St Helens, United Kingdom

Approximately 22% of the St Helens Borough's 136 km2 (53 sq mi) is made up of soft rolling hills (30 km2 (12 sq mi)) used primarily for agricultural purposes, mainly arable. The highest point in the borough, and in the whole of Merseyside, is Billinge Hill, 5.6 km (3 mi) north of the town centre. From the top of this hill on a clear day the mountains of Snowdonia, fells of the Lake District and Blackpool Tower are all visible, as well as the cities of Manchester and Liverpool and the towns of Wigan, Bolton and Warrington. The Mill Brook/Windle Brook runs through Eccleston and connects with the disused St Helens branch/section of the Sankey Canal in the town centre. St Helens is around 160 feet (50 metres) above sea level.

Carr Mill Dam is Merseyside's largest body of inland water, with lakeside trails and walks. It is used for national competitive powerboating and angling events.

Moss Bank, a suburb of St Helens, is about 4 km (2+1⁄2 mi) north of the town centre. It has a community library and St David's

The Burgies are two tailings on the site of the old Rushy Park coal mine. They were created by dumping toxic chemical waste from the manufacture of glass; they have since been covered with tall grass and woodland.

The glass industry is no longer the major employer it once was; however, it still employs over a thousand people in the town. The large Pilkington Brothers works, founded in 1826, dominates the town's industrial quarter and still produces all the UK's output of flat glass.

In 1994, planning permission was sought out for a link road connecting the M62 directly with the town centre. The development included a £5m retail and commercial property project in the Ravenhead area that had seen successive business closures with the folding of UGB and Ravenhead Glass.

The town's shopping area is centred on the St Helens Minster, the original site of St Mary's open market. The open market was later replaced by an awned covered market that populated Chapel Lane and the locale.

The current Church Square shopping centre surrounds St Helens on three sides. Church Street, the main high street, runs parallel to Church Square and is sandwiched by the town's second shopping centre known as The Hardshaw Centre. The other main shopping streets in the town centre include the more traditional small store based Bridge Street, Duke Street and Westfield Street populated by independent specialists. Church Square was bought by St Helens Borough Council in 2017 for £26.6m as part of local regeneration plans.

Located in the town centre, The World of Glass Museum opened in 2000 incorporating the Pilkington Glass Museum and the St Helens Local Museum.

The North West Museum of Road Transport is another museum located in the town. The Smithy Heritage Centre is a small museum in Kiln Lane, Eccleston about the works of a local blacksmith.

The borough of St Helens has several major parks and open spaces. These include the Taylor Park, a listed Grade II Historic Park and Garden opened in 1893, as well as Victoria Park located near the town centre.

Sherdley Park is a modern park in Sutton which used to feature a funfair in the summer, usually in July. Called the St Helens Festival (originally named the St Helens Show), it was one of the biggest free festivals in Europe.

Parr has Gaskell Park in addition to the reclaimed open space known as The Duckeries (or Ashtons Green), and shares a boundary with boggy heathland known as "The Moss" or "Colliers Moss" (traditionally associated with Bold and its power station), and the area known as the "Flash" (remnants of the canal tributary system and fishing ponds) with a nature walk along part of the 7 mi (11 km) route that makes up the Sankey Valley Country Park (part of the Trans Pennine trail).

A 20m tall sculpture, called Dream, has been erected on a former colliery in Sutton Manor in St Helens.

The Borough of St Helens has one nursery school, one infant school, one junior school, fifty-two primary schools and one independent school for pupils aged 3–16. Performance in the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 SATs has been consistently above national averages over the past 5 years.

There are three SEN schools in St Helens - Penkford, Mill Green and Lansbury Bridge.

The Borough of St Helens has one independent and nine maintained secondary schools: