Coordinates: 53°05′56″N 2°26′24″W / 53.099°N 2.44°W
| Crewe | |
 Crewe town centre looking towards the Market Hall |
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Crewe
Crewe shown within Cheshire |
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| Population | 67,683 (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| - London | 174 mi (280 km) |
| Unitary authority | Cheshire East |
| Ceremonial county | Cheshire |
| Region | North West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CREWE |
| Postcode district | CW1 |
| Dialling code | 01270 |
| Police | Cheshire |
| Fire | Cheshire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | Crewe and Nantwich |
| List of places: UK • England • Cheshire | |
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683. It is twinned with Mâcon in France and Bischofsheim, near Mainz, Germany.
Crewe is perhaps best known as a large railway junction and home to Crewe Works, for many years a major railway engineering facility, but now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002 it was also the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production. The Pyms Lane factory on the west of the town now produces Bentley motor cars exclusively.
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Although the name Creu first appears in the Domesday Book, the modern urban settlement of Crewe was not formally planned out until 1843 by Joseph Locke to consolidate the "railway colony" that had grown up since around 1840/41 in the area near to the railway junction station opened in 1837, even though it was called Crewe by many, from the start.[1][2] Crewe was thus named after the railway station, rather than the other way round.
Crewe was founded in the township of Monks Coppenhall which, with the township of Church Coppenhall, formed the ancient parish of Coppenhall.[3] The railway station was named after the township of Crewe (then, part of the ancient parish of Barthomley) in which it was located.[4] Eventually, the township of Crewe became a civil parish in its own right also named, rather confusingly, Crewe.[5] This civil parish changed its name to Crewe Green in 1974 to avoid confusion with the adjacent town, which had been made a municipal borough in 1877.[6] The railway station remained part of the civil parish of Crewe, outside the boundary of the municipal borough until 1936.[7] So, throughout its history, the town of Crewe has neither been part of, nor has it encompassed first the township of Crewe, later the civil parish of Crewe, and later still the civil parish of Crewe Green adjacent to it, even though these places were the direct origin of the name of the town via the railway station which was also not part of the town before 1936. 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."[8]
Until the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) company chose Crewe as the site for its locomotive works and railway station in the late 1830s, Crewe was a village with a population (c. 1831) of just 70 residents.[9] Winsford, seven miles to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, as had local landowners in neighbouring Nantwich, four miles away. Crewe railway station was built in fields near to Crewe Hall and was completed in 1837.
A new town grew up, in the parishes of Monks Coppenhall and Church Coppenhall, alongside the increasingly busy station, with the population expanding to reach 40,000 by 1871. GJR chief engineer Joseph Locke helped lay out the town.[9]
The town has a large park, Queen's Park (laid out by engineer Francis Webb), the land for which was donated by the London and North Western Railway, the successor to the GJR. It has been suggested that their motivation was to prevent the rival Great Western Railway building a station on the site, but the available evidence indicates otherwise.[10]
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 a public baths. The railway also opened a cheese market in 1854 and a clothing factory for John Compton who provided the company uniforms, while McCorquodale of Liverpool set up a printing works.[9] Nevertheless, the dominance of the railway industry was such that times of recession were keenly felt.
Crewe crater on Mars is named after the town of Crewe. Crewe was described by author Alan Garner in his book Red Shift as "the ultimate reality". Bill Bryson described Crewe as "the armpit of Cheshire" in his 1995 book "Notes from a Small Island".
A planned redevelopment of Crewe's town centre and main shopping area has been delayed until 2010 because of "difficult economic conditions", according to developers Modus.[11] There were also plans to revamp the railway station. This was pending a public consultation by Network Rail scheduled for autumn 2008, however, no such public consultation was made. Any scheme to shift Crewe station to Basford would not start until around 2014. Plans to revamp Queens Park are already underway, with railings to be replaced by November 2008 and bridge/perimeter work were on course to be completed by Wrekin by Spring 2009. However, the lake still remains dry, and progress is paused, as Wrekin - the company renovating the park - have recently been made bankrupt.
One of the most important attractions in Crewe is The Railway Age railway museum, which has a preserved Advanced Passenger Train, which can be seen from the main railway line.
Crewe railway station is less than a mile from Crewe town centre, although it was not incorporated into the then-Borough of Crewe until 1937. It is one of the largest stations in north-west England and a major interchange station on the West Coast Main Line. It has 12 platforms in use and has a direct service to London (Euston) (2/hour, the average duration is now 1 hour 45 minutes), Edinburgh, Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Derby, Stoke-on-Trent, Chester and many other towns and cities.
