Elton 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England, northeast of Chester, between

Helsby Helsby is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Overlooking the Mersey estuary, it is approximately north east of Chester and south we ...

and

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...

, near the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...

. Its proximity to the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal have contributed to its industrial character. The village is on the north-western edge of the

Cheshire Plain The Cheshire Plain is a relatively flat expanse of lowland within the county of Cheshire in North West England but extending south into Shropshire. It extends from the Mersey Valley in the north to the Shropshire Hills in the south, bounded b ...

, from

Stanlow Refinery Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, North West England. Until 2011 it was owned by Shell UK. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne o ...

. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 3,586.

History

The name of the village was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

as ''Eltone'', derived from the words ''ēl'' and ''tūn'', meaning "eel farm or settlement''. Elton was a township within the Thornton parish of the Eddisbury Hundred. It became a civil parish in 1866. The population was recorded at 167 in 1801, 216 in 1851, 190 in 1901, 410 in 1951 and rising to 3,528 by 2001. The village was briefly in the media spotlight in 1997 when one of its residents,

Louise Woodward Louise Woodward (born 1978) is a British former au pair, who at the age of 18 was accused of second degree murder but subsequently convicted of the involuntary manslaughter (reduced from the jury trial verdict) of eight-month-old Matthew Eappe ...

, went on trial for murder in the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Governance

The unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester replaced

Chester City Council Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Local ...

and

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. ...

on 1 April 2009. Elton is within the electoral ward of Gowy Rural. At the time of the 2011 census the village was part of a ward of the same name, which stretched as far west as

Little Stanney Little Stanney is a suburban village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula between Chester and Ellesmere Port. At the 2011 ce ...

. The total recorded population in 2011 was 4,557. Since 1983, Elton has formed part of the

Ellesmere Port and Neston Ellesmere Port and Neston was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It covered the southern part of the Wirral Peninsula, namely that part which is not included in the Metropolitan Borough of ...

parliamentary constituency, presently represented by

Justin Madders Justin Piers Richard Madders (born 22 November 1972) is a British Labour Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellesmere Port and Neston since the May 2015 general election. Early life and education Madders studied l ...

of the Labour Party.

Transport

Ince & Elton railway station Ince & Elton railway station, on the Hooton–Helsby line, serves both Ince and Elton in Cheshire, England. The station is unstaffed. History Ince station was opened on 1 July 1863 by the Birkenhead Joint Railway.Butt (1995). Page 127. It was ...

serves both Ince and Elton villages. There are very infrequent poss 2 trains a day! Monday to Saturday services to

, Stanlow & Thornton,

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

, and Warrington Bank Quay. The nearest stations with more frequent services are in Ellesmere Port and Helsby. The number X2 bus visits Elton hourly in each direction, which runs between Chester via

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Halton Lea bus station. This service is operated by Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire. Elton also has a few morning and evening journeys on service DB8 to and from Chester Business Park. Public transport in Elton is supported by the North Cheshire Rail User Group. It campaigns for better rail services and improved public transport interchange. The nearest motorways are the M56 and the M53, and the local road, the A5117, links Elton to North Wales.

Economy and industry

To the west of Elton is

, an

Essar Energy Essar Energy plc is Mauritius-based Indian energy company with assets in the power and oil and gas businesses. Headquartered in Port Louis, Mauritius and subsidiary of Essar Group, the firm has interests in both the power generation and petrol ...

facility and the second largest

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

in the United Kingdom. The refinery produces one-sixth of the United Kingdom's petrol needs. Opening in 2005, of the former Ince Power Station site was redeveloped as part of a large glass bottle production factory operated by Encirc Ltd (formerly Quinn Glass until 2014). The facility initially contained two glass melting furnaces and 13 bottle production lines. It was estimated that £250 million was invested into this project and the factory outputted 1.2 billion bottles per year. In 2020 Encirc opened the world's largest container glass furnace, capable of processing up to 900 tonnes per day. North east of the village, landowners

The Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...

are developing a industrial site on a former water meadow at

Ince Park Ince Park is a resource recovery facility being developed by Peel Group near Ince, Cheshire. Information Ince Park will be the largest such facility in the UK, and is dedicated to waste management and environmental technologies, taking waste and ...

. The Protos "energy and resource hub" houses a biomass power station, a timber recycling plant and designated "nature areas". The construction of a facility to recover energy from non-recyclable waste began in 2020.

References

External links