Neston

History

Neston was granted a market charter in 1728, permitting the town to hold weekly markets and annual fairs. The town was a major port before the river Dee silted up, resulting in the relocation of the port further downstream to the nearby village of Parkgate. By the early 19th century, however, most traffic had transferred to Liverpool. Neston also has a mining history, due to a small extension of the Flintshire Coalfield occurring at its southern edge. There were two periods during which these coal measures were mined. The first between 1759 and 1855 by Ness Colliery, using shafts largely clustered around the Harp Inn pub, in modern-day Little Neston. The mine was opened by John Stanley Massey, a member of the prominent Stanley family of Hooton, in partnership with four others. Due to the local geology, most work was carried out below the Dee Estuary, involving the use of underground canals for boats to haul coal. Acts of sabotage committed by the Stanley family towards a rival neighbouring mine, established c.1820 by the Cottingham family, caused it to go out of business by the 1840s. After exhausting many of the coal seams and finding difficulty in transporting coal, Ness Colliery was closed in 1855. The later period of mining started in 1875 with the establishment of Neston Colliery (later Wirral Colliery). By this time, the Chester and Birkenhead Railway had come to Parkgate; a branch line to the colliery enabled coal to be shifted in bulk. The mine worked seams further north than those worked by Ness Colliery. Wirral colliery was taken over by the British government during the First World War, subsequently returning to private ownership after the war; it was closed in 1927, due to increasing competition from larger mines, resulting in the a loss of 180 jobs.

Geography

Neston lies at the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula, on the eastern bank of the Dee Estuary. The 2001 census reported the local demography as: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Ethnic group !! Percentage |- | White British|| 98.5% |- | White Irish ||0.1% |- |White Other ||0.5% |- |Mixed ||0.2% |- | Asian || 0.1% |- | Black || 0.1% |- | Chinese || 0.3% |- | Other || 0.2% |}

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  14,224
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,479
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,431
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,212
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,667
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,391
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,471
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,196

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2025-12-03
  0 km ESE of Carnforth, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2023-06-28
  2 km SE of Cheadle, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2022-05-30
  2 km ESE of Prees, United Kingdom
• M 3 — 2015-05-26
  6 km WSW of Caernarfon, United Kingdom
• M 3.2 — 2013-08-25
  23 km W of Cleveleys, United Kingdom
• M 3.7 — 2009-04-28
  3 km WSW of Flookburgh, United Kingdom