Town in Cheshire, England
Warrington
A Roman river crossing turned wire-making powerhouse, Warrington gave rugby league its most prolific try-scorer and gave the Industrial Revolution one of its first canals.
Key information
- County
- Cheshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 210,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Rugby league's Warrington Wolves, the Sankey Canal, wire-making, a Mersey crossing since Roman times
- What locals are called
- Warringtonians
- Famous people
- Chris Evans, Brian Bevan, Joseph Priestley (taught here), Lewis Carroll (born nearby)
About Warrington
The town that made its living from a river crossing
Warrington sits where the Mersey could be crossed on foot or by bridge long before Liverpool was more than a muddy creek. The Romans knew the spot. Their settlement at Wilderspool, which they may have called Veratinum, was a busy industrial site with workshops turning out metal and pottery. For centuries afterwards, anyone heading north or south on the main west-coast routes had to come through Warrington, because it was the lowest point at which the Mersey could be bridged. That position made the town a prize. In August 1648, during the Civil War, a Royalist army was beaten up the road at Winwick and the fight spilled back to Warrington Bridge, which the Parliamentarians then seized. Being a crossroads shaped everything: markets, inns, and later the railways and motorways that still converge here.
Why Warrington's rugby team is called the Wire
Ask a local who they support and the answer is often "the Wire". The name comes from the town's long trade in drawing metal into wire, a business that grew up here from the 1500s and kept thousands in work through the industrial age. Wire-drawing firms became so much a part of the town that the rugby league club, founded in 1876, took the nickname and never let go. The club is now officially the Warrington Wolves, and plays at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, which replaced the old Wilderspool ground in 2004. Wilderspool had been home since 1881. The Wolves won the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 2019, one of several Wembley wins in the 2000s and 2010s. Warrington also has a football side, Warrington Town, known as the Yellows.
The Wizard of Oz and his 740 tries
Warrington's greatest sporting legend arrived from the other side of the world. Brian Bevan, an Australian winger nicknamed the Wizard of Oz, made his debut in November 1945 and stayed until 1962. In that time he scored 740 tries for Warrington, a figure that still looks barely believable. Bevan was slight, balding and not built like an athlete, but he was almost impossible to catch. He sidestepped, swerved and out-thought defenders for years on end. To this day he is spoken about on the terraces as the finest finisher the sport has seen. He is not the only Warrington sporting name to travel; the club has long drawn talent from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
A canal, a school of rebels and a museum for the people
In 1757 the Sankey Canal opened, running from the St Helens coalfield to the Mersey at Warrington. It is often called the first true canal of the Industrial Revolution, and it sent coal to the growing chemical and soap works of the region. That same year, Warrington Academy was founded. This was a school for Nonconformists, who were barred from the universities of the day. The scientist and clergyman Joseph Priestley taught there, years before he identified oxygen. The town kept its appetite for learning. Warrington Museum opened in 1848 and was among the first in England to be paid for from local rates, meaning that ordinary townspeople funded a free library and museum of their own.
Beer, gold gates and a very modern town
The Greenall family, of Walton Hall, built a brewing fortune here, and the Greenall Whitley brewery was a Warrington institution for generations. Another landmark is Warrington Town Hall, an eighteenth-century mansion designed by James Gibbs. It is fronted by the Golden Gates, ornate cast-iron gates made by the Coalbrookdale Company for the 1862 International Exhibition, and among the most admired pieces of ironwork in the north-west. Then in 1968 Warrington was designated a New Town, and large new neighbourhoods such as Birchwood spread across the surrounding fields. Business parks, motorway junctions and shopping centres followed, and the population swelled. It is also a place for scientists. The Daresbury Laboratory, just outside, has been a centre for physics research for decades. The village of Daresbury is also where Lewis Carroll was born in 1832, and his Cheshire Cat may owe something to the county's grin.
Famous faces and where to find them
Radio and TV presenter Chris Evans was born in Warrington in 1966 and went on to run the Breakfast Show on Radio 2. Brian Bevan, though Australian-born, belongs to the town as much as anyone. For a day out, Walton Hall and Gardens gives you green space and a view of the old estate. Gulliver's World is a theme park built for families. Bank Quay station is a stop on the West Coast Main Line, keeping Warrington on the route it has served since Roman times.