Capenhurst

infobox UK place
country= England
official_name= Capenhurst
map_type= Cheshire
latitude= 53.2589
longitude= -2.9506
population= 237 (2001 Census)citeweb|url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=792426&c=capenhurst&d=16&e=15&g=427631&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1195354227281&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779|title=2001 Census: Capenhurst|work=Office for National Statistics|accessdate=18 November|accessyear=2007]
shire_district= Chester
shire_county= Cheshire
region= North West England
constituency_westminster= City of Chester
post_town= CHESTER
postcode_district= CH1
postcode_area= CH
dial_code= 0151
os_grid_reference= SJ366739 Capenhurst is a village and civil parish in Chester District, Cheshire, England and located on the Wirral Peninsula to the south west of the town of Ellesmere Port. According to the 2001 Census, Capenhurst had a population of 237.

History

Capenhurst was a township in Shotwick Parish of the Wirral Hundred and included parts of the hamlets of Dunkirk and Two Mills. The population was 147 in 1801, 148 in 1851, 159 in 1901 and 253 in 1951. [citeweb|url=http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/chs/capenhurst.html|title=Cheshire Towns & Parishes: Capenhurst|work=GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy|accessdate=23 August|accessyear=2007]

Description

Capenhurst is home to a uranium enrichment plant owned by Urenco Group. It has its own railway station, on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. The local amateur football team play in the Carlsberg West Cheshire League.

Capenhurst tower

In 1999 the journalist Duncan Campbell published claims that a fifty metre high tower on the premises of the uranium enrichment plant had been used to intercept telephone calls transmitted by microwave between the British Telecom towers at Gwaenysgor, Clwyd, and Pale Heights, near Chester. Campbell claimed that the interception was conducted by the Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, initially from a temporary installation on the roof of the plant until commissioning of the tower in 1990.

The main route for phone calls between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom was via the submarine fibre optic cable UK-Ireland 1, landed at Holyhead, Anglesey, then transmitted by a microwave link. Campbell claimed that calls were monitored by GCHQ until 1998 when the Irish telecomunication system was changed. [citeweb|url=http://publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=626&sid=100|title=How Britain Eavesdropped on Dublin|work=Duncan Campbell, The Independent (UK newspaper)|publisher=The Center for Public Integrity|date=16 July 1999|accessdate=3 July|accessyear=2006] [citeweb|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,326400,00.html|title=Government tapping of phone calls between UK and Ireland challenged|work=The Guardian (UK newspaper)|date=31 May 2000|accessdate=3 July|accessyear=2006]

The tower was demolished in 2004.

References

ee also

*Holy Trinity Church, Capenhurst

External links

* [http://www.eyeball-series.org/capen-eyeball.htm Photos of tower (including satellite)]
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan-turnbull/secret4.htm Alan Turnbull's page on the tower]
* [http://www.lamont.me.uk/capenhurst/ Richard Lamont's page on the tower]
* [http://www.hackhull.com/ontour/capenhurst/index.html hackHull? - Capenhurst Tower]