Neston

Etymology

The town's name is of Viking origin, derived from the Old Norse Nes-tún, meaning 'farmstead or settlement at/near a promontory or headland'. Another Nesttun town can be found near Bergen, Norway. It is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Nestone under the ownership of a William Fitznigel, with a population of eight households.

Local History

Neston was granted a market charter in 1728, permitting the town to hold weekly markets and annual fairs.

Maritime and Mining History

Neston was a major port before the River Dee silted up, resulting in the relocation of the port further downstream to the nearby village of Parkgate. By the early nineteenth century, however, most traffic had transferred to Liverpool.

Neston also has a mining history, due to a small extension of the Flintshire Coalfield occurring at its southern edge. There were two periods during which these coal measures were mined. The first between 1759 and 1855 by Ness Colliery, using shafts largely clustered around the Harp Inn pub, in modern-day Little Neston. The mine was opened by John Stanley Massey, a member of the prominent Stanley family of Hooton, in partnership with four others. Due to the local geology, most work was carried out below the Dee Estuary, involving the use of underground canals for boats to haul coal. Acts of sabotage committed by the Stanley family towards a rival neighbouring mine, established c. 1820 by the Cottingham family, caused it to go out of business by the 1840s. After exhausting many of the coal seams, and finding difficulty in transporting coal, Ness Colliery was closed in 1855.

The later period of mining started in 1875 with the establishment of Neston Colliery (later Wirral Colliery). By this time, the Chester and Birkenhead Railway had come to Parkgate; a branch line to the colliery enabled coal to be shifted in bulk. The mine worked seams further north than those worked by Ness Colliery. Wirral colliery was taken over by the British government during the First World War, subsequently returning to private ownership after the war, but closing in 1927 due to increasing competition from larger mines. This resulted in the a loss of 180 jobs.

There are two tiers of local government for Neston at both civil parish and unitary authority levels, carried out by Neston Town Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council respectively. Neston is part of the parliamentary constituency of Chester North and Neston.

Administrative history

Neston was an ancient parish in the Wirral Hundred of Cheshire. The parish was subdivided into eight townships: Great Neston, Ledsham, Leighton, Little Neston, Ness, Raby, Thornton Hough and Willaston, with the town of Neston and the parish church of St Mary's and St Helen's located in the Great Neston township.

From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Neston's, these civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than by the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so the townships also became civil parishes.

A local government district called Neston and Parkgate was created in 1867, administered by an elected local board. It covered the three townships of Great Neston, Little Neston, and Leighton (the village of Parkgate straddled the Great Neston and Leighton townships). Neston Town Hall was completed in 1889 to provide a public hall for the town, and also incorporated the local board's offices.

Local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The three civil parishes within the Neston and Parkgate district were also united into a single parish called Neston-cum-Parkgate in 1894. The urban district was enlarged in 1933 to take in the parishes of Burton, Ness, and Willaston, and there was also some adjustment to the boundaries with other neighbouring areas. At the same time, the urban district was renamed from 'Neston and Parkgate' to just 'Neston'.

Neston Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston. No successor parish was created for the former urban district, and so it became unparished, being directly administered by Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council. In 2009, Cheshire West and Chester Council was created, taking over the functions of the borough council and Cheshire County Council, which were both abolished. A new civil parish of Neston was created in 2009 alongside the wider changes that year, with its parish council adopting the name Neston Town Council. The parish created in 2009 covers a smaller area than the pre-1974 urban district of Neston, notably excluding Burton and Willaston.

Neston is at the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula, on the eastern bank of the Dee Estuary.

Road

The A540 road links Neston to Heswall and West Kirby to the north, and Chester and North Wales to the south. Neston is also close to the M53 and M56 motorways, providing access to Liverpool, Manchester and the larger M6 motorway.

Rail

Neston railway station is situated on the Borderlands Line, operated by Transport for Wales. It offers direct services southbound to areas of Flintshire and Wrexham, as well as northbound to Bidston, enabling connections to the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network between West Kirby and Liverpool. In 2008, Merseytravel investigated the possibility of linking up the Bidston, Wrexham line to the electrified Merseyrail system.

Local area

Neston is a highly sought-after place to live, offering many independent shops, cafés and bars. It is also within walking distance to nearby Parkgate, as well as links to countryside walks and the Wirral Way.

Events

Neston hosts a weekly market every Friday, offering fresh local produce including fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, cheese and baked goods.

On the first Thursday of June the town annually celebrates Ladies’ Day, a unique marching day that has links to the Neston Female Friendly Society during the Napoleonic War.

Neston Market Town Initiative

From 2006, Neston underwent an assessment to attract more tourists and income, with the creation of the Neston Market Town Initiative (NMTI). Following the launch of a new community website, the NMTI made improvements to the town centre’s aesthetic, including new shop fronts, landscaping and a new supermarket on the site of Brook Street car park. Work for the Sainsbury's supermarket began in March 2009 with a full archaeological dig at the car park site. The construction of a multi-storey car park began in August 2009 and the store was opened on 1 December 2010.

On 31 March 2008 the NMTI project was officially completed. The project was to have been continued by CH64Inc, a new local community association, but was not supported by Ellesmere Port and Neston Council or its successor authority, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Neston is well served by Neston Primary School and Parkgate Primary School.

Neston High School also serves the local secondary age students.

The Neston Club

The Neston Club, in nearby Parkgate, is home to both Neston Cricket Club, who play in the Cheshire County Cricket ECB Premier League and Neston Hockey Club. Club members have access to a clubhouse, tennis courts, bowls, squash and racquetball courts, as well as a fitness suite with classes including yoga and pilates.

Football

Neston Nomads Football Club, established 1983, play their home games at the fields adjacent Neston High School that are part of the school premises. The first team currently play in the West Cheshire 3rd Division.

Parkgate Saint Germain Football club, established 2020, play their home games at Ness village hall. They currently play in the Houlihan's Birkenhead Sunday League 3rd division.

One of the main local attractions is Ness Botanic Gardens, opened in 1898 and administered by the University of Liverpool.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. With its close proximity to North Wales, BBC Wales and ITV Cymru Wales can also be received from the Moel-y-Parc TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Merseyside on 95.8 FM, Capital North West & Wales on 97.1 FM, Heart North West on 105.4 FM, Smooth Radio North West on 100.4 FM, and Dee Radio on 106.3 FM.

The town is served by the local newspapers Wirral News and Chester and District Standard.

• Thomas Wilson (1663 in Burton and Ness, 1755), Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1697 and 1755; eponym of Bishop Wilson CE Primary School.
• Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765 in Swan Cottage, Ness, 1815), an English model and actress, mistress of Lord Nelson and muse of the portrait artist George Romney, eponym of Romney Close and Way.
• Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865 in Neston, 1940), a medical missionary to Newfoundland
• Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Bushell (1888 in Neston, 1918 in Morlancourt, France), English recipient of the Victoria Cross
• Billy Congreve (1891 in Neston, 1916 in Longueval, France), English recipient of the Victoria Cross
• Rosalind Hill (1908 in Neston-cum-Parkgate, 1997), historian in ecclesiastical & medieval history
• George Ward Gunn (1912 in Neston, 1941 in Sidi Rezegh, Libya), English recipient of the Victoria Cross, eponym of Gunn Grove
• Ralph Millington (1930 in Neston, 1999), an English footballer who played 357 games for Tranmere Rovers F.C.
• Sir Tim Hunt (born 1943 in Neston), a British biochemist and molecular physiologist, jointly awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries about protein molecules
• Teresa Helena Higginson (1844-1905), English Catholic mystic and teacher; her family lived in Neston, she stayed intermittently there and she was buried in the village churchyard.
• Patrick Wormald (1947 in Neston, 2004), a British historian and academic
• Cyril Edwards (1947 in Neston, 2019), a British medievalist, Senior Research Fellow in German studies