| Crewe | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 .jpg)   .JPG) Clockwise, from top:Crewe Municipal Buildings,Crewe railway station, Market Hall,Crewe Arms Hotel and Crewe Town Clock | |
  Crewe Location withinCheshire | |
| Population | 55,318 (Parish, 2021)[1] 74,120 (Built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | SJ705557 |
| • London | 147 miles (237 km)[3] SE |
| Civil parish |
|
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CREWE |
| Postcode district | CW1, CW2 |
| Dialling code | 01270 |
| Police | Cheshire |
| Fire | Cheshire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Crewe Town Council |
| 53°05′56″N2°26′24″W / 53.099°N 2.44°W /53.099; -2.44 | |
Crewe (/kruː/ ⓘ) is arailway town andcivil parish in the unitary authority ofCheshire East inCheshire, England. At the2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120.
Crewe is perhaps best known as a largerailway junction and home toCrewe Works; for many years, it was a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but is now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002, it was also the home ofRolls-Royce motor car production. ThePyms Lane factory on the west of the town now exclusively producesBentley motor cars. Crewe is 158 miles (254 km) north-west ofLondon, 28 miles (45 km) south ofManchester city centre and 31 miles (50 km) south-east ofLiverpool city centre.
The name derives from anOld Welsh wordcriu, meaning 'weir' or 'crossing'.[4] The earliest record is in theDomesday Book, where it is written asCreu. The original settlement of Crewe lies to the east of the modern town and was historically atownship in the parish ofBarthomley.[5][6] The original settlement formally changed its name toCrewe Green in 1984 to distinguish it from the newer town to its west.[7]
The town of Crewe owes its existence toCrewe railway station, which opened in 1837 on theGrand Junction Railway. When the route for the railway was being planned, alternative routes and locations for the main station in this area were considered;Winsford, 7 miles (11 km) to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, as had local landowners in neighbouringNantwich, 4 miles (6 km) away. The company then settled on the route through Crewe and the station was built in fields nearCrewe Hall. The station was in the township of Crewe, but the land north-west of the station was in the neighbouring township of Monks Coppenhall, which formed part of the parish ofCoppenhall.
The company built its mainlocomotive works to the north of Crewe railway station; arailway colony soon started developing in the area north-west of the station. In 1840,Joseph Locke, chief engineer of the Grand Junction Railway, produced plans for a new town there. The railway company built much of the early town itself in the 1840s and 1850s.[8] Although the nascent town was in the township of Monks Coppenhall rather than the Crewe township, it was known asCrewe from the start.[9][10] The modern town of Crewe was thus named after the railway station, rather than the other way round.
The population expanded rapidly to reach 40,000 by 1871.[8] The town has a large park,Queen's Park, laid out by engineerFrancis Webb; the land for which was donated by theLondon and North Western Railway, the successor to the GJR. It has been suggested that their motivation was to prevent the rivalGreat Western Railway building a station on the site, but the available evidence indicates otherwise.[11]
Webb took a great interest in local politics and was "the most influential individual in the town".[12] "Described just before his retirement as 'the King of Crewe', Webb came to exercise control over the working lives of over 18,000 men - one third of the total LNWR workforce. Over half these lived in Crewe, around 8,000 being employed at the locomotive works. Several recreational and sporting organisations were a direct result of Webb's influence and others received benefit from his support."[12] These included the LNWR Cricket Club (established in 1850) and the Crewe Alexandra Athletic Club (established in 1867).[13] However, Webb's influence allegedly also extended to intimidation ofLiberal Party supporters. In September 1885, the editor of theCrewe Chronicle published charges against Webb, saying "That through the action, direct and indirect, of Tory railway officialism, the political life of Crewe is cramped and hindered beyond recognition".[14] In November 1889, the borough council debated a motion which accused LNWR managers of working with Crewe Tories "to crush Liberalism altogether out of the town": "... by intimidation and persecution of your Liberal workmen, and by making the chances of promotion depend upon subserviency to the Tory political demands of the Management, they have created a state of political serfdom in the works."[14] In December 1889, Liberal statesmanWilliam Ewart Gladstone wrote a letter to theChronicle condemning the company's behaviour in the town.[14]
The railway provided an endowment towards the building and upkeep of Christ Church. Until 1897 its vicar, non-conformist ministers and schoolteachers received concessionary passes, the school having been established in 1842. The company provided a doctor's surgery with a scheme of health insurance. A gasworks was built and the works water supply was adapted to provide drinking water and apublic baths. The railway also opened a cheese market in 1854 and a clothing factory for John Compton who provided the company uniforms, whileMcCorquodale ofLiverpool set up a printing works.
