Thingwall
Thingwall | |
---|---|
Village | |
![]() The Bassett Hound public house, Thingwall | |
Location within Merseyside | |
Population | 3,140 (2001 Census)[1] |
OS grid reference | SJ270850 |
• London | 178 mi (286 km)[2] SE |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | WIRRAL |
Postcode district | CH61 |
Dialling code | 0151 |
ISO 3166 code | GB-WRL |
Police | Merseyside |
Fire | Merseyside |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
Thingwall is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The village is situated to the south west of Birkenhead and north east of Heswall. It is part of the Pensby & Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is situated within the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. At the 2001 Census, Thingwall had 3,140 inhabitants (1,450 males, 1,680 females).[1]
History
From the Old Norse þing vollr, meaning 'assembly field',[3] the name indicates that it was once the site of a Germanic thing (or þing). Similar place names in the British Isles include Tynwald, Dingwall, and Tingwall; see also Thingvellir in Iceland and Tingvoll in Norway.[4]
The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book as Tuigvelle,[5] and has been variously known as Fingwalle (1180); Thingale (circa 1250); Thynghwall (1426).[3] Previously a township in Woodchurch Parish, Wirral Hundred, and the county of Chester it was added to Birkenhead county borough in 1933. The population was 52 in 1801, 96 in 1851 and 156 in 1901.[6]
Traditional buildings/walls in the area are constructed of locally quarried yellow sandstone. Several small sandstone quarries once existed in the area including one at the top of the appropriately named Quarry Lane. Little evidence of these quarries now exists as the land has been redeveloped for housing or for the construction of a second above ground fresh water reservoir.
Thingwall Mill was constructed in the eighteenth century on the site of a much older medieval mill. Damaged in a storm in 1897 and subsequently disused, the mill was demolished in 1900.[3] However, remnants of the building, including the original mill stone, can still be found on Mill Road.
Thingwall Hall was built in 1849 for a Liverpool merchant and demolished in 1960.[3] It was part of the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital from 1917, providing care for long-term patients.[7]
Geography
Thingwall lies on the western side of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, 4.7 miles (7.5 km) from the Irish Sea at Hoylake, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) from the Dee Estuary and about 4.1 miles (6.6 km) from the River Mersey at Rock Ferry. Thingwall sits at the western side of the wide and shallow glacial U-shaped valley, formed during the Quaternary Ice Age, between Thurstaston Hill and Storeton Ridge. The underlying bedrock is Triassic sandstone of the Helsby Sandstone Formation and the Wilmslow Sandstone Formation, and Triassic siltstone of the Tarporley Siltstone Formation.[8][9] This is overlain with boulder clay from the Quaternary Ice Age, similar to the nearby Dee Cliffs, and clay soil. The bedrock is not usually visible, as it is at the summit of Thurstaston Hill.
Governance
Thingwall is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. The village is part of the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. The current Member of Parliament is Margaret Greenwood, a Labour Party (UK) representative.
The village is also part of a local government ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, this being Pensby and Thingwall Ward. Thingwall is represented on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by three councillors. These are Phillip Brightmore, Louise Reecejones and Michael Sullivan, who are all Labour councillors.[10] The most recent local elections took place on 22 May 2014.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Louise Ann REECEJONES | 1334 | 12.68 | ||
Green | Allen John BURTON | 274 | 2.60 | ||
Conservative | Denis Thomas KNOWLES | 1172 | 11.14 | ||
Liberal Democrats | Damien William CUMMINS | 390 | 3.71 | ||
UKIP | Jan DAVISON | 916 | 8.71 |
The electorate numbered 10,520, there was a turnout of 39% and the majority is 162. The result was declared at 12:06.[12]
Notable people
- Alan Gill and David Balfe, English musicians with the late 70s / early 80s bands Radio Blank, Dalek I Love You and The Teardrop Explodes, both raised in Thingwall.
- David Balfe went on to run his own record labels. One of these to which he signed Blur, and later became the inspiration behind their 1995 number one song, Country House.
- Marty Willson-Piper, English guitarist and songwriter with Australian band The Church, was raised in Thingwall.
- Septimus Francom, English athlete, born in Thingwall.
- George Payne, English footballer, died in Thingwall.
References
- ^ a b Wirral 2001 Census: Thingwall, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, retrieved 5 February 2008[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Coordinate Distance Calculator". boulter.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d Placenames: Thingwall, National Museums Liverpool, archived from the original on 8 June 2011, retrieved 6 November 2008
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suggested) (help) - ^ Harding 2002, p. 141-142.
- ^ Cheshire L-Z: Thingwall, The Domesday Book Online, retrieved 6 November 2008
- ^ Cheshire Towns & Parishes: Thingwall, GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy, retrieved 5 February 2008
- ^ Port Cities: Liverpool Infirmary for Children, E. Chambré Hardman Archive, archived from the original on 13 October 2007, retrieved 6 November 2008
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ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Baseline Report Series: 2. The Permo-Triassic Sandstones of west Cheshire and the Wirral" (PDF). British Geological Survey. p. 7. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
- ^ "Geology of Britain viewer". British Geological Survey. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
- ^ "Your Councillors by Ward". Wirral Borough Council. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
- ^ Election Result for 22 May 2014, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, retrieved 16 December 2014
- ^ "Election Result for Pensby and Thingwall ward on 22 May 2014". Wirral Borough Council. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
Bibliography
- Cavill, Paul; Harding, Stephen; Jesch, Judith (2000). Wirral and Its Viking Heritage. English Place-Name Society. ISBN 978-0-904889-59-8.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Harding, Stephen (2002). "Chapter 10: The Things of Wirral and West Lancashire". Viking Mersey: Scandinavian Wirral, West Lancashire and Chester. Countryvise Limited. pp. 141–152. ISBN 978-1-901231-3-42.
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(help) - Harding, Stephen; Jobling, Mark; King, Turi (2010). Viking DNA: The Wirral and West Lancashire Project. Nottingham University Press. ISBN 978-1-907284-94-6.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Mortimer, William Williams (1847). The History of the Hundred of Wirral. London: Whittaker & Co. p.289.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)