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For the larger local government district, see Metropolitan Borough of St Helens.

St Helens
St Helens shown within Merseyside
Population	102,629
OS grid reference	SJ505955
Metropolitan borough	St Helens
Metropolitan county	Merseyside
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ST HELENS
Postcode district	WA11, WA10, WA9
Dialling code	01744
Police	Merseyside
Fire	Merseyside
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	St Helens North
	St Helens South
European Parliament	North West England
List of places: UK • England • Merseyside

Coordinates: 53°27′16″N 2°44′46″W / 53.4543, -2.7461

St Helens (pronunciation (help·info)) is a large town in Merseyside, England. Roughly equidistant between Liverpool and Wigan, it is the largest settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens.

Historically a part of Lancashire, St Helens grew during the 19th century as a significant centre for Coal mining and Glassmaking. Today, St Helens is still very much an industrial and commercial town, its urban area having a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 census.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Governance 3 Geography 4 Demography 5 Transport 5.1 Road 5.2 Rail 5.3 Air and sea 6 Education 6.1 Primary schools 6.2 Secondary schools 6.3 Further education 7 Media 8 Tourism, entertainment and investment 9 Sport 10 Retail 11 Notable People 11.1 Beechams 11.2 Entertainment 11.3 Sports 11.4 Art 11.5 Other 12 Trivia 13 References 14 External links

As late as the start of the 19th century, St Helens did not exist. It was formed from the townships of Eccleston, Windle, Parr and Sutton, townships of the parish of Prescot which became civil parishes on their own in 1866.

St Helens takes its name from St Helen's Parish Church in Hardshaw, within Windle. The parish church was rebuilt in 1816 and rededicated to St Mary. However, after the church was rebuilt between 1916 and 1926 following a fire, the dedication returned to the historic "St Helen, St Helens".

The town was built both physically and metaphorically on coal: the original motto on the borough coat of arms was "Ex Terra Lucem" and local collieries employed up to 5,000 men as late as the 1970s, whilst during the boom years of the British coal industry (1913 being the peak year of production with 1 million employed in UK mining) the St.Helens division of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation (the local miners' union) had the largest membership (10%) of that federation. Owing primarily to the abundance of winnable coal reserves, the quality of local sand, the near availability of Cheshire salt and the transport revolution -- first the Sankey Canal and then the railways from 1830 onwards -- a glass and chemical industry was established in St Helens. The Sankey Canal was opened in 1757 to transport coal from the pits in Haydock and Parr to the River Mersey. An extension to the canal (the St.Helens section) was made in 1775 linking the canal to St Helens. In the 1830s, the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway was built for the same purpose.

Its clock tower originally had a steeple but this was destroyed in a fire in 1913. In the centre of the modern town centre, adjacent to the town hall, is the Gamble Institute, built in 1896 and named after Sir David Gamble, who was the first mayor and who also gifted the land for the building. Today, the Gamble Institute building serves as the central library and also houses other municipal offices and archives. Other buildings of note are the Friends' Meeting House, the Beecham Clock Tower - which is now part of St Helens College - and St Mary's Lowe House Catholic Church. The town, and old county borough, included the suburbs of Clock Face, Sutton and part of Windle.

The glass industry is no longer the major employer it once was, however it still employs over a thousand people in the town.^[2] The large Pilkington Brothers works, founded in 1826, dominates the town's industrial quarter and still produces all the UK's output of flat glass.

Major investment is currently transforming the quarter into a retail and communications hub with former industrial land being reclaimed for use as hotels, shopping areas and housing. The many coal mines on the outlying districts of St.Helens, (most of which were closed before St.Helens borough was created and were, therefore, never in St.Helens) including Clock Face, Ravenhead, Sutton Manor, Bold, Wood Pit (Haydock), Lyme Pit (Haydock), Old Boston (Haydock) and Lea Green, were closed between the 1950s and early 1990s. The last colliery in the modern Metropolitan Borough and in the St.Helens area of the South Lancashire Coalfield, was Parkside, in Newton-le-Willows, which was closed in 1992.

In 1868, St Helens was incorporated as a borough, and was then made a county borough in 1889. The town hall was built between 1872 and 1876. As a county borough, St Helens was, from 1889 to 1974,outside the administrative county of Lancashire but remained within the geographical county palatine

In 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, St Helens became the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in the newly created Merseyside Metropolitan county.

