Runcorn Leasing

Did You Know?

Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in Cheshire, England, and in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap.

Runcorn was a small, isolated village until the Industrial Revolution when the construction of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, Trent and Mersey Canal and the Bridgewater Canal enabled the growth of heavy industry. In 1964, Runcorn was designated a new town and expanded eastward, swallowing neighbouring settlements.

The earliest written reference to the town is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is spelled "Rumcofan", literally meaning "a wide cove or bay". This word is derived from the Old English words "rúm" ("wide" or "broad") and "cofa" ("cave" or "cove").

In 1656, Runcorn was described as being "nothing but a fair parish church, a parsonage and a few scattered tenements". And so it remained for over a century, an isolated and poor hamlet. The only through traffic used the ferry which crossed from Runcorn to the north bank of the River Mersey.

Industries began to develop within and around Runcorn, in particular shipbuilding, engineering, chemical manufacturing, tanning, and sandstone quarrying. Towards the end of the 18th century and in the early years of the 19th century, the town was a health resort.

The growth of industry by the early 19th century had not diminished Runcorn's reputation as a health resort and in 1822 the town's first Saltwater Baths opened. This was followed by new visitor accommodation in 1831 at Belvedere Terrace "for the reception of visitors in search of health and pleasure.

Runcorn was becoming an industrialised and highly polluted town. During the later 19th century the town became increasingly dominated by the chemical and tanning industries. In the 1880s a pipeline was opened between Northwich and Weston Point, supplying brine to the salt works and in 1896 the Castner Kellner chemical works was established.