Widnes

"WIDNES, a township and town in the parish of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, county Lancaster, 5 miles S.E. of Prescot, 6 from Warrington, and 13 N.W. of Liverpool. It has stations on the Manchester and Liverpool and St. Helen's section of the London and North-Western, and Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire railways. It is situated opposite Runcorn on the navigable river Mersey, here joined by the Sankey canal, and on the Liverpool and St. Helen's, and Warrington and Garston railways. The township includes the town of Widnes, with a population, in 1861, of 4,803, the ecclesiastical district of St. Mary's, with 3,872, the villages of Appleton, Fearnworth, Widnes Docks, and Wood-End, and the hamlets of Hanging Birch, Lane End, Lunt's Heath, and Upton. There are extensive chemical, soap, alkali, and copper smelting works, oil mills, boat-building yards, factories for watch and clock movements, and brickfields. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Chester. The church of St. Mary was erected in 1856. The Wesleyans have a chapel. There are National, British, and Wesleyan schools. The Marquis of Cholmondeley is lord of the manor."