Town in Cheshire, England
Runcorn
Runcorn once had a bridge that carried cars across the Mersey in a hanging cabin. Today it has a modern bridge, a Saxon fort legacy and a famously controversial brutalist housing estate.
Key information
- County
- Cheshire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Mersey bridges, the Bridgewater Canal, Norton Priory, a 1960s New Town
- What locals are called
- Runcornians
- Famous people
- Æthelflæd, the Duke of Bridgewater, James Stirling
- Football clubs
- Runcorn Linnets, Runcorn Town
About Runcorn
The bridge that carried cars in a hanging cabin
Before there was a big steel arch at Runcorn, there was a transporter bridge. Opened in 1905, it linked Runcorn and Widnes with a gondola slung beneath a high girder frame, which ferried people, horses and vehicles across the Mersey. The transporter was demolished in 1961, when the steel arch bridge that now carries the Silver Jubilee Bridge name took over. It got that name in 1977, in honour of the Queen's jubilee. In October 2017 the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened alongside it. This is a cable-stayed crossing with three towers, and it finally took the pressure off a bridge that had become one of the most notorious bottlenecks in the north-west.
A Saxon queen's fortress on the Mersey
Runcorn's story starts in 915, when Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, built a fortress here as part of her campaign against Viking raiders. She was Alfred the Great's daughter, and she ruled Mercia in her own right. The spot made sense. Runcorn sits on a rocky gap where the Mersey narrows sharply, which made it a natural place to guard and to cross. A little later the Normans built Halton Castle on the sandstone hill above the town. Not far away, an Augustinian priory was founded in 1115 and settled at Norton in 1134. Its site is now Norton Priory, with a museum and a walled garden. The star exhibit is a medieval statue of St Christopher, one of the best-preserved of its kind.
The canal that made a town
Runcorn really grew when the Duke of Bridgewater's canal reached it in 1776. It linked Manchester's coal and goods with a tidal port on the Mersey and Liverpool. The canal came down to the river through a staircase of locks, and barges loaded and unloaded at docks that fed the town's business. Red sandstone from local quarries was shipped out, too. Later, at Weston Point, the Weaver Navigation and the Manchester Ship Canal brought more water traffic and chemical works. The alkali industry shaped the town's skyline and its employment well into the twentieth century.
The New Town that was built around a figure of eight
In 1964 Runcorn was designated a New Town, built to house families moving out of Liverpool. Its planners gave it an unusual public transport system: a dedicated busway laid out in a figure-of-eight, with the housing estates arranged around it. The town centre became Shopping City, opened in 1972, an enclosed precinct that was ambitious for its day. The most talked-about project was the Southgate estate, designed by the architect James Stirling. It was finished in the late 1960s and 1970s, with concrete housing blocks and porthole windows that people either admired or hated. It was demolished from 1989. Stirling went on to win the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour.
Linnets, Runcornians and a river-town character
People from Runcorn are Runcornians. The town's best-known football club is Runcorn Linnets, who take their nickname from the small songbird, and there is also Runcorn Town. Runncorn also has a long rugby league tradition, and Runcorn Highfield was one of the clubs that carried the name into the professional game. For walkers, Runcorn Hill Park gives wide views over the Mersey and the bridges, and the Bridgewater Canal towpath provides a flat route through the town's industrial and watery past.