Garswood is a village in 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, Merseyside, St Helens but also includes neighbouring towns ...

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 ...

. The village is within 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 Seneley Green. The parish was historically part of Ashton-in-Makerfield until 1974 boundary changes.

History

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 ...

, Garswood is 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 ...

gyr “fir” and ''wudu'' "

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

", the fir wood. The name was recorded as ''Gratiswode'' (undated). Along with extensive farming, Garswood has seen much

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

activity in its past, due to strata running up to an adjacent fault causing much outcropping of coal seams. Local mines included Garswood Park (which operated 1868–1880), Seneley Green (1869-1880), Birchenheds (1880-1925) and Park (1869-1960). Mining has taken place using (comparatively) shallow shafts and many drifts. The last

drift mine Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is above ...

in the Garswood area (in neighbouring

Golborne Golborne (pronounced or ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south-southeast of Wigan, northeast of Warrington and to the west of the city of Manchester. Combined with the village of Lowto ...

), Quaker House Colliery, closed in 1992. Extensive

opencast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

mining has taken place in more recent times and still continues in the area. The village contains the Railway Hotel, the Stag Hotel and the Simms Road Inn

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s. It also has a Labour Club, a

Conservative Club The Association of Conservative Clubs is an organisation associated with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It represents and provides support to the largest association of political clubs in the country estimated at 1,100. The Associ ...

, and Garswood United Football Club.

Education

In 1588 Seneley Green (as it was then known) became the site of Ashton-in-Makerfield Free Grammar School, the area's first free

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, founded by Robert Byrchall on land granted for the purpose by Sir Thomas Gerard. Whilst the original building has long since demolished, today the site is used as Garswood

Public Library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

, housed in a grade II listed building. Ashton-in-Makerfield Free Grammar School was attended by

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

Edmund Arrowsmith Edmund Arrowsmith ''(baptized as "Brian Arrowsmith")'', SJ (c. 1585 – 28 August 1628) was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of the Catholic Church. The main source of information on Arrowsmith is a contemporary account written ...

, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Garswood County

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

is located in the centre of Garswood and in 2018/19 had 207 pupils on its roll.

Governance

Before 1974 Garswood fell under the administrative control of Ashton-in-Makerfield Urban District. In 1974, under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, the district was abolished, with the area split administratively. The changes resulted in the creation of the Seneley Green Parish, containing Garswood, Pewfall and Downall Green, which now fell 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 E ...

in the newly created

. The village is now part of the Billinge and Seneley Green ward of St Helens.

Sport

Garswood United F.C. were formed in 1967 and joined the

Mid-Cheshire League The Cheshire Association Football League is a football competition based in Cheshire, England, which until 2007 was known as the Mid-Cheshire Association Football League. From season 2017–18, the league operates four divisions: the Premier D ...

in 1988. They won Division Two in 1990 and Division One in 1996. Garswood Stags ARLFC was founded in 2013, the club are Coached by former St Helens RL and Great Britain international

Paul Loughlin Paul John Loughlin (born 28 July 1966) is an English former rugby league who played for his hometown team St. Helens, the Bradford Bulls, the Huddersfield Giants and the Swinton Lions. Loughlin was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, England. H ...

Transport

Garswood railway station Garswood railway station serves the village of Garswood in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. It is situated on the electrified Merseytravel Liverpool to Wigan City Line, northeast of Liverpool Lime Street. The station ...

provides direct rail links to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, St. Helens and

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 ...

, plus many other stations along the same line. Road links are provided by the village's proximity to the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at t ...

and the East Lancashire Road (A580). Garswood is close to

Haydock Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 11,416 Haydock's historic area covers the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook ward. Haydoc ...

Industrial / Business Estates, where companies such as

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

and Booker have warehousing facilities, creating employment for a large surrounding area. Companies including Arriva, Huyton Travel and Cumfy Bus operate bus services locally and there are links to other areas including St Helens, Rainford, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Billinge.

References

External links

{{Areas of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens