Thingwall

This article is about Thingwall on the Wirral. For the Thingwall in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, see Thingwall Hall.

Thingwall
Village
The Bassett Hound public house, Thingwall
Thingwall is located in Merseyside
Thingwall
Thingwall
Location within Merseyside
Population3,140 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid referenceSJ270850
• London178 mi (286 km)[2] SE
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWIRRAL
Postcode districtCH61
Dialling code0151
ISO 3166 codeGB-WRL
PoliceMerseyside
FireMerseyside
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Merseyside
53°21′11″N 3°05′31″W / 53.353°N 3.092°W / 53.353; -3.092

Thingwall is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England. The village is situated approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) to the south west of Birkenhead and 3 km (1.9 mi) north east of Heswall. Historically part of Cheshire, the area is within the Pensby and Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West.

At the 2001 census, Thingwall had 3,140 inhabitants.[1] The 2011 census registered the total ward population at 13,007.[3]

History

From the Old Norse þing vollr, meaning 'assembly field',[4] 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.[5] A place called "Tingvalla" can also be found in the swedish town Karlstad where it can be dated back to the viking age as a councel- and marketplace.

The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Tuigvelle,[6] and has been variously known as Fingwalle (1180); Thingale (circa 1250); Thynghwall (1426).[4] Thingwall was formerly a township in the parish of Woodchurch,[7] in Wirral Hundred, in 1866 Thingwall became a separate civil parish, on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Birkenhead St Mary[8] and became part of Birkenhead county borough. The population was 52 in 1801, 96 in 1851, 156 in 1901[9] and 652 in 1931.[10]

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.[4] However, remnants of the building, including the original millstone, can still be found on Mill Road.

Thingwall Hall was built in 1849 for a Liverpool merchant and demolished in 1960.[4] It was part of the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital from 1917, providing care for long-term patients.[11]

On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation in England and Wales resulted in most of Wirral, including Thingwall, being transferred from the county of Cheshire to Merseyside.

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.[12][13] 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.

At local government level, the village is part of the Pensby and Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Thingwall is represented on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by three councillors.[14] The most recent local elections took place on 6 May 2021.

Notable people

References

  1. ^ a b "Wirral 2001 Census: Thingwall". Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Retrieved 5 February 2008.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Coordinate Distance Calculator". boulter.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  3. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Pensby and Thingwall Ward (as of 2011) (E05000969)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d "Placenames: Thingwall". National Museums Liverpool. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  5. ^ Harding 2002, p. 141-142.
  6. ^ "Cheshire L-Z: Thingwall". The Domesday Book Online. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  7. ^ "History of Thingwall, in Wirral and Cheshire". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  8. ^ "Relationships and changes Thingwall CP/Tn through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  9. ^ "Thingwall". GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  10. ^ "Population statistics Thingwall CP/Tn through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Port Cities: Liverpool Infirmary for Children". E. Chambré Hardman Archive. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  12. ^ "Baseline Report Series: 2. The Permo-Triassic Sandstones of west Cheshire and the Wirral" (PDF). British Geological Survey. p. 7. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  13. ^ "Geology of Britain viewer". British Geological Survey. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  14. ^ "Your Councillors by Ward". Wirral Borough Council. Retrieved 20 July 2020.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thingwall.