Frodsham is a market community, civil parish and also electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and also Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population was 8,982 in 2001, increasing to 9,077 at the 2011 Census. It is approximately 3 miles (5 km) south of Runcorn, 16 miles (26 kilometres) south of Liverpool, as well as 28 miles (45 kilometres) southwest of Manchester. The River Weaver runs to its northeast as well as on the west it forgets the tidewater of the River Mersey. The A56 road as well as the Chester-- Manchester railway line travel through the community, and the M56 freeway passes to the northwest. In middle ages times Frodsham was an essential borough and also port belonging to the Earls of Chester. Its parish church, St. Laurence's, still displays evidence of a building present in the 12th century in its nave as well as is referenced in Domesday Book. A market is held each Thursday, and Frodsham's viability as a trading centre was emphasised by the presence of the "big five" removing financial institutions as well as numerous building societies, though the branches of HSBC and NatWest have just recently closed. Growth in the town's stores and premises with alcohol licences appears with the recent (post-2002) opening or modernisation of contemporary-style bar/restaurants, take-away food stores and also public houses, and also in the continued existence of tiny, specialist, companies operating from town-centre shops.