DuringWorld War II, the strategic presence of the railways and Rolls-Royce engineering works (turned over to producing aircraft engines) made Crewe a target for enemy air raids and it was in the flight path toLiverpool.[15] The borough lost 35 civilians to these.[16] The worst raid was on 29 August 1940 when some 50 houses were destroyed, close to the station.[17]
Crewe crater onMars is named after the town of Crewe. Crewe was described by authorAlan Garner in his novelRed Shift as "the ultimate reality."
Crewe was mentioned in 1984 as the setting of the 19th episodeThe Flying Kipper, in thefirst series ofThomas & Friends.
The town unsuccessfully bid forcity status as part of thePlatinum Jubilee Civic Honours in 2022.[18][19]
There are two tiers of local government covering Crewe, atcivil parish (town) andunitary authority level:Crewe Town Council andCheshire East Council. The town council is based at 1 Chantry Court on Forge Street.[20] Cheshire East Council also has its main offices in the town, at Delamere House on Delamere Street, with the Municipal Buildings on Earle Street being used for some council meetings.[21] Some outer parts of the built-up area (as defined by theOffice for National Statistics) lie outside the parish, notably in the neighbouring parishes ofLeighton,Woolstanwood,Wistaston, andRope.[22][2]
For national elections, the town forms part of theCrewe and Nantwich constituency.[22]
The original settlement of Crewe was historically a township in the parish of Barthomley.[5] The area where the modern town developed was in the neighbouring township of Monks Coppenhall, in the parish of Coppenhall. Both Barthomley and Coppenhall parishes formed part of theNantwich hundred of Cheshire.[23]
In 1859, the township of Monks Coppenhall was made alocal government district, administered by an elected local board.[24] The district's name was changed from Monks Coppenhall to Crewe in 1869.[25][26] Townships were redefined ascivil parishes in 1866,[27] and whilst the local government district was renamed in 1869, the civil parish was not. As such, there was a Crewe district which contained the parish of Monks Coppenhall, but did not contain the parish of Crewe.[28] An old, local riddle describes the somewhat unusual states of affairs: "The place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe."[29]
In 1877, the Crewe local government district was incorporated to become amunicipal borough.[30] The borough council later built theMunicipal Buildings on Earle Street to serve as its headquarters, opening in 1905.[31]
The railway station remained part of the neighbouring parish of Crewe, rather than the borough of Crewe, until 1936. The borough boundary was significantly enlarged in 1936 to absorb the parish of Church Coppenhall and parts of several other neighbouring parishes, including the area of Crewe parish around the railway station.[32][30] The reduced Crewe parish to the east of the town formally changed its name toCrewe Green in 1984.[7]
The borough of Crewe was abolished in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972.[30] The area became part of the larger borough ofCrewe and Nantwich, also covering the nearby town of Nantwich and surrounding rural areas. The government originally proposed calling the new borough Crewe, but the shadow authority elected in 1973 to oversee the transition changed the name toCrewe and Nantwich before the new arrangements came into effect.[33][34][35]
In 2009, Cheshire East Council was created, taking over the functions of Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council andCheshire County Council, which were both abolished.[36] The area of the former borough of Crewe had beenunparished since the 1974 reforms, but following the 2009 reforms it was decided to create a parish covering the area. A new parish of Crewe was therefore created in 2013, with its parish council taking the name Crewe Town Council.[37]
Like most of the United Kingdom, Crewe has anoceanic climate, with warm summers and cool winters and relatively little temperature change throughout the year.[38]
The railways still play a part in local industry atCrewe Works, which carries out train maintenance and inspection. It has been owned byAlstom since 2021.[39] At its height, the site employed over 20,000 people but, by 2005, fewer than 1,000 remained, with a further 270 redundancies announced in November of that year. Currently Alstom employs 6,000 people across the UK and Ireland.[40] Much of the site once occupied by the works has been sold and is now occupied by a supermarket, leisure park and a large new health centre.
