Newtown, Chester

Not to be confused with Newton, Chester.

Newtown
Unitary authority	Cheshire West and Chester
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	City of Chester
List of places: UK • England • Cheshire

Newtown is an area of Chester, Cheshire, England.

History

1899 OS map of N.E. Chester showing Newtown. The Cathederal grounds of St. Werburgh can be seen to bottom left of the map. The Phoenix Tower (The King Charles Tower) forms part of the Roman Walls of Chester.

Newtown is located to the north-east of Chester, and can be found just outside Chester city walls and to the east of St Werburgh's Cathederal and the Phoenix Tower. The main layout of streets came about because of the canal location in the late 1790s and the position of the cattle market, at the centre of the community and on Newtown's doorstep .

Origins

Canal which runs through Newtown

Newtown is an area of Chester located less than 5 minutes' walk east from the City Walls. The position of Newtown, north-east of the City of Chester, within sight of Saint Werburgh's Cathederal Chester, and bounded by the Shropshire Union Canal, the Cattle Market and the two Chester Railway stations, (General and Northgate), meant that Newtown, Boughton and Hoole in Chester, were responsible for providing the vast majority of workers and therefore in turn, the vast amount of Chester's wealth production throughout the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century.

From about 1793 when the canal at Chester was finished, through to the late 1950s, when the last canalside flour mill closed, Newtown had been increasing in size and importance to the Chester economy. The area supported a thriving community of artisans and working class families who lived mainly in "two-up-two-down" terraced housing with no bathroom and an outside toilet.^[1]

Because of the location of the canal and later, due to the great railway building of the 1830s and 1840s in Great Britain, Chester (Newtown), along with Liverpool and Manchester became the hub of northern English commerce.

The canal was the 'motorway' of its day and narrowboats carried produce and supplies to and from North Wales (Coal, Slate, Gypsum or Lead Ore). Finished lead (for roofing, water pipes/ and sewerage) produced in the huge Leadworks factory in Edgerton Street Newtown was exported all over the country. Grain arrived from Cheshire farmland and was processed in the large graneries on the banks of the canal at Newtown and Boughton; and salt, (for preserving food such as fish and meat), came in from Northwich.

The canal flows into the river Dee, and provided access to the port facilities at Crane Wharf and the sea, and other ports such as the Port of Liverpool.

Present day (2010)

Newtownsaints

The two large Chester & District Housing Trust run estates, referred to as 'The Saints' Area' and 'Francis Street Flats', are a mixture of sheltered accommodation and normal family occupancy.^[2] The 'saints' area has three large 1960s-built tower blocks (St Annes, St Oswalds and St Georges), along with many low-rise houses and maisonettes. On the opposite side of 'Oswald's Way' There are a further 3 tower blocks, namely, Heygarth Heights, Thackery Towers and Rowlands Heights, all built in the 1970's. These properties were built on an area which used to contain the old 'back-to-back' terraced houses; housing workers from the two railway stations, 'The Northgate Station' and 'The Chester General Station' and the Royal Mail and the old Chester Cattle Market.

St Oswald's Way virtually dissects the 'old' Newtown in half, and runs almost exactly along the route of what was 'Back Brook Street'. There are still some surviving buildings which used to form part of the bottom end of the street (the top end being the Cattle Market end) - notably, number 24 Back Brook Street. In addition, the backs of the old vegetable and butchers shops can still be seen.

Picture above shows Chester City Cathedral and Chester Town Hall, as seen from the Newtown Tower blocks in Francis Street.

Brook Street, is a local shopping area with a Post Office and shops, pubs and restaurants. The Newtown area also contains Indian & Chinese restaurants, housing, a small 'arts' cinema and pubs. Brook Street used to be the main route into Chester from the north. It leads to the railway station, and another area of Newtown, (Francis Street), which has three further 1970's-built 'high-rise' tower blocks and more C&DHT social housing along with private housing.

Local politics

City of Chester and West Cheshire shown as 1 on this map of Cheshire

Newtown forms part of the City of Chester and West Cheshire in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. Chester and West Cheshire came into force in April 2009, when the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act was enacted,^[3] and replaced the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Vale Royal and Chester District. The equivalent unitary authority in the other half of the county is called Cheshire East. The decision to create the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007 following a consultation period, in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected.^[4] Also See:City of Chester (UK Parliament constituency).

Footnotes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Chester Housing
3. ^ Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill. Retrieval Date: 9 August 2007.
4. ^ BBC News, 25 July 2007 - County split into two authorities. Retrieval Date: 25 July 2007.

Coordinates: 53°12′N 2°53′W / 53.2°N 2.883°W / 53.2; -2.883