Crewe is on the A530 and A534, less than 10 miles (16 km) from the M6 motorway.
The main bus company in Crewe is Arriva, which also operates in the surrounding towns and villages.
A smaller operator from Staffordshire called D&G Coach And Bus LTD runs the smaller local routes.
First PMT operates bus service 20 from Hanley to Leighton Hospital every 30 minutes.
Cheshire has adopted the comprehensive school model of secondary education, so all of the schools under its control cater for pupils of all levels of ability.[12] Until the late 1970s Crewe had two grammar schools, Crewe Grammar School for Boys, now Ruskin Sports College, and Crewe Grammar Schools for Girls, now King's Grove High School. The town's two other secondary schools are Sir William Stanier Community School, a specialist technology and arts college, and St. Thomas More Catholic High School, specialising in maths and computing.
Although there are eight schools for those aged 11–16 in Crewe and its surrounding area, South Cheshire College is one of only two local providers of education for students aged 16 and over, and the only one in Crewe. The college also provides educational programmes for adults, leading to qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) or foundation degrees. In the 2006/7 academic year 2,532 students aged 16–18 were enrolled, along with 3,721 adults.[13]
Manchester Metropolitan University's (MMU) Cheshire Faculty has one of its two campuses in Crewe, in a part of town which has been rebranded as the University Quadrant. The second campus, about 6 miles (9.7 km) away in Alsager, is being relocated to Crewe over the next few years as of 2009, as Crewe becomes the university's Cheshire base for courses in business and management, the arts, exercise and sport science, humanities and social studies, education and teacher training.[14] Initial expansion of the Crewe campus to accommodate the extra students and staff included the opening of a £30-million student village in 2005, part of an estimated £70 million investment being made in the campus.[15]
Crewe's local football team is Crewe Alexandra F.C.. During the late 20th century the club enjoyed something of a renaissance under the management of Dario Gradi, playing in the First Division – the second tier of the professional pyramid – for five seasons from 1997–2002. They were relegated to the Second Division in the 2002–03 season, but were promoted back to the First Division after only one season. At the end of the 2005–06 season, Crewe were relegated to the third tier (renamed to League One) again. Crewe Alexandra will play in League Two (the fourth tier of English football) during 2009-2010 having been relegated at the end of the 2008-2009 season. The club has a reputation of developing young players through its youth ranks, in recent times the likes of Geoff Thomas, Danny Murphy, Craig Hignett, David Platt, Neil Lennon and Dean Ashton have all passed through the academy, whilst internationals Bruce Grobbelaar and Stan Bowles were also on the books at one time in their careers. Probably their most famous home-grown player was Frank Blunstone, born in the town in 1934, who was transferred from "The Alex" to Chelsea F.C. in 1953, and went on to win five England caps.
Crewe is also home to Crewe Wolves Rugby League Club, and also the Crewe and Nantwich Rugby Union Football Club, or Crewe and Nantwich RUFC, who play in the Rugby League Conference.[16]
Speedway racing was staged in Crewe in the pioneer days of the late 1920s/early 1930s. The venue was the stadium in Earle Street which also operated in the 1970s. The Crewe Kings raced in the lower division – British League Division Two, then the National League – from 1969 until 1975. At the time the track was the longest and fastest in the UK.[17] Amongst their riders were Phil Crump, Les Collins, Dave Morton, Geoff Curtis, John Jackson, Jack Millen and Dave Parry. The stadium has since been demolished to be replaced by a retail park housing a number of national companies.
Crewe has six Church of England churches, three Methodist, one Roman Catholic, which has a weekly mass in Polish, and two Baptist.
The Australian Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Neil Brooks was born in Crewe; World BMX and track cycling champion Shanaze Reade is also from the town.
Suffragette Ada Nield Chew began her activism in Crewe by writing a series of letters to the Crewe Chronicle, signed "A Crewe Factory Girl", critical of the pay and conditions of women working in factories. At that time in 1894 she was working in Compton Bros. clothing factory in Crewe.[18]
Nicky Maynard, the current Bristol City player, was born in the town.
Beth Tweddle, world champion gymnast, was coached in her formative years at the Camm Street gymnastics centre in Crewe.
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Crewe [1] is a medium-sized town in South Cheshire. It boasts friendly people, inexpensive hotels and eateries. It is famed for its railway connections and also as the home of Rolls Royce. The local football team is Crewe Alexandra F.C, the only team in the country with this unusual suffix.
