• Construction has begun on 305 Bridgewater Place, the final building at the head of our award wining Grade A office development.

• Birchwood Park Film Club is launched – offering everyone working on Birchwood Park the chance to watch a range of movies for free on the big screen in the new state of the art auditorium. Our movie nights can show anything from latest releases to golden oldies on the big screen.

• We helped raise over £15,000 for our local childrens’ charity Brainwave, this year Birchwood Park hosted the B2B bike challenge for Brainwave, 40 people from companies including: Vaultex, Rolls-Royce, DWP, Yellowbus Solutions, UTV Media, AMEC, DLA Piper and the Birchwood Park management team cycled over 210 miles from Bridgewater Place, Birchwood Park to Bridgwater, Somerset to raise money for Brainwave.

• The Centre went through a £1.3 million remodel to provide enhanced amenities for those on Birchwood Park and in the surrounding areas. Improvements were made to The Café, The Garden Restaurant and Conference & Meeting facilities plus the creation of The Hub – an break out space for informal meetings.

• For the fourth year in a row, the MEPC Birchwood Park on-site management team scooped a Gold RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Award in recognition of its continue commitment to developing the highest standards of workplace health and safety.

• Pre-let deal for 32,000 sq ft secured enabling MEPC to start planning construction of 305 Bridgewater Place in 2012.

• Chadwick House - as part of the continual investment back in to our buildings, Lakeside; the stylish new coffee shop in Chadwick House reception opened to everyone on Birchwood Park as well as the general public. As well as a range of hot and cold snack, Lakeside proudly brews Starbucks coffee.

• The 103 bedroom Ramada Encore, situated at the Southern entrance to Birchwood Park opened its doors to its first guests in January this year.

• Thomson House is fully let following the arrival of motor claims outsourcing company Broker Assistance - image of fully let board.

• As part of our on-going investment back into our buildings this year we completed the enhanced Chadwick House reception. The improvements included: The reconfiguration of reception and new reception desk; A new floor and wall coverings; A new informal seating area

• ‘Best Business Park in the Region’ - Judges praised managing director and 2008 Warrington Business Person of the Year, Jonathan Walsh, and his team for “a great year, securing deals with impressive occupiers as well as adding to the park’s existing amenities”. MEPC Birchwood Park beat off competition for the Insider award, from Property Alliance Group and Argent.

• Nuclear Family Continues to Grow Here at Birchwood Park - The largest deal for 2009 for MEPC Birchwood Park and one of the largest so far for Warrington saw leading nuclear technology services provider, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) move into 17,000 sq ft premises in the recently refurbished Chadwick House. Initially accommodating around 150 personnel in the corporate, modelling, environmental management and engineering teams, NNL’s spacious new Chadwick House premises will facilitate anticipated expansion. The firm aims to recruit between 20 and 30 people over the next 3 years.

• The Park marks its 10th birthday and best year ever for lettings. According to the Warrington Property Review 2007, the Park was responsible for 30 per cent of all lettings over 2,000 sq ft in Warrington last year with an outstanding 63,200 sq ft let.

• The new Ramada Encore Hotel is now rising from the ground to deliver 103 bedroom for the Birchwood and Warrington areas.To be launched this Winter, the hotel will create 60 new full- and part-time jobs for the local economy.

• Success at Bridgewater Place continues with 50,000 sq ft of space let in the last nine months. David Wilson Homes and Vaultex Ltd move in bringing a further 150 staff to the site.

• MEPC Birchwood Park defied the economic downturn in 2008, letting 160,000 sq ft of space across over 50 deals.

• Vestas Celtic expand into Bridgewater Place.

• Darwin House gets a major facelift. Cogsys, who relocate from Salford Quays and a host of other occupiers rapidly make it a ‘full house’.

• Birchwood Park wins a hat-trick of awards – the BCO Award Regional Winner for Commercial Workspace, a Roses Design Award for Best Commercial Project and the Property Executive North of England Office Award for excellence.

• Birchwood Park forms a partnership with Warrington Council and the Highways Agency to plan and implement the first phase of improvements to the transport infrastructure the area.

• The major landscaping project continues the £1 million ongoing investment by MEPC Birchwood Park in the greening of Birchwood.

• GB Oils join the Park in Bridgewater Place.

• The Birchwood Park ‘Helpdesk’ is launched to ensure that tenant care is at the forefront of the Park’s ethos.