The St Helens Borough covers roughly 30 km² over an area of soft rolling hills used primarily for agricultural purposes, mainly arable. The highest point in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is Billinge Hill, 3¾ miles (6 km) north from the town centre. The town is landlocked with a stream running through, Mill Brook/Windle Brook running through Eccleston and connecting with the (disused) St. Helens Branch/Section of the Sankey Canal in the town centre. St Helens is around 160 feet (50 m) above sea level.

Christianity is the main religion in St Helens, being about 87% according to the 2001 census. This makes St Helens the "most Christian town in Britain".[1]. There is very little ethnic minority representation in the St Helens population, one of the lowest levels in the country. 98.8% of the St Helens population is White British.

St Helens lies in close proximity to the motorway network with the M6 running a few miles to the eastern side of the town, with Junction 23 at Haydock. The M62 runs a couple of miles to the south of the town with Junction 7 at Rainhill Stoops. The M57's Junction 2 lies several miles south west of St.Helens, at Prescot. The M58 is several miles north of St.Helens. The A580 East Lancashire Road runs north of the town centre alongside Eccleston, Moss Bank and Haydock. It is a former trunk road taking traffic from Manchester to the Liverpool Docks. It was built between 1929 and 1934 and was opened by King George V. It was intended to take pressure away from the A58, a major road running from Prescot (M57) through St.Helens to the M1 at Wetherby, Yorkshire. The Rainford By-Pass A570 is the transport route from Southport and west Lancashire through St Helens and the M62 at Rainhill Stoops. A major development in communication was the opening of the St Helens Linkway (classified as part of the A570) in 1994, which linked the town directly with the M62 and, by proxy, an alternative connection to the M6. The A572 takes traffic from the town centre through Parr to Earlestown and Newton-le-Willows.

Rail is an important means of transport in the borough. St Helens Central serves as the town's main railway station, which lies on the Wigan to Liverpool line. Other stations on this line in the town are Thatto Heath and Eccleston Park. The Liverpool to Manchester line serves St Helens at Rainhill, St Helens Junction and Lea Green which was opened in 2000 in order to bring people away from the now dilapidated St Helens Junction Station^{[citation needed]}, which was opened on 15 September 1830 by the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway. St Helens Central is currently undergoing redevelopment at a cost of £6 million, which the Council hopes will encourage investment, create more jobs and improve the gateway into the town.

St Helens has no airport. The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, serving European destinations, located about 12 miles (19 km) south-west of the town, and is connected with a direct bus service. Manchester Airport is approximately 25 miles (40 km) away and has numerous direct flights to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. St Helens is a landlocked town, but with easy access to the ports of Liverpool, on the River Mersey and Mostyn, North Wales, on the River Dee. The Sankey Canal, including the St.Helens section, is no longer used for transporting goods, constisting of several short sections only, the remainder being drained and filled.

The Borough of St Helens has one nursery school, one infant school, one junior school and fifty two primary schools. There are four special schools; Mill Green, Lansbury Bridge, Penketh and Queens park c/e urc primary School. Performance in the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 SATs has been consistently above national averages over the past 5 years. An example of a primary school is Bleak Hill.

The Borough of St Helens has eleven secondary schools. These are Cowley Hard Lane Site, Cowley Broadway Site, De La Salle, St Augustine's, St Aelred's, Newton, Haydock Sports College, Sutton High Sports College, Rainhill, Rainford High Technology College and St Cuthbert's.

The town has seven sixth form colleges in Cowley Language College, Rainford High Technology College, Rainhill High, St Alred's High, Sutton High, Carmel College and St Helens College. Carmel College is a leading college in the country with a value added score of 328. The college forms part with the University of Liverpool. St Helens College offers a wide variety of higher and further education courses including degree courses, foundation degrees, AVCEs and GNVQs and professional qulaifications at the college's Business School. The college has a growing reputation for its standards and achievements. There is no university in St Helens; locals who stay in the area and go to university often take advantage of the surrounding universities such as Edge Hill (Ormskirk), Liverpool, Manchester, Salford and Chester.

St Helens has no television or radio broadcasters. However 102.4 Wish FM gives the second part of its name (sh) to St Helens while the first half goes to Wigan (Wi), where it is based. There are two local weekly newspapers which are freely distributed. These are the St Helens Star and the St Helens Reporter.

St Helens College has previously broadcasted temporary, limited service radio broadcasts from their Town Centre Campus, headed by the late Paul Dempsey, who previously worked as a presenter on BBC Radio.

A New Internet station is under development and will be launched soon at Radio St.Helens

The past twenty years have seen major redevelopments in the town centre. This has included mass pedestrianisation of much of shopping area, with traffic being directed around the town centre on existing roads. The principal theatre is the Theatre Royal, which has been recently renovated externally with a modern glass exterior, however it has failed to have internal refurbishment and is known locally as the 'grott hole'. It has a large capacity and stages many performances, including comedy, music, drama and pantomime, although its reputation as a theatre has diminished slightly over recent years with few top theatre groups choosing the theatre to perform in. The highly acclaimed Citadel Arts Centre is a smaller theatre on Waterloo Street and is home to alternative music and the arts, although it has a smaller capacity than the Theatre Royal, the building's interior is of higher quality and the Citadel enjoys positive feedback from performers and customers.

The principal hotel is the four star Hilton Hotel, built during a period of massive commercial augmentation in the town during the mid-1990s. Other large hotels are the Holiday Inn, Travelodge and Thistle Hotel in Haydock. There are numerous smaller hotels, inns and B&Bs across the borough. The World of Glass Museum, which opened in 2000, incorporating the Pilkington Glass Museum, has received many awards including North West Attraction of the Year. The St Helens Canal (1845), originally the Sankey Canal, (opened in 1757), has been cleaned up in recent years and has become a habitat for aquatic plants, marine life and birds. The St Helens Transport Museum on Hall Street, which opened in 1980 but closed in 2000 due to massive underinvestment, is currently undergoing a multi-million pound redevelopment, including a more modern exterior.

The George Street Quarter regeneration programme left an impressive stamp on the town. The George Street area receives foot traffic from the railway station so the area was enhanced to leave a positive impression on tourists. Major improvements were made to building exteriors, parking, security, street furniture and paving. This has attracted several new businesses to the quarter including award-winning restaurants. The surrounding areas are now receiving attention, with the Hardshaw Centre receiving a new car park exit stairway into the George Street quarter. The stairway spirals around a tall pointed metal structure and is named 'The Needle'. However this new and modern looking stairway is in stark contrast to the brown, square and brick built 'Hardshaw' Centre. The main shopping areas, Church Street and Church Square, are currently undergoing extensive regeneration and there is a proposal for Duke Street, which extends into the town centre, to also receive funding. The main problem in St.Helens has been the virtual elimination of all the old buildings in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving the town with a large selection of grey, square blots and few traditional buildings. It is due to its 'fragmented' town centre, the results of years of poor planning in the 1960s - 1980s that it is not as well appreciated as the neighbouring towns of Wigan and Warrington. The current council is working hard to solve these problems with good results.

Traditionally, the town is known for its social clubs, mainly connected with the Labour Party and the Roman Catholic Church. In recent years, the boom in Britain's 'binge drinking' culture in the mid 1990s has fuelled the nightlife industry over the past 10 years. The town centre has exploded over this time with many new or relaunched drinking establishments. Many of the new bars including Boudoir, Bar Java, Cafe Chloe and Zoo are centred around Westfield Street and Bridge Street in the town centre.

Although several bars such as Panama Joes, Zoo Bar and Dali Bar have licences to serve alcohol until 3am, the town still only has one major nightclub, Club Nexus, which is popular amongst younger revellers. A second nightclub was planned for Bridge Street, with building work being completed for the end of 2002, but it has remained closed since completion. The building was up for sale for many months and has recently been bought for around the sum of 3Million Pounds and is going to be transformed from a Club/Cafebar to a shopping precinct.

There are several restaurants in the town centre with an increasingly mixed cuisine on offer. The George Quarter alone has Italian, Spanish, French/Modern British at Le Frog, Chinese and Thai cuisine on offer. A local newspaper, The St Helens Reporter, awarded its 2005 'Restaurant of the Year' prize to The Griffin Inn, Eccleston.

Each year many youngsters from the Scout and Guide Movement perform at the annual St. Helens Scout and Guide Gang Show. The show has been nationally recognised as being of a high standard and is often used by other gang shows worldwide as a form of inspiration to get ideas or acts or dance etc. The show is usually held in mid April at the Theatre Royal on Corporation Street. The show has a lovely mixture of dance, song and act which proves a huge hit year after year and due to its nature it is deemed one of the most family friendly shows in St. Helens.

