Warrington, a municipal and parliamentary borough and manufacturing town of Lancashire, on the right bank of the Mersey, 18 miles E. of Liverpool, 16 WSW. of Manchester, and 182 NW. of London. Though of recent development, it is an ancient place, the Wallintun of Domesday; and, acquiring strategic importance through its bridge (1496) over the Mersey, it was the scene of defeats of the Scots (1648), the royalists (1651), and a portion of Prince Charles Edward's forces (1745). To a dissenting academy, founded in 1757, it owes its memories of Drs Aikin, Priestley, Taylor, &c.; and Lucy Aikin was a native. There are still some old timbered houses; and the parish church, St Elphin's, with a spire 300 feet high, is a fine cruciform Decorated structure, restored in 1859-67 at a cost of over £15,000. The town-hall was the former seat (1750) of Col. Wilson Patten, purchased in 1872 for £20,000; and other buildings are the Royal Court Theatre (1862), post-office (1876), hospital (1876), museum and library (1857), school of art (1882), public baths (1866), grammar-school (1526; rebuilt 1857), &c. There are also public gardens and a park. The manufactures include iron, wire, pins, files, cottons, glass, leather, and soap. Warrington was constituted a parliamentary borough, returning one member, in 1832, and a municipal borough in 1847. Pop. (1851) 22,894; (1881) 45,253; (1891) 55,349, of whom 52,742 were within the municipal boundary.
See a monograph on the worthies of Warrington by James Kendrick (1853), and others by William Beamont (Chetham Society, 1872-73) on an Augustinian friary founded in 1379, on the lords of Warrington, &c.