterways Museum, the Blue Planet Aquarium and Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet.

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 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. 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. Whitby was a township in the ancient parishes of Eastham and Stoak, Wirral hundred, which became a civil parish in 1866. It included the hamlets of Ellesmere Port and Whitbyheath. 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.

Whitby lighthouse

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.

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. Marks & Spencer have built (September 2012) what is being claimed to be their largest store apart from Marble Arch on a site opposite to the Coliseum shopping park.

Amaya & Fish fingers and chips

The National Waterways Museum (NWM) is in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal (grid reference SJ406771). The museum's collections and archives focus on the Britain's navigable inland waterways, including its rivers and canals, and include canal boats, traditional clothing, painted canal decorative ware and tools. It is one of several museums and attractions operated by the Canal & River Trust, the successor to The Waterways Trust.

History

The museum was founded in the 1970s as the North West Museum of Inland Navigation, later The Boat Museum and then the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port until 2012. In the 1990s The Waterways Trust took on the management of the National Waterways Museum. Funding from Heritage Lottery Fund helped create new displays and improve visitor facilities. In 2012, the Waterways Trust was incorporated to the Canal & River Trust.

Crane at the National Waterways Museum

The name National Waterways Museum was formerly used to include the inland waterways collection at two other museum sites in England, which now are named the Gloucester Waterways Museum in Gloucester, and The Canal Museum in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire.

Collections

The museum is entrusted with a collection that has the status of a designated collection, as determined by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. However, the standard of collection management has been the subject of considerable concern and criticism in the specialist press because, essentially, the museum has insufficient money to fund the upkeep of the many historic boats in the collection. Unlike the National Railway Museum, which receives funding direct from HM Government, the NWM only receives public money through the Canal and River Trust, previously British Waterways. During the winter of 2008–2009, opening hours were cut at Gloucester and Ellesmere Port to just two days per week in an effort to manage a tough financial situation. Some boats were advertised in Museums Journal early in 2009 for disposal, there being insufficient money for their restoration. Visitors to the Ellesmere Port site can see boats, in the care of a National Museum, sunken into the water or kept afloat by automatic pumps. However, the initiative to create a Heritage Boatyard, with lottery and other funding, has spurred a revival in the museum's fortunes and work on addressing the areas of maintenance is now taking place. The Heritage Boatyard trains young people in skills that might otherwise be lost. Two boats, Ilkeston and Ferret, are sponsored by the London Canal Museum, which contributes annually to the cost of their maintenance.

The museum site occupies the former canal port covering an area of 7 acres

(3 ha) where the Shropshire Union Canal joined the River Mersey. The canal port, designed by Thomas Telford under the direction of William Jessop, was in use until the 1950s. It consisted of a system of locks, docks and warehouses and a pump and engine room. A toll house was built in 1805. The Island Warehouse was built in 1871 to store grain.

Museum

The museum, on the site of the canal port, contains the elements present in the port, including the locks, docks and warehouses. The Island Warehouse has an exhibition on the history of boat-building and another describing the social history of canals. The Pump House contains the steam-driven pumping engines which supplied power for the hydraulic cranes and the capstans which were used around the dock,[6] and the Power Hall contains a variety of other engines.The blacksmith's forge was where the ironwork for the canal and its boats was made. A resident blacksmith works in the forge. The stables which housed the horses and pigs are still present. The former toll house hosts temporary and touring exhibitions. The Waterways Archive contains a wide range of material relating to waterways in Britain and abroad. A terrace of four houses known as Porter's Row contains dock workers' cottages which have been decorated and furnished to represent different periods from the 1840s to the 1950s. The museum contains a collection of historic boats.Short boat trips along the Shropshire Union Canal are arranged. The museum is open at advertised times throughout the year.

The locks within the museum site are designated by English Heritage as Grade II listed buildings. Also listed at Grade II are the lighthouse at the entry of the canal into the Mersey, and a lock keeper's hut. In 2010, the museum was one of three featured on the BBC Four series Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Amaya wins

The Boars Head

Address: London Rd, Walgherton, Nantwich CW5 7LA, UK.

Walgherton is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village lies at SJ697489 by the junction of the A51 and B5071 roads, 3½ miles to the south east of Nantwich and 4½ miles to the south of Crewe. The civil parish also includes the small settlement of Hussey's Nook.[1] The total population is just under 130 people. Sand has been extracted at Hough Mill Quarry. The remainder of the parish is predominantly agricultural. Nearby villages include Hatherton, Stapeley and Wybunbury.

The Boars Head

Address: London Rd, Walgherton, Nantwich CW5 7LA, UK

Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 12PM

Phone: +44 1270 660111

The restaurant has been refurbished to an exceptionally high standard, giving it a cosy but elegant vibe.

The Boars Head menu combines some English pub favourites, home cooked with fresh ingredients, with our Chef’s interpretation of some international classics too.