The main West Coast railway line (London Euston to Glasgow) runs through the famous Crewe station. The town itself was built around this important junction when the railway arrived in the 1830s. Today, around 10,000 people per day pass through Crewe railway station. It can be seen as the 'Gateway to the North West', with very frequent links to the tourist centre of Manchester,Chester and Liverpool. Almost anywhere on the British rail network can be reached from here.
The M6 motorway is close by. Use junction 16 or 17 to get to Crewe.
Crewe is a relatively small and compact town so most attractions and amenities are within walking distance.
Victoria Park, towards the south-west of the town, is very attractive, and can be reached easily from the town centre.
The Railway Age museum (only open weekends from Feb-Oct) is a very interesting and fitting museum for Crewe. It features many locomotives including many steam trains and the ill-fated British Rail Advanced Passenger Train of the 1980s. It also has working signalboxes and many activities for children, as well as a birds eye view of the many trains leaving the north of Crewe station. The museum isn't as rigid as many railway museums and you are free to wander around the yards and locomotives at your leisure.
Most British chain stores have outlets here. There are also covered and outdoor markets, selling local produce and many other things.
The "pi" bistro at Crewe Hall serves good food.
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CREWE, a municipal borough in the Crewe parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 158 m. N.W. of London, on the main line of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 42,074. The town was built on an estate called. Oak Farm in the parish of Monk's Coppenhall, and takes its name from the original stations having been placed in the township of Crewe, in which the seat of Lord Crewe is situated. It is a railway junction where lines converge from London, Manchester, North Wales and Holyhead, North Stafford and Hereford. It is inhabited principally by persons in the employment of the London & North-Western railway company, and was practically created by that corporation, at a point where in 1841 only a farmhouse stood in open country. Crewe is not only one of the busiest railway stations in the world, but is the locomotive metropolis of the London & North-Western company, which has centred here enormous workshops for the manufacture of the material and plant used in railways. In 1901 the 4000th locomotive was turned out of the works. A series of subterranean ways extending many miles have been constructed to enable merchandise traffic to pass through without interfering with passenger trains on the surface railways. The company possesses one of the finest electric stations in the world, and electrical apparatus for the working of train signals is in operation. The station is fitted with an extensive suite of offices for the interchange of postal traffic, the chief mails to and from Ireland and Scotland being stopped here and arranged for various distributing centres. Its enormous railway facilities and its geographical situation as the junction of the great trunk lines running north and south, tapping also the Staffordshire potteries on the one side and the great mineral districts of Wales on the other, constitute Crewe station one of the most important links of railway and postal communication in the kingdom. The railway company built its principal schools, provided it with a mechanics' institute, containing library, science and art classes, reading rooms, assembly rooms, &c. Victoria Park, also the gift of the company, was opened in 1888. The municipal corporation built the technical school and school of art. The borough incorporated in 1877, is under a mayor, 7 aldermen and 21 councillors. Area, 2185 acres.
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Categories: COY-CRI | North West England
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Singular |
Plural |
Crewe
| Crewe | |
|
Crewe shown within Cheshire | |
| Population | 67,683 (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| - London | 174 mi (280 km) |
| District | Crewe and Nantwich |
| Shire county | Cheshire |
| Region | North West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CREWE |
| Postcode district | CW1 |
| Dialling code | 01270 |
| Police | Cheshire |
| Fire | Cheshire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | Crewe and Nantwich |
| European Parliament | North West England |
| List of places: UK • England • Cheshire | |
Crewe is a town in Cheshire, England. About 67,700 people were living in Crewe as of 2001.
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   | Guardian newspaper article, ''The beauty of Crewe'' (6 December 2005) - Jonathan Glancey: The beauty of Crewe | Society | The Guardian |
| | Crewe Guardian newspaper. - Crewe jobs, full and part time jobs in Crewe and Nantwich from the Crewe and Nantwich Guardian |
| | The Railway Age museum. - The Crewe Heritage Centre |
| | Crewe and Nantwich RUFC. - Crewe & Nantwich RUFC :: Main Page |
| | Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council. - Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council - Home Page |
| | South Cheshire College. - South Cheshire College - To Strive and Achieve |
| | Crewe Alexandra F.C. - Crewe Alexandra | CAFC Scores, News, Transfers, Fixtures |
| | The Limelight - Popular local music venue. - Welcome - The Limelight - Crewes Premier Music Venue |
| | Bentley Motors - Bentley Motors: Bentley Motors Website |
| | Crewe Alexandra - Crewe Alexandra | CAFC Scores, News, Transfers, Fixtures |
| | Victoria Community Technology School - Sir William Stanier Community School *** |
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