Wirswall is a village and

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 ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

and the ceremonial county of

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, located at SJ544441 near the

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

border, around 1½ miles north of Whitchurch.Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 807: Whitchurch (Shropshire) & Malpas (Cheshire) The historical township had an area of . The civil parish also includes the settlements of Bradeley Green, Wicksted and part of Willey Moor. According to the 2001 Census, the parish had a population of 76.Combining & At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish remained less than 100. Details are now included in the civil parish of Marbury cum Quoisley.

History

A large perforated stone axe was found in the village, suggesting occupation during the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Period.Latham FA (ed). ''Wrenbury and Marbury'' (The Local History Group; 1999) () The village appears 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 ...

as ''Wiresuelle'', an outlying estate of

Marbury Marbury may refer to: Places *Marbury, Cheshire, United Kingdom *Marbury, Alabama, United States *Marbury, Maryland, United States Other *Marbury (surname) *Justice Marbury (disambiguation) *Marbury Hall (disambiguation) Marbury Hall may refer to: ...

. Like much of the land in the Nantwich hundred it was then held by William Malbank, having been earlier held by Earl Harold. The Domesday Book describes it as being 'waste', suggesting that any settlement might have been destroyed during the suppression of the rebellion of 1069–70. In 1288, it formed part of the barony of Wich Malbank. In 1656, Wirswall (then spelled ''Wyrsal'') was held by the Hinton family. The population was formerly 103 (1801), 83 (1851), 138 (1901) and 169 (1951).

Geography and transport

The village is surrounded by low hills, which form the highest land in the immediate area. A trig point at 156 m is located to the south east of the village at SJ549438. Nearby villages include Marbury and Wrenbury. The

South Cheshire Way The South Cheshire Way is a long-distance footpath running east–west mainly through Cheshire, England, though parts lie in Shropshire and Staffordshire. The western section from Grindley Brook, near Whitchurch, runs through farmland; the e ...

( long-distance footpath) runs through the village, and

Bishop Bennet Way The Bishop Bennet Way is a bridleway in south west Cheshire, England. It is named after William Bennet (bishop), William Bennet (1745–1820), Bishop of Cork and Ross (1790–1794) and subsequently Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Bishop of Cloy ...

(

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

) terminates there. The Llangollen branch of the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales. The canal lies in ...

runs ¾ miles to its east.

Landmarks

Wicksted Hall is a brick and timbered building with a stone portal, dating from the late 19th century. Wirswall Hall has a grade-II-listed timber-framed barn dating from the 16th or 17th century. There are also two grade-II-listed farmhouses. Grange Farm has a two-storey, four-bay farmhouse with a projecting gabled bay. The building is dated 1636 and has a timber frame with brick infill. Wood Farm has a two-storey Gothic-style farmhouse in rendered brick which dates from the early 19th century. The slightly projecting central bay of the main building bears a shield and is flanked with two octagonal turrets capped with pinnacles.

Notable people

The Victorian children's book illustrator Randolph Caldecott lived in Wirswall between 1861 and 1867, while working at the Whitchurch branch of the Whitchurch & Ellesmere Bank, and many of his illustrations feature local landscapes.

References

External links