Grappenhall is a village 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 ...

Grappenhall and Thelwall Grappenhall and Thelwall is a civil parish within the Borough of Warrington and the ceremonial county of Cheshire in England. It has a population of 9,377. The civil parish was formed in largely its present state in 1936, when the then Thelwall ...

in the

Borough of Warrington (God giveth the increase) , image_skyline =Warrington from the Air - geograph.org.uk - 3153500.jpg , imagesize = 280px , image_caption = Aerial view of Warrington , image_flag = ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The parish had a population of 9,377 at the 2001 census, 9,687 at the 2011 census, and 9,651 at the 2021 census.

History

Grappenhall is first mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 with the name ''Gropenhale'' and with a valuation of five

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

Sandstone carving of 'Cheshire Cat', St Wilfrid's Church, Grappenhall

St Wilfrid's Church has a carving of a cat on the west face of the tower. This may have been

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's inspiration for the grinning

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Ch ...

in ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

''. The church itself was first constructed in 1120, though was rebuilt 400 years later. The church was also, at a time, in the possession of the Boidelle (Boydell) family. Along with the church, the centre of the village contains two pubs, the Parr Arms and the Ram's Head, and Grappenhall Hall Residential School (closed down) and St Wilfrid's Primary School. Bradshaw Community Primary School is located north of the village centre. On 1 April 1936 the parish of

Thelwall Thelwall is a suburban village in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, close to the Lymm junction of the M6 motorway. History A fortified village was established at Thelwall in 923, in the reign of King Edward the Elder, which is me ...

was abolished and merged with Grappenhall, on 1 April 1974 the merged parish was renamed "Grappenhall and Thelwall". In 1931 the parish of Grappenhall (prior to the merge) had a population of 2449.

Leisure

Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden is a historic walled garden in Grappenhall, Warrington, Cheshire, England. The garden was built by Thomas Parr around 1830 as both a pleasure garden for relaxing strolls and as a kitchen garden to produce fruit, ve ...

is near the village. Grappenhall is home to the 25th Warrington East (St Wilfred's) Scout Troop.

Sport

There is a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strikin ...

, which is the home of Grappenhall Cricket Club. Australian cricketer

Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...

was signed for the club for five weeks in 2007, when he was 17.

Library

The Grappenhall Community library is a community-run library in the village. It was opened by the local authority in 1959 before being handed over to the Friends of Grappenhall Library after closure on 2 April 2011 due to local authority cuts. The library is run by the Friends of the Grappenhall library who pay £10 a year to help with its upkeep.

In popular culture

Parts of the '' Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes'' were filmed in the centre of Grappenhall. The village name appears in the title of the song "Grappenhall Rag", by the

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

singer-songwriter

Bryn Haworth Bryn Haworth (born 29 July 1948) is a British Christian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pioneer of Jesus music in mainstream rock. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, UK, he has released some twenty-two albums and several singles since the 1970s a ...

References

External links

Images of the church and its cat.

Grappenhall Youth & Community Association

The Flickr Grappenhall Photography Group

WDCC, Warrington District Camera Club, which is based in Grappenhall

at boydellfamilyhistory.com {{Authority control Villages in Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Warrington