If history repeats itself, why are there never any re-runs of the six o'clock news?

Warrington Timeline    The Botelers

Don't panic Mister Mainwaring, my computer hasn't flipped! These are simply old variant spellings of Warrington.

Warrington is an industrial town in the north west of England with a population of around 200,000 (191,084 in the 2001 Census).  It is situated on the River Mersey mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester. Its historical setting is in the county of Lancashire, but administrative changes by the government in 1974 meant that Warrington came under Cheshire County Council. It became a Unitary Authority on 1 April, 1998. But the boundaries themselves haven't changed. The town is still in Lancashire. So although I was born in Lancashire in the 1960s, and I haven't moved out of town, my mailing address is now Cheshire! Many people still hold Warrington as belonging to Lancashire - and as some say, you can take Warrington out of Lancashire if you like but you'll never take the Lancashire folk out of Warrington. And there's nothing to stop you putting Warrington, Lancashire on your return address, as long as you use the post code. A good website for keeping the original Lancashire intact is The Friends of Real Lancashire (www.forl.co.uk). Townsfolk are known as "Warringtonians".

The first crossing point of the River Mersey was at Latchford, by way of a ford. See On The Waterfront for more. For centuries it was the only point west of Stretford, now in Greater Manchester, where a bridge could be built over the Mersey. Several pub names in Warrington had a connection with the waterways - The Ship, the Mermaid and the Packet House Inn; the latter is said to be the ticket office for boats travelling from here to Liverpool, located on the corner of Bridge Street and Mersey Street. By 1310, the Eighth Earl of Warrington, Sir William Fitz Henry le Boteler was empowered to collect tolls on Warrington Bridge, which lasted until the 16th century. The town has existed from early Celtic times. Local author and TV presenter Mark Olly has written a series of books about the Celtic history of the town. It has also had a Roman presence with many finds coming from the Wilderspool area in the south of the town.

The name Warrington comes from the word "werid" meaning ford, "ford town", the town on the ford. The Romans called their settlement at Wilderspool Veratinum when they moved to the area in  about AD 79, although there is no absolute evidence for this name. They left in about AD 410. The Anglo-Saxons moved in after the Romans.

The Winwick Pig: an old tale of how Winwick was named comes in this wonderful story. Kind Oswald, King of Northumbria, was killed here in battle in AD 642, and many tales were told in his honour. Travellers would stop by and pay their respects and the spot was cared for by the elders of the village. There was a large stone placed nearby which many bowed down to. It was decided to erect a church in honour of the great king, and so the plans were marked out on the ground. As it was being constructed nobody noticed a pig wandering around the site. Stone and timber were gathered for the construction and the pig went about its day hunting for food. At the end of the day the workers went home, but next day they noticed something had changed. Overnight it was reported that the pig was seen moving stones from the original site of Winwick church to its current site, crying We-ee-wick, We-ee-wick as it ran, hence Weewick, Winwick.

The nearest city to Warrington isn't Liverpool, or Manchester. It was the Saxon ruler King Edward the Elder who 'In the year 923...founded a cyty here and called it Thelwall'. He garrisoned and fortified Thelwall to secure his Saxon subjects here in order to repel the encroachments of the Northmen and others.

The historic market and industrial town of Warrington stands on the border of modern day Lancashire and Cheshire. In the ninth century this area was the border between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The river which flows through Warrington was called the Merse (click here and here for references to land between the rivers Ribble and the "Merse" in the county of Lancaster). The river's name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Maeres-ea meaning "border river". Today we call it the Mersey.

An entry in the Domesday Book of AD 1086 begins "In Walintune Hundred King Edward held Walintune with three berewicks".

The manors of Warrington were given to Peganus de Vilars, later created first Baron or Lord of Warrington in the 12th century. He died in 1156 and was succeeded by his son Matthew. Descendants of the first Baron, through their status of butler to the earl of Chester, adopted the name Le Boteleur, later Boteler (see Boteler Household section below). They continued to reside in the castle at Mote Hill behind the Parish Church of St Elphin on Church Street until it was destroyed by fire in 1260.

By 1255, Warrington was given a Royal Charter to hold an annual three day fair. See Warrington Market page for a more detailed history.

As the only crossing point into Lancashire from the south (or into Cheshire from the north), the bridge at Bridge Foot was a central theme in the development of the town. Oliver Cromwell stayed here at what eventually became the General Wolfe pub on Church Street, the centre of town in those days. The Earl of Derby based himself here in the 1640s and built up a Royalist force to fight from here.

From a market town, Warrington and Latchford then became major centres in the industrial revolution. Traditional industries include iron making (Dallam Forge), steel (British Steel, Lancashire Steel), copper-smelting, file making (Peter Stubs), soap (Lever Brothers, makers of Persil), glass making, tanning (check out Tanners Lane in the centre of town), pin making (Pinners Brow), cotton (Cockhedge Mills), sugar refining (near to the site of Warrington's bus station), sail-cloth, fustian cutting, brewing (Greenall Whitley, Tetley Walker, Burtonwood Ales), clock and watchmaking (James Carter 1780-1848 and John Kay), shipbuilding and wire manufacturing (Greenings, Rylands), to name just a few. The Rylands factory on Church Street was originally a cotton mill.

One of the most influential people in the town's history was Thomas Patten, a merchant and industrialist, who was instrumental in making the River Mersey navigable from Runcorn to Bank Quay in the late 17th century to support his copper-smelting factory. His home, Bank Hall, was designed by James Gibbs and built in 1750. It is now our town hall.

The St Helens Canal, also known as the Sankey Canal, was the first canal of the Industrial Revolution in England and opened in 1757. In 2007 it celebrated its first quarter-millennium. One of its main cargoes was sugar from Liverpool Docks to Sankey Sugar Works at Earlestown. Check out the Sankey Canal Restoration Society website. Some say the Bridgewater Canal flowing through south Warrington, which opened in 1761, was the first 'true' modern canal because it was a new waterway constructed independently of any existing watercourse except for the water supply, said to be the definition of a canal in one book I read. As the St Helens Canal was originally designed to make the Sankey Brook navigable, they say the Sankey was not the first. But the Sankey Canal people decided to built a totally separate channel of water alongside the Sankey Brook, so the reader must make their own mind up. I could throw a spanner in the works of both camps and say that the Romans built the Foss Dyke in Lincolnshire for drainage and navigation around AD 50...

Education was, and still is, an important part of Warrington's makeup. In 1757, Warrington Academy, the Athens of the North, was established at Bridge Foot; the National School was started by Rector Powys on Church Street in 1834 and Warrington Technical School opened in 1902 on Palmyra Square South, this being the forerunner of Warrington Collegiate, which was completely rebuilt for the 21st century on its Winwick Road site and opened in September 2006. The town library and museum on the corner of Bold Street and Museum Street was designed by John Dobson, a Tyneside architect in the mid 1800s. It was the first one in the country to be supported by the rates, the local tax-raising system in place at the time.

As the railways came into existence, Warrington became a major player in the transportation of goods and people from north to south and east to west. The first railway in the town was the Warrington and Newton Railway in 1831, which ran from the Three Pigeons hotel on Tanners Lane to Newton Junction (now Earlestown), whilst the Grand Junction Railway ran from Birmingham to Warrington Bank Quay from 1837. The Cheshire Lines Committee was formed from existing railways in 1865 and its route crossed Warrington Central from 1873. Nowadays, the main West Coast Mainline travels via the town from London to Glasgow through Warrington Bank Quay, also supporting cross-country journeys from the south west (Devon and Cornwall) to the north east (Newcastle and Edinburgh), with the Trans-Pennine route from Liverpool to Yorkshire and the North East and the Midlands running via Warrington Central. See Making Tracks for more on the railways.

The town's parliamentary progress started out with borough status in 1832, becoming  a corporate borough in 1847. The Mersey became the borough boundary in St Austin's Ward as a result of the  Borough Extension Act, whilst in 1890 the town was divided into nine wards for municipal purposes. Its status was raised to County Borough in 1900. From 1974 the political boundaries were changed and Warrington came under the administration of Cheshire County Council. In 1998 Warrington became a Unitary Authority and is currently hoping for city status.

Burtonwood Air Base in the west of the town played a vital role in Britain's efforts during the Second World War and afterwards during the Berlin Airlift. The RAF station was taken over by the Americans as a repair and refuelling depot. Nowadays, the M62 motorway is built on part of the old runway, and the site is now being redeveloped for housing and employment. Steeplejack and TV personality, the late Fred Dibnah from Bolton, was given the task of pulling down the old control tower. At the opposite end of town there was an airfield at Stretton. See RAF Burtonwood for more.

Public transport began in the tramway era between 1902 and 1935 and the modern Network Warrington fleet contains over 100 vehicles, many using new fuel-efficient eco-friendly engines with video recording and Real Time Passenger Information via satellite. See On The Buses for more.

One of the saddest events in the town's recent history was the IRA bomb outside McDonalds in Bridge Street on 20 March 1993 when Johnathan Ball, aged three, and Tim Parry, aged twelve, lost their lives in the atrocity. The River of Life street scene and sculpture on Bridge Street is a memorial for the two boys. The terror followed a failed plot to blow up the gas works on Winwick Road a few weeks earlier. In Old Hall, the Peace Centre was built to encourage children from all over the world to meet up and share their cultures. It opened on the seventh anniversary of the boys' deaths in 2000, and was renamed the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation.

The town's rugby league team used to be known as "The Wire" - it still is if you ask many of the fans - but since the rugby Super League set up in 1996, they are now known as Warrington Wolves. No longer playing at Wilderspool, a brand new £12million stadium on the site of the former Tetley Walker brewery at Winwick Road became their new home in 2004. See Warrington Wolves for a history of the club.

In fact, sport is a major pastime for many of the townsfolk. Warrington Town Football Club (who have played at Wembley) are based in Latchford, the cricket club is at Walton, Warrington Golf Club is in Appleton and tennis facilities are available at Birchwood and Sankey. The town's premier athletics track is at Victoria Park, the home of Warrington Athletics Club, who use a synthetic 8-lane circuit which was installed in 1998. The Park also features a skateboard facility, football and rugby pitches, as well as the gentler game of crown green bowls. Nearby, Warrington Rowing Club are based at Howley on the River Mersey.

Arts and entertainment takes place at the Parr Hall (opened in 1895) and the Pyramid Arts Centre, both on Palmyra Square South.

Relaxation and recreation are available in the many parks, gardens and nature reserves around the town. Risley Moss and Birchwood Forest Park are built on the old munitions factory site in east Warrington. Walton Hall Gardens, once the home of the Greenall's brewing family, is in the south of the town, while Sankey Valley Park is in the west. Old farmland, industrial areas and disused railway lines have been put to excellent use as open green spaces for the benefit of all. See Warrington Green for more details. The Trans Pennine Trail cuts right through the heart of Warrington, and the waterways in the town are wonderful places to catch up on some of the industrial history, or simply to relax. See On The Waterfront for a history of the waterways. You can pick up leaflets about all the places mentioned from the town's Information Centres, or download them from the Warrington Borough Council website.

The only cinema in the town is actually in the out-of-town-centre district of Westbrook, but the planned Wire Works development, approved by the government in 2007, will once again see cinema-goers travelling to the town centre for a night at the flicks. The Wire Works is a mixed-use development of residential apartments, cinema, hotel, restaurants and gymnasium destined for Winwick Street, with work due to start in late 2008. Mr Smiths nightclub was housed in the old Ritz/ABC cinema at Bridge Foot until it closed down in 2006, but then reopened under a new name, Synergy in 2008, and later became Halo. A group called Theatre 4 Warrington held a publicity campaign to open it as a theatre, as it had been many years earlier. The famous Hollywood comedy duo Laurel and Hardy visited the venue when they toured the UK in 1952. Click here for the Theatre 4 Warrington web presence on MySpace.

Other entertainment in the town includes a bowling alley at Winwick Quay (LA Bowl) and go-carting at Arpley. The town's nightclub scene is located around Bridge Street, Friars Gate, Barbauld Street and Rylands Street. For the steady gambler there is a large bingo hall built on the land once occupied by the large Armitage & Rigby Cotton Mill off Scotland Road.

Walking Day is an annual event which began in the 1830s to entice people away from the Newton Races. It is a religious walk of witness by the churches of the town. See Memory Lane for more.

Shoppers are catered for at Warrington Market, which has been running continuously for over 750 years, Cockhedge Shopping Park and the newly extended Golden Square shopping centre. The main town centre streets of Church Street, Mersey Street, Bold Street, Sankey Street, Bridge Street, Buttermarket Street, Horsemarket Street, Cairo Street and Rylands Street also cater for shoppers. A new state-of-the-art bus station, Warrington Interchange, complements the Golden Square and opened in 2006. During 2007, Warrington Borough Council profiled this website by displaying some of my photographs of the bus stations in the entrance of the Interchange. See On the Buses and Peter's Gallery for those images. Out-of-town shopping includes Gemini Retail Park in the west and Birchwood Shopping Centre in the east. Elsewhere, the villages of Culcheth in the east and Stockton Heath and Lymm in the south, provide many opportunities for shoppers. A market takes place in Lymm every Thursday.

Nowadays, due to its central location on three motorway networks, M6, M56 and M62, and two major rail routes, the West Coast Mainline and Trans-Pennine route, with links to the region's two international airports at Manchester and Liverpool, Warrington has once again become an important place for business. Swedish furniture company Ikea made Warrington their first UK location, at Gemini Retail Park mentioned earlier. In fact, they invented the flat-pack culture we all love (or hate!) back in 1956. One of the draughtsmen at the company took the legs off a table to get it into his car. He told his bosses and the rest is history. Close to Gemini is Chapelford Urban Village, a new area in west Warrington with 2,000 new houses built there in the early part of the 21st century. Later, the Omega Business Park will begin in the same area. Taking about 18 years to complete, Omega is a £1billion redevelopment on the land formerly occupied by Burtonwood Air Base, which will attract businesses, housing and employment.

Many famous visitors have graced our pavements, including authors Daniel Defoe and Charles Dickens. Members of Royalty to visit include the Queen (who officially opened the original Golden Square shopping centre in 1979), Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1984 and the Queen Mother in her younger days. More recently the Earl and Countess of Wessex have visited, as well as Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, in 2006. TV and radio presenter Chris Evans was born here, as were actor Pete Postlethwaite and singer Kerry McFadden (nee Katona). Former Prime Minister John Major paid us a visit in June 2006. See Warrington People for more on the town's famous.

The three main newspapers in the town are South Warrington News,  Warrington-Worldwide and the Warrington Guardian. South Warrington News publish a monthly newspaper, which started out in 1993 as Shopfront, also available online in PDF format. Warrington-Worldwide is an online daily newspaper owned by Orbit News, which also publishes 5 free monthly magazines (Warrington-Worldwide, Lymm Life, Village Life, Culcheth Life and Frodsham Life). It now operates warrington.tv which broadcasts online video news of local events. Warrington-Worldwide started out as Business Connections in April, 1999. See their website for further details.

Warrington has its own radio station, 107.2 Wire FM which broadcasts music news and views 24 hours a day from its base in Orford to its catchment area of Warrington, Runcorn and Widnes. It began broadcasting on 1 September 1998 and is owned by UTV.

A new Warrington radio station was launched in 2007. Radio Warrington started out as Radio WORM (Warrington's Online Radio Media) and broadcasts 24 hours a day on the internet. News is provided by Warrington Worldwide.

Warrington is twinned with four cities:

Publications still on sale in June 2009:

For more on the history of the town, I recommend the extensive archive of Warrington Library.

BOTELER HOUSEHOLD & EARLS OF CHESTER

The Boteler (Pincerna) Family & the Earls of Chester.

The name 'Pincerna' is first mentioned in the Domesday Book, when a man named Richard Pincerna is listed as being the holder of the manor of Poulton just outside Chester. The Pincerna family also held land and property in Chester itself.

The name 'Pincerna' is Latin for 'butler', and in the early to mid 12th century a Robert Pincerna was butler in the household of Ranulf of Gernons - Ranulf II - the 4th Earl of Chester. The post of butler in a noble household such as this was quite a high rank & respectable position (the butler being responsible for the ordering in and service of the wine and other drink).

In the 1150's another Richard Pincerna - son of Robert - took up the position of butler to Earl Ranulf - this was shortly before or around the time of Ranulf's death in 1153. Richard is likely to have stayed on as butler to Hugh II - the 5th Earl of Chester and son of Ranulf II.

In - or around - the year 1160 this same Richard Pincerna became the second husband of Beatrix de Vilars - the 3rd baron of the town of Warrington. Therefore - through this marriage - Richard became known as the 4th lord/baron of Warrington, and subsequently the first of the line of 'Lord Botelers''.

The motto of the later family was 'DEUS SPES NOSTRA' which translates as 'God our Protector'.

Warrington experienced an earthquake on 2 April 1750.

Entertainer George Formby is buried at Warrington cemetery. And something you won't know: his song The Window Cleaner was about a real-life window cleaner John Edwin Marlow. His (John's) grandson is my friend, Myles Crozier,  a member of Warrington Male Voice Choir. Read George's biography in Warrington People.

The centre of the town used to be on Church Street.

Alan Beswick, broadcaster on BBC GMR, was born here.

Warrington became the first paved town in Lancashire in 1321.

Sailcloth for Nelson's fleet was made here in the 19th Century.

Salmon used to swim in the River Mersey.

The first newspaper in Lancashire, the Warrington Advertiser, was published by Eyre's Press in 1757.

Warrington had a castle at Mote Hill, close to the Parish Church.

The former Warrington Housing Association office building on Buttermarket Street opposite St Mary's Church was originally a residence for nuns.

St James' Church Sunday School opened in 1779, believed to be the first in the county.

Warrington Wolves (The Wire) have never been out of the top flight since the Rugby League was formed in 1895.

The first Boulton & Watt steam engine used in Lancashire was installed in a Latchford cotton mill in 1787.

The town's first MP was E.G. Hornby (Liberal) in 1832.

The first ever Lancashire county cricket match was played in Warrington in 1864.

Jim Hancock (ex-BBC northwest political editor), former Liverpool footballer Roger Hunt and Matthew Corbett (of Sooty Show fame) all live in the town.

There are currently no street names in Warrington beginning with either X or Z (unless you know different!).

