What is "runcorn"

Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in Cheshire, England, located within the Borough of Halton. In 2010, Runcorn's population was recorded to be 61,000. In May 2014, it became a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north across the River Mersey is the town of Widnes. Upstream and to the northeast is the town of Warrington, and downstream to the west is the city of Liverpool.

Runcorn railway station is on a branch of the West Coast Main Line and provides frequent services to the Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street, and London Euston stations. The A533 road passes through the town from the south, crossing the Runcorn Gap over the Silver Jubilee Bridge, the lowest bridge crossing of the River Mersey. The Manchester Ship Canal runs alongside the Runcorn bank of the River Mersey; the Bridgewater Canal terminates in the canal basin in the town centre, as the staircase of locks leading down to the ship canal was filled in many decades ago.

Runcorn was a small, isolated village until the Industrial Revolution. It was a health resort in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Towards the end of the 18th century, a port began to develop on the south bank of the River Mersey. During the 19th century, industries developed the manufacture of soap and alkali, quarrying, shipbuilding, engineering, and tanning. In the early 20th century, the prime industries were chemicals and tanning. The original village has grown to include what were outlying villages.

Except for chemicals, all of the old industries have disappeared and there has been diversification, in particular because of the close links to the motorway system and the development of warehousing and distribution centres. A new town was built to the east of the existing town in the 1960s and 1970s, and areas of private housing have been established farther to the east; this has resulted in the population more than doubling from around 26,000 to its present level of 70,000.

Runcorn was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Runcorn in Cheshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

Runcorn is a town in England.

Runcorn may also refer to:

• 4570 Runcorn, a minor planet
• Keith Runcorn (1922–1995), geophysicist
• Runcorn (UK Parliament constituency)
• Runcorn railway station in the English town
• Runcorn Glacier in Antarctica
• Runcorn, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane