// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Neston say to its friend? "You're a nest friend.

For the village in Wiltshire near Corsham, see Neston, Wiltshire. For the British naval officer, see Neston Diggle.

Neston
The Cross, Neston Town Centre
Neston Location within Cheshire
Population	15,392 (Parish, 2021) 14,960 (Built up area, 2021)
OS grid reference	SJ285775
• London	175 mi (282 km) SE
Civil parish	Neston
Unitary authority	Cheshire West and Chester
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NESTON
Postcode district	CH64
Dialling code	0151
Police	Cheshire
Fire	Cheshire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Chester North and Neston

Neston is a market town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, Neston’s greater surrounding area includes the villages of Parkgate to the north-west, and Little Neston and Ness to the south. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 15,392 and that of the built-up area was 14,960.

Toponymy

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 was also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Nestone under the ownership of a William Fitznigel, with a population of eight households.

History

St Mary's and St Helen's Church

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

The town 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 19th 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; it was closed in 1927, due to increasing competition from larger mines, resulting in the a loss of 180 jobs.

Governance

The town council is based at Neston Town Hall

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 forms 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. 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; 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 Neston.

Neston Urban District was abolished in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and 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.

Geography

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

The 2001 census reported the local demography as:

Ethnic group	Percentage
White British	98.5%
White Irish	0.1%
White Other	0.5%
Mixed	0.2%
Asian	0.1%
Black	0.1%
Chinese	0.3%
Other	0.2%

Economy

Neston has many independent shops, cafés and bars. It is also within walking distance to nearby Parkgate, with links to several countryside walks and the Wirral Way rail trail.

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 celebrates Ladies’ Day, a unique marching day that has links to the Neston Female Friendly Society during the Napoleonic War.

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.

The NMTI project was officially completed on 31 March 2008; a new town council website later replaced the community pages.

Ness Botanic Gardens

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

Education

The town has two primary schools: Neston Primary School and Parkgate Primary School. Neston High School serves the local secondary age students.

Religion

The 2001 census reported the local population's religious beliefs as:

Religion	Percentage
Christianity	82.6%
No religion	10.7%
None specified	6.1%
Muslim	0.2%
Jewish	0.1%
Buddhism	0.2%
Sikh	0.1%
Other	0.1%

Transport

Neston station

Neston railway station lies on the Borderlands Line, with services operated by Transport for Wales. It offers direct services southbound to Wrexham Central and northbound to Bidston, enabling connections to the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network between West Kirby and Liverpool Central.

Bus services are operated primarily by Arriva Merseyside, Stagecoach Merseyside and Al's Coaches; routes connect the town with Birkenhead, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Heswall, Hooton, Liverpool and West Kirby.

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 north-south M6.

Media

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.

Sport

The Neston Club, in nearby Parkgate, is home to both Neston Cricket Club, which plays 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.

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 third division.

Parkgate Saint Germain football club, established 2020, play their home games at Ness village hall, in the Houlihan's Birkenhead Sunday League third division.

Notable people

Emma, Lady Hamilton, by George Romney, 1782

Tim Hunt, 2009

• 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 and 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.

See also

• Listed buildings in Neston
• St Mary's and St Helen's Church, Neston

References

Sources

• Annakin-Smith, Anthony (2019). The Neston Collieries 1759–1855: An Industrial Revolution in Rural Cheshire. University of Chester Press. ISBN 978-1-90-825804-5.
• Place, Geoffrey W., ed. (1996). Neston 1840–1940. Burton and Neston History Society. ISBN 978-0-95-091451-0.