Rainhill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rainhill is town in the Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. It forms a civil parish. It was formerly a separate village, then part of Prescot parish and Whiston Rural District. The postcode of Rainhill is L35.
The history of Rainhill is recorded from Norman Times, however the name Rainhill is believed to come from the Old English personal name of Regna or Regan. Recordings have shown that in the year of 1246, Roger of Rainhill died and the township was divided into two halves for each of his daughters. One half was centred on the now standing Rainhill Manor Public House and the other centred on Rainhill Hall, just off Blundell’s lane.
Towards the end of the 18th century, four catholic sons of a farmer who came from near Stonyhurst decided to seek their fortunes in Liverpool. The names of the brothers were Joseph. Francis, Peter and Bartholomew Bretherton. In 1800 Bartholomew decided to break into the coaching business. The partnership he had with one or two of his brothers quickly built up and by 1820 he had the bulk of the coaching trade of Liverpool. He was running Coaches to and from Manchester fourteen times a day from Saracen's Head in Dale Street, Liverpool. Bartholomew chose Rainhill as his first stage and he developed facilities on the Land along side the Ship Inn (Originally the New Inn by Henry Parr 1780)and on this site he was believed to be stabling at least 240 horses, coach horses, farriers, coach builders, veterinaries etc.
Bartholomew had begun to purchase land in Rainhill, and in 1824 he bought the Manor of Rainhill from Dr James Gerrard of Liverpool. By 1830 he owned over 260 acres around Rainhill. In 1824 across the road from the stables etc. he built Rainhill house, and laid out beautiful gardens around it. And today this house is known as Loyola Hall, a retreat run by the Society of Jesus since 1923.
It was the site of the 1829 Rainhill Trials, where a number of railway locomotives was entered in a competition to decide a suitable design for use on the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The winner was The Rocket, designed by George Stephenson. In 1979 the 150th anniversary of the trials was celebrated by a cavalcade of trains through the ages, including replicas of the winner and runner-up in the trials.
A feature of the village is the "Skew Bridge", of sandstone construction that takes the main road over the railway. It takes its name from the unusual diagonal angle at which the railway passes under the bridge - It is the worlds first bridge to go over a railway at an angle. The bridge was widened as road traffic increased. The milestone on the bridge informing travellers of the distances to Warrington, Prescot and Liverpool was moved at the time of expansion, to the opposite side. Therefore the distances pointed to the wrong destinations. This village quirk was corrected in 2005, when the milestone was returned to the correct side of the bridge.
The railway still runs through Rainhill. There is a station with frequent services to Liverpool, Manchester and Warrington. Rainhill has four churches, St. Ann's, St. Bartholomew's and St. James's - which are Church of England, Roman Catholic and Methodist, respectively, as well as an evangelical church. There are several primary schools in Rainhill: Oakdene, Longton Lane, St. Ann's, St. Batholomew's and Tower College, all of which boast high academic achievement. This is true also for the local comprehensive, Rainhill High Media Arts College, and the private day college, Tower College which accepts students between 4 and 16.
Although Rainhill is small, it contains 9 pubs, The Manor Farm, The Ship Inn, Rainhill Ex-Services Club,The Victoria, The Commercial, The Labour Club, The Rocket, The Coach Bar and The Black Horse, most of which have some history of the area attched to them. For example; the Ship Inn is an old waiting post where people used to change horses on their journeys to Liverpool and The Manor Farm is one of the oldest buildings in Rainhill and appears in the doomesday book (although the site dates back to Roman times).
Rainhill was also the location of a notorious Victorian mass murder, Frederick Bailey Deeming. In March 1892, the bodies of a woman and her four children were discovered buried under the concrete floor of Dinham Villa, Lawton Road, Rainhill.
The series of events that led to this gruesome discovery began with a marriage in St. Ann's Church, Rainhill. Miss Emily Mather married Frederick Bailey Deeming, an officer in the Army. The couple emigrated to Australia, where Deeming murdered his wife and buried her under the floor of their kitchen. Australian police contacted Scotland Yard and as a result of information passed onto them, made a search of Dinham Villa, home of Deeming's supposed sister and her four children. Marie Deeming, however, was his first wife. Her throat had been cut, as had the throats of three of the children. The fourth was strangled.
Frederick Bailey Deeming was convicted of the murder of Emily Mather and hanged in Australia. Dinham Villa in Rainhill was demolished. The Rainhill victims were interred in the graveyard of St. Ann's Church. Sadly, the headstone marking their grave was stolen, thus it is now unmarked.
[edit] Rainhill Now
Rainhill is now mainly a commuter town, and is seen a wealthy middle class suburb of St Helens. Property prices have doubled in recent years making the area even more exclusive. Rainhill enjoys a good community spirit, which adds to the excellent quality of life in the area. It is also home to Rainhill Town AFC. People in surrounding towns often state that they are part of Rainhill, even though this is not true. The borders of Rainhill are clearly signposted and acurate.
Rainhill Ex-Services Club on Warrington Road was founded in 1946 to provide services to ex-service men and women in the Rainhill area. Nowadays, the Club still offers these services but also opens it's doors to the wider Rainhill and surrounding communities.