There is still anelectric locomotive maintenance depot to the north of the railway station, operated byDB Cargo UK. Thediesel locomotive maintenance depot, having closed in 2003, reopened in 2015 as a maintenance facility forLocomotive Services Limited, having undergone major structural repairs.[41][42]
TheBentleycar factory is on Pyms Lane to the west of town. As of early 2010, there are about 3,500 working at the site.[43] The factory used to produceRolls-Royce cars, until the licence for the brand transferred from Bentley's ownersVolkswagen to rivalBMW in 2003.
There is aBAE Systems Land & Armamentsfactory in the village ofRadway Green nearAlsager, producingsmall arms ammunition for the British armed forces.
The headquarters ofFocus DIY, which went into administration in 2011, was in the town. Off-licence chainBargain Booze is also Crewe-based; it was bought-out in 2018 by SirAnwar Pervez' conglomerateBestway for £7m,[44] putting drinks retailing alongside its Manchester-basedWell Pharmacy.
Several business parks around the town host light industry and offices. Crewe Business Park is a 67-acre site with offices, research and IT manufacturing. Major corporations with a presence in the park includeAir Products,Barclays andFujitsu. The 12-acre Crewe Gates Industrial Estate is adjacent to Crewe Business Park, with smaller industry including theice cream van manufacturerWhitby Morrison. The Weston Gate area has light industry and distribution. Marshfield Bank Employment Park is to the west of the town and includes offices, manufacturing and distribution. There are industrial and light industrial units at Radway Green.
The town has two small shopping centres: the Victoria Centre and the Market Centre. There are outdoor markets throughout the week. Grand Junction Retail Park is just outside the centre of town. Nantwich Road provides a wide range of secondary local shops, with a variety of small retailers and estate agents.
The Market Centre is the largest shopping centre in Crewe. It is situated in the heart of the town centre with a few national retailers, includingB&M,Poundstretcher andPeacocks. There are three large car parks nearby andCrewe bus station is a five-minute walk from the shopping centre. It has a weekly footfall of approximately 100,000 visitors.
A planned redevelopment of Crewe's town centre, including the current bus station and main shopping area, was abandoned because of "difficult economic conditions" during 2008.[45]
There were also plans to revamp the railway station which involved moving it toBasford. This was pending a public consultation byNetwork Rail scheduled for autumn 2008, but no such public consultation was done. The plan was abandoned and maintenance work was carried out on the current station instead.[46]
Cheshire East Council developed a new regeneration master plan for Crewe,[47] which included the opening of a new Lifestyle Centre, with a new swimming pool, gym and library.
After a £3 million refurbishment, the Crewe Market Hall reopened its doors on 19 May 2021, the start of many new developments in Crewe.[citation needed]
Crewe had been planned as the site of a transport hub for the Phase 2aHigh Speed 2 (HS2) railway line, which received royal assent in 2021 with planned completion in 2027. The plan included a new HS2 railway station, surrounded by a commercial hub providing 37,000 jobs and 7,000 homes by 2043. However on 4 October 2023, Prime MinisterRishi Sunak announced the cancellation of this phase of the HS2 development at theConservative Party Conference.[48][49]
Crewe railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre, although it was not incorporated into the then Borough of Crewe until 1937. It is one of the largest stations in theNorth West and is a major interchange station on theWest Coast Main Line. It has 12 platforms in use.
The station is served by severaltrain operating companies:
Crewe is on theA500,A530 andA534 roads; it is located less than 5 miles (8 km) from theM6 motorway.[55]
Bus services in Crewe are operated predominantly byD&G Bus; their routes link the town with Congleton (route 42), Leighton Hospital (12), Macclesfield (38), Nantwich (84X) and Northwich (31/37).[56]
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire runs route 84 to Chester andFirst Potteries operates a single service (route 3) running to Stoke-on-Trent, via Kidsgrove.[57]
The closest airport to Crewe isManchester Airport, which is 30 miles (48 km) away;Liverpool John Lennon Airport is 40 miles (64 km) away.
Crewe Heritage Centre is located in the oldLMS railway yard for Crewe railway station. The museum has three signal boxes and an extensive miniature railway with steam, diesel and electric traction. The most prominent exhibit of the museum is theBritish Rail Class 370Advanced Passenger Train.
TheGrade II-listed EdwardianLyceum Theatre is in the centre of Crewe. It was built in 1911 and shows drama, ballet, opera, music, comedy and pantomime.[58] The theatre was originally located on Heath Street from 1882. The Axis Arts Centre is on theManchester Metropolitan University (MMU) campus in Crewe. It relocated from the university's Alsager Campus when it closed. The centre has a programme of touring new performance and visual art work.[59] The Axis centre closed at the end of the spring 2019 season with the withdrawal of MMU from the Crewe campus.[60] The Box on Pedley Street is the town's main local music venue.
Both the Lyceum Theatre and the Axis Arts Centre feature galleries. The private Livingroom art gallery is on Prince Albert Street. The town's main library is on Prince Albert Square, opposite the Municipal Buildings.
Crewe has sixAnglican churches, threeMethodist, oneRoman Catholic (which has a weekly Mass inPolish) and twoBaptist.[61]
There is a museum dedicated toPrimitive Methodism in the nearby village ofEnglesea-Brook.[62]
TheJacobean mansionCrewe Hall is located to the east of the town nearCrewe Green. It is agrade I listed building, built in 1615–36 forSir Randolph Crewe. Today, it is used as a hotel, restaurant and health club.
There is a multiplexOdeon cinema on Phoenix Leisure Park on the edge of the town centre, as well as a Mecca bingo hall and a Tenpin bowling alley.
Queens Park is the town's main park; £6.5 million was spent on its restoration in 2010.[63] It features walkways, a children's play area, crown green bowling, putting, a boating lake, grassed areas, memorials and a café.[64] Jubilee Gardens are in Hightown and there is also a park on Westminster Street.
In 2019, Crewe hosted Pride in the Park (previously held atTatton Park in 2018) in Queens Park. The 2020 event, which had been due to take place on 12 September, was cancelled on 20 May, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[65]
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC North West andITV Granada from theWinter Hill TV transmitter.
The dailySentinel and the weeklyCrewe Chronicle newspapers, bothReach plc-owned, cover the town. Reach'sCheshireLive is the digital news channel of theCrewe Chronicle and other Reach titles covering news across Cheshire,[66] and has a section dedicated to Crewe news.[67]
The local radio station is The Cat Community Radio,[68] broadcasting on 107.9FM from the Cheshire College South and West building covering the town along with Nantwich and other local settlements. Other radio stations that cover the area includeBBC Radio Stoke,Greatest Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire (formerly Signal 1) andSilk Radio from Macclesfield.
Cheshire has adopted thecomprehensive school model of secondary education, so all of the schools under its control cater for pupils of all levels of ability.[69] Until the late 1970s Crewe had twogrammar schools, Crewe Grammar School for Boys, nowRuskin High School and Crewe Grammar School for Girls, nowthe Oaks Academy (formerly Kings Grove School). The town's two other secondary schools areSir William Stanier School, aspecialist technology and arts academy, andSt. Thomas More Catholic High School, specialising in mathematics and computing and modern foreign languages.