The list is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to be. Additional events of Warrington's history can be found elsewhere on the site (in the two Tours and Warrington People, for instance). I hope to cover more about the town's history on this page. If you think something should be included here, let me know. Click the links to jump to a section

65,000,000 BC Tyrannosaurus Rex walks down Bridge Street (well, he might have done!).

c1000 BC Evidence of a Bronze Age settlement found at Grappenhall.

74 AD The Romans arrive - River Mersey crossed by a ford at Latchford. Manufacture of glass, iron, bronze and pottery at Wilderspool (to about the 4th century).

5th -11th centuries Saxons and Danes follow the Romans.

c642 Saxon Parish Church of St Elphin founded.

642 King Oswald slain at Winwick.

c1070 Warrington Castle built at Mote Hill, behind Parish Church of St Elphin.

1086 Warrington is recorded in the Domesday Book. Other local names include Arpley, Howley, Latchford, Orford, Bewsey and Sankey.

1086 Domesday Book records a church on the site of present day St Mary's Church by Lymm Dam.

1150 First Norman Parish Church built in the town by Matthew de Villars, 2nd Lord of Warrington.

1255 Town given a royal charter to hold a weekly market. See Warrington Market for more.

c1256 William le Boteler moves to Bewsey Hall.

c1260 Castle on Mote Hill destroyed by fire.

c1265 Warrington Friary Established (Wetherspoon's pub, The Friar Penketh, now stands on the site).

1285 First bridge over the Mersey at Warrington.

1310 Tolls introduced by Edward II to repair Warrington Bridge (they were lifted in 1504).

1321 Streets of Warrington are paved - first in the county of Lancashire.

1325 Market Street mentioned.

1352 Ferry crossing of the Mersey near Hollins Green mentioned in a murder trial close to the present day location of Warburton Bridge.

1354 Norman Parish Church pulled down, new one built by William Fitz William le Boteler.

c1357 Hill Cliffe Baptist Chapel established. The exact date isn't known, but is said to be found on a stone in the burial ground.

1369 2nd bridge over the Mersey at Bridge Foot.

1386 Scrope and Grosvenor case of arms tried at the Friary.

1407 Sankey Brook contained fish.

1459 Warrington fights in the War of the Roses.

1465 The Legh Manuscript of life in Warrington is produced.

1465 The following areas of town are listed: Pighill, Cockhedge, White Cross, Slutchers Lane, Newgate Street (later Bridge Street), Sankey Street, Winwick Street, Butter Market, and Church Street.

1465 Population 1,341 (191,084 in the 2001 Census).

1465 Sir John Fitzjohn le Boteler murdered at Bewsey.

1495 Warrington Bridge rebuilt in stone by the Earl of Derby (3rd on the site).

1526 Warrington Grammar School founded by Sir Thomas le Boteler.

1536 Warrington Friary closed.

1561 Barley Mow pub built on what is now called Old Market Place in Golden Square (the oldest building still standing in the town).

1586 The "Golden Grey" ship sailed from Liverpool with cloth manufactured in Warrington.

1588 Population approximately 2,250.

1597 Boteler estates sold.

1599 Thomas Dallam (from the then-village of Dallam) delivered an organ to the Sultan of Turkey after one was requested from Queen Elizabeth I (she lived from 1533 to 1603).

1617 James I stayed at Bewsey Old Hall. He knighted Thomas Ireland during his visit.

1624 Wilderspool Causeway built.

1632 Black Horse pub, Liverpool Road, built (still standing today).

1641-2 The Civil War - the King's standard raised at Warrington, due to its river crossing and the road north.

1642-3 Warrington Siege began and ended.

1646 Oct 16 Elias Ashmole made a Freemason at Warrington, in first recorded initiation.

1647 Town Bell given to the town by Col. John Booth. It is erected in the Court House at Golden Square and is now in Holy Trinity church tower.

1648 Town captured by the Parliamentarians.

1648 Oliver Cromwell slept in the town.

1648 Pin making industry established in the town.

1649 Jun 10 Richard Warburton marries Ann Domvill at Lymm.

1651 Battle of Warrington Bridge.

1653 William Booth appointed as Postmaster of Warrington.

1656 Plague house built at Latchford (it was called this after the outbreak of plague when it affected the residents).

1657 The Earl of Derby passes through the town on his way to his execution.

1660 Royal Oak pub is mentioned in Bridge Street.

1665 Plague in Warrington.

1675 Quaker George Fox visits Warrington.

1677 Blue Coat charity founded.

1680 Bricks first used for building of houses.

1690 Henry Booth, Lord Delamere, became the first Earl of Warrington.

1694 Thomas Patten makes Mersey navigable from Bank Quay to Runcorn.

1695 Warrington's first glass works opened at Bank Quay.

1700-1761 Horse racing at Latchford.          

1702 Cairo Street Chapel built.

1709 Holy Trinity Church founded.

1711 Warrington Blue Coat School founded in house behind Holy Trinity church.

1717 The Patten family open a copper smelting works at Bank Quay.

1717 40th Regiment South Lancashire Regiment raised.

1717 Sugar refining at Bewsey Street, Warrington.

1720 The Society of Friends chapel built in Buttermarket Street.

1724 A series of weirs built on the Mersey at Latchford.

1727-29 A workhouse was established on Church Street.

1734 William Eyres, printer, founder of Eyre's Press, born in Warrington.

1745 The Liverpool Volunteer Cavalry defend Warrington Bridge against Charles Edward Stewart, the Young Pretender.

1750 Thomas Patten builds the Georgian style mansion Bank Hall - later to be become the Town Hall.

1750 Apr 2 An earthquake hits Warrington.

1755 Work starts on the cutting of the Sankey Canal (opened 1757).

1755 Apr 14 Preacher John Wesley first visits Warrington. He visited on various occasions between now and 1790.

1756 Peter Stubs, file and toolmaker, born.

1756 Eyre's Weekly Journal (also called the Warrington Advertiser) first published - first newspaper in Warrington and Lancashire.

1757 Warrington Flying Stage Coach established from London to Warrington Red Lion on Bridge Street. The journey took three days. (Took nearly as long in January 2007 when railway engineering works ran over schedule!).

1757 Oct 23 Warrington Academy established.

1757 Road between Warrington and Prescot completed.

1757 Sankey Canal, first in England, opened. It was the first canal cut in England during the Industrial Revolution.

1759 Sep Sir Thomas Boteler died.

1760 Circulating Library established, forerunner of the Public Library in 1848.

1761 Howley Quay built.

c1761 Mersey Flour Mills established.

1765 Manorial Rights of Warrington purchased by John Blackburne. The modern Blackburne Arms pub near Orford Park is named after him.

1769 Mar 10 Joseph Williamson, known as the Mole of Liverpool, born in poverty in Warrington.

1770 Bridgewater Canal opens through south Warrington.

1772 Population 7,000.

1772 Basket making carried out at the Twiggery located near Farrell Street. Read about the Twiggeries in Warrington Green.

1773 Oct 2 Packet Boats started a service from Castlefield, Manchester to Warrington via the Bridgewater Canal.

1773 Manchester, Warrington and Liverpool stagecoach begins to run three times a week.

1777 St James' Chapel, Latchford's first public place of worship, founded.

1777 Sep 14 Earthquake in Warrington.

1777 John Howard (1729-90), prison reformer, visits the Bridewell (Warrington's former town centre prison) and lodges at silversmith's shop in Bridge Street Warrington while he writes his book. The former Boots the Chemist branch on the east side of Bridge Street is called the Howard Buildings.

1779 First Sunday School in the county at St James' Chapel.

1780 Sankey Wire Mills founded.

1780 Peter Stubs file and tool business started.

1780 Wilderspool Brewery established.

1781 Tanning industry started by Matthew Knowles.

1782 Blue Coat School opened on Winwick Street.

1782 Parr's Bank established by Messrs. Parr, Lyon and Kerfoot. The modern-day NatWest branch on Winwick Street is housed in the old bank building.

1786 Greenall Whitley brewery established at Wilderspool (business set up in 1762 in St Helens).

1786 Jun 29 Warrington Academy is dissolved and moved to Manchester.

1787 First steam engine installed in a Warrington factory, Peel's cotton mill in Latchford.

1787 Edelsten & Son Mersey Pin Works established.

1790 May 7 Preacher John Wesley visits the town for the final time.

1791 Dec 6 Fire at Bridge Factory.

1792 A sudden and violent hailstorm ruins local fruit and garden produce (16 Jul). I wondered why supermarket prices went up that week!

1796 Friars Green Methodist Church founded.

1796 Nov 5 The tide reaches Warrington. The Mersey was 4 feet above normal high tide.

1797 J & F Bolton's Pottery started at Bank Quay (closed 1812).

1798 Loyal Volunteers ("Bluebacks") raised. Disbanded 1801.

1798 Jan 27 Fire at Mersey Mills.

1799 Nathaniel Greenings Wire Works established on Bridge Street, later moving to Bewsey Road in 1843. The company closed down in December 1980.

1801 Feb 7 John Rylands born in St Helens.

1803 Warrington Volunteer Infantry ("Robin Redbreasts") formed.

1804 Runcorn and Latchford Canal opens to link Warrington with Runcorn. It was also known as the Old Quay Canal and the Black Bear Canal and was eight miles long. Work began in 1801.

1805 Lorenzo Dow, American Methodist minister visits Warrington.

1805 John Rylands began his wire making business in a mill on Bridge Street.

1808 Warrington Local Militia raised.

1810 The Warrington Dispensary opened in the market place to improve the health of the town.

1810 Town Bell moved from old Court House in Golden Square to Holy Trinity church tower.

1813 Jun 3 Act passed for Warrington to have town commissioners.

1814-15 Joseph Crosfield opened up his soap making business (set up 1814, production began 1815).

1815 4th Warrington bridge, Harrison's Bridge, built of wood at Bridge Foot.

1817 Wesleyan Sunday School built on Buttermarket Street.

1817 Jan 20 Fire in nursery at Bank Hall.

1817 Jan 23 Fire at Bewsey Street Sugar Mills.

1818 May 7 Warrington Savings Bank established.

1818 First theatre, later known as the Theatre Royal, opened on Scotland Road.

1819 McAdam (tarmac) roads introduced to the town.

1819 Mar 11 Warrington Ladies Charity founded.

1820 Mar 8 Appleton Hall burnt down.

1820 The original Town Hall (or Sessions House) built in Irlam Street, off Buttermarket Street and Dial Street.

1821 Gas lighting comes to Warrington.

1821 Population 13,750.

1822 Nov 27. Old Billy, the oldest horse in the world, dies aged 62. He worked for the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company and retired to the Old Warps Estate in 1819. The Old Warps eventually became Victoria Park.

1822 Dec 6 Steeple of Holy Trinity church blown down in a storm.

1823 St Albans Church, Bewsey Street, built.

1824 Lymm Dam was formed by the creation of a turnpike road from Warrington to Stockport.

1825 Mechanics Institute (possibly Institution) founded.

1825 A weekly magazine, The Butterfly, appeared (how long it lasted isn't known).

1827 St Martin's Church, Woolston, founded.

1827 Feb 24 Fire at Wharf Meadow Factory.

1828 A great flood on the Mersey sees boats floating down Bridge Street.

1828 First fire appliances in the town - six small engines, buckets and ladders.

1829 St James Church, Latchford, rebuilt.

1830 St Paul’s Church, Bewsey Road, founded (St Paul’s Court nursing home now stands on the site).

1830 Stretton Road completed.

1830 Apr 4 First Total Abstinence Society in England formed at Warrington.

1830 Sep 30 Bridge Mills, Warrington - burnt down.

1830 Dec 9 Fire at Mersey Corn Mills - burnt down.

1830 Dec 10 Morley Stevenson reads his booklet ‘Beautiful Warrington’ to the Literary and Philosophical Society.

1831 Jul 25 Warrington joins the Liverpool and Manchester railway network - from Dallam Lane to Newton Junction.

1831 James Fairclough opens up his flourmill at Bank Quay.

1831-2 Cholera outbreak hits the town. 169 died during the summer of 1832.

1832 Sep 3 Warrington to Wigan section of railway opened.

1832 Dec 12 Warrington became a Parliamentary Borough (first representative E.G. Hornby. Liberal won by 203 votes).

1833 Epidemic of Cholera hits Warrington.

1834 National School established.

1834 Musical Society founded.

1834 Aug 8 Poor Law Act passed and Warrington Poor Law Union formed.

1835 Warrington Walking Day founded by the Reverend Horace Powys, Rector of Warrington, to entice people away from the horseracing at nearby Haydock Park. The exact date cannot be confirmed, but it is generally accepted that the year was between 1832-5.

1836 Dec 21 Police Commissioners decided to pay the town bell ringer!

1837 Warrington gets its first police force, a constable and four assistant constables.

1837 Warrington Bank Quay railway station opened.

1837 Jul 4 Grand Junction Railway through Warrington opened.

1837 5th Warrington Bridge, Victoria Bridge, built out of stone.

1837 Warrington Cricket Club founded.

1838 Nov 24 Fire at Mersey Street Tannery - burnt down.

1840 Jan 2 Fire at Gibson’s Foundry - burnt down.

1840 Cockhedge Mills purchased by Armitage & Rigby.

1840 James Fairclough & Sons Mersey Mills founded.

1840s Warrington held a Regatta on the Mersey.

1840-55 Shipbuilding industry at Warrington.

1843 Nathaniel Greening (N Greening & Sons) begins wire-weaving factory on Bewsey Road (my dad worked there). The company was established on Church Street in 1799 and the Bewsey Road site closed in December 1980.

1843 Oct 18 Luke Fildes, famous Warrington artist, born.

1843 An earthquake hits the town.

1844 Warrington Training College founded by Rector Powys.

1845 Dallam Forge set up for iron making.

1847 Apr 3 Warrington receives a Charter to become a Town after Royal Ascent.

1847 Jun 1 Warrington held its first town elections.

1847 Jun 9 Warrington Council met for the first time.

1847 Sep 10 Mayor and Council walk Warrington boundary for the first time.

1847 Dec 1 Warrington lost 6 minutes as it adopted British Standard Time.

1847 First Warrington waterworks built.

1847 William Beamont becomes the town's first mayor and chief magistrate.

1848 Jan 2 John Rylands married his second wife, Martha, at St Peter’s Church Newton-Le-Willows.

1848 Jun 3 Museum and Library established at Friars Green House.

1848 Warrington becomes the first town in the country to support a public library from the rates.

1850 Oct 22 Fire at Allen’s factory - burnt down.

1850 Thomas Hutchinson & Co, Basket Makers, established.

1850 Bold Street Wesleyan Church established.

1850 Great Oak, Winwick, blown down.

1851 Population 36,164.

1851 St Mary's Church by Lymm Dam rebuilt with financial help from local family, the Dewhursts. The tower was added in 1890.

1853 Feb 1 Warrington (Whitecross) to Widnes Railway opened (LNWR).

1853 Oct 4 Warrington’s famous ship Tayleur launched at Vulcan foundry, Newton-Le-Willows.

1853 Warrington Guardian newspaper first published.

1853 Warrington School of Art founded.

1853 Heathside Church of England (C of E) School built.

1854 Jan 21 Warrington’s famous ship Tayleur wrecked of Lambay Island, killing all 334 on board.

1855 Sep 20 Foundation Stone for new Warrington Museum building laid by William Beamont.

1855 Oct 25 Foundation Stone for Warrington Market Hall laid by Mayor H. White.

1855 River Mersey freezes over, people skate on it.

1856 Market Hall built.

1857 Mar 26 The Borough Cemetery on Manchester Road was officially opened.

1857 New Warrington Museum opens on Bold Street.

1858 Arpley canons from Russia celebrate the end of the Crimean War (see a plaque in the 2004 restored Queens Gardens).

1858 Roberts Shoe Shop opens on Bridge Street. They run the franchise for Clarks shoes and now operate from Golden Square shopping centre.

1858 9th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers formed.

1859 Apr 25 Work started on rebuilding Warrington Parish Church and adding a 277½ft spire, the third-highest in the country.

1859 Dec 25 Foundation Stone for Parish Church restoration laid.

1860 Parish Church reopened.

1860 Rylands Street was built.

1860 The Co-operative society begins trading in Warrington. Frederick W. Monks, a founder member, was the first person to sign the register of members in 1861.

1861 Population 24,050 (Census).

1861 Public Hall built.

1861 Christ Church Latchford consecrated.

1861 Latchford Baptist Church built.

1861 A comet is visible in the sky.

1862 The Advertiser newspaper first published.

1862 St Anne's C of E School built.

1863 River Mersey floods.

1863 Earthquake in the town.

1863 Mar 10 Holy Trinity clock illuminated for the first time.

1864 Whitecross Co founded.

1864 First Lancashire County Cricket match held at Warrington. Messrs. James Fairclough and John White played in the team. (The Official Lancashire County Cricket Club website says they played their first County match at Old Trafford in 1865.)

1865 Foundation Stone for Warrington baths laid.

1866 Warrington Baths opened on Legh Street (closed 2003).

1866 Peter Walker opened his brewery on Dallam Lane.

1866 Nov 17 River Mersey rises and floods the centre of Warrington.

1867 An attempt was made to blow up the gas works.

1867 Apr 2 George Greenall born at Walton Hall.

1867 Jun 29 Trains collide at Walton Junction, killing 8.

1867 Burtonwood brewery established by James and Jane Forshaw (taken over by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries on 3 Dec 2004).

1868 St Anne's C of E Church built (it is now the indoor rock-climbing venue "The North West Face", which opened in 1996).

1868 Bank Quay railway station opened by the LNWR.

1868 St James' C of E School built.

1868 Trinity C of E School built.

1868 Wycliffe Nonconformist School built.

1869 Feb 25 St Anne’s Church consecrated.

1869 The Literary and Philosophical Society formed.

1869 Robinson & Skinner's Glass Works established at Bank Quay.

1863 Charles Dickens visits the Public Hall on Rylands Street.

1871 Oct 12 Two were killed at wire works during celebrations for Emma Rylands wedding.

1872 Jun 15 Fire at Cockhedge factory - burnt down.

1872 Thomas Fletcher begins manufacturing gas appliances.

1872 The town Corporation buys Bank Hall and Park for £22,000, later to become the Town Hall and Bank Park.

1872 Our Ladies Catholic School, Latchford, built.

1873 Aug 1 A Liverpool to Manchester railway service was started via Bank Quay Low Level Station.

1873 Jun 20 Bank Park opened.

1873 Aug 1 Warrington Central Station opened to passengers.

1873 Sep 1 Padgate Station opened.

1873 Liverpool Extension Railway from Cressington to Glazebrook opened.

1874 May Sankey Station opened.

1874 Monks Hall iron-making business founded.

1874 Pearson & Knowles Coal and Iron Co Ltd formed by the amalgamation of Dallam Forge Co, Warrington Wire Co and Pearson & Knowles.

