Borough of Halton: Two Towns, Two Bridges and the Chemistry in Between
Halton is Runcorn on the south bank and Widnes on the north, connected across the Mersey by the Silver Jubilee Bridge (opened 1961, originally just the Runcorn-Widnes Bridge) and joined since 2017 by the Mersey Gateway, a cable-stayed toll bridge that finally relieved the chronic congestion on the old crossing. The two towns share an administrative borough but have distinct identities — Runcorn was designated a New Town in 1964, sprouting concrete housing estates and a now-demolished shopping city, while Widnes grew organically around the alkali and chemical industries that gave it a reputation for terrible air quality throughout the Victorian period.
The chemical industry remains central to the local economy. INEOS has a major presence, and the area around Weston Point and Ditton retains clusters of processing plants. Runcorn's New Town areas — Halton Brook, Brookvale, Castlefields — were built to rehouse overspill populations from Liverpool, and the connections to Merseyside remain strong culturally. The population of the borough is around 130,000.
Halton Castle, a sandstone ruin above Runcorn, gives unexpectedly good views across the Mersey estuary and the Manchester Ship Canal. Norton Priory, a medieval monastery site in Runcorn, has a small but well-presented museum. The Spike Island area in Widnes, once a wasteland of chemical dumping, has been reclaimed as parkland and is the site of the annual Spike Island music festival — though older residents remember the Stone Roses concert there in 1990 more than any recent event.
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Halton is Runcorn on the south bank and Widnes on the north, connected across the Mersey by the Silver Jubilee Bridge (opened 1961, originally just the Runcorn-Widnes Bridge) and joined since 2017 by the Mersey Gateway, a cable-stayed toll bridge that finally relieved the chronic congestion on the old crossing. The two towns share an administrative borough but have distinct identities — Runcorn was designated a New Town in 1964, sprouting concrete housing estates and a now-demolished shopping city, while Widnes grew organically around the alkali and chemical industries that gave it a reputation for terrible air quality throughout the Victorian period.
The chemical industry remains central to the local economy. INEOS has a major presence, and the area around Weston Point and Ditton retains clusters of processing plants. Runcorn's New Town areas — Halton Brook, Brookvale, Castlefields — were built to rehouse overspill populations from Liverpool, and the connections to Merseyside remain strong culturally. The population of the borough is around 130,000.
Halton Castle, a sandstone ruin above Runcorn, gives unexpectedly good views across the Mersey estuary and the Manchester Ship Canal. Norton Priory, a medieval monastery site in Runcorn, has a small but well-presented museum. The Spike Island area in Widnes, once a wasteland of chemical dumping, has been reclaimed as parkland and is the site of the annual Spike Island music festival — though older residents remember the Stone Roses concert there in 1990 more than any recent event.
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