St Helens rugby league club's (St Helens RLFC) stadium is located in Eccleston in Dunriding Lane/Knowsley Road's residential area. During the summer, the 100 year-old stadium receives thousands of fans from St Helens and England's other rugby league towns, although it faces an uncertain future due to the rugby league club's intention to build a new modern stadium on the edge of the town with better transport links and parking facilities. The club has won the Challenge Cup eleven times and has played in many finals, the latest of which took place at the newly refurbished Wembley Stadium, where they beat Catalans Dragons on August 25, 2007. The club was crowned World Club Champions in 2001 and again in 2007. In 2006 season the club won all three major honours in the domestic game, the Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield, the League Leaders Shield and the Super League Grand Final. At the start of the 2007 season, the club also won the World Club Challenge, defeating Australian side Brisbane Broncos to add to the honours acquired the previous season. Other honours won by the club this year include, Daniel Anderson Coach of the Year, Paul Wellens Man of Steel and Players' Player and James Graham Young Player of the Year.

In December 2006 St Helens were awarded with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award at the Annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year Ceremony, this accolade recognises the best team in any sport within the United Kingdom. At the same ceremony Daniel Anderson was given the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award - this was the first time a rugby league coach had won the award.

The town is also home to a large number of amateur rugby league teams. Most notable of these are Thatto Heath Crusaders, Pilkington Recs, Blackbrook, Haydock, Haresfinch, Bold Miners and Clock Face. Most of these teams and others in the area compete in the BARLA North West Counties league (although Thatto Heath compete in the higher ranked National Conference League).

The continued success and achievement of these teams at the grass roots level is important to the town, and have provided many players who have gone on to play for the 'Saints' and other professional and semi-professional clubs. Thatto Heath is known locally as a rugby league hotbed, having a number of amateur teams. It is the birthplace of many famous players including Alex Murphy, the Chisnall brothers, Paul Forber and St. Austins Primary School. St Helens Town FC is an English football club, currently playing in the first division of the North West Counties Football League. The club, based in St. Helens, play their home games at Knowsley Road, the home of St Helens RLFC, the town's rugby league club.

The town also has its own amateur football league, the St Helens Combination which has been running since the 1917/18 season.

The town's shopping area is centred on the parish church around which Church Square was built in the early 1970s. Church Street, the main shopping street, runs parallel to Church Square. Three indoor shopping centres meet at Church Square: the LaGrange Arcade, St Mary's Arcade and the Hardshaw Centre. Other main shopping streets include Bridge Street, Westfield Street and Duke Street. Until approximately ten years ago St Helens was criticised by residents for not attracting major chain stores; however recent growth and investment in the town has bucked this trend with many chain stores now unable to find suitable premises. St Helens has two retail parks, one on either side of the St Helens Linkway. The older of these, St Helens Retail Park, is home to discount stores and wholesale retailers, while Ravenhead Retail Park houses more mainstream retail stores, such as Currys, Next and Boots.

The Beecham dynasty is one of the most notable families to be associated with St. Helens. Thomas Beecham founded what was to become the world's largest pharmaceutical producer, Beechams in St. Helens. His son Joseph Beecham built up the business and promoted classical music in the town. Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, son of Joseph, was born in St Helens.

The town has a long history of association with the film industry. St. Helens-born George Groves is credited with being Hollywood's first "sound man", as he was the recording engineer on the seminal Al Jolson picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), as well as many other early talkies. Herbert Mundin found fame as a character actor in 1930s Hollywood. Actor, dancer and singer Robert Dorning had a career in film and television spanning from 1940 until his death in 1989. More recently, former boxer and model Gary Stretch has turned to acting, starring in films including Dead Man's Shoes, Alexander and World Trade Center.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had two St. Helens-born men amongst its production team - director David Yates and choreographer Paul Harris. Yates is also directing its follow-up, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Two actresses on the popular TV series Hollyoaks are from St. Helens - Emma Rigby and Carley Stenson. Pauline Yates, best known for playing Elizabeth Perrin in the BBC television sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is also from the town. Actor Matthew Crompton, of The Bill, Coronation Street and Brookside fame, was born and raised in St. Helens.

