Billinge is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

within the

Metropolitan Borough of St Helens The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is a local government district with borough status in Merseyside, North West England. The borough is named after its largest settlement, St Helens but also includes neighbouring towns and villages such as ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It forms the larger part of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Billinge Chapel End. At the

United Kingdom Census 2001 A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

, it had a population of 6,554. Within the boundaries of the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, Billinge is located by road approximately 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

(town centre) and 3.7 miles (5.9 km) northeast of St Helens (town centre).

History

Etymology

Billinge may mean "(place at the) pointed hill", from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''billa'' "ridge,

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

of sword" and -''ing'' "place at/people of the". The name was recorded as ''Bylnge'' in 1252.

Governance

This township or civil parish lies within the historic county boundaries of

. It was in

ecclesiastical parish (Deanery of Wigan) and-, therefore, in the Diocese of Liverpool, previously Chester. A prison once stood in the village called ''Tower Prison'', and during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, it was used by Parliamentarians to imprison Royalists soldiers, with one dying from

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

. In 1752, the prison was torn down and ''The Stork Hotel'' was built in its place. Parts of the prison are still preserved underneath the building with the old cells still intact. In recent years however the pub was shut down and suffered a fire. There are now plans to convert it into apartments. On 2 February 1837 with the commencement of the Wigan Poor Law Union, which merged the workhouses of 20 parishes in the Wigan area, the parish was divided into two separate townships,

Billinge Chapel End Billinge may refer to: England * Billinge, Merseyside in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens *Billinge Higher End in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester * Billinge and Winstanley Urban District, a former parish and urban district ...

and

Billinge Higher End Higher End or Billinge Higher End is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Governance Billinge was a civil parish lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire on 2 February 1837 it was divided ...

. In 1872 Billinge Local Board of Health was established for the area of these two townships and two detached parts of Winstanley township (one known as Blackley Hurst and the other situated in the Carr Mill area, both lying within the area of Billinge Chapel End township). In 1894 the area of the Local Board (together with the remaining area of Winstanley township) became Billinge Urban District. In 1927 the urban district was renamed Billinge and Winstanley Urban District. In 1974 the Billinge Higher End ward and most of Winstanley ward became part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after the main settlement of Wigan. It covers the towns of Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Mak ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

; the Billinge Chapel End area (including the two detached parts of Winstanley township) became part of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in

Churches

Two of Billinge's churches are

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s. The Church of St Aidan (Grade II*) is in the Wigan Deanery, which is part of the

Anglican Diocese of Liverpool The Diocese of Liverpool is a Church of England diocese based in Liverpool, covering Merseyside north of the River Mersey, part of West Lancashire, part of Wigan in Greater Manchester, Widnes and part of Warrington and in Cheshire (it was orig ...

. St Mary's Church (Grade II), built in 1828, is part of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool The Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool ( la, Archidioecesis Liverpolitana) is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Isle of Man and part of North West England. The episcopal see is Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The archdiocese ...

Notable people

Owen Farrell Owen Andrew Farrell (born 24 September 1991) is an English professional rugby union player, currently captain of Gallagher Premiership side Saracens. Farrell has played international rugby for England since 2012. Farrell is one of the top poi ...

, England international professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player *

Jonny Lomax } Jonathan Lomax (born 4 September 1990) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays for St Helens in the Super League, and England and Great Britain at international level. A versatile player, Lomax is primarily a but is equ ...

, England and Great Britain professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

player *

Colin Greenall Colin Anthony Greenall (born 30 December 1963) is an English former professional footballer who made over 600 Football League appearances between 1980 and 1999. Starting his career at Blackpool as an apprentice, Greenall had spells at Gill ...

, former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

* Richard D. Lewis, linguist and cross-cultural adviser *

Heather Frederiksen Heather Frederiksen MBE (born 30 December 1985) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer. She is former world record holder in the women's S8 100 m backstroke, 50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle and 400 m fr ...

, multiple paralympic swimming champion * Helen McCourt, murder victim *

Ken Owen Kenneth Malcolm Owen (born 23 April 1970) is an English drummer. He was born in Billinge and grew up in Gayton, Merseyside. He is best known as one of the founding members of extreme metal band Carcass, for which he also handled some of the ...

, drummer for

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band

Carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: *Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being *The str ...

Carley Stenson Carley Stenson (born 22 September 1982) is an English actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Steph Cunningham in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'' and Harriet Shelton in the BBC soap opera '' Doctors''. For her role as Steph, s ...

, actress, UK Drama ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...

'' *

Leon Osman Leon Osman (born 17 May 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent almost all of his career at Everton, making 433 appearances and scoring 57 goals. Earlier in his career he spent time on loan at Fo ...

, footballer, Everton F.C. *Claire Jackson (stage name

Georgia Taylor Georgia Taylor (born Claire Jackson; 26 February 1980) is an English actress. Her TV roles include Toyah Battersby in the ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'' (1997–2003, 2016–present), Ruth Winters in the BBC One medical drama series ' ...

), actress – ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' & ''

Holby City ''Holby City'' (stylised on-screen as HOLBY CIY) is a British medical drama television series that aired weekly on BBC One. It was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama ''Casualty'', and pr ...

'' * Guy Keegan- drummer for

The Railway Children ''The Railway Children'' is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in ''The London Magazine'' during 1905 and published in book form in the same year. It has been adapted for the screen several times, of which the 1970 fil ...

and

The Tansads The Tansads were an English band from Wigan, Greater Manchester, who were active during the 1990s. Playing a mix of folk, punk and indie music they developed a strong following on the festival circuit and on the crusty/ traveller scene, but ne ...

Thérèse Coffey Thérèse Anne Coffey (born 18 November 1971) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she previously served as Deputy Prime Mini ...

MP,

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. The incumbent ...

and

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

References

External links

Billinge History Society

The Billinge Blog
{{Authority control Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens