page_title: Runcorn
section_title: Community facilities
hierarchical_section_title: Runcorn / Community facilities
caption_attribution_description: Halton Miniature Railway
context_page_description: Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. To the north across the River Mersey is Widnes, with Warrington 7 miles to the northeast and Liverpool 11 miles to the northwest.
  Runcorn was founded by Ethelfleda in 915 AD as a fortification to guard against Viking invasion at a narrowing of the River Mersey. Under Norman rule, Runcorn fell under the Barony of Halton and an Augustinian abbey was established here in 1115. It remained a small, isolated settlement until the Industrial Revolution when the extension of the Bridgewater Canal to Runcorn in 1776 established it as a port which would link Liverpool with inland Manchester and Staffordshire. The docks enabled the growth of industry, initially shipwrights and sandstone quarries. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was a spa and health resort but this ended with the growth of polluting industries, especially soap and chemical works.
context_section_description: The main library is at Runcorn Shopping City with a branch library in the old town centre. A Council 'one stop shop' called Halton Direct Link is based next to the main library.
  Open areas in Runcorn form part of Mersey Forest, one of Britain's community forests. In addition to smaller local parks and allotments, there are four large parks in Runcorn:
  Town Park forms the centre of the eastern part of the New Town. It is accessible from all of the surrounding communities and links them to Shopping City. There is a privately operated dry ski slope in the park in addition to a volunteer run 7 1/4" gauge miniature railway, first opened in 1979, which runs through the park for almost a mile.
  Phoenix Park adjoins Town Park to the north and includes a cafe, rock climbing wall, skate park and BMX track. There is a pavilion, walking routes along the Bridgewater Canal, woodland walks, a lake, picnic benches and a children's playground. Footpaths lead to Norton Priory.
  Runcorn Hill Park and Local Nature Reserve is in the centre of the western part of the town, partly on a dis-used nineteenth-century quarry. It holds a Green Flag Award and incorporates natural woodland and heathland with more formal landscaping, playing fields, a bandstand, model boating lake, sporting facilities and cafe. A Chirotherium dinosaur footprint discovered in the quarry can be viewed in the cafe.
  Wigg Island is a large park and nature reserve to the north on the banks of the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal. The community park was opened on 19 April 2002 by the Mayor of Halton and Bill Oddie. The island is named after Charles Wigg. It covers 23 hectares of a former industrial site and includes several bird watching hides. It is reached via The Old Quay Bridge, a Grade II listed swing bridge built in 1894.
  There are three privately run swimming pools at Beechwood Community Centre, INARA club and Holiday Inn Runcorn. The local authority runs two leisure centres and swimming pools at Runcorn Swimming Pool and Brookvale Recreation Centre in addition to outdoor sporting facilities in its parks.
  Runcorn's hospital is Halton General Hospital, which is administered by the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It has an Urgent Care Centre but acute medical services are provided by Warrington Hospital. The Cheshire and Merseyside Treatment Centre, a purpose-built hospital for orthopaedic surgery, is on the same site. Halton Haven Hospice is in the Murdishaw area of the town. The body responsible for planning health services in Runcorn, including primary care, is the Halton Clinical Commissioning Group.
  Cheshire Constabulary operate a police station adjacent to Runcorn Shopping City in the centre of the New Town and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service maintains a 24-hour fire station.
caption: Halton Miniature Railway
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