Johnny Vegas, the comedian and actor, was born and raised in St. Helens, and maintains close ties with the town. He is not the only comedian to come from the town - ostrich-jockey Bernie Clifton is also from St. Helens.

Tony Baylor, a little known but successful film and television scriptwriter. He writes under a different psudonom every script that he is asked to undertake. He is married with one son, who is a schoolteacher. He resides in London,England and Victorville, California. He joined the British Army in 1967 and served in the 1st Battalion, The Green Howards. He later attended Birmingham University, where he obtained a 2.1 degree BA(Hons.) English. He started writing scripts from 1984 aged 35.

St. Helens has had several notable musicians, mostly in bands based elsewhere. For example, Haydock-born guitarist Nick McCabe found fame in Wigan's The Verve. Drummer Peter Clarke (better known as 'Budgie') played in Liverpool bands The Spitfire Boys and Big in Japan before moving to London and joining Siouxsie & the Banshees. He was married to Banshees vocalist Siouxsie Sioux for a time, but they are now divorced. One-time Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott is from St. Helens. Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton reportedly heard her singing at a party in the town and asked her to join the band.

Jeffrey Walker, best known for playing bass in Carcass is from St. Helens. He formed his first band Electro Hippies in the town.

Recently local band The Loungs have come to some degree of prominence, releasing an album and three singles on the Manchester-based Akoustik Anarkhy label. Despite favourable reviews in the press and online they have yet to break the charts.

Rugby League has a large following in St. Helens. Notable rugby league players from the town include Saints players Paul Wellens, James Roby and Matty Smith; Huddersfield Giants centre Kevin Brown; and Alex Murphy, who had a long and successful career playing for Saints, Leigh and Warrington, and later as a coach. League referee Steve Ganson is also from the town.

St. Helens has also supplied the world with several notable football players - former leading women's football player Lily Parr, Manchester United players Bill Foulkes (one of the Busby Babes and survivor of the Munich plane crash), Tommy O'Neill and Phil Marsh and Manchester City player Gary Owen. City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann was originally from Germany but settled in St Helens after World War 2.

Premier League football referee Chris Foy is also from the town.

World champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Geoff Duke is from St. Helens, as is darts player Alan Tabern. The latter is an avid Saints supporter, and has 'The Saints Are Coming' by The Skids as his entrance music as a tribute to the team.

St. Helens has produced three notable artists. Stuckist Allan Ferguson (better known as Arfius Arf) was born and raised in the town. Although now based in Northern Ireland, Jim Manley was also born in the town. Writer and artist Mike Philbin, (a.k.a. Hertzan Chimera) was born in Haydock.

Richard Seddon, who went on to become Prime Minister of New Zealand, was from St. Helens. He is currently the country's longest-serving Prime Minister, holding the office from 1893 until 1906.

Real life urban legend Akinwale Arobieke (aka "Purple Aki"") is associated with the town. His Sexual Offences Prevention Order forbids him from entering the town, as well as Warrington and Widnes. He lived on The Burgies for a short while.

Other people born in the town include Victorian philanthropist John Rylands, Independent theatre reviewer Paul Taylor, glamour model Louise Glover, 1950's theatre actor Paul Walsh^{[citation needed]}, businessman and philanthropist Michael Smurfit, and Harold Dacre Robinson Lowe (1886-1952), who had dinosaur Monoclonius lowei named after him by CM Sternberg in 1940, Businessman and philanthropist Kevin O'Brien

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• A famous Punch cartoon had Napoleon lamenting, "Oh, no! I've been banished to St Helens!" This was a pun on St. Helena, the South Atlantic island to which Napoleon was exiled.

• Residents of St Helens are known variously as "St.Helens People", "St Helensers" or "Sintelleners" or, at times derisively by some residents of the neighbouring city of Liverpool, as "Woolybacks", though this term originally refers to those who would unload American cotton in the Liverpool docks.

• St Helens is home to The Burgies.

1. ^ The St Helens 2001 Census Page
2. ^ Taken from St Helens Casino Bid Background Information 1.4.1

• St Helens Council
• St Helens - Historical information
• Windle Parish - St Helens Parish of Windle
• Eccleston Parish - St Helens Parish of Eccleston
• St Helens CVS
• St Helens RLFC-St Helens Rugby League Team website
• My St Helens - St Helens site with pictures and links to other St Helens sites