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Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe. The town has a population of 11,775.〔(Official 2011 Census figures. ) Neighbourhood Statistics website. Retrieval Date: 10 May 2013.〕 Going clockwise, starting from the north, the civil parish is bordered by the parishes of Betchton to the north, Church Lawton to the north-east and east, Kidsgrove in Staffordshire to the south-east, Audley Rural, in Staffordshire to the south, Barthomley to the south-west, Haslington to the west, and Hassall to the north-west. In the centre of Alsager is a lake, Alsager Mere. 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 Mere. ) Retrieval Date: 10 August 2007.〕 Alsager has hosted an annual summer carnival since 1998.〔(Alsager Partnership website. ) Retrieval Date: 3 June 2010.〕 Until June 2009 the summer carnival was located in Milton Gardens but it has since moved to the Alsager School Playing Fields to increase capacity.〔(Alsager.com website. ) Retrieval Date: 10 May 2013.〕 In 2007 Alsager was awarded Fairtrade Town status by the Fairtrade Foundation. ==History== In the neighbouring civil parish and village of Church Lawton are the Church Lawton Barrows, which form part of a significant Bronze Age site near the town.〔(Church Lawton Barrows. ) Retrieval Date: 10 August 2007.〕 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.〔Scholes, R. (2000) ''Towns and villages of Britain: Cheshire.'' Sigma Press: Wilmslow, Cheshire. ISBN 1-85058-637-3.〕 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 "H.M.S. 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. Many men from these countries had fought on the side of the Germans in order to try and regain independence, and they were afraid to return to their countries of origin, as many who had returned were executed by the Russians. A school was set up for the education of their children whose only common language when they arrived was German. The school continued to exist for many years in the same set of wooden huts under the name "Excalibur School". The first Roman Catholic church in Alsager was one of the wooden huts and was attended mainly by the Lithuanians, most of whom were Roman Catholic. The Anglican churches are Christ Church (1789),〔(Christ Church. ) Retrieval Date: 10 August 2007.〕 and St. Mary Magdalene (1898).〔(St Mary Magdalene – A Church Near You – website. ) Retrieval Date: 19 January 2009.〕 Alsager previously had three Methodist churches at Hassall Road (Wesleyan), Wesley Place (Wesleyan), and Crewe Road (Primitive Methodist). By December 2009 two Methodist churches remained, but today there is just one.〔(Wesley Place Methodist Church Alsager website. ) Retrieval Date: 10 August 2007.〕 The Roman Catholic community is served from St Gabriel's Church. The parish is located in the Diocese of Shrewsbury (Central Cheshire Region – Local Pastoral Area 9). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alsager」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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