Alsager

Alsager (ˈɔːlseɪdʒər ) is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located to the north-west of Stoke-on-Trent and east of Crewe. The town's population was 13,389 at the 2021 census. The Mere is a lake in the centre of Alsager; this isolated pool, once the focal point of the town, is only accessible by two fenced public viewing areas and by local residents who have gardens adjoining the waters. Alsager has hosted an annual summer carnival since 1998; until June 2009, it was located in Milton Park, but it had since moved to the Alsager School playing fields to increase capacity, until moving back to Milton Park in 2017. In 2008, Alsager was awarded Fairtrade Town status by the Fairtrade Foundation. The civil parish is bordered by the parishes of Betchton to the north, Church Lawton to the north-east and east, Kidsgrove to the south-east, Audley Rural to the south, Haslington to the west, and Hassall to the north-west. In the village of Church Lawton are the Church Lawton Barrows, which form part of a significant Bronze Age site near the town. The town's name means 'the cultivated land of a person named Aelle'. Alsager was recorded as 'Eleacier' in the Domesday Book, and was a small farming village until the 19th century when, due to its rail connections and rural character, it became a home of choice for pottery works managers from the nearby Federation of Six Towns which later became the city of Stoke-on-Trent. During the Second World War, a large armaments factory was built outside Alsager at Radway Green, and the town expanded dramatically to house the influx of factory workers. Also during the war a camp was constructed for the training of Royal Marines. This bore the name of HMS Excalibur and was situated at the top of Fields Road by the side of the Stoke to Crewe railway line. In 1948 it became a displaced persons camp for refugees from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the former Polish Ukraine, countries which had been forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union.