Template:Wp-St Helens, Merseyside

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St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 102,629. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, which had a population of 176,843 at the 2001 Census.

St Helens is in the south-west of the historic county of Lancashire, north of the River Mersey. The town historically lay within the ancient Lancashire division of West Derby known as a hundred. The town initially started as a small settlement in the township of Windle but, by the mid 1700s, the town had become synonymous with a wider area; by 1838, it was formally made responsible for the administration of the four townships of Eccleston, Parr, Sutton and Windle. In 1868, the town was created by incorporation as a municipal borough and later became a county borough in 1887; it became a metropolitan borough in 1974, with an expanded administrative responsibility for towns and villages in close proximity.

The area developed rapidly in the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries into a significant centre for coal mining and glassmaking. It was also home to a cotton and linen industry (notably sail making) that lasted until the mid-19th century as well as salt,^[1] lime and alkali pits,^[2] copper smelting and brewing.

Glass producer Pilkington is the town's only remaining large industrial employer; previously, it was home to Beechams, the Gamble Alkali Works, Ravenhead glass, United Glass Bottles, Triplex, Daglish Foundry and Greenall's brewery.