St Helens

St Helens, (1) a town of Lancashire, on the Sankey brook, flowing to the Mersey, 12 miles ENE. of Liverpool and 21 W. by S. of Manchester. Thanks to its railway and canal facilities, and to the immediate neighbourhood of coal, it has grown within recent years from quite a small village to an important industrial centre, and now is the great seat of the manufacture of crown, plate, and sheet glass, and also possesses extensive alkali, copper-smelting, and iron works. It was constituted a municipal borough in 1868; a parliamentary borough, returning one member, in 1885; and a county borough by the Local Government Act, 1888. The handsome town-hall, with a public library, was opened in 1876. Pop. (1871) 45,134; (1881) 57,403; (1891) 71,288.—(2) A small town in the Isle of Wight, 4 miles SE. of Ryde. Pop. of parish (1851) 1948; (1891) 4469.