Although there are eight schools for those aged 11–16 in Crewe and its surrounding area,Cheshire College South & West is one of only two local providers of education for pupils aged 16 and over, and the only one in Crewe. The college also provides educational programmes for adults, leading to qualifications such asHigher National Diplomas (HNDs) or foundation degrees. In the 2006–07 academic year, 2,532 students aged 16–18 were enrolled, along with 3,721 adults.[70]
Manchester Metropolitan University's (MMU) Cheshire Faculty is based in Crewe, in a part of town which has been rebranded as theUniversity Quadrant. The campus offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in five areas: business and management, contemporary arts, exercise and sport science, interdisciplinary studies, education and teacher training.[71] The campus underwent a £70 million investment in its facilities and buildings in 2015.[72] The campus was used as a pre-games training camp for the London 2012 Olympic Games.[73]
Since 2016, there has been aUniversity Technical College for 14-19 year olds interested in automotive or railway engineering.[74]
Crewe's localfootball club isCrewe Alexandra, founded in 1877 and initially managed by railway workers. During the late 20th century, the club enjoyed something of a renaissance under the management ofDario Gradi, playing in the second tier of the professional pyramid for eight seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Crewe Alexandra currently plays inLeague Two (the fourth tier), having been relegated fromLeague One in April 2022. In 2013, the club won its first major silverware after beatingSouthend United 2–0 in theEFL Trophy final at Wembley.
From the early 1980s, Crewe Alexandra built a reputation for developing young players through its youth ranks: England internationalsGeoff Thomas,Danny Murphy,David Platt,Rob Jones andDean Ashton, plus Northern Ireland'sNeil Lennon andSteve Jones, and Wales'sRobbie Savage andDavid Vaughan all passed through the club. Among their earlier most notable home-grown players wasFrank Blunstone, born in the town in 1934, who was transferred fromThe Alex toChelsea in 1953 and went on to win five England caps. InternationalsBruce Grobbelaar andStan Bowles were also on the books at one time in their careers.
Crewe's local rugby clubs are both based in or nearNantwich. TheCrewe & Nantwich Steamers (formerly Crewe Wolves), who played in theRugby League Conference, were based at Barony Park, Nantwich, while Crewe and Nantwich RUFC play their home games at the Vagrants Sports Ground inWillaston.
Speedway racing was staged in Crewe in the pioneer days of the late 1920s to early 1930s; the stadium in Earle Street also operated from 1969 until 1975 when theCrewe Kings raced inBritish League Division Two, then the National League. At the time the track was the longest and fastest in the UK.[75] Crewe Kings riders includedPhil Crump (father ofJason Crump),Les Collins (brother ofPeter Collins),Dave Morton (brother ofChris Morton), Geoff Curtis, John Jackson, Jack Millen and Dave Parry. Grand Junction Retail Park occupies the site of the now demolished stadium.[76]
TheCrewe Railroaders are the town'sAmerican football team, currently competing in theBAFA Central League Division 2 and the subject of the filmGridiron UK, which premiered at the Lyceum Theatre on 29 September 2016.
Crewe also has its ownroller derby team, Railtown Loco Rollers, founded in September 2013. They skate at Sir William Stanier Leisure Centre and compete with skaters and teams from all over the North West.
Crewe's main leisure facility is the Crewe Lifestyle Centre, which now houses Crewe's main public swimming pool after the Flag Lane premises closed in 2016.[77] Other notable leisure facilities include Sir William Stanier Leisure Centre and Victoria Community Centre.
Since 17 February 2018,[78][79] Crewe'sQueens Park has hosted aparkrun each Saturday morning at 9am.
Crewe istwinned with:
The Secretary of State for the Environment has consented to the name of Crewe District Council being changed to Crewe and Nantwich District Council...
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