Spike Island (Halton)
Encyclopedia
Widnes
Widnes is an industrial town within the borough of Halton, in Cheshire, England, with an urban area population of 57,663 in 2004. It is located on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Directly to the south across the Mersey is the town of Runcorn...
, England, a birthplace of the British chemical industry, is a reclaimed toxic waste site. The island is in the Mersey Estuary
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
, a Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
site.
Its maze of abandoned chemical factories, rail lines, canal and industrial dockage, and industrial pollution, which had declined into a rust belt toxic wilderness, was reclaimed as woodland, wetlands and green space between 1975 and 1982. A surviving warehouse is now the home of the Catalyst Museum
Catalyst (museum)
Catalyst is a science centre and museum devoted to the chemical industry. Its full title is Catalyst Science Discovery Centre. It is located in Widnes, Cheshire, in the north west of England, and situated on the north bank of the River Mersey ....
, the only science museum in the UK solely devoted to chemistry.
Spike Island was the site of a famous outdoor concert by the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
group The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
in May 1990.
It is often known locally as simply Spikey