Stockton Heath - History

History

A Roman road ran through Stockton Heath, along the route now known (appropriately) as Roman Road. There have been some excavations; more information is available at Warrington Museum.

Excavations of the large Roman industrial settlement in the suburbs of modern day Wilderspool and Stockton Heath have unearthed a Roman mask, one of only a handful found in Europe, and the first evidence of this settlement was unearthed during the early excavation of the Bridgewater Canal in Stockton Heath in 1770. Primary evidence points to a probable temple to Minerva on the site, a strong focus on pottery and glass bead paste making industries, and a trapezoidal building of unidentified purpose. that one author suggests may have been an auxiliary fort.

Although the name Stockton Heath appears to have been conferred on the village at a later date (indeed the area itself has been described rather as "a hamlet of little consequence and no development until the 19th century"), many secondary references state that a family bearing the name Stockton lived in the area from the end of the 13th century until at least the end of the 15th.

In 1643, parliamentarian forces under the command of Sir William Brereton advanced from Northwich to lauch an attack on Warrington, the Lancashire headquarters of the royalist James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby. Sir William's troops were routed at the "Battle of Stockton Heath". Unverified local legend has it that many of the parliamentarian soldiers were buried at Hill Cliffe and Budworth. The battle is referred to in the 1859 novel Hollywood Hall by James Grant:

"A priory, situated in a wooded hollow, ruined and battered as the Royalists had left it in 1643, next caught my eye, when, riding rapidly on, I approached a wide waste common called Stockton Heath, past which the Mersey rolled amid swamps and morasses filled with rushes and willows."

The same novel frequently refers to Stockton Heath as a "waste" and makes numerous references to swamps nearby. This description contrasts sharply with the variants of "fashionable shopping village" frequently encountered in the literature of estate agents today.

Early maps refer to a hamlet by the name of Stoken (or Stocken) where the present village of Stockton Heath now stands. However, more detailed old maps of the area of Acton Grange show a sparsely populated hamlet and refers only to the old buildings and bridges recognisable today in street names in the area, such as Whitefield Cottage.

The Bridgewater Canal, one of two canals that pass through the village, reached Stockton Heath in 1772, the year of the death of its designer, James Brindley

In the 1900s George Formby Senior moved his young family to Stockton Heath and it was from here that George Formby Junior began his entertainment career. Their house, Hillcrest, is a listed building. George Formby Senior died in Stockton Heath in 1921.

In 1974, Stockton Heath, historically part of Cheshire, became incorporated into the borough of Warrington under the Local Government Act 1972. Warrington, historically part of Lancashire, became a Cheshire borough under the act.

2008 saw the first ever Stockton Heath Festival, which is now going into its fifth year. It is situated on Mill Lane Field in Stockton Heath, although it takes place over many venues throughout Grappenhall, Appleton and Stockton Heath. In 2011, the Stockton Heath Festival attracted 12,000 visitors.