Daresbury is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Borough of Halton The Borough of Halton () is a local authority district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, North West England. It is administered by Halton Borough Council, a unitary authority since 1998. The borough contains the towns ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 246.

History

The name means "Deor's fortification", derived from an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

personal name and the word ''burh'' (a fortified place). The population was recorded over time at 134 in the census of 1801, 157 in 1851, 153 in 1901, 235 in 1951 and reaching 216 by 2001. Opened in 1850 on the Birkenhead Railway, the area was served by Daresbury railway station in the nearby village of

Moore Moore may refer to: Language * Mooré language, spoken in West Africa People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior ...

. The station closed to passengers in 1952 and to goods in 1965, although the line through the station site remains in use. Daresbury was the birthplace of ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' author

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

, in All Saints' Vicarage. The village has a Lewis Carroll Visitor Centre and in the parish church of All Saints, a Lewis Carroll window, which includes an image of the

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Chesh ...

Landmarks

Built in 1759, Daresbury Hall is a former Georgian

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

which has been used as a private dwelling, military hospital and residential home. A designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

since 1952, it is on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

due to being in very poor condition. A major fire in June 2016 destroyed much of the building, which has since been secured with scaffold and mothballed in a roofless condition.

Governance

Daresbury was a township and chapelry in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

parish of

Bucklow Hundred The hundred of Bucklow was an ancient division of the historic county of Cheshire, in northern England. It was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1260, and it was formed from the earlier Domesday hundreds of Bochelau and Tun ...

, which became a civil parish in 1866. The village was administered as part of Runcorn Rural Sanitary District from 1875, then from 1894

Runcorn Rural District Runcorn was a rural district in Cheshire, England from 1894 until 1974. It was named after but did not include Runcorn, a town on the River Mersey to the north-west of the district, which formed its own urban district. The district was abolis ...

. Local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 transferred the area to the

. Daresbury is also an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

. However, the boundary of the ward is different from (and larger than) the parish boundary, and includes the parishes of

, Sandymoor and Preston Brook. The total ward population in 2011 was 5,401. Daresbury is represented nationally by the

Runcorn and Helsby Runcorn and Helsby is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, it was first contested at the 2024 general election. The incumbent MP is Sarah Poch ...

parliamentary constituency.

Economy

Near the village is the

Science and Technology Facilities Council The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astr ...

's Sci-Tech Daresbury science and innovation campus, which includes the

Daresbury Laboratory Daresbury Laboratory is a scientific research laboratory based at Sci-Tech Daresbury campus near Daresbury in Halton, Cheshire, England. The laboratory began operations in 1962 and was officially opened on 16 June 1967 as the Daresbury Nuclea ...

and the Cockcroft Institute. The Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) facility at Daresbury Laboratory was in operation between 1981 and 2008. Daresbury Park is to the south west of the village, at junction 11 of the

M56 motorway The M56 motorway serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England. It runs east to west from junction 4 of the M60 at Gatley, south of Manchester, to Dunkirk, approximately north of Chester. With a length of , it connects North Wales ...

. The site provides office and warehouse space for several businesses and includes the Daresbury Park Hotel.

Transport

The village of Daresbury lies to the east of the realigned

A56 road The A56 is a road in England which extends between the city of Chester in Cheshire and the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as ...

. The B5356 Daresbury Lane heads eastwards from the village towards

Hatton Hatton may refer to: Places England * Hatton, Cheshire West and Chester, a former civil parish * Hatton, Derbyshire, a village and civil parish * Hatton, Lincolnshire, a village and civil parish * Hatton, London, in the London Borough of Houn ...

and Stretton, while the A558 Daresbury Expressway heads westwards towards

and crosses the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

Community and culture

In 2006, the annual

Creamfields Creamfields is an electronic dance music festival series founded and organised by British club promoter Cream, with its UK edition taking place on August Bank Holiday weekend, with a number of international editions held across various territo ...

dance festival was held in Daresbury after relocating from the disused Liverpool airport site it had occupied for the six previous years. This saw 40,000 revellers partying from 3pm-6am to a line-up that included live performances from

the Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...

and Zutons, as well as DJ sets from the likes of Sasha,

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

, 2 Many DJ's,

Green Velvet Curtis Alan Jones (born April 26, 1968), better known by his stage name Green Velvet, is an American disc jockey, singer and record producer. He is also known as Cajmere, Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, and Gino Vittori. Early life Curtis Ala ...

and

DJ Shadow Joshua Paul Davis (born June 29, 1972 in San Jose, California, San Jose, California), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ and record producer. His debut studio album, ''Endtroducing.....,'' was released in 1996. He uses l ...

. As of 2019, the festival has been an annual event at the site.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire Borough of Halton