The earliest record of Culcheth appears in a survey in 1212, from which it is understood that the first Gilbert de Culcheth built the original Culcheth Hall around 1200. When the third Lord of the Manor died in 1246 leaving no male heir, the estate was divided between his four daughters. Margery, who married Hugh de Hindley, retained the old hall and surrounding grounds, and her husband took the name 'de Culcheth'. In 1824 this estate was sold to Peter Withington and the land stayed in the Withington family until the early 1900`s when the last Squire Withington moved to St Leonards-on-Sea.

The basic layout of Culcheth and Glazebury has not changed during the last two centuries. The roads and tracks which were shown on an enclosure map dated 1751 are followed exactly by the main roads of today.

With little employment of its own, Culcheth can claim to be a dormitory settlement for towns as diverse as Warrington, Leigh, Liverpool and Manchester. In 1801 the population of the area was 1833. It rose to 2503 in 1831 (the Liverpool to Manchester railway opened in 1830) and then fell slightly to remain at a little over 2200 for the rest of the nineteenth century. By 1931 it had reached 2379. Upon the arrival of the AEA in 1946 there followed a period of rapid growth which more than doubled the population and created the village we know today (Census figures 1951 - 4130; 1961 - 6570; 1971 - 9001).

Until 1974 Culcheth and Glazebury were in the county of Lancashire, but the local government reorganisation of that year moved the boundary to the north, placing all of Culcheth and Glazebury, as far as Hurst Mill Bridge, in Cheshire. The northern extremity of Glazebury became part of the new county of Greater Manchester and this helps to explain the fall in population by the time of the 1981 census. At the time of writing, the population is estimated at 9,000. The 1981 census shows that, compared with the whole of Cheshire, Culcheth and Glazebury have a smaller percentage aged 0 - 4 years yet significantly more aged 45 to retirement. It is currently estimated that there is a high proportion of those aged 50 - 55 years.

During the early 1970`s it was claimed that the proportion of university graduates per head of population in Culcheth & Glazebury was amongst the highest in the county. With BNFL and the Science park at Birchwood, there was ample justification for this claim.

During the last decade Culcheth has continued its transformation from a rural community into a thriving village, its future firmly linked with the nearby Science Park and the nuclear industry where so many of its residents are employed.

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