The Last American

Once the biggest military base in Europe, Burtonwood is now a shadow of its former self. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan C. Lobdell has secured a place in the 50-year-old history of Burtonwood. This spans from the action-packed war years to today, a period marked by the absence of a clear enemy and American budget cuts that are accelerating its decline. Once, the place resonated with the landings and take-offs of great Flying Fortresses. Men worked in the hangars around the clock, seven days a week, fitting communications and armaments to the…

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History of Burtonwood Brewery

On March 13th, 1867, James and Jane Forshaw purchased the land on which the Burtonwood Brewery now stands. James had some brewing training while employed at the Bath Springs Brewery, Ormskirk, and probably chose the site because of its position mid-way between Warrington and St Helens, and also because there was an adequate supply of suitable water readily available. The first brewery had a 14-barrel open-tired copper, two 12-barrel Fer-menting Vessels and a cellar capacity for 45 barrels. The trade was with Free Houses, farmers and private landowners, mainly in…

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The Burtonwood Chapel

The Chapel of Burtonwood was founded by Sir Thomas de Bold in 1605, when Burtonwood was part of the Parish of Warrington. It was consecrated by the Rt Rev John Lord, Bishop of Chester, on 16th December 1634 in the presence of Richard Bold and Thomas Ireland of Bewsey. During the Commonwealth, Burton-wood became a separate Parish, and it must have excited many of the Americans who came to Burtonwood in World War II to discover that an early incum-bent of the Church, the Rev. Samuel Mather, had sailed to…

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The Story of Burtonwood

In the last 25 years the name of Burtonwood has been carried by thousands of American servicemen to countries all over the world. It is the only place in the British Isles to bear this name, and is possibly more widely known than Warrington, to which it was originally a subservient manor. THE WOOD BY THE TUN Probably the original name of Bur-tonwood was simply ‘Burton’, which means the ‘tun’, or farmstead, by a ‘burh’, or fortifiedmanor. The burh could have been the borough of  Warrington. The wood, however, was…

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Burtonwood – The Truth About G.I. Town

Four miles from Warrington in Lancashire, is Burtonwood, the great maintenance base for the American Air Lift to Berlin. There several thousand young Americans, most of whom had never been overseas before, were dumped far from their homes with orders to keep the Dakotas, Skymasters and other aircraft flying through the air door in the Iron Curtain. The success of the Air Lift was apparent to all, but locally the social consequences were less happy for both sides. Six thousand American airmen dumped down suddenly to live near a bleak…

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Burtonwood: Agricultural Draining Match – 1853

The London Illustrated News, 3rd Dec 1853ON Wednesday week, the 23rd ult., an extensive Agricultural Draining Match was held on the Burtonwood Estate, the property of Samuel Brooks, Esq., banker, of Manchester, situate near the Warrington Junction station of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The field selected was well adapted for the purpose, and beautifully situated, commanding a magnificent view of the Sankey viaduct. The soil consists of a friable loam, on a marly substratum, with occasional beds of clay and sand. The attendance of drainers and gentlemen interested in…

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Burtonwood

Burtonwood is a village between the towns of St Helens and Warrington, whose history stretches back into the thirteenth century and probably further. The population has always been small in number, yet Burtonwood, for such a small village, is well known for two phenomena: its American connection and its beer!. Burtonwood parish is a mixture of old and new. From a small rural community of a few scattered farms and cottages it grew into a village and later became a strong farming community and then came the brewery which still…

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