• Thomson House adds an in-house café, shop and lounge.

• The Centre completes its refurbishment of its conference facilities.

• As the first phase of Bridgewater Place is almost completed the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) takes one entire 40,000 sq ft building – the largest office letting in Warrington in 2005.

• Thomson House gets a major refurbishment to bring it in line with the quality and appeal of Chadwick House. New facilities include a basement archive storage area.

• The Centre gets a £600,000 revamp of its restaurant and kitchen areas including an even enlarged Café Centro.

• Occupier Serco commits to a major investment to extend its testing laboratory at the Park.

• Jonathan Walsh becomes Managing Director of MEPC Birchwood Park and takes the Park into a new era. Jonathan Black joins from Bruntwood Estates as the Park’s new Asset Manager.

• Warrington’s largest office letting secured as existing tenant Atkins moves almost 400 staff to the newly refurbished Chadwick House.

• New tree planting begins along Faraday Street to create a boulevard with 120 Birch and Oak trees.

• The Warrington Express runs twice a day to meet main commuter trains to and from Warrington Bank Quay and Central Stations.

• The Birchwood Park team wins the award for Social Responsibility at the Warrington Business Awards.

• Design work begins to create Bridgewater Place, the new £30 million office scheme. Projections are for a further 2000 future new jobs for the Park.

• The ‘Connections’ sculpture is craned into place on the Birchwood Way roundabout.

• The Park’s Busy Nought to Fives Nursery moves to a brand new facility and increases its capacity to 118 children.

• Long-term occupier NNC announces its expansion at the Park to develop a new 25,900 sq ft (2,406 sq m) office building at the Southern entrance to the Park.

• Sonya Laing becomes Travel Co-ordinator and new car share scheme is launched.

• A brand new state-of-the-art health & fitness centre – Alive & Well – opens in December.

• Sony Ericsson, United Utilities, Core Utility Solutions and A-Plant join the Park

• Jonathan Walsh joins Birchwood Park.

• The Park launches its first bus service in line with the new Green Travel Plan.

• Another 27 new lettings boost the variety and spread of occupiers – the profile of the Park changes with software, telecoms, recruitment and service sector firms all moving in.

• Birchwood Park attracts blue chip companies such as Vodafone and Alfred McAlpine Homes to the new Dalton Avenue scheme.

• Vodafone commission purposebuilt offices in a move that will create over 400 new jobs for the region.

• The Birchwood Park website www.birchwoodpark.co.uk goes live.

• Chadwick House’s refurbishment sees 90% of space successfully let in the 65,000 sq ft already ready for occupation.

• Cavendish Place is completed and already fully let.

• Birchwood Park Estates unveils its vision for the future development of ‘the best mixed use business park in the North of England’.

• The major refurbishment of Chadwick House begins.

• New office development starts in a prominent location close to Daten Avenue.

• Construction begins on site at Cavendish Place for the first phase of industrial units.

MEPC acquires the 74 acre Birchwood Technology Park from UKAEA and wins Property Deal of The Year from North West Insider.

At the end of the war production of ammunition ceased as the ROF was built as an emergency factory only. It was then used by the Admiralty as a storage depot until 1961, except for the north west section which was taken over by UKAEA in 1956. This was the area now known as Birchwood Park.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s Birchwood Park was at the heart of the UK nuclear engineering programme.

At its peek in the early 1970’s it was estimated that 4,500 people were employed on the park, numbers gradually reduced when the civil nuclear programme ended in the mid 1990’s. However we are pleased to say that 2009 saw the working population of Birchwood Park increase back to 4,500.

The onset of the Second World War changed the face of the landscape forever. In 1939 much of the farmland was acquired by the Government by compulsory purchase for the construction of Risley Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF). Within 18 months a huge complex covering 927 acres of prime agricultural land was built; including 1,800 small buildings and a network of roads and railway links.

An average of 22,000 workers were needed to keep the factory in production. Most of these were women, many of whom came over from Ireland and the North East.

Over 1,000,000 mines and 500,000 bombs were assembled here.

At the end of the 19th Century, Risley, as the area was originally known, comprised 30 tenant farms, a gamekeeper’s lodge and a peat cutting industry based at Risley Moss. Risley had become one of the most fertile agricultural villages in the country, growing cereal crops and vegetables and was especially well known for its giant celery.