Gillars Green

Gillars Green is a small council estate situated in the village of Eccleston, Merseyside, England, on the outskirts of St. Helens.

Explosion

Gillars Green was built for a main purpose to house the increasing population explosion of St. Helens in the 1950s and 1960s. The Council built 123 houses around small cul-de-sacs around one main linking road known as 'Gillars Green Drive'.

The Trapwood Trauma

The estate was a very popular place to live, until the late 1960s when a new estate was built just over the road. Trapwood Close was given its name due to the small woodland that use to be there known as 'Trap-wood'. When this was built, many of Gillars Green's residents moved to this estate, the estate quickly filled; within 3 years, they had to build another adjacent drive, Pinfold Drive, this still links Trapwood Close with Gillars Green.

Due to the increasing number of people moving out of the estate, it became known for as a 'village dustbin' once described by the Lord Mayor at the time. Basically, the council placed most of its unemployed and homeless into Gillars Green itself.

This was not liked by a lot of the Trapwood Residents, who felt that their estate was then becoming in danger of over expanding into Gillars itself.

Bad Years

Gillars Green went through a bad period between 1995-2004, named the worst estate to live in the whole of St. Helens for a record NINE years running. It still has the worst crime rate in Eccleston, and the 3rd Highest in St.Helens.

Crime Statistics

Here are the crime statistics for 2005 with percentages who have a criminal record.

1. Parr - STOCK Bridge estate -31.7%
2. Thatto heath- elephant lane estate - 29.5%
3. Eccleston - Gillars Green - 29.2%
4. Rainford - Rainford Junction - 26.0%
5. Eccleston - Ellison Drive- 21.0%
6. Eccleston - Trapwood Close - 10.5%
7. Nutgrove- Elacante Estate - 4.5%

Improvements

The estate has improved, recent work on new trees, CCTV, improved park area and community gardener.