Widnes, manufacturing town and township, Prescot par., SW. Lancashire, on river Mersey, 13 miles SE. of Liverpool, 3339 ac. (314 water), pop. 24,935; 1 Bank, 3 newspapers. Widnes rose from a population of less than 2000 in 1851 to nearly 25,000 in 1881. It has extensive chemical, alkali, soda, soap, candle, grease, and manure works; it has also iron foundries, and copper-smelting and rolling mills. Docks were constructed in 1866, and extended in 1884. Between Widnes and Runcorn the Mersey is spanned by a magnificent railway bridge.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))