Claughton ( ) is a village and suburb of

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

, on the

Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...

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. It is situated approximately to the west of Birkenhead town centre, adjacent to

Birkenhead Park Birkenhead Park is a major public park located in the centre of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world. Th ...

. Administratively, Claughton is a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of the

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 321,238, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Be ...

. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the

County Borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

of Birkenhead, within the 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 ...

. At the 2001 census, the population of Claughton was 13,723. For the 2011 census the total population of Claughton Ward, which also included Noctorum, was 14,705.

History

The name is of

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

origin, deriving from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''Klakkr-tun'', meaning "hamlet on a hillock". Claughton Manor House was built in about 1850 by local benefactor Sir William Jackson, with its gardens designed by

Sir Joseph Paxton ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

. It occupied a site between Egerton Road and Manor Hill until it was pulled down in the 1930s. Recalling his childhood in Claughton in the 1860s, the artist Harry B. Neilson wrote: The Birkenhead Institute was founded in 1889 by a local philanthropist, George Atkin, who established the school as a commercial company with shareholders and directors. Originally situated in Whetstone Lane, Birkenhead, it was relocated in the 1970s to premises on Tollemache Road in Claughton. The school closed in 1994 and was subsequently demolished.

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

, the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

poet, attended the school at its original location. A residential road has been named after him on the Tollemache Road site.

Civic history

Previously a township split between the parishes of Bidston and Woodchurch of the

Wirral Hundred The Hundred of Wirral is the ancient administrative area for the Wirral Peninsula. Its name is believed to have originated from the ''Hundred of Wilaveston'', the historic name for Willaston, which was an important assembly point in the Wirral ...

, Claughton was a

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 ...

from 1866 until 1898 when it was added to Birkenhead civil parish and

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

. The population was recorded at 67 in 1801, 714 in 1851 and 733 in 1898. On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation in England and Wales resulted in most of the Wirral Peninsula, including Claughton, transfer from

to the nascent county of Merseyside.

Geography

Claughton is in the north-eastern part of the Wirral Peninsula, approximately south-south-east of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

, east-north-east of the

Dee Estuary The Dee Estuary ( cy, Aber Dyfrdwy) is a large estuary by means of which the River Dee flows into Liverpool Bay. The estuary starts near Shotton after a five-mile (8 km) 'canalised' section and the river soon swells to be several miles ...

Caldy Caldy is a small, affluent village on the Wirral Peninsula, England, south-east of West Kirby. It is part of the West Kirby & Thurstaston Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. At the ...

and west of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

at Woodside. Claughton is situated on the eastern side of

Bidston Hill Bidston Hill is of heathland and woodland containing historic buildings and ancient rock carvings, on the Wirral Peninsula, near the Birkenhead suburb of Bidston, in Merseyside, England. With a peak of , Bidston Hill is one of the highest poi ...

, with the shops and college on the A5027 road at an elevation of above sea level.

Governance

Claughton is within the parliamentary constituency of

. The current Member of Parliament is

Mick Whitley Michael Whitley (born 17 November 1951) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birkenhead since 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party. Early life and career Whitley was born in St Catherine's Hospital, ...

, a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

representative. He has been the MP since 2019. At

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

level, the area is incorporated into the Claughton

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of the

, in the

metropolitan county The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...

of Merseyside. It is represented on

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council, or simply Wirral Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in Merseyside and one of 36 in the metropolit ...

by three councillors. The most recent

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

took place on 6 May 2021.

Economy

The village has a large number of shops, as well as cafes, bakery, florist, post office, and local

pubs 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 ...

such as the 'Claughton Hotel', the 'Heather Brow' and 'Houlihan's Variety Club'.

Education

Claughton is the location of

Birkenhead Sixth Form College Birkenhead Sixth Form College specialises in A