1874 Oct 24 Fire at Messrs. Parkinson, Manor Tannery - burned for 6 days and 5 nights.

1875 The Warrington Examiner newspaper first published (no longer exists).

1876 Warrington Chamber of Commerce founded.

1877 Jan 24 Warrington Infirmary opened on Kendrick Street.

1877 Oct 4 Art Gallery opened.

1877 The Evening Post newspaper first published (closed 1880).

1877 Jan 31 Hamilton Street School built  - closed and demolished around 1972-3. I was educated there.

1877 Silver Street Nonconformist school built.

1877 St Mary's Church on Buttermarket Street founded.

1877 Gas works bought by Warrington Corporation.

1878 The present Bank Quay railway station built.

1878 Aug 29 Foundation stone for Warrington Contagious Diseases Hospital laid.

1878 The Observer newspaper (not the national one) first published.

1878 Peninsula Barracks, base for the South Lancashire Regiment, built (known then as Orford Barracks).

1878 Fever Hospital built.

1878 Nov 26 Fire at Wharf Meadow factory.

1879 St Barnabas' Church, Lovely Lane, opens.

1879 Warrington Rugby League Football Club formed.

1879 Fire station opens on Queen Street.

1879 Emmanuel Free Church of England church founded.

1880 R & J Gartons seed house established at Arpley. Became limited company in 1898.

1880 Castle Rubber Company established in Warrington. Originally in Manchester 1865.

1880 The town receives its first steam-powered fire engine (from 1828 they had all been manual). "Major" tackled the first fire in Academy Street on 9 Jun.

1881 St Benedict's Catholic School built (relocated to Quebec Road - a housing estate is built on the original land near Orford Lane).

1881 Jan 9 River Mersey frozen solid and winter sports held on the river.

1881 Population 42,552 (Census).

1882 Warrington Slate Company Ltd founded.

1882 Sep 23  Warrington Swimming Club established.

1883 Nov 8 The New School of Art opens on Museum St (opposite the library). The original opened in 1854.

1883 Howley Recreation Ground opened.

1883 Mar 8 Fire at Castle Rubber factory.

1883 Aug 25 Fire at Wright's timber yard, Edgeworth Street.

1883 Firth Wire Company established in Froghall Lane.

1884 St Mary's Catholic School built.

1884 Conservative Club on Sankey Street built. Now the site of Hilden House.

1885 Nov 4 New Theatre Royal opened.

1885 St John's Church, Higher Walton, consecrated.

1885 Aug 6 Manchester Ship Canal Bill finally received Royal Ascent (opened 1894).

1885 Parr Hall was built.

1885 St Barnabas C of E School built.

1886 Warrington Photographic Society formed.

1887 Hodgkinson's emporium opens on Bridge Street selling drapery, linens, silk and household furnishings. Until recently, the same building was used by JJB Sports. It is now the home for Nobles Amusements.

1887 St Peter's C of E School built.

1887 Silver Street Nonconformist School built.

1887 Feb 8 Mr Peter Rylands M.P. died.

1887 Jul 1 Foundation stone of Warrington Training College Chapel laid.

1887 Nov 13 Captain Sylvanus Reynolds, of the Warrington Volunteers, dies in a shooting accident, aged 57.

1887 Ragged school founded.

1887 Feb 6 Fire at Hutchings' Tannery.

1889 Jun 6 William Beamont, historian and first Mayor of Warrington, died.

1890 Richmond's gas cooker company established.

1891 Sep 23 St Peter's Church was consecrated. I lived 100 yards from it as a child and was christened there. It closed in 1977.

1891 Aug 4 Warrington Public Library was made free to town citizens ( one of the first in the country to do so).

1891 Population 52,742 (Census).

1892 Jul 11 Lord Winmarleigh died.

1892 Thomas Fletcher joins up with W. & A C Russell to form Fletcher Russell & Co.

1893 St Luke's Church consecrated.

1894 Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Bank Quay, built.

1894 May 21 The Manchester Ship Canal, passing through Warrington, opened by Queen Victoria. (River Mersey was diverted).

1894 Apr 10 Accident at Latchford Locks closes the Manchester Ship Canal for weeks.

1894 Edwin Allen art and craft shop established on Buttermarket Street (and still going strong).

1894 The new Theatre Royal opened in Rylands Street (the former Poll Tax House council office stands there now).

1894 Dec 13 Hollinfare cemetery officially opened on Dame Head Lane, Rixton.

1895 Jun 28 Town Hall (Golden) Gates donated to the town by Frederick W. Monks (we came by them after they were rejected by Queen Victoria, because a statue of Oliver Cromwell stood in front of them).

1895 Apr 10 Gates at Latchford Locks demolished.

1895 May 10 Fire at Messrs. Skelton, Jubilee buildings.

1895 Jul 28 Warrington becomes a member of the Northern Union (Rugby League) when it was formed at St George’s Hotel in Huddersfield. Warrington has been in the top flight ever since.

1895 Parr Hall presented to the town by J. C. Parr of Parr's Bank (now NatWest on Winwick Street).

1896 Sacred Heart Catholic School, Liverpool Road, built.

1896 Oct 30 Lady Greenall of Walton Hall, died.

1896 Nov 9 Warrington Borough Extension Act came into force.

1896 St Benedict’s School Chapel, Orford Lane, opened.

1897 Victoria Park opens in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond (60th) Anniversary.

1898 Queens Gardens opens to the public (they were purchased by the Borough Council on 10 March 1897 and dedicated 3 April 1897).

1898 Mar 21 Lever’s Toilet Soap (made in Warrington) goes on sale for the first time.

1898 County Court built.

1898 Jul 17 Fire at Richmond & Co, Academy Street.

1898 Warrington Society founded.

1899 Apr 5 Warrington’s old Academy re-opened.

1899 Jul 29 Statue of Oliver Cromwell unveiled at Bridge Foot. Presented by Mr Frederick W. Monks.

1899 Aug 9 Warrington Corporation Act receives Royal Ascent.

1899 Oct 20 Foundation stone laid at new police building in Arpley Street.

1899 Walker Fountain donated to the town by Sir Peter Carlaw Walker (later scrapped for the war effort). It stood behind the Golden Gates on the Town Hall lawn.

1900 Alliance Box Co Ltd established on Orford Lane.

1900 Electricity power plant built on the northern bank of the Mersey.

1900 Oct 1 The town becomes a County Borough.

1900 Oct 11 Burtonwood cemetery officially opened on Chapel Lane.

1900 First aerial photograph of Warrington taken from a hot air balloon. It features Greenall's Brewery at Wilderspool.

1901 Population 64,701 (Census).

1901 Our Lady's of the Assumption Church, in St Mary's Street, Latchford, founded.

1901 Police station rebuilt on Arpley Street.

1901 Warrington Athletic Club was formed in at the Bridge Inn public house. The pub used to stand next to the bridge at bottom of Wilderspool Causeway.  It was demolished in 1910.

1902 Electric tramways start on the streets of Warrington.

1902 Oct 28 New Municipal Technical School opened.

1903 Warrington Golf Club established.

1903 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show comes to town.

1903 Jun 8 Fire at Fleming's Tannery.

1903 Aug 21 Fire at Greenhalgh & Co, Church Street.

1903 Sankey Recreation Ground opened.

1905 Jun 27 The ‘Beautiful Warrington’ Society held its first meeting.

1905 The area’s first municipal bowling green was opened at Victoria Park in 1905.

1905 Warrington Rugby Club win the Northern Union Cup.

1905 Mar 9 Fire at Mortimer's Tannery.

1906 Dec 25 Royal Court Theatre burnt down.

1907 St Elphin's Park purchased by the Borough and opened to the public.

1907 Warrington Rugby Club win the Northern Union Cup for second time.

1907 Jan 31 Warrington Infirmary extension foundation stone laid.

1907 Feb 21 Warrington’s Boer War Memorial and a statue of Col. W McCarthy O'Leary, unveiled by General
Butler in Queens Gardens. O'Leary St in Orford named after him.

1907 Jul 17 Fire at Naylor's Howley saw mills causes £20,000 of damage.

1907 Aug 7 Warrington’s Royal Court Theatre re-opened after a fire.

1907 Sep 21 Palace and Hippodrome Theatre opened.

1908 Mar 19 Warrington Infirmary extension opened by Lord Cross.

1908 Mar 30 Last of the Bridge Street old houses cleared away before the street was widened.

1908 Apr 4 The Warrington Volunteers held their last parade through the town.

1908 Jul 19 The 4^th Battalion, the Prince of Wales Volunteers, held their first church parade.

1908 Springfield Street post office built (now a restaurant, Le Frog Bistro - the sorting office is now on Milner Street, the post office is in Golden Square).

1908 Jan First cinema in Warrington opened at 22 Golborne Street. It closed October the same year.

1908 Garden Suburbs inaugurated. Bewsey estate was the first.

1908 Bolton Council School, Latchford, opened.

1908 Bridge Street widening scheme completed.

1909 Jul 6 King Edward, Queen Alexandria and Princess Victoria visit the town.

1909 Persil soap powder first manufactured at Bank Quay.

1910 Proclamation of King George V at the Town Hall.

1910 Aug 9 Fire at Mortimer's Tannery, Orford.

1911 Jan 19 ‘Orient Missionary Exhibition’ opens at Parr Hall.

1911 Jan 21 ‘Walking the Boundary’ first held in Penketh. Click here for a history of Penketh.

1911 Feb 6 Sousa’s Celebrated Band perform at Warrington Hippodrome.

1911 Feb 9 The Infirm Block of Warrington Workhouse opened.

1911 Feb 17 Inaugural meeting of the Warrington branch of the Ladies Association.

1911 Mar 25 Building work started on Grappenhall Garden City homes.

1911 Apr 24 Lady Greenall gives Warrington a chain for use by the Mayoress.

1911 Apr 29 Bowling pavilion at Horse & Jockey Hotel opened.

1911 May 3 Warrington ‘Band of Hope’ held a Grand Fair at the Parr Hall.

1911 Jun 2 Warrington Corporation Bill receives Royal Ascent.

1911 May 30 Professor Boyd Dawkins unveils a plaque at Wilderspool to mark the site of the Roman Camp.

1911 Aug 19 Sanatorium for Consumption sufferers was opened in Sankey.

1911 Sep 14 Warrington’s ‘Women’s Tariff Reform League’ had a day out at New Brighton!

1911 Lovely Lane Recreation Ground opened.

1911 Sep 28 The effects of the Greenall family from Walton Hall were auctioned off.

1911 Oct 5 Pile-driving ceremony to start Warrington’s new bridge.

1911 Oct 6 ‘Colours’ of the South Lancashire Regiment deposited in Warrington Parish Church.

1911 Oct 14 Anti-Home Rule Movement held its first open air meeting at Bridge Foot.

1911 Population 73,311 (Census).

1912 Howley suspension bridge was opened.

1912 Apr 25 Fire at Garton's Seed Warehouse.

1912 Aug 20 First aeroplane lands in Warrington. It was a Bleriot monoplane piloted by Mr B. C. Hucks who touched down in Victoria Park.

1912 Evelyn Street Council School, Liverpool Road, opened.

1913 Jul 7 The current stone bridge at Bridge Foot was erected. The first section was opened by King George V. The bridge was completed in 1915 and is the 6th on the site.

1913 Woolworth's store opened on Sankey Street in the building previously occupied by Garnett's. Closed down in January 2009 when the chain store collapsed across the UK.

1913 Dec 24 "Thomas Burton", one of the town's motorised fire engines, is first used at a fire.

1913 British Aluminium Company established at Bank Quay.

1913 First motorbuses purchased.

1914 Jul 28 John Crosfield Memorial Hall opened.

1914-18 The total number of casualties from the South Lancashire Regiment in the First World War was 5,500.

1915 Feb 15 The first car drives over the new (6th) Warrington Bridge at Bridge Foot.

1915 Nov Buttermarket Street widening completed.

1915 Jul 22 Fire rages through Parkinson's Manor Tannery in Latchford causing £24,000 damage.

1917 Aug 4 Orford Park opened to the public.

1917 Jul 22 Fire at Messrs. Parkinson, Manor Tannery.

1917 Aug 27 Fire at Carter & Sons, Bridge Street.

1918 Rev Canon M. Linton Smith, DD, is consecrated first Bishop Suffragan of Warrington.

1919 Influenza epidemic hits Warrington - many died.

1919 Jan 16 Fire at Alliance Box Works.

1920 Miss C. H. Broadbent becomes first woman magistrate and first town councillor.

1920 First public tennis court opened at Victoria Park.

1921 Jul 7 The Prince of Wales visits the town.

1921 Jun 22 Fire at Joseph Crosfield & Sons, paper & box stores.

1921 Oct 1 Fire at Tilling & Gray, Bewsey Street.

1921 Population 736,811 (Census).

1921 Adoption of the "Open Access" system at the Public Library.

1921 Oct 27 Henry Woods, famous Warrington-born artist, dies in Venice.

1921 Aug 25 Sanatorium at Hefferston Grange opened.

1921 Oct 30 Territorial War Memorial unveiled by Earl of Derby.

1922 Apr 26 Blue Coat School removed to "Oaklands" Preston Brook.

1923 Charles Dukes becomes Warrington's first Labour MP.

1924 Mar 20  Warrington, Widnes and District Society for the Blind is founded. They open the Workshop for the Blind on Museum Street.

1925 Nov 8 War Memorial unveiled at Bridge Foot.

1926 Black Bear Bridge rebuilt on the newly widened Knutsford Road.

1926 Sep 16 Boteler Grammar School and Warrington Secondary amalgamated.

1927 Feb 26 Sir Luke Fildes, Royal painter, and student at the Warrington School of Art, died.

1927 Dec 24 Warrington under 6 inches of snow for a white Christmas.

1927 Council houses in Bewsey first occupied in July.

1927 St Oswald’s Church, Padgate, opened.

1927 Warrington Rotary Club founded. Link to the international Rotary organisation here.

1928 Bewsey Park was opened up to the public.

1928 Jun 29 Warrington Walking Day "washed out" for the first time.

1928 Speedway racing, formerly known as Dirt Track racing, was staged in Warrington in its pioneering era between 1928 and 1930. The track entered a team in the 1929 English Dirt Track League and the 1930 Northern League. Efforts to revive the venue in 1947 failed to materialise.

1930 Jan 13 Rev Morley Stevenson, founder of ‘Beautiful Warrington’, died.

1931 Population 79,322 (Census).

1931 Oct 28 Museum and Library extension opened.

1931 St Augustine's Church, Latchford, opened.

1932 Bewsey Junior School opened.

1932 May 18 Haig Homes, Great Sankey opened.

1932 Nov 24 Prince of Wales visits town.

1933 Masonic Temple opened.

1933 Warrington Corporation boundaries extended to include parts of Winwick and Hulme, Burtonwood, Sankey, Grappenhall and Walton, amongst others.

1934 Kingsway Bridge, Latchford, opened.

1934 Bewsey Senior School opened (I was educated there, not in 1934 though!).

1934 Richard Fairclough School opened.

1934 Sep 28 Rail disaster at Winwick Junction. 11 killed, 20 injured.

1935 Aug 28 Motorbuses replace the trams. Last electric tram route closed. Last Latchford to Warrington tram runs.

1935 Orford Hall demolished.

1936 Warrington Cine Society formed (renamed Warrington Cine and Video Society in 1982).

1937 Thames Board Mills opened.

1937 Odeon cinema built on Buttermarket Street (now site of the former Yates Wine Lodge).

1937 Jul 4 Bent's Garden Centre in Glazebury opens for business.

1938 Market Gate roundabout completed.

1938 May 18 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) visit town.

1934 Oct 23 Lord Daresbury died.

1939 RAF Depot at Padgate opened (closed in 1957). Site is now a housing estate and recreation ground.

1939 May 8 Town Clerk, Mr A. T. Hallaway, killed in road accident.

1940 New Boteler Grammar School opened.

1940 RAF Burtonwood opens.

1940 Royal Ordnance munitions factory opens at Risley.

1940 Burtonwood airbase becomes fully operational.

1940 Jun 4 As part of a security drive, all road signs were removed in case of invasion.

1940 Sep 14 Thames Board Mills recreation ground hit by bombs. Children among the casualties.

1940 The Grange, Thelwall, given by Sir Peter Rylands to Warrington Infirmary for use as a convalescent home.

1941 Population c75,990 (no Census - wartime).

1941 May 18 Petty Officer A. E. Sephton from Warrington died winning a Victoria Cross (VC).

1941 Walton Hall Estate bought for £19,000.

1942 Walker Fountain and Bank Park railings sacrificed for the war effort.

1943 Laporte chemical works opened at Lower Walton.

1943 South Lancashire Regimental Chapel dedicated in Warrington Parish Church.

1944 Mar 6 American Air Force began daylight raids on Berlin from Burtonwood.

1945 May 15 Twelve G.I. Brides held their wedding day in Warrington.

1945 Jul 17 Street lighting switched back on after the wartime blackout.

1945 Walton Gardens opens to the public.

1945 Brian Bevan begins his Warrington rugby league career.

1946 Higher education at Padgate begins on 9 September. The campus is now known as University of Chester, Warrington Campus.

1947 Warrington celebrates its new status as a borough.

1947 Prime Minister Clement Attlee unveiled Warrington Parish Church Regimental Memorial.

1948 Warrington's first Labour M.P. Lord Dukeston, died.

1948 Sep 12 United States Air Force reoccupies Burtonwood Air Base.

1948 Oct 22 Sir Peter Rylands died.

1949 Jun 21 Warrington HF Rambling Club founded by George Newbold.

1950 Princess Margaret opens the Boys Club on Rodney Street.

1950 Jan 28 Asian Flu hits Warrington. Hundreds off work.

1950 May 6 Warrington beat Widnes 19-0 to win the Rugby League Challenge Cup at Wembley.

1951 Town's Festival of Britain Industrial Exhibition.

1952 The Grand Cinema on Wilderspool Causeway closed.

1952 Comedy legends Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy visit The Ritz theatre (now Halo) in their tour of Britain.

