A NEW book charting the 50th anniversary of Warrington becoming a new town has been released.

It is bizarre now to think that housing and shops in places such as Birchwood and Gorse Covert was virtually non-existent half a century ago.

The landscape was so different.

Janice Hayes’ new book, entitled Warrington: From New Town to New City 1969-2019: A 50th anniversary portrait attempts to explain what has happened during that time.

Janice, honorary heritage curator at Culture Warrington, said: “Warrington is a town with a long history and a future shaped by its designation as a New Town in 1968.

“Over the past half century, the landscape and lives of its inhabitants have changed dramatically.

“Older residents of the former Lancashire industrial town barely recognise the town of their youth, while incomers and younger residents only know life in a thriving Cheshire centre with ambitions to be seen as a city.

“During the past 50 years there have been major changes to the demographic of the area and the built environment by creating new communities and bringing former Lancashire and Cheshire villages within the town, which has effectively trebled in size.

“The redundant Second World War sites of Risley munitions works and the former military bases at Burtonwood and Padgate have been redeveloped.

“Already some of the townscape created in the 1980s as a result of the New Town plan is being rebuilt, and by 2019 a new local plan will finalise the next stage of redevelopment.

“Warrington: From New Town to New City? is based on a community-wide local history project to create a permanent record of these crucial years in the town’s development.

“It will involve oral history to capture the memories of those who remember the town from the pre-1960 era or who were involved in the New Town planning, or saw their area change drastically as a result.

“It will also capture the memories and images of the New Town over the last fifty years and be a mixture of official records and community contributions from old and young alike.

“This fascinating book reveals Warrington’s transformation from post-war austerity to twenty-first-century prosperity through the extensive photographic archive, records held by Culture Warrington.”

  •  The book is out now, priced £14.99