1953 St Mark's Church, Dallam, founded.

1953 Apr 9 Warrington Guardian newspaper centenary.

1953 Dec 19 Frances, Lady Daresbury, died. She was previously known as Lady Greenall.

1954 Cllr Mrs M Hardman elected first female Mayor.

1954 May 5 Warrington beat Halifax 8-4 in the Cup Final replay at Bradford.

1956 May 21 Last meeting of Warrington's Greyhound Racing Association at the Warrington greyhound track.

1957 May Wilderspool Bridge opened, ending years of delay on the old level crossing.

1957 Sep 9 Council gives permission to clear away the Plague House at 57 Wash Lane, Latchford.

1957 Warrington's Automatic Telephone Exchange opened.

1958 Sep 4 Arpley Railway Station finally closed. It first closed on 16 November 1868 but was forced to reopen on 2 October 1871 after a legal challenge.

1958 Apr 26 Bus tickets on a roll first introduced at Warrington by North Western Buses.

1958 May 6 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, visited.

1958 South Lancs and East Lancs Regiments amalgamated to become the Lancashire Regiment.

1959 Oct 3 Warrington post codes came into general use.

1960 Peter Walker's brewery merged with Tetley of Leeds to become Tetley Walker.

1960 Warrington Wire player Eric Fraser becomes the first club member to captain a Great Britain rugby side.

1960 Royal Court Theatre demolished.

1961 Oct 6 Fox Covert cemetery officially opened on Red Lane, Appleton.

1961 Kenyon Junction railway station, northwest of Culcheth, closes.

1962 Train line from Widnes to Altrincham, via Warrington, closed.

1962 Brian Bevan plays his 620th, and final, game for Warrington.

1963 Thelwall Viaduct over the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal opened.

1964 Apr 20 Walton Lea Crematorium officially opened on Chester Road, Higher Walton.

1965 FIAT carmakers set up their importing base for the northwest on Hawley's Lane (now Alban Retail Park).

1965 "Greater Warrington": Risley chosen for 40,000 overspill. It was formerly the site of the munitions factory during the Second World War.

1965 Moors murderer Myra Hindley is held on remand at Risley Prison whilst awaiting trial with Ian Brady. They were jailed for life in May 1966 and she died in 2002.

1966 Market Gate traffic roundabout removed.

1966 Large sections of Knutsford Road, Latchford, widened.

1966 Mr Jack Cooper created Baron Cooper of Stockton Heath.

1967 Inquiry into Warrington New Town proposals.

1967 Daresbury by-pass (the A56) opened.

1967 Mr John D. Whitley died.

1967 Music group The Fairytale becomes the first Warrington band to appear on television. They featured on First Timers.

1968 Arpley railway station building demolished.

1968 May 17 Queen Elizabeth visited.

1968 Appleton County Grammar School opened.

1968 Warrington received New Town status.

1968 Aug 19 Cllr Mrs M Hardman, Warrington's first female Mayor, died.

1969 Warrington New Town Draft Master Plan published.

1969 Warrington Borough Police merged with Lancashire County Police.

1970 Warrington Municipal Golf Course opened.

1970 Liverpool Road by-pass (A57) opened.

1970 Fiddlers Ferry Power Station becomes operational.

1971 Cheshire Motorway (M56), eastern and western ends, opened.

1971 Work begins on a 13-mile section of the Lancashire and Yorkshire motorway (M62) between Tarbock and Risley.

1972 Work begins on the central section of the Cheshire motorway (M56) between Preston Brook and Bowdon.

1972 Risley munitions factory demolished.

1972 Warrington Festival began (no longer operative).

1972 Feb 21 Foundation stone for new market in Bank Street laid by the Mayor (Cllr H. Whitehead).

1972 First New Town homes built at Longbarn, Padgate.

1973 First No 1 District Council and Cheshire County Council elected.

1973 Nov 30 Tarbock to M6 section of M62 opened.

1973 New District General Hospital approved.

1973 New Gatewarth Farm Sewage Works and intercepting sewer opened.

1973 The 1850 Bold Street Wesleyan Church demolished.

1973 Jun New Town Outline Plan accepted by Whitehall.

1973 Work begins on Golden Square shopping centre (the "North West Quadrant" section of town centre, as it was known).

1973 Sankey Street section between Bold Street and Market Gate closed to traffic.

1974 Warrington section of the West Coast Mainline electrified.

1974 Warrington Technical College (Collegiate Institute nowadays) was built on Winwick Road (it has since been rebuilt on adjacent land).

1974 Croft to Eccles section of the M62 opened.

1974 Warrington moves from Lancashire to Cheshire in parliamentary boundary changes. The Lancashire border stays intact.

1974 New Council receives Borough Charter from Lord Leverhulme.

1974 Work started on Birchwood New Town housing estate (on the site of the former Risley munitions factory).

1974 Sep 3 The Forge Shopping Precinct opened in Stockton Heath.

1974 Jul 19 Warrington Market officially opened.

1974 Dec Lymm to Bowdon section of M56 motorway opened.

1975 Warrington was converted to natural gas.

1975 May 17 Bold Street Methodist Church opened, replacing the 1850s version demolished two years earlier.

1975 Apr 14 Legh Street multi-storey car park opened.

1975 May 5 Warrington lost out to Widnes by 14-7 in the Rugby League Challenge Cup at Wembley. It was my one and only visit to the old Wembley.

1975 Jul 16 M56 Motorway south of Warrington completed. Lymm to Preston Brook section opened first.

1976 Feb 19 First phase of the Inner Ring Road from Sankey Street to Horsemarket Street (Golborne Street) opened.

1976 Jun 22 Mersey Street multi-storey car park opened.

1976 The longest and hottest summer on record.

1977 Sep 5 Warrington Crown Court sat for the first time. The result of the County Sheepdog Trials came later in the day. Verdict: Not Guilty!

1977 Oct 25 Marks and Spencer opened in the new Golden Square.

1977 Woolston Park opens to the public.

1977 Aug 30 Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, visits St Mary's Church on Buttermarket Street to take part in their centenary celebrations.

1977 Sep 28 St James Church Latchford celebrates bi-centenary.

1977 Land in Oughtrington near Lymm purchased by the Woodland Trust becomes Spud Wood, a community woodland. See Warrington Green for more.

1978 Jul Second phase of Inner Ring Road begins.

1978 Sep Appleton Grammar, Lymm Grammar, Lymm Secondary and Stockton Heath Secondary schools become High Schools as they go 'comprehensive'.

1978 Jan The Government rejects plans for a congestion-beating scheme at Bridge Foot.

1978 Oct First phase of Warrington District General Hospital completed.

1979 Jan 10 Warrington Guardian Midweek newspaper is launched.

1979 May 16 Bus station opened adjacent to Golden Square Shopping Centre, at a cost of £2m. Services started later in the year (November).

1979 Nov 25 Second phase of the Inner Ring Road opened.

1979 Sep The Girls' High School on Menin Avenue, Wilderspool, becomes Priestley College.

1979 Sep North Cheshire College is formed by the merging of Padgate College of Higher Education, Warrington College of Art and Design and the Technical College.

1980 Jul Dick Saunders, British preacher, visited the town with his Way To Life evangelical crusade, working from a crown-shaped marquee erected in Bank Park.

1980 Jul 18 British Steel closes its plant on Bewsey Road.

1980 Aug 1 Culcheth athlete Michelle Roberts wins a Bronze medal as part of the women's 4x400 metre relay team at the Olympic Games in Moscow.

1980 Birchwood Shopping Centre opened. Fine Fare was the biggest supermarket, before being taken over by Gateway and now Asda.

1980 Birchwood railway station opens (but don't tell Dr Beeching!).

1980 Spectrum Arena, conference, sport and entertainment venue, opens in Birchwood.

1980 Jan 1 Warrington District General Hospital opened.

1980 Jan 3 The Old Infirmary on Kendrick Street closes.

1980 Sep 23 TV botanist David Bellamy opened Risley Moss Nature Reserve.

1981 Armitage & Rigby cotton mill at Cockhedge closed.

1981 Roy Jenkins, who broke away from Labour to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP), campaigns in Warrington.

1982 Wilderspool Stadium main stand, home of Warrington rugby league club, burned down.

1983 Gartons arable farming business closed down.

1983 Thames Board Mills closed down.

1983 Sankey Valley Park completed.

1983 Warrington Borough Council ranger service takes over the management of Culcheth Linear Park on the site of the former Wigan to Glazebrook Railway Line. The land was acquired by the council in 1974.

1984 Cockhedge shopping centre opened (now known as  Cockhedge Shopping Park).

1984 Warrington and District Camera Club founded.

1984 Prince Charles and Princess Diana visit.

1984 Jul 10 Sir Gilbert Greenall died at Walton Hall.

1985 Thorn Cross adult open prison opens in Appleton Thorn on the site of Royal Naval Air Station Stretton (HMS Blackcap).

1986 Rylands Wire factory on Church Street closed.

1986 Monks Hall steel works closed.

1986 Time Square shopping precinct opened on Bank Street.

1986 Second Warrington Bridge at Bridge Foot opened.

1986 Gaskells bacon-curers business closed down.

1986 Oct 26 Warrington Corporation Transport ceases to exist in de-regulation of the buses. Becomes known as Warrington Borough Transport, an at-arms-length company of the council. Meanwhile, London buses were first painted red on this day in 1929.

1986 Peel Hall Park opened to the public.

1987 Oct 1 Ikea furniture store, the first in the UK, opens on Gemini Retail Park.

1988 The Tudor Bingo Hall on Scotland Road demolished (previously the Regent Cinema, and Prince of Wales Theatre before that).

1988 Spectrum Arena at Birchwood closes.

1990 Glassmakers Arms, Battersby Lane, demolished to make way for the new road and roundabout.

1991 Greenall's ceases beer production.

1991 Burtonwood Nature Park opens.

1991 Amateur performers stage “The North Face of Longshaw Street” at the Parr Hall. It follows the lives of people in Bewsey and Dallam from the beginning of the 1900s until the present day.

1992 Disability Awareness Day launches.

1993 Mar 20 IRA Bomb explodes in Bridge Street, killing two young boys, Tim Parry, 12, and Johnathan Ball, aged 3.

1995 Paddington Meadows nature reserve opened to the public. The land was donated on the condition that it was turned into a nature park.

1996 Snow falls in Warrington.

1996 Warrington Rugby Club becomes part of the Super League and summer rugby.

1996 Tetley Walker brewery closed.

1996 "The North West Face" opened in the building that was St Anne's C of E Church on Winwick Road.

1996 A rock music event took place at Victoria Park featuring some of the nation's top bands (you didn’t need to be there to hear it all across Warrington!).

1997 Canon James Colling of the Parish Church and Chaplain to the Queen, retires after 38 years in Warrington.

1997 The General Election campaign brings Shadow Home Secretary Robin Cook MP and Home Secretary Michael Howard MP to the town.

1998 Pat Pointer of the Bewsey Old Hall Conservation Project meets with Prince Charles at Highgrove.

1998 Spectrum Arena at Birchwood reopens under new management.

1998 Former butler to Princess Diana, Paul Burrell, visits Broomfields County Junior School to personally collect money raised for the Princess Diana Memorial Fund.

1998 Historic buildings in Warrington, including Bewsey Old Hall, have been placed on the first-ever buildings-at-risk register.

1998 Northern Ireland Secretary Dr Mo Mowlam lends her support for a £1m peace centre in Warrington in memory of those killed in the 1993 Bombing.

1998 Warrington Archaeologist Mark Olly and his photographer Lesley Lowery find a 400,000-year-old stone tool.

1998 Royal Gala Ball held at Birchwood Conference Centre in the presence of the Duchess of Kent to raise money to build a peace centre.

1998 April Warrington becomes a Unitary Authority.

1999 Winwick Hospital closes, as £18m Hollins Park Hospital replaces it nearby.

1999 Proposals to reopen Kenyon Junction Railway Station, near Culcheth, are unveiled.

1999 Warrington’s David Fryar co-piloted the plane which beamed images of the total eclipse round the world.

2000 RAF Burtonwood played host to the 60^th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain with a ceremony attended by 50 veterans of the forces.

2000 A residential retirement village to be built on the former Rylands Recreation Ground is named Ryfields.

2000 Warrington by the Sea summer activity centre for children launched at Golden Square.

2000 Light Elite Academy of Dance established.

2000 Warrington Friary site excavated by Lancaster University archaeologists before it is built on once more.

2000 The 18^th century Cheshire Cheese pub in Latchford joins a millennium archive organised by the National Monuments Record.

2000 Former Mayor of Warrington, Harold Edwards MBE, dies, aged 98. His MBE was awarded for his part in setting up the Citizens Advice Bureau in 1939.

2001 Historic Bewsey Old Hall is refused a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

2001 Former pop singer Kim Wilde plants a tree in Winwick after Winwick Hospital closed. The 75 feet high tree is called Plane Ace and was transported from Belgium to Warrington at a cost of £60,000. It is in the Guinness Book of Records for the tallest tree transported and replanted.

2001 Home Secretary Jack Straw visited the town.

2001 Former IRA chief Martin McGuinness apologises for the 1993 Warrington Bomb, which Wilf Ball, who lost his son in the disaster, said was too little, too late.

2001 Historic buildings in the town have been safeguarded by the creation of a new conservation area (it’s a pity the Old Boteler Grammar School on School Brow and the Bay Horse pub on Winwick Street weren’t included. Both disappeared within a year of each other in 2004 and 2005 respectively).

2002 Warrington's ancient castle on Mote Hill came into the news again when an application to build 15 properties on the site was presented to the Council.

2002 The first sod was cut in the building of the new Warrington Wolves Stadium on the former Tetley Walker brewery site. I photographed it all from beginning to end - see photos on the Warrington Wolves page.

2002 Paul Cullen becomes the new coach of Warrington Wolves rugby league team.

2002 Warrington MP Helen Southworth launches the RAF Burtonwood heritage centre.

2002 Heavy rain brings flooding to parts of Penketh.

2002 The Pyramid Arts Centre stages its first performance, a new presentation of “The North Face of Longshaw Street” (I performed in this version).

2002 Warrington Borough Transport re-enacts the journey of the very first tram journey in the town. The trip, with modern buses, began in Rylands Street on Sunday 21 April at 7.40 a.m. on its run to Latchford.

2002 Down's syndrome teenager Salma Saleem dies after falling from a Ferris wheel ride at Gulliver's World theme park in Westbrook (update).

2002 Fury erupted as a listed building, an old Georgian house at 31a Winwick Street, behind the former American Pool Centre, was demolished. It was hoped English Heritage could have renovated it, but the council said it was pulled down for safety reasons.

2003 Both Members of Parliament for Warrington, Helen Southworth MP and Helen Jones MP back Prime Minister Tony Blair on the controversial war in Iraq.

2003 Another change for Birchwood's Spectrum Arena, as betting giant Fred Done moves his business empire to the site from Worsley, Greater Manchester.

2003 The town lost another Grade II listed building when the former British Legion building on St Austin's Lane was demolished.

2003 Objects from the old Winwick Hospital are preserved at the Museum. 

2003 Geoff Allcock from Warrington wins £64,000 on ITVs Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?

2003 Warrington comic and compere Peter Robinson dies aged 71 (I had the pleasure of working with him on a Friends & Neighbours Travel Club holiday some years ago).

2003 Wilderspool Stadium's 105-year association with 1st team rugby league ends as the club moves to new premises at Winwick Road.

2003 The Warrington Bomb blast is remembered in a service at Holy Trinity Church at Market Gate.

2003 Lord Roy Jenkins MP, who famously campaigned in Warrington in 1981, died aged 82.

2003 The Rev Steve Parish, from St Ann's Church in Orford, requests that the Armitage & Rigby chimney top should be incorporated into the new bus station as a memory to Warrington industry. It stood on the corner of Winwick Street and Golborne Street before the Golden Square redevelopment began.

2003 The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, visits Ryfields Retirement Village.

2003 Warrington Guardian newspaper celebrates its 150th Anniversary.

2003 Jul 31 Legh Street swimming baths close. Opened 1866.

2003 Oct A 73-year-old man serving a jail sentence in the Middle east for manslaughter confesses to strangling Warrington prostitute, Patricia Simpson, know as the Silver Queen in November 1963. The news has only been made public now, four years after police obtained the confession.

2003 Oct Manchester property developer, Modus, announces plans to resurrect an idea to breathe new life into a run-down section of Winwick Street opposite Warrington Central Station.

2003 Oct Irish rock band U2 are invited to play at the Peace Centre in Old Hall after they gave permission for one of their videos to be included in a promotional film made by students of University College Chester, Warrington Campus.

2003 Nov Skatepark opens in Victoria Park.

2004 Feb 21 Warrington Wolves rugby league club plays its first game at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Winwick Road. They beat Wakefield Wildcats 34-20 in a match televised on Sky in front of 14,206 spectators.

2004 Exam documents dating from 1884 were found in the old Horobin newsagent shop on Sankey Street when it closed. See a photo of the shop in Tour 2.

2004 Former Olympic swimmer Helen Slatter expressed sadness at Legh Street baths closure. She trained there with the Warriors of Warrington.

2004 Chapelford Urban Village, to be built on the old Burtonwood Air Base, unveiled by Warrington Borough Council. A new railway station is planned.

2004 Wendy Parry, who lost her son Tim in the 1993 Warrington Bomb, was invited to Buckingham Palace as one of 200 Women of Achievement.

2004 Warrington actor, Pete Postlethwaite, receives an OBE from the Queen.

2004 Countess Sophie of Wessex unveiled a plaque at the entrance to the Warrington Deaf Centre on Wilson Patten Street.

2004 It was announced that Stockton Heath Walking Day was to end after 150 years. However, a change of heart from the authorities kept it going. See a photo from the 2006 event on the Memory Lane page.

2004 Wilf Ball, who lost his 3-year-old son Johnathan in the 1993 Warrington Bomb, died, aged 71.

2004 Feb 6 Life For A Life charity opens Mersey Meadows in west Warrington to allow the planting of trees to commemorate the lives of loved ones. See photos in Warrington Green. Check out the charity's website www.lifeforalife.org.uk.

2005 The Legacy Project was set up by Children of Peace to record oral memories of the 1993 Warrington Bomb.

2005 Queens Gardens renovation is unveiled in a ribbon cutting ceremony.

2005 BBC's Question Time show is recorded at The Pyramid Arts Centre.

2005 Warrington Market celebrates 750 years of its Royal Charter presented in 1255.

2005 Georgie Fame performs at Golden Square with Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra, arranged by Pyramid Parr Hall.

2005 Greenall's vodka and gin distillery on Wilderspool Causeway devastated by fire. Investigators confirm it was no accident, and later charged a man with arson.

2005 A six-strong partnership submits a planning application to redevelop Time Square retail area.

2005 Jul Peel Holdings, owners of the Manchester Ship Canal, make adjustments to the mechanics of the swing bridges on the canal to stop the metal expanding in the heat of summer. They have used grinders to increase the gaps between the bridge and the buttress. Normally the fire brigade are called out to spray water on to ease the traffic hold ups.

2005 Nov 18 Prince Charles visits Warrington to present medals to members of the Territorial Army for their services in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

2005 Nov 20 Kerry Katona switches on the Christmas lights.

2006 Feb 26 Danielle Lloyd, Aged 22, is crowned Miss Great Britain in a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London hosted by Noel Edmonds.

2006 Feb 27 Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, visits the town to unveil a commemorative plaque marking the official opening of The Gateway (old Warrington Guardian newspaper office on Sankey Street).

2006 Feb 28 A book about local stories of World War II published by Newsquest, owners of the Warrington Guardian, raises over £12,000 for the Royal British Legion.

2006 Feb 28 Warrington dentist, Khalid Anis, receives an MBE for his services to dentistry.

2006 Feb Cab Company, a new initiative run as a type of workers co-operative, is set up with ten cars. Callers are assigned by computer directly to the drivers without a controller.

2006 Feb Glamour model Emma Hayes, from Orford, appears on the front cover of February's Maxim magazine.

2006 Mar 2 Folk-rock group Fairport Convention perform at Parr Hall as part of their 30 date UK tour.

2006 Mar 2 Blackpool Comes to Warrington - mobile fairground sets up at Winwick for a period.

2006 Mar 4 Snow falls in Warrington for first time in 5 years.

2006 Mar 8 Singer Peter Andre performs at Chicago Rock Cafe. His wife Jordan also attended. They split up in 2009.

2006 Mar 8 Securitas truck carrying £½million in cash was raided at Woolston Grange, echoing the £50million raid in Kent 2 weeks previously, also on a Securitas truck.

2006 Mar 14 Warrington rock group Death by Decibels help rescue people affected by tear gas as rioting broke out during the British Invasion punk festival at San Bernardino, California.

2006 Mar 19 Brother and sister Geoff & Jo Armstrong from Grappenhall appear on Channel 4's Shipwrecked reality TV show.

2006 Mar 15 In Lymm a plan to demolish a building on the corner of Pepper Street and replace it with a block of apartments and shops were reject by the council. The objectors felt it would spoil the view of the famous Lymm Cross at the centre of the village.

2006 Mar 20 Historic Stockton Heath Primary School was saved from demolition after 5,000 protests were received by the council. Sadly, it was only short-lived as the school was eventually demolished.

2006 Mar Manchester City Council dropped its legal challenge to the Omega development going ahead in west Warrington, provided the plans are revised.

2006 Mar After a 12-month campaign, Warrington is named a Fairtrade Borough. The movement ensures producers from developing countries get a fair price for their goods and labour.

2006 Mar 30 A solar eclipse is cited as the reason for unusual rises in the levels of the River Mersey. Flooding was the result in many parts of the town.

2006 Mar 31 Music maestro Pete Waterman officially opens a new £2.9 million cardiac catheter suite at Warrington Hospital.

2006 Apr 1 Wire FM perform an April Fools prank on listeners by suggesting that Led Zeppelin will be reforming for a concert in Warrington or Halton hosted by Noel Edmonds.

2006 Apr Liverpool City Council drops its opposition to The Omega Project, planned for the next 20 years of redevelopment in west Warrington.

2006 Apr Warrington Borough Council launches a roadshow to promote plans to regenerate Orford Park.

2006 Apr Warrington Museum launches Warrington People exhibition.

2006 Apr New police radio systems are launched to help officers get to crimes quicker. Residents have always complained about how long it takes to get a response to a reported crime. In the past the frequencies were shared between other emergency units.

2006 Apr A new-style bus-come-tram is considered by Warrington Borough Transport for use on a route from the future Omega business park via Cromwell Avenue to the town centre.

2006 Apr Warrington Borough Transport, owned by the Borough Council, announce passenger numbers have increased by around 2 per cent, whilst elsewhere in the country, apart from London, levels are dropping.

2006 Apr An appeal to save the tower of picturesque St Wilfrid's church in Grappenhall village is launched. Link to the Church Website here.

2006 May 21 2,000 women run a 5-kilometre race at Arley Hall to raise money for Cancer Relief UK.

2006 May 27 Warrington's Festival of Football starts to celebrate the Football World Cup Finals. It is supported by Roger Hunt, who was part of the winning England squad of 1966 and now lives in the town.

2006 May 30 Warrington Borough Council approves plans to reshape Time Square retail and leisure complex, which will include the return of a cinema to the town centre.

2006 May Making Tracks, a 3 minute film highlighting problems of playing on the railways, wins an award for Penketh High School in a safety campaign organised by Network Rail.

2006 Jun Urban Splash reveal plans to revamp Bewsey Old Hall. The Bewsey Old Hall Conservation Project had raised £800,000 to keep the hall and grounds in the public domain, but it wasn't enough.

2006 Jun Warrington Hospital promotes fruit and vegetables as part of the national Cancer Prevention week.

2006 Jun Former Warrington rugby league player and coach, Derek 'Nobby' Clark dies after a long illness. He spent over 40 years with the club and was chairman of the Past Players Association.

2006 Jun Miss Warrington 2006 is named. She is 18-year-old Ashley McKeever - and she comes from WIGAN!

2006 Jun Historic photos of the allied occupation of Germany after the war are unearthed by a Warrington Man. They feature images of the Berlin Wall and a visit from the Queen.

2006 Jun Pink Ladies, the Warrington-based ladies-only taxi firm, launches another franchise in Carlisle, Cumbria to add to their fleet in Liverpool, the Wirral, London and St Helens. The scheme does not deal in cash for fares, but uses a membership scheme instead.

2006 Jun As World Cup Football Fever grips the nation, Warrington Primary Care Trust, the Borough Council and Cheshire Police join forces to launch a decorated taxi scheme to promote responsible drinking.

2006 Jun Children from St Monica's in Appleton win a £300 top prize in the Warrington Yellow Woods Challenge to promote a recycling. Runners up were St Andrew's winning £200 and third were Green Lane Community Special School with a £100 prize. The competition was run by Yellow Pages, the Borough Council and the Woodland Trust. In total 9,688 old Yellow Pages directories were collected by 53 schools and one tree was planted for every pound awarded to the schools.

2006 Jun 5 Flash floods hit Warrington. Classrooms and the hall of Ravenbank Primary School in Lymm were affected.

2006 Jun 17 Bawming of the Thorn ceremony takes place at Appleton Thorn. The unique annual ceremony takes place on the Saturday nearest to Midsummer's Day.

2006 Jun Disability Awareness Day, Warrington's annual, and Europe's largest, voluntary-led disability awareness event, receives the Queen's Award for Voluntary Services (an award created in 2002 to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee).

2006 Jun 28 Granada TVs Fred Talbot officially opens 'Our Wood' community woodland in Westbrook.

2006 Jun Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major visited the Warrington South Conservative Association in Stretton.

2006 Jun A four-day bible-reading session takes places at St Wilfrid's Church, Grappenhall, to raise funds for the repair of the bell tower, which I have since been informed was a great success. Link to the Church Website here.

2006 Jul 3 Warrington residents report an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Orford at 10.35pm. It was ME with a torch on the end of a kite. Well prove it WASN'T! And why do we only 'see' these things at night?

2006 Jul 100 year old machinery which stood outside The Forge Shopping Centre in Stockton Heath was thought to have been destroyed during redevelopment of the site. Thankfully, it was found soon after. See a photo of it on the mywarrington page.

2006 Jul 17 Warrington Borough Council adopts a controversial new policy on collection of rubbish. If a bin lid is not fully closed, the bin will not be emptied. Warrington North MP Helen Jones is furious when her own rubbish is left uncollected.

2006 Jul 20 Coronation Street stars take part in a charity football match against Warrington Town Football Club to raise funds for St Rocco's Hospice.

2006 Jul 25 Warrington taxi drivers bring the town to a standstill in protest at the number of taxi ranks and enforcement of taxi regulations in the town.

2006 Jul Four Warrington buildings have again been named on the English Heritage 'at risk' register. They are all Grade II listed buildings - the Gatehouse to Bradlegh Old Hall, Bradley Lane, Burtonwood; Bewsey Old Hall; Hurst Hall North Barn, Hurst Lane, Glazebury and the Transporter Bridge at Bank Quay.

2006 Jul Miss Great Britain and Miss Warrington, Danielle Lloyd, wins a four-figure payout for a car accident in October 2004 which almost damaged her modelling career.

2006 Jul Abba Cars taxi firm donates £1,800 to buy a new electric scooter for the Warrington Disability Partnership's Shopmobility scheme.

2006 Jul 25 NatWest celebrates 175 years of banking in Warrington. See the Events page for more.

2006 Jul Warrington Borough Council wins a national award for the computer support it offers schools.

2006 Jul Peel Holdings, owners of the Manchester Ship Canal, defends its decision to monitor Latchford Locks by CCTV rather than onsite personnel. Concerned residents say that if the sluice gates ever malfunctioned the area could be flooded.

2006 Aug Former Brookside star Dean Sullivan (who played Jimmy Corkhill) becomes the first celebrity to lend his support for Warrington-based mental health charity Making Space. Their centre is on Allen Street, close to town centre.

2006 Aug 5 TV antiques star David Dickinson appears at Pyramid Parr Hall to film his new ITV show Dickinson's Real Deal.

2006 Aug Birchwood Shopping Centre hosts Birchwood By The Sea event, enabling children to have fun at the beach without leaving the town. It featured magic shows, Punch and Judy and games. Golden Square has staged a similar event in the past, Warrington By The Sea.

2006 Aug 7 Warrington Wolves coach Paul Cullen takes over from Salford City Red's Karl Harrison as the new England coach.

2006 Aug It is announced that Mr Smith's nightclub (previously the ABC cinema - The Ritz) is to close down.

2006 Aug Warrington Wolves becomes the first club to donate money from season ticket sales to the Rugby Football League Benevolent Fund.

2006 Aug Former environmental health chief Andy Gilbert travels around Norway on his motorcycle to raise funds for Hope House Children's Hospice.  Expecting to wear his winter gear, he witnesses evidence of global warming as Norway has one of its hottest summers ever.

2006 Aug The Civic Trust presents Walton Gardens with the Green Flag Award, a national benchmark for top parks and green spaces.

2006 Aug 19 Andy Prior Big Band perform a free jazz concert at Golden Square as part of Culturefest '06.

2006 Aug 19 Warrington's temporary bus station operates for the very last time.

2006 Aug 21 Warrington Interchange, the town's new bus station, opens for business.

2006 Aug 27 Hollyoaks TV star Carley Stenson appears at the Dallam Youth Festival.

2006 Aug 27 Stretton's famous Maize Maze teams up with Macmillan Cancer in a bid to raise £5,000 to help people living with cancer.

2006 Sep 1 The 24-hour Relay For Life fund-raising event for Cancer Research UK raises approximately £6,500 at Victoria Park.

2006 Sep Youngster Shanice Nickle dons a fat suit and prosthetics to take part in TV chef Jamie Oliver's latest campaign to get children to eat healthy foods.

2006 Sep Mystery surrounds the death of several fish in the Manchester Ship Canal near Fiddler's Ferry when thousands were seen gasping for air. They came to the surface in a bid to get oxygen from the air as Environment agency workers tried to re-oxgenate the water with pumps.

2006 Sep 14 More controversy in the council's policy on collecting bins after a 61 year old Locking Stumps resident is told her green bin is too heavy for the council trucks, although she could pick it up herself. Her story was featured on BBC Northwest Tonight.

2006 Sep 11 Warrington Borough Council announces that Culcheth High School is to be demolished and rebuilt.

2006 Sep Warrington Wolves announces the Wire2Wolves community project to create a timeline of events around the stadium to highlight the history of the club and of the town. The club has applied to the National Lottery Fund for assistance.

2006 Sep Stockton Heath Independent Methodist church on Walton Road celebrates 200 years of service to the community.

2006 Sep 9 University of Chester, Warrington Campus, celebrates 60 years of higher education at Padgate.

2006 Sep 15 Granada Reports presenter Paul Crone concludes his charity walk for the Up The Amazon appeal for The Vine Trust at Lymm Cross. He covered over 200 miles in a fortnight to raise over £65,000 to send medical boats along the Amazon to boost the quality of life for locals.

2006 Sep Warrington Cine and Video Society celebrates 70 years of film making.

2006 Sep Warrington Photographic Society receives a £3,350 National Lottery grant to help preserve its collection.

2006 Sep Coronation Street celebrities Tina O'Brien, Stephen Peacock (Warrington's own) and Ryan Thomas open Ibizaar, a new designer clothing shop in London Road, Stockton Heath village.

2006 Sep A Warrington Author using the pseudonym Carol Dunning publishes two books: Dining For Lovers and Ghosts of the North West.

2006 Sep Golden Square Shopping Centre sponsors aerial photographs of the town's landmarks.

2006 Sep Collier Waste Management Ltd are refused a planning application to raise the level of waste in parts of the Moss Side Farm site after residents complained.

2006 Sep 14 Councillor Diane Terris becomes the first female Chief Executive of Warrington Borough Council.

2006 Sep Warrington Borough Council demands compensation from contractors into the five-month delay in implementing new £158,000 traffic signs into the town. Twenty signs were erected to inform motorists of accidents and give general information.

2006 Sep Chapelford railway station has been dealt a serious blow as developers of the Omega project in west Warrington have told councillors they will not pay the £1.5 million bill towards roads to serve the station. It would have replaced Sankey Station in a link to the 2,000 home Chapelford urban village.

2006 Sep 17 Warrington Wolves announces that past-captain Mike Gregory was to become the latest addition to the Wolves Hall of Fame.

2006 Sep 17 Warrington fire station holds an Open Day to highlight the dangers of fire and to demonstrate the latest techniques in fire and rescue.

2006 Sep 17 The 66th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain was celebrated at Gulliver's by members of the RAF, Army and Navy.

2006 Sep 20 A two-day public inquiry into developments on Howley waterfront gets underway at the Halliwell Jones stadium.

2006 Sep Nobles Amusements takes over the building once occupied by Hodgkinson's on Bridge Street.

2006 Sep Supporters banged the drum for Fairtrade at the final game of the season at the Halliwell Jones stadium.

2006 Sep 8-14 Two Warrington Hospital doctors, Steve Bentley and Barry Taylor, climb Mount Everest to raise money for CANtreat. Proceeds went to the charity's £1m appeal to enhance the environment of cancer treatment areas within the NHS.

2006 Sep A national beauty competition in London has revealed that Warrington is the best place in the country for training models, as students from Warrington Collegiate pick a handful of awards at the annual National Beauty Competition at Earls Court.

2006 Oct 1 Grappenhall actress Amanda Dobson, 21, appears in ITV 1 Granada's Cracker police series with Robbie Coltrane.

2006 Oct 7 'Celebrity mum' Kerry Katona signs copies of her autobiography Too Much Too Young at Waterstones bookshop in Golden Square.

2006 Oct 1 Veterans of the First World War are remembered in a ceremony at the Parish Church attended by the Mayor Linda Dirir.

2006 Oct 14 Relief Trent class 14 lifeboat "Earl & Countess Mountbatten of Burma" passes through Latchford Locks on its way to Anglesey after attending Manchester Lifeboat Week at Salford Quays.

2006 Oct 23 The Big Idea, an internet TV channel, launched. It features its very own soap opera, Orford and Pop Factor to showcase the talents of local people.

2006 Oct Warrington Wolves named Super League Club of the Year.

2006 The Ring O'Bells pub on Church Street next to the Parish Church has been named as the borough's first Fairtrade pub for stocking coffees and wines which ensure a fair price for its producers.

2006 A campaign is launched to save Mr Smith's nightclub from demolition and turn it into a theatre. The group is known as Theatre 4 Warrington Campaign and is hoping to achieve charity status.

2006 Oct Oktoberfest, the annual beer festival at the Parr Hall organised by Warrington Rotary Club celebrates its first 10 years of operation.

2006 Oct Warrington Wolves buys New Zealand rugby star Vinnie Anderson from St Helens for £50,000.

2006 Oct 25 A small fire breaks out in the cellar of the Patten Arms hotel opposite Bank Quay Station.

2006 Oct 80s pop star Captain Sensible of The Damned visited Warrington with his new outfit Dead Men Walking. The political activist has launched The Blah Party for the 'disaffected'. He had a number one hit with Happy Talk in June 1982. His real name is Ray Burns.

2006 Oct Hundreds of Warrington people are affected by the collapse of the Christmas hamper company Farepak. The big supermarkets have offered to help out those affected. When you consider that the boss of Farepak is said to be worth £30million, they shouldn't have to, should they? He has been called to account by the government.

2006 Oct 21 Former Warrington Rugby star Mike Gregory signs copies of his autobiography 'Biting Back' in Borders bookshop at Riverside Retail Park.

2006 Oct Plans are announced for a possible £7million revamp of Parr Hall, funded by public and private investment.

2006 Warrington Borough Transport have responded to concerns about Chapelford railway station by having talks with Network Rail.

2006 Oct A women-only night raised £3,000 for Breast Cancer Care at an event held at Polar Ford on Winwick Road.

2006 Oct Virgin Trains boss Carl Belcher announces plans to overhaul Warrington Bank Quay Station at a cost of £500,000.

2006 Oct Sainsbury's have opened a new supermarket in the £1m revamp of the former Culcheth Provisions Stores.

2006 Oct The Forestry Commission launches an autumn photography competition to find the best images of autumn in the region. Check out their website www.forestry.gov.uk.

2006 Oct 19 Warrington Borough Council approves plans for the £1bn Omega project in west Warrington. It will be the final stage in the New Town plan which was first started by the Commission for New Towns in 1972. The Government will make the final decision sometime in the future.

2006 Oct Mersey Ferries' Manchester Ship Canal Cruises announces a 20% increase in passengers this year. The company sails between Liverpool and Salford Quays via Warrington every summer.

2006 Oct The Pearl of Africa choir from Kamuzinda children's village in Uganda perform at William Beamont High School. They are touring the country to raise funds for the village which looks after AIDS orphans.

2006 Oct Plans are being drawn up by the Borough Council into how the banks of the Mersey will look in the future. Planning permission has already been granted to redevelop the waterfront near Mr Smiths at Bridge Foot in a scheme resembling other waterfronts in the region, such as Salford Quays.

2006 Oct 19 Sir Thomas Boteler High School pupil, Christopher Dickinson picks up a bronze Team player Award from Dame Kelly Holmes in a ceremony in London. The Living For Sport initiative is aimed at pupils between 11 and 16 who are at risk of opting out of school life by encouraging them to take part in sport.

2006 Oct The Meadow View Fishery at Statham Pool in Lymm has benefited from a new platform built by the Environment agency to allow disabled access.

2006 Oct Warrington Borough Transport and Warrington Cycling Campaign have launched a joint-leaflet highlighting safety first initiatives for bike riders and bus drivers.

2006 Oct Warrington Borough Council's school catering service has a new supply contract with SET Produce of Stockport for fresh fruit and vegetables. Most of the produce is grown here in Warrington.

2006 Oct The 10th annual Oktoberfest at the Parr Hall raised £14,000 for this year's charities, Riding For the Disabled in Lymm, The Older People's Forum, Speak Up Group and Young Carers Group.

2006 Nov The Sankey Canal Restoration Society (SCARS) launches a calendar to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Sankey Canal, the first in England (and jolly good it is too!).

2006 Nov Miss Warrington, later Miss Great Britain, Danielle Lloyd, is stripped of her title as it is reveal she had been dating footballer Terry Sheringham for two months before the win. He was one of the judges.

2006 Nov 21 Former BBC Political reporter Jim Hancock, now a Warrington resident, hosted a unique debate on the future of Warrington at a public meeting.

2006 Nov Crosfields Recreation Club's future is safe in the short term after it was temporarily closed on health and safety grounds. It still might need over £300,000 to update the electrical system.

2006 Nov An extra lane will be added to Winwick Road to ease congestion near Tesco. Work will begin on the new section in the new year.

2006 Nov 8 Boat owners blockade the Bridgewater Canal at Lymm in protest about prices rises by Peel Holdings for licensing and mooring charges. Matthew Corbett, formerly of TVs Sooty Show, was the press officer.

2006 Nov Radio Lymm begins broadcasting on 87.7FM in the run up to the village Dickensian Festival on 9 Dec.

2006 Nov TV soap stars, husband and wife Kym Ryder (Marsh) of Coronation Street and Jack Marsh EastEnders, visit town to launch The Club leisure club at the Park Royal in Stretton.

2006 Nov 11-12 Warrington remembers its war dead at the cenotaph at Bridge Foot. On the Saturday, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month shoppers held a silence in the town centre.

2006 Dec 25 Culcheth Lions organise the annual Victorian Day in the village. The fun day includes the Christmas lights switch on.

2006 Nov Theatre For Warrington (T4W) receives a massive boost of a mystery £250,000 donation to help turn Mr Smiths night club into a theatre.

2006 Nov 19 The LRK Cultural Centre on Haydock Street celebrates Diwali, a major festival for Hindus and Sikhs. Diwali is known as the Festival of Light and is a symbol of victory of evil.

2006 Nov Status Quo drummer, Jeff Rich, visits Ravenbank Primary School in Lymm to give pupils a master class in the art of drumming.

2006 Nov The Warrington Guardian reports that Lib Dem council leader Ian Banks would like the River Mersey area at Bridge Foot to be utilised as a riverside venue, like other towns and cities have achieved, including Manchester, Leeds and Wigan. With the Theatre 4 Warrington plan to turn Mr Smiths into a theatre, it could be the start of a new lease of life for the area. And what a welcome for visitors into the town when the first thing they see is a bright shiny welcome. In the end, Mr Smiths was turned into Halo nightclub and Theatre 4 Warrington are still looking for a venue.

2006 Nov The council reports that a town centre bypass from Crosfields to Chester Road is being considered. It is something desperately needed in that part of town.

2006 Nov Warrington Hospital announces a rescue plan to save £18million by cutting 180 beds and 300 jobs.

2006 Nov Gulliver's World theme park in Westbrook admits two counts of breaking health and safety rules in 2002 when 13-year-old Salma Saleem, who had Down's syndrome, died when she fell from a Ferris wheel ride at the park. The company was fined £170,000, which included £90,000 in court costs.

2006 Nov TV psychic Dave Wells, famous for his Most Haunted series on Living TV with Yvette Fielding, signs copies of his new book David Wells' Complete Guide to Developing Your Psychic Skills at Borders bookshop on Riverside Retail Park.

2006 Nov The Omega business park planned for a part of the site of the old Burtonwood Air Base to the west of junction 8 on the M62 motorway finally gets the green light. It will take 17 years to complete the project, creating thousands of jobs.

2006 Nov 24 Santa's Grotto returns to Golden Square after an absence of three years.

2006 Nov 27 'The Friends of Real Lancashire', a group concerned with redrawing the boundaries of the region of pre-1974 restored to maps and road signs, announce they want the residents to share a toast for Lancashire Day.

2006 Nov Warrington Borough Council holds back £70,000 from electronics company Siemens because of delays in the commencement of new traffic information screens for 6 months. The information screens should have been operational in January, but didn't start until the summer.

2006 Nov 40-year-old wheelchair bowman John Stubbs picks up an MBE from the Queen for his services to disabled sports.

2006 Nov Borough councillors visit a recycling plant in Huddersfield to see how they create electricity for the national grid by burning thousands of tones of rubbish. The council is hoping to introduce a similar scheme in Warrington.

2006 Nov 30 Eight fire engines were called out to a computer warehouse fire in Appleton Thorn. Nobody was injured and foul play was ruled out.

2006 Dec Warrington Borough Transport sets up a free park and ride bus service to run every Saturday in December.

2006 Dec Woolston Grange Avenue, which runs from the A57 Manchester Road to Birchwood Way is to be turned into a dual carriageway at a total cost of £500,000.

2006 Dec Spooky goings on were reported at the Black Horse pub on Liverpool Road, Great Sankey. The owner noticed a bowl had been moved and neither he nor his wife had touched it. It was then noted that an aunt had died 3 days earlier. I wonder if there is any link with the guy who walked through a graveyard at midnight and heard a tapping sound on one of the gravestones. When he got closer he saw a shadowy figure who said "They spelt my name wrong!".

2006 Dec Borough councillors agree to a freeze on expenses, despite a recommendation they should increase by 6.1%.

2006 Dec United Utilities fined over £35,000, plus costs, for supplying water unfit for human consumption in Warrington in 2004. The charges were brought under Section 70 of the Water Industry Act 1991.

2006 Dec The Government reveals experimental figures showing how much carbon dioxide is produced in Warrington. It pumped out 836 kilo tons (kts) of Industrial Co2, lower than Runcorn and Widnes which had 879 kts. Liverpool had 1107. The figures were compiled in 2004 and revealed now.

2006 Dec 4 Middlesbrough developers, Python, begin work on transforming the empty Priestley House on Sankey Street into offices. Previously, it was the base for Warrington Social Services department until the lease ran out in the 1990s.

2006 Dec Pink Ladies women-only taxi firm meets up with Government ministers to try to work out a way of continuing their service (run without a licence) in light of the new Road Safety Bill, which requires the company to be licensed. Pink Ladies believe they are a private members club and therefore don't need a licence.

2006 Dec Pink Ladies visit Buckingham Palace and are told by the Queen that their service is a 'jolly good idea'.

2006 Dec Mayne's coach firm moves from Battersby Lane to a brand new building on Marsh House Lane to make way for a new housing development on the former site of the Carrington Wire (Rylands).

2006 Dec Warrington Borough Transport announces plans for a free parking scheme at the Market in early 2007 on one day per week. Improvements to the market will also be undertaken, but rents for stallholders will increase to cover the cost.

2007 Jan Councillors announce plans for a twinning arrangement with Tanzania and China. The town is already twinned with Hilden in Germany, Nachod in the Czech Republic and Lake County in Illinois.

2007 Jan 11 Former Miss Warrington, Danielle Lloyd, becomes one of the latest wannabies to enter the Channel 4 Big Brother House.

2007 Jan New Years Honours for Warrington people include Sandra Busby of Business Link Cheshire (OBE), Dr Neil Goodwin of Manchester Strategic Health Authority (OBE), Keith Osborn, a former chief scientist at United Utilities (MBE), Jerome Evans, Manager of HM Young Offenders Institution Thorncross (MBE) and Andrew Carmen of Carousel for services to the disabled (MBE).

2007 Jan Greenall's owners AHG have submitted plans to the Borough Council to build up to 300 houses on land off Loushers Lane.

2007 Jan Zoe Developments wishes to build a five-floor apartment block on the spare land on Winwick Street between Greenwood Furnishings and Cafe Centre. The development, which will go to a public inquiry, would feature a restaurant on the ground floor, 12 two-bed apartments and 4 one-bed apartments with parking spaces for 11 vehicles.

2007 Jan A move to relocate Warrington Borough Transport's depot to Slutchers Lane from Wilderspool Causeway is scrapped.

2007 Jan Plans are announced which could see the annual Christmas and New Year late night bus scheme being run all year round.

2007 Jan Part of Sankey railway station building could be turned into a takeaway restaurant if plans succeed.

2007 Jan 8 The Council announces that a conservation area to preserve buildings in the town centre will be extended. The war memorial, which was excluded from the original 1980s scheme, will now be protected from development. I believe the memorial should be moved to Bank Park or Queens Gardens so everybody can visit more safely.

2007 Jan Warrington-born Glenn Robb gains a part in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express in London.

2007 Jan Sue Beesley of Warrington becomes BBC Gardener of the Year.

2007 Jan 13 Kingsman Alexander Green, aged 21 from Warrington was killed by gunfire as he returned to base while serving with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment in Basra.

2007 Jan Rod King gets his daughter to the church on time in style - on a recumbent quadricycle pedicab! As a member of Warrington Cycle Campaign he wanted to do something a bit special. The bike was borrowed from the Cycling Projects charity of which he is a trustee.

2007 Jan Danielle Lloyd, the former Miss Warrington from Liverpool is caught up in the major controversy that prompted over 30,000 complaints to OFCOM about alleged racism in Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother. The 'abuse' was hurled at Indian film star Shilpa Shetty. It became the most complained-about TV show in the world and fellow contestant Jade Goody was later voted out by the public. She tried to make amends by apologising to the Indian actress via the national press. Jade Goody passed away on 22 Mar 2009 from cancer.

2007 Jan The Government overturns a council decision to prevent the construction of an 80-bed hotel at Gulliver's World theme park in Westbrook. The scheme will also feature a permanent base for the Burtonwood Association heritage centre, who have been based in temporary accommodation since 2004. See RAF Burtonwood for more.

2007 Jan Cheshire Rural Enterprise have presented Lymm parish councillors a grant worth £141,000 which will fund a revamp of an area at the rear of the Bridgewater Canal.

2007 Jan 15 Chemical company Ineos Silicas, based on the site of Crosfields at Bank Quay, announces 67 redundancies over the next three years. Chemicals have been manufactured on the site since 1815.

2007 Jan Wayne Garvie, director of content and production at BBC Worldwide offers his expertise to students at University of Chester, Warrington Campus. He is the brains behind hit shows Strictly Come Dancing and Dragon's Den.

2007 Jan 18 Extremely high winds bring chaos around the town by blowing down trees and caused major traffic problems. See Wild Weather section on the My Warrington page for images.

2007 Jan 18 The record-breaking 57-feet-high London Plane tree in Winwick Park is toppled in the wild weather winter gales. There are fears that it may have to uprooted. It was planted in 2001 by former pop singer Kim Wilde when Winwick Hospital was demolished.

2007 Jan 25 Lee Briers has been awarded the inaugural Parliamentarians 'engage Super League Player of the Year' award. The award was voted on by members of the All Party Parliamentary Rugby League group, which consists of MPs and Lords from across the political spectrum. Lord Hoyle, chairman of Warrington Wolves, collected the award on Briers' behalf - who was away on warm-weather training with the Wolves squad.

2007 Jan 29 Octogenarian Ivy Edwards, wife of former mayor, the late Harold Edwards, who passed away in 2000, attends a reception at 10 Downing Street in recognition of her services to the Co-operative Party, the organisation she has served as secretary and treasurer for 44 years.

2007 Feb 5 Traffic Wardens reinstated onto Warrington streets.

2007 Feb 'Our Wood', which was created on the site of the former Burtonwood Air Base by local schoolchildren, is nominated for a British Urban Regeneration Award by the owners of the land, David Wilson Homes. The wood was officially opened by Granada TVs Fred Talbot in June 2006.

2007 Feb One hundred jobs are lost as 61 branches of the Stationery Box company is bought by Partners the Stationers, which is part-owned by TV 'Dragon' Theo Pathitis. The Bridge Street store is to close, as well as the head office at Eagle Park in Hawleys Lane, Dallam.

2007 Feb Greenalls announce plans to relocate its distillery to Risley.

2007 Feb Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve receives a grant of just over £46,000 from Biffa, who operate a landfill site in Risley, to make improvements. Ten per cent of the grant came from Peel Holdings. The Eyes will feature in two BBC television programmes during February (Nature's Calendar) and in the autumn (Alan Titchmarsh's Nature in Britain).

2007 Feb Warrington Museum receives a donation of a port hole from the shipwreck Tayleur which was launched in Warrington and wrecked during a storm off Ireland in 1854 on her maiden voyage. Read more about Tayleur in On The Waterfront.

2007 Feb 14 Warrington-born Kerry Katona marries Mark Croft at Gretna Green. She gave birth to her third daughter later the same month.

2007 Feb St Rocco's Hospice announces a £3 million expansion plan to extend the day centre and new therapy units. The government later contributed over £600,000 to project.

2007 Feb A footbridge over Manchester Road in Woolston is removed. The council will install traffic lights at a later date.

2007 Feb Suggestions are announced to create a by-pass road at Bridge Foot and to improve Bank Quay railway station at the same time. I was amused to read later in the Warrington Guardian that way back in 1898 the Chamber of Commerce had requested improvements at Bridge Foot so that two horses could get across at the same time!

2007 Feb Warrington Borough Council announces proposals for a giant park and ride scheme for the region. It suggests one should be located near a motorway network and commuters could catch buses and use the motorway hard shoulder or dedicated lanes to complete their journeys. Other councils also support the idea. In my college days we created a website proposing a park and ride scheme for the town. In it we suggested sites on the major routes at five locations in the north, east, south and west of the town.

2007 Feb Fiddlers Ferry Power Station in west Warrington signs a deal to separate the ash from coal and turn it into chemical substitutes and minerals for industrial use.

2007 Feb Local historian Mark Olly is to present another series of his Lost Treasures programme on ITV1 in April. Areas of Warrington, including Grappenhall, Thelwall and Lymm, will feature.

2007 Feb 18 The main suspect in the £40 million Greenalls arson blaze of 2006 is declared not guilty due to contradictory evidence.

2007 Feb Warrington Guardian photographer Mike Boden scoops the Best Weekly Photographer of the Year award at an annual awards ceremony in London.

2007 Feb A seal is spotted on the banks of the River Mersey at Bank Quay.

2007 Feb Warrington Borough Council receives a 4-star rating, the highest available, from the Audit Commission, putting Warrington in the excellent category for local councils. The report highlighted recycling, street cleaning and caring for the vulnerable among the council's successes.

2007 Feb 7 The Warrington Guardian newspaper's first female editor, Stella Parker, died in hospital aged 74.

2007 Feb 9 The town experiences a brief falling of snow.

2007 Feb Port Salford, a scheme to build a new port facility on the Manchester Ship Canal is announced by Peel Holdings. If it goes ahead it would increase the swinging of the bridges in south Warrington, but the bus company expressed concern regarding timetables.

2007 Feb A series of photos from this website depicting the history of bus stations in Warrington are displayed in Warrington's new bus station, Warrington Interchange.

2007 Feb 26 Warrington Borough Council announces that from 26 February rubbish bins will not be collected on Mondays. This is to avoid disruption at Bank Holiday periods.

2007 Feb 27 A public inquiry into two retail and leisure developments, New Time Square and The Wire Works, gets under way at the Halliwell Jones stadium.

2007 Feb A £48,000 revamp of Ackers Pit fishing pool in Stockton Heath gets under way. The pool is to be drained, cleaned up and restocked in a joint venture between Warrington Borough Council, the Environment Agency, Warrington Anglers Association and Stockton Heath Parish Council.

2007 Mar Archaeologist James Balme's excavation work in Warburton appears on Channel 4's Time Team programme.

2007 Mar The Borough Council has confirmed that £100,000 put aside for the redevelopment of Westy Park five years ago is still in the budget. Locals were concerned that it wasn't available. In a similar situation they also assured residents of Dallam that £66,000 of improvements to the playing fields has not disappeared from the budget either, and the work will begin soon.

2007 Mar Medical centre staff and members of the public across the town protest about Warrington Primary Care Trust's plans for a 'super surgery' in the town.

2007 Mar Lymm Slitting Mill reopens after an archaeological dig and work to make it accessible to the public. Read more on its history in the Lymm Dam section of Warrington Green.

2007 Mar 1 Labour politician Jack Straw pays a visit to Stockton Heath.

2007 Mar 3 A lunar eclipse is visible in the sky across Warrington and the rest of the UK.

2007 Mar 4 At last  - a Warrington girl is crowned Miss Warrington! After last years representative actually came from Wigan, it's good to see this years comes from Culcheth - Holly Ikin.

2007 Mar Warrington Guardian photographer Eddie Fuller's famous photo of Warrington Rugby League's Challenge Cup win homecoming from 1974 helps to raises £1500 at an auction in aid of the Peace Centre.

2007 Mar Python Properties from the northeast release artist impressions of what the ageing Priestley House on Sankey Street will look like after a revamp. It has previously been used by Social Services, among others. After the revamp it was renamed Bank Quay House.

2007 Mar It is announced that the town's radio station, Wire FM, could be moved to a new base in Newton by its owners UTV.

2007 Mar A planning application submitted by Greenall Whitley to move to Risley and to allow their current land at Wilderspool and Walton to be redeveloped with up to 280 new homes is to be heard by the council.

2007 Mar Warrington Chamber of Commerce chief executive Colin Daniels says that both New Time Square and The Wire Works developments should be supported.

2007 Mar Warrington writer Christopher Curbishley sees his first book, The Children of Tomorrow, in print. It is the story of a fiction pop group spreading the message of peace and love to the children of tomorrow. Published by Author House UK, ISBN 978-142596411-5.

2007 Mar 15 Warrington Market hosts its very own Market Awards For Traders' Adverts (MAFTA). They were held to honour traders who shot their own videos for display on the Market's plasma TV screens. They were featured on BBC Northwest Tonight the night before launch.

2007 Mar 27 A public inquiry into a proposed health waste incinerator on Winwick Road gets under way at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. It was dramatically scrapped the following day.

2007 Mar A new service for collecting repeat prescriptions, www.clickchemist.co.uk, is launched. It is registered with Warrington Primary Care Trust.

2007 Mar Warrington Borough Transport announces pre-tax profits of £310,000 for the previous financial year 2005-06.

2007 Mar The Kingsway Allotment Society at Westy receives a £10,000 National Lottery Awards for All grant to improve facilities on its site. The funding will allow gardeners to recycle waste rather than dumping it.

2007 Mar Town Centre jewellers, A Baker & Son, celebrate 100 years of business. They began life on Bridge Street in 1907 and now have four branches - one at Cairo Street, one in Stockton Heath and two in Liverpool.

2007 Mar A Warrington couple made history when they married earlier this month. The controversy surrounding the wedding is that the husband married his former mother-in-law. A new law passed earlier this year now allows such ceremonies.

2007 Mar A low tide on the River Mersey reveals the remains of a long lost bridge at Woolston New Cut near Paddington. It was later confirmed to be a crossing point at Miles Bite and is shown on an old Ordnance Survey map of 1845.

2007 Mar A controversial car boot sale which has operated on land in Winwick for the past seven years has been cancelled because the council says it is on greenbelt land.

2007 Mar A plaque has been erected at Pyramid Arts Centre on Palmyra Square South in memory of Warrington-born comedian, author and broadcaster Pete McCarthy. See Warrington People for his profile.

2007 Mar 30 Eric Naylor, Former Mayor of Warrington in 1970-71, died aged 88.

2007 Apr 2 Lord Hoyle, MP for Warrington between 1981 and 1997, unveils a plaque in The Hoyle Building at Warrington Collegiate dedicated to his name. He now sits in the House of Lords as Baron Hoyle of Warrington and is chairman of Warrington Wolves Super League rugby club.

2007 Apr 4 A planning application by Greenalls to build up to 280 homes on their land in south Warrington is refused by the council who say there is an over supply of new houses in the town.

2007 Apr 19 Fifty Firefighters were called to Fiddlers Ferry Power Station just after 10am to tackle a blaze which started in a roof section of the main turbine hall 150 feet above the ground. It caught fire when bitumen being used for repairs ignited.

2007 Apr 21 Controversy reigns in the council and the Press as a new logo for the town council is unveiled. The council says the existing Coat of Arms is too difficult to install on buildings and feels the town needs to modernise. One commented that it was strange how they always managed it in the past, without this modern technology! They have spent £30,000 and two years on the project. In the Warrington Guardian various readers have expressed their dismay at the council's decision.

2007 Apr 22 The annual ceremony of 'Beating the Bounds' in Latchford took place. The walk of a 4½ mile celebrates the ancient custom of checking boundary markers and tax evasion.

2007 Apr 25 Bulldozers move in to begin the demolition of Stockton Heath Primary School.

2007 Apr 29 Warrington historian and archaeologist Mark Olly begins his second series of Lost Treasures on ITV Granada.

2007 Apr The Peace Centre at Old Hall, set up in memory of IRA victims, Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball, is renamed The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation For Peace, 14 years after the atrocity. They have set up a new 'Pound for Peace' campaign to help with the £500,000 a year running costs. They are asking people to donate just £1 a week to help maintain the work.

2007 Apr Building Design Partnership unveils its plans for the £24 million revamp of Culcheth High School.

2007 Apr The first dedicated shop for Polish residents of the town opens up on Church Street near Sainsbury's.

2007 Apr Pupils at Dallam County Primary School raise over £150 for Comic Relief by hosting a dressing down day and making and selling cakes and cards.

2007 Apr An extension to the celebrated Our Wood in Westbrook takes place as Mayor Linda Dirir plants the first of many new trees. The site was officially opened by Fred Talbot from Granada TV in June last year.

2007 Apr Stationery Box, the high street retailer, closed its head office at Dallam when no buyer was found for the company.

2007 Apr The council refuses Biffa waste management permission to extend their landfill site at Arpley.

2007 Apr Part of a Channel 4 drama, The Mark of Cain, is filmed at Mr Smiths nightclub. The story portrayed a fictional army regiment on duty in Iraq, but the show was later cancelled when the international news story about the real life hostage taking of sailors in Iran hit the headlines.

2007 Apr Winwick Athletic Football Club have received an FA Charter Standard Development Club Award from the Lancashire FA, the first Cheshire team to be given the award.

2007 Apr Dallam and District Community Angling Group organises an open fishing competition and raises £200 for the Shannon Bradshaw Trust. The Trust helps to raise money for families who have children with life-threatening conditions. Read more about the Trust in the Community section.

2007 Apr The Plane Ace tree, planted by Kim Wilde in 2001, which was damaged by the high winds in January this year, will not be replanted because the council says it will cost too much.

2007 Apr Warrington Hospital's Radio General picks up three awards from the Hospital Broadcasting Association. The station began broadcasting in 1957.

2007 Apr Stockton Lane, running between Stockton Heath and Grappenhall, the location of a car accident in November 2004, in which two teenagers drowned as their car plunged into the Bridgewater Canal, is to close for good after a unanimous decision at a meeting in the Town Hall.

2007 Apr Peel Holdings, owners of the Manchester Ship Canal Company, have been asked to consider repainting the swing bridges. They were painted grey in the war but never returned to their original bronze colour afterwards.

2007 Apr A legal battle to save Stockton Heath Primary School has been dropped because the local action group cannot raise the £30,000 court costs which solicitors say would only have a 50/50 chance of success.

2007 Apr Two companies have been approached by the council to look at ways of improving the ageing Bank Quay railway station to make it is attractive for visitors to the town.

2007 Apr Permission has been given to redevelop historic Bewsey Old Hall as flats, provided that strict archaeological conditions are met. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has said that detailed planning permission would still have to be granted by Warrington Borough Council. The ancient hall stands on the site of the previous residence of the Boteler family from the 12th century.

2007 Apr Plans to redevelop a run-down section of Dallam moved a step closer as more funds were allocated to build a children's play area on land once used for garages on Massey Avenue. The project is now £22,000 short of its £90,000 target, which will be undertaken by Warrington Borough Council, Groundwork Mersey Valley, Golden Gates Housing and Dallam residents.

2007 Apr The DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) has announced that the mayoral car currently has illegal number plates. It reads as ED1 and should read as ED 1. The council is looking into it.

2007 Apr The public oppose plans to merge GP surgeries into five super health centres at various meetings across the town. Five such centres would have replaced doctors' surgeries.

2007 Apr Greenalls push ahead with plans to move to Risley despite its rejected planning application to build new homes on its existing sites in Wilderspool and Walton.

2007 Apr New signs will begin to appear on Network Warrington's buses in the coming weeks as the local bus company wishes to bring a smile to passengers faces with slogans like "Please have correct change ready. We don't want you late for your tea".

2007 Apr The remains of a Mersey Flat, a type of barge used on the waterways in Warrington in the past, was discovered buried in the mud near Paddington Meadows Nature Reserve when sluice gates at Howley half a mile away were lowered to allow maintenance of the weir.

2007 Apr-May The Friar Penketh on Barbauld Street held a beer festival between 23 April and 7 May. On the first day, St George's Day, Manns St George & the Dragon Ale from Wiltshire was served.

2007 May Priestley College in Wilderspool is awarded a 'beacon of excellence' by the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) in London.

2007 May A blind Warrington resident, Mrs Birchall, is planning a trip round the world on a motorbike to raise £250,000 for charity in 2008. She would become the first woman to achieve it if she succeeds.

2007 May BUPA (British United Provident Association), the private hospital in Stretton,  agrees to carry out health care for the NHS, one of three in the north west. Treatments should start in June.

2007 May 3 The Liberal Democrats remain in pole position on Warrington Borough Council after the local elections.

2007 May 8 Colin Parry, whose son Tim was killed in the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993, welcomes the new Northern Ireland Government, as the separate parties come together to help build a new, peaceful, future for the province.

2007 May Warrington Collegiate announces £1million in cuts which will cost around 50 jobs and education courses for vulnerable disabled students.

2007 May Warrington film producer Ken Horn wins a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards) for his gritty northern drama The Street shown on the BBC.

2007 May 24 The extended Golden Square shopping centre opens for business. The £120million work features Warrington's first Debenhams store.

2007 May Statistics show that most of the pollution in the town comes from traffic.

2007 May The Kwik Save supermarket on Academy Street closes in a shake up of the company nationwide.

2007 May 24 Terry Waite, former Beirut hostage, travels to Canada with Warrington Male Voice Choir for a series of concerts.

2007 May Warrington Borough Council in conjunction with the Warrington Guardian launch a competition for readers to nominate their favourite quiet spot to tie in with Noise Action Week. See Warrington Green for photos of some of the town's quiet spots.

2007 May Warrington Hospital's Radio General celebrates 50 years of broadcasting to patients by inviting the public to see behind the scenes. The actual anniversary is 7 November.

2007 May Water is supplied to St Cross Church in Appleton Thorn for the first time since it was founded over 120 years ago.

2007 May John Hutton, Work and Pensions secretary for the government, visits the town.

2007 May The Mulberry Tree pub in Stockton Heath prepares its customers for the national smoking ban from 1 July by providing outdoor heated canopies where they can have a drink with their cigarettes. The ban will affect all enclosed public places, including bus shelters.

2007 May 28 The annual Warrington Horse Show takes place in Daresbury, featuring B.S.J.A. show jumping, Strong Man competition, a ferret display, Vale Royal falconry display and a Gun Dog demonstration, as well as craft and trade stands, farmer's market and a fairground.

2007 May A 1,700-strong signed petition against the new borough council logo was handed in to the Town Hall three days before councillors voted on the adoption of it.

2007 May A special bench has been installed at the Old Rectory Nursing Home in Grappenhall in memory of tragic Nicola Sutton, who was murdered on 26 September, 2006.

2007 Jun Earth Song, a new exhibition by schoolchildren in the town goes on display at Warrington Museum, Pyramid Arts Centre and the Gateway. It was organised by the Primary Arts Network.

2007 Jun 2 Golden Square Shopping Centre plays host to the Environment Agency's Mend the World Day, a scheme to promote green issues.

2007 Jun Padgate and Woolston High Schools face closure due to falling pupil numbers. My old school, Bewsey High closed for the very same reason in the 1990s.

2007 Jun 4 Theatre 4 Warrington (T4W) launches a fund-raising campaign at Alford Hall on Manchester Road.

2007 Jun 6 The controversial 'super surgery' planned by Warrington Primary Care Trust is scrapped. I was told that the old baths on Legh Street was one of the venues suggested as a base, one of five which would have replaced doctors' surgeries.

2007 Jun The 75 Engineer Regiment replaces the Kings and Cheshire Regiment at Peninsula Barracks on O'Leary Street, Orford.

2007 Jun Government minister Ed Milliband paid a visit to the Gateway to meet with volunteers and staff on the issue of funding, but refused to answer questions on the budget cuts at Warrington Collegiate.

2007 Jun 13 Warrington Borough Council refuse a license for car boot sales on land off Townfield Lane in Winwick. The council said it is greenbelt land and has restricted use throughout the year: 28 events in total, including 14 markets. The car boot organiser wanted a sale every Sunday and Bank Holidays between April and December.

2007 Jun 14 The Warrington Guardian reveals that Mr Smiths nightclub at Bridge Foot has been sold to a company in Blackpool called Syndicate Nightclub. The venue still has a license as a nightclub so it could re-open very soon.

2007 Jun 16 The annual Bawming of the Thorn event takes place in Appleton Thorn. See photos of last year's event on the Events page.

2007 Jun 16 Urban Splash, owners of Bewsey Old Hall, reveal plans to redevelop the hall as seven apartments with additional apartments built in the grounds. The exhibition was held at Bewsey Barns Community Centre in Old Hall.

2007 Jun 20 Virgin Trains and the Borough Council unveil plans for a revamp of Bank Quay Station. The scheme will feature a facelift to the building with cafe and waiting areas, along with better ticket facilities and a shop.

2007 Jun 20 Boots the Chemist leaves Bridge Street to relocate at the extended Golden Square.

2007 Jun Campaigners against the closure and demolition of Stockton Heath Primary School feel betrayed by the Council as it is revealed that the new school will run £1.5 million over budget.

2007 Jun Days, the first feature film made by a school, premieres at The Foundry Church, Widnes. It was made by pupils and teachers at Penketh High School and is the story of how bullying at school does not have to be the end of it as the victim becomes the hero in a football match. It will be released on DVD later this year.

2007 Jun 22 Flash floods hit the town. Carriageways on the M6 near junction 22 were covered in water. All in all, Warrington escaped the worst of it - unlike many parts of Yorkshire and the Midlands who lost all their belongings in devastating floods.

2007 Jun 24 A political row erupted at the council meeting over who was to blame for the £1million cuts at Warrington Collegiate. Lib-Dems blamed the Labour Government, while Labour blames the college...

2007 Jun 29 Warrington Walking Day route diverted after a suspect car was found parked in Museum Street. This was in response to a foiled bomb plot in London. The Warrington vehicle was declared safe later the same day.

2007 Jun A new cleaning team has swung into action at Warrington Interchange to clean the buses between journeys.

2007 Jun Youngster Joel Davies, a budding young Warrington actor, who has already appeared in hits such as ITVs Cracker, meets his screen hero, Warrington actor Pete Postlethwaite. He wrote to Pete to wish him luck in a recent play in Manchester and was invited to meet him in his dressing room after a performance.

2007 Jun Work on revamping Acker's Pit in Stockton Heath grinds to a halt as it is revealed that silt - which suffocates fish and plant life - ran deeper on the bottom of the lake than contractors first thought. The cost have escalated, exceeding the original funding.

2007 Jun Archaeologists have unearthed parts of a Roman road and various pottery samples in the grounds of the demolished Stockton Heath Primary School, said to date back to the 1st century AD.

2007 Jun Parish councillors in Great Sankey express their dismay at the disappearing heritage in the town as they oppose the revamp of Bewsey Old Hall.

2007 Jun A suggestion has been made to use the former police training building at Bruche for plays and shows. This would useful for Theatre 4 Warrington who are campaigning for a theatre for the town.

2007 Jun A 7-storey apartment block in Howley received planning permission, creating fears for local residents that it will become the first of many skyscrapers in the town.

2007 Jun An anonymous reader of the Warrington Guardian was so upset about the shocking overgrown state of Warrington cemetery that they sent a photo into the paper to get a response from the council. The council apologised and promised action.

2007 Jun Warrington celebrity, Kerry Katona, former member of girl group Atomic Kitten, hits back at national press stories that she took drugs after having her third baby.

2007 Jun The Brownie pack at St Mary's Church Hall in Penketh celebrates 50 years in existence.

2007 Jul Warrington's bus interchange and visitor centre wins the Tourism For all Award at an event held at Chester Racecourse.

2007 Jul Despite national trends to change to fortnightly rubbish collections, Warrington Borough Council has announced that they will stay with weekly collections for the foreseeable future.

2007 Jul The Wireworks, a scheme to regenerate a run down section of Winwick Street opposite Central Station with restaurants, hotel and cinema is given the go-ahead by the Government. A rival development at Time Square was turned down because it is was currently occupied and in use.

2007 Jul Winwick Parish Council puts up £2,500 to oppose the proposed rail terminal at the former Parkside colliery just north of the district.

2007 Jul Plans for a town centre swimming pool are dashed by the Lib Dem-Tory controlled council. Warrington's Legh Street baths have been closed since 2003.

2007 Jul New Town House on Buttermarket Street is voted the ugliest building in Warrington by readers of the Warrington Guardian.

2007 Jul The Creamfields music event to be held at Daresbury, just outside Warrington, announces The Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Foundation as its first charity of the year.

2007 Jul Property company Hometrack announces Warrington as the best place in the country for buying property to let.

2007 Jul Warrington Borough Council has announced a £½million makeover for 80-year old Lymm library on Davies Way.

2007 Jul Former Penketh High School pupil Howard Litton becomes head of Nickelodeon Children's TV channel in the UK.

2007 Jul New X-Ray equipment is installed at Warrington hospital allowing digital storage which can be accessed on the internal network.

2007 Jul 2 Workers at Gemini Retail Park were evacuated following a bomb scare.

2007 Jul 3-30 It is revealed that one of the suspected terrorists arrested in Australia in connection with the car explosion at Glasgow airport on Saturday, 30 June 2007, was a Doctor who practiced at Warrington and Runcorn hospitals. All eight suspects arrested were all linked to the NHS. He was later released without charge and returned to India.

2007 Jul 4 Bent's Garden Centre in Glazebury celebrates 70 years of business. It is Warrington's biggest and oldest.

2007 Jul 7 Culturefest 07 begins for the summer with A Grand Day Out in Queens Gardens. It featured stalls and a carousel.

2007 Jul 12 The official opening ceremony of Warrington Interchange takes place. At the event 5 new buses were named after some of Warrington's Worthies. See photos of the event on the On the Buses page.

2007 Jul 14 The annual Winwick Carnival takes place on Middleton Lane, with over 2,500 enjoying the fun.

2007 Jul 14 The 27th annual Howley Carnival takes place on Howley Park. The event was opened by Helen Jones, MP for Warrington North.

2007 Jul 15/20 Warrington-born 'celebrity mum', Kerry Katona, is held captive by armed raiders at her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire. The gang is said to have escaped with £150,000 of property, including a BMW sports car and electrical items. The car was found undamaged on Friday of the same week.

2007 Jul 17 High School students across Warrington perform at the Parr Hall in a musical, Trash, about rubbish and recycling.

2007 Jul 19 Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, visit students of University College Chester Warrington Campus and the young offenders centre Thorncross.

2007 Jul 23 BBC TVs Doctor Who visits the skittles at Market Gate - or at least his Police Box TARDIS and a Dalek do.

2007 Jul Over 2,000 women took part in the Race For Life run for Cancer Research UK at Arley Hall, raising over £181,000.

2007 Aug Lymm Parish Council announces that the annual Easter Duck Race in the village will return in 2008. I bet you didn't know they had one, did you? Neither did I!

2007 Aug A north west naturist group have asked if they can hire the Amazing Maize Maze in Stretton to hold activities there. The owners asked the public to comment.

2007 Aug Reactive Audio, a production company who make shows for BBC radio, ITV and other media organisations, have moved their production centre from Manchester to Knutsford Road in Warrington.

2007 Aug The location of a controversial set of traffic lights at Asda Westbrook are under review by the Borough Council. Road users said they were in a dangerous position, even though they were put there to make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the road.

2007 Aug It is reported that July 2007 had ten times as much rain in Warrington than in the same period last year. According to the Met Office, 57 mm is average - last year was 17mm, this year it was 123mm.

2007 Aug Cheshire Police have revealed that the cost of the murder case for Shafilea Ahmed, who died in 2003, is approaching £5million. The case remains unsolved at the time of writing. An inquest will be held in early 2008.

2007 Aug Warrington dance group IndepenDANCE perform in Cardiff at the ITV Britain's Got Talent show where they featured alongside artists such as pop group Westlife.

2007 Aug The Planning Committee of Warrington Borough Council have announced that further discussions on the future of Time Square are taking place with Big Apple Warrington after the Government refused planning permission for redevelopment of the site due to issues over affordable housing.

2007 Aug Former bodybuilder and model Lisa Appleton appears in the BBC show Kitchen Criminals. The show was about improving one's skills in the kitchen.

2007 Aug Traffic Wardens have handed out over 10,000 parking tickets in the town since February. Many believe they are only doing it to meet shortfalls in budgets from central government, whilst others believe the council have set targets, which the council categorically denies.

2007 Aug Warrington Borough Transport report that over a million extra passenger journeys were made on the town's buses in the 2006/7 financial year. They say the new Warrington Interchange is a contributing factor.

2007 Aug A report says that around £1.5 million in Council Tax went uncollected in the borough last year.

2007 Aug The Bechstein Model M grand piano in the Parr Hall is being put up for auction in London in September.

2007 Aug After a break due to a funding shortage, work resumes on cleaning out Acker's Pit in Stockton Heath.

2007 Aug 2 Three year old Ethan Connolly visits Berlin for the first in a series of operations to remove a rare lymphangioma, a cist on his face which enlarges his features. The treatment will cost £50,000 and many fundraising events are taking place to complete the treatment. See more his on his myspace website.

2007 Aug 9 Fire Station Open Day takes place at Winwick Road. See photos in Peter's Gallery.

2007 Aug 12 The annual Lymm Rushbearing Festival takes place.

2007 Aug 12 Garry Newlove, aged 47, from Fearnhead, who was attacked as he tried to prevent youths damaging his car outside his home on Friday 10 August, 2007, died two days later in hospital. Six youths were questioned by police, four were charged with his murder: an 18 year old, two 15-year-olds and one 16-year-old. Three others were released without charge. The post-mortem result confirms that the death was caused by "trauma to the head". A heartbreaking letter from his daughter appeared in the national and local press soon after the tragedy.

2007 Aug 11 Warrington-born BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans marries for the third time at Guildford registry office in Surry. His new bride is golf professional Natasha Shishmanian. He was previously married to Carol McGiffin (Loose Women, ITV1) and Billie Piper (Dr Who, BBC).

2007 Aug 16 Tributes are paid to Paul White, owner of Whites Sports Shop in Warrington Market who died on 16 Aug. He received the accolade 'The Bird Man of Appleton Thorn' for the work he did looking after injured and sick birds. He has been described as a 'legend' by many of the townsfolk.

2007 Aug 18 The annual Scott Street Carnival takes place.

2007 Aug An application from Biffa Waste Services is submitted to extend a landfill site at Risley. A previous application last year was rejected. This latest application was also rejected in October 2007.

2007 Aug 23 Legendary musician Acker Bilk performs at the Old Fish Market in Golden Square in a free concert organised by the Borough Council. See Events page for photos.

2007 Aug The Warrington Guardian reports that Warrington Collegiate has received complaints for featuring a child dressed in a military uniform holding a pistol. The prospectus, which was promoting courses for students wishing to enter the armed forces, was later withdrawn.

2007 Aug 30 A prankster in Latchford got their own back on a traffic warden by clamping his moped with a bike lock chain through the front wheel.

2007 Sep 3 The funeral of Garry Newlove, who was murdered last month, takes place in Padgate.

2007 Sep 11 The Fairtrade stall in the market, Fair 4 All, celebrates its 5th birthday.

2007 Sep The annual Woolston and District Show celebrates its 30th Anniversary.

2007 Sep 7 Volunteers from Dallam Seniors Youth Club retire after 15 years of loyal service to the community.

2007 Sep It is announced that Woolston High School will close in 2012, but residents of the area are fighting to keep it open.

2007 Sep The grave of Warrington-born Joseph William is unearthed at the site of the former Liverpool Castle. He was the man who created the Williamson Tunnel which ran under the city. The site was opened to visitors on the weekend of 14 Sep 2007.

2007 Sep Stars from TV's Hollyoaks and Coronation Street, including Warrington born Stephen Arnold (Ashley Peacock in the ITV1 show), take part in a charity football match against Warrington bus drivers to raise money for the Shannon Bradshaw Trust, for which Stephen is patron.

2007 Sep Peel Holdings have announced plans to invest over £4million in improvements to the site of a former timber mill off Chester Road in Lower Walton.

2007 Sep Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe visits town to show his support for the £21million Orford Park Project, a scheme to regenerate a former landfill site between Winwick Road and Orford Park into a leisure and sports facility. See more on the Warrington Borough Council Website.

2007 Sep 9 Contact Warrington, a one-stop-shop for all Warrington Borough Council services on Horsemarket Street, is officially opened to the public by Mayor Cllr Celia Jordan.

2007 Sep Labour has announced plans to fight the closure of Woolston High School, due to close in 2012.

2007 Sep 22 Warrington Male Voice Choir performs Peace One Day concert at the Parr Hall for the UN International Day of Peace. Terry Waite, Patron of the choir, gave a short address.

2007 Sep 22-23 Warrington Salvation Army celebrates 100 years of the inaugural Home League meeting in Leytonstone in 1907 with a weekend of events at the Warrington citadel. The object of the Home League was to combat the growing tendency to neglect the fostering of true home-life and to encourage thrift and hygiene. See more at the Salvation Army website.

2007 Sep Warrington Older People's Forum receives a £1,000 grant from the O2 "It's Your Community" fund. The group, for people aged 50 or over, meets at Warrington Baptist Church in Sankey Street on the third Monday of each month from 1pm onwards, and currently has over 400 members.

2007 Sep Tracy Buckley appears on ITV1's Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and wins a host of prizes including two cars and three holidays.

2007 Sep Warrington Hospital announces its finances should be back in the black after a deficit of £8.5million last year.

2007 Sep It is announced that a mix of houses and offices could be built on the site of Greenalls when they move to Risley. See a photo of the former main brewery in Peter's Gallery.

2007 Sep Warrington Borough Council is in the clear after the accidental demolition of the listed Bay Horse pub on Winwick Street, which is on the site of the forthcoming Wire Works development. The demolition firm received a £15,000 fine for the destruction of the building.

2007 Sep Ninety-eight percent of people who wrote into Warrington, St Helens and Wigan councils were opposed to the Parkside rail terminal north of Winwick. Of 3,000 letters, only 60 showed support.

2007 Sep 29 Sky Sports rugby league commentator and former Great Britain International Mike "Stevo" Stevenson signs copies of his latest book, Looking Back, at Borders bookshop on Riverside Retail Park.

2007 Oct Diana Youdale, AKA Jet in the 1990s TV show Gladiator, launches her own Pilates health classes at Great Oak Health in Lymm from 2 Oct.

2007 Oct Former Culture Club singer Boy George (O'Dowd) is forced to pay £31,000 in compensation to a Warrington music promoter when he pulled out of a performance at the opening of her GAY USA club in Los Angeles after he was arrested for possession of cocaine. The non-event cost the club owner an estimated £100,000.

2007 Oct 2 Liverpool FC Reserves are beaten 1-0 by Sunderland at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the first of nine matches to be played there in the 2007/8 season. 3,403 spectators watched the match, in which kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes to get everybody into the ground.

2007 Oct Peter Bradley becomes the first person in the UK to crack the code in a game called Isis which featured on BBC2's Dragon's Den. He won £500 for his trouble. Learn more about the game at www.isisadventure.com.

2007 Oct 4 Justice Minister Jack Straw visits Thorncross Young Offenders Institute at Appleton Thorn.

2007 Oct 4 The army bomb disposal unit is called to a vehicle on land near Bewsey Old School after a small explosion. No traces of bomb material were found.

2007 Oct The former Bruche Police Training Centre could become the location for affordable housing, the council has announced.

2007 Oct 7 The annual Duke of Lancaster's Regimental Sunday parade takes place. It features a march past and a service at the Parish Church. A civic reception followed at the Parr Hall.

2007 Oct Paddington Meadows nature reserve receives a grant of £38,386 from Waste Recycling Environmental limited towards the £54,000 cost of restoration. See photos of the Meadows in Warrington Green.

2007 Oct Tesco announce plans to transport wine along the Manchester Ship Canal to cut down on its carbon footprint.

2007 Oct Warrington bus driver Nuala Callaghan sets off for north Vietnam on a 700km bike ride to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

2007 Oct 20 The Halliwell Jones stadium hosts the Gillette Fusion rugby league match between the New Zealand All Golds and the Great Britain Northern Union to celebrate 100 years of International Rugby League. The All Golds won 25-18.

2007 Oct Warrington Borough Council announces a 300% increase in recycling rates since 2004.

2007 Oct Warrington Borough Council announces a Park and Ride scheme for Christmas 2007. The scheme will create 800 extra spaces to the north and south of the town.

2007 Oct A planning judge rules that land near Peel Hall at Houghton Green is not greenbelt land. The site had previously been earmarked for 1,000 homes. The council has now been given permission to apply to the Court of Appeal.

2007 Oct 31 Colin Parry, who lost his 12 year old son Tim in the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993, meets up with Sin Fein Leader Gerry Adams face to face for the first time since the atrocity at a charity function in London. Mr Parry says it was not easy to invite Adams to the event but it was infinitely easier than carrying Tim's coffin.

2007 Nov Local communities in the town are bracing themselves for a decision on whether six sub-post offices are to close. They are situated at Glazebury, Padgate, Winwick, Lymm, Orford Lane and Lovely Lane, Whitecross. It is part of a national initiative which could see over 2,500 small post offices closing.

2007 Nov A decision on the future redevelopment plans for Bewsey Old Hall are postponed as Urban Splash need more time to provide information to councillors.

2007 Nov 9 The Birchwood Partnership has launched a new website www.birchwood.org.uk, which is aimed at strengthening links between schools, churches, business and community groups in the Birchwood area. mywarrington has supplied photographs for future use on the site.

2007 Nov The trial for murdered Garry Newlove begins.

2007 Nov 15 The annual Christmas lights switch on takes place at Golden Square. Former Blue group member Simon Webbe performed at the event.

2007 Nov 27 'Real Lancashire Day' events take place across the county. Campaigners are hoping to reinstate the traditional border of Lancashire. Warrington is now in the administrative county of Cheshire, but the original county border of Lancashire never actually moved, so all in all, Warrington is STILL in Lancashire. See The Friends of Real Lancashire (www.forl.co.uk) for more.

2007 Nov Pressure from tenants and councillors forces a U-turn on the closure of allotments on land behind Steel Street in Padgate. The land has been used for the allotments for over 30 years.

2007 Nov The world's first professional qualification in Muslim youth work is launched at the University of Chester Padgate campus.

2007 Nov 2 Wire FM, Warrington's first radio station, holds its 5th annual Bring A Pound To Work Day to raise funds for Warrington's St Rocco's Hospice and Runcorn's Halton Haven Hospice.

2007 Nov 7 Warrington Hospital's Radio General celebrates 50 years of broadcasting to the patients of the hospital, an operation which now runs for 24 hours a day.

2007 Nov 19 Former Warrington Wolves star Mike Gregory dies after a four year battle with a neurological disease. Read more in Warrington Wolves.

2007 Dec 1 The Big Wheel is opened on the Town Hall lawn for the Christmas season. See On Top Of The World for photos.

2007 Dec 3 According to Channel 4 current affairs programme, Dispatches, Warrington is the 7th-most at risk of flooding.

2007 Dec 8 The village of Lymm hosts a Dickensian festival.

2007 Dec Nexum Leisure, owners of Mr Smiths nightclub, announce that the venue will re-open in March 2008.

2007 Dec Warrington Borough Transport announces a night time bus service over the festive period to get people home from pubs and clubs.

2007 Dec 4 Work gets under way to install passenger lifts at Warrington Central Station after years of campaigning from the public.

2007 Dec 11 Former Warrington preacher David Brash, aged 62, is said to have been murdered in the Philippines by hit-men hired by his new wife ten days after he was reported missing. His body was found in a swamp and looks like it had been burned. He was pastor at the Runcorn Independent Baptist church for 12 years. He had caused controversy by saying the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 was God's punishment on humanity. He was divorced and had two adult children.

2007 Dec The Pride of Place poll for 2007 reveals the top ten attractions for Warrington residents. The results are: The Barley Mow pub 51%, Trans Pennine Trail 31%, Halliwell Jones stadium 4%, Market Gate Skittles 4%, Risley Moss 3%, Walton Hall and Gardens 2%, Town Hall and Gates 2%, Bridgewater Canal at Lymm 1%, Lymm Slitting Bridge 1% and Bridge Foot 1%.

2007 Dec 14 Warrington celebrity Kerry Katona appears on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On the show she confesses to taking cocaine drugs over 3 years ago, and admits she cannot say she won't in the future, but hopes she doesn't.

2007 Dec 17 Latchford swing bridge caused chaos for drivers when it froze open for two hours.

2007 Dec Warrington Cycling Campaign receives national acclaim for their book about 'crap' cycle lanes around the country, highlighting how local councils jump on the bandwagon of eco-friendly travel and then fall flat on their faces with poor facilities to help tackle the problems. The book is on sale at local bookshops.

2007 Dec 26 Warrington Wolves suffer a humiliating defeat when National League One side, Leigh Centurions, beat them 38-18 in a pre-season friendly at the Halliwell Jones stadium.

2007 Dec 28 John Hales, former owner of Waysiders store on Horsemarket Street, and chairman of the Chamber of Trade, dies aged 80.

2008 Jan 1-15 Wetherspoons pub, The Friar Penketh, holds a January sale. It reduces the price of drinks for a two-week period.

2008 Jan 7 Council Tax is set to increase by £50 a year to plug a £10 million gap in council finances.

2008 Jan 7 United Utilities announce pans to improve odours at Gatewarth water treatment works. Residents in Sankey Bridges have long complained about it.

2008 Jan Greenall's submit new plans to redevelop their Loushers Lane site, which includes nearly 200 new homes. A previous application in January 2007 was refused.

2008 Jan Priestley House on Sankey Street is renamed Bank Quay House.

2008 Jan The Hatton Arms pub in Hatton, a listed building, is refused planning permission to replace windows and to make internal alterations.

2008 Jan Curtis Jobling, Warrington creator of Bob the Builder, launches Animate IT! 2008, a competition for under 12s to design their own characters for an animated ‘claymation’ film.

2008 Jan Storms batter the town. Flooding hits Hawleys Lane bridge and Densham Avenue, Longford.

2008 Jan 13 Fans and players hold a minute’s applause for Mike Gregory during the testimonial match of Lee Briers at the home game versus Wigan Warriors. Read more on Mike in Warrington Wolves page.

2008 Jan (14) The coroner at the inquest of teenager Shafilea Ahmed, who died in Kendal in 2003, concludes she was unlawfully killed but there was not enough evidence to say how she died.

2008 Jan 14 Asda stores in Warrington have started to impose £60 fines to inconsiderate drivers who park in disabled and parent and child spaces.

2008 Jan 16 Three youths have been found guilty of murdering 47 year old Garry Newlove who was kicked to death on 15 August 2007 outside his home in Fearnhead. Two other teenagers were cleared of the crime.

2008 Jan (17) The new owners of Mr Smiths night club, Nexum Leisure Ltd, announce the new name for the club will be Synergy when it reopens later in the year. The former was named after John Smith.

2008 Jan 26 Sky News videos Saturday nightlife in Warrington. It was described as ‘an ugly picture’ in the press.

2008 Jan 30 The end of an era as the sign for Mr Smiths nightclub is removed in preparation for its new life as Synergy.

2008 Jan 30 The Health Protection agency announces a reduction in superbug infections MRSA and Clostridium Difficile (C. difficile) in Warrington.

2008 Jan (31) The Youth Justice Board announces that youths under 18 years old will no longer be held at Thorn Cross Offenders Centre in Appleton.

2008 Jan It is announced that schools in Warrington are ahead of the national average for GCSE results.

2008 Jan Orford Park receives £401,627 from the Big Lottery Fund to update the playground facilities.

2008 Jan Culcheth Methodist Church receives a £6,000 grant towards the £17,000 cost of new furniture and rewiring the building.

2008 Jan Adrian Morley takes over as captain of Warrington Wolves after Lee Briers steps down.

2008 Jan A memorial to former Warrington Wolves player Mike Gregory is unveiled at Warrington Collegiate Institute on Winwick Road.

2008 Jan Post Office UK Ltd announces the closure of six local post offices in the town from March 2008 – Booths Hill (Lymm), The White Horse (Glazebury), Orford Lane, Church Drive (Padgate), Sankey Green (Lovely Lane) and Myddleton Lane (Winwick).

2008 Feb Plans are announced to transform the former Garnet cabinet works on Barbauld Street and other buildings on Cairo Street into a café, office and retail development.

2008 Feb Warrington Market is runner-up in the National Market of the Year award in Birmingham Town Hall. The award was for the indoor market category.

2008 Feb Teenager Johnny Scotland meets the Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street after campaigning to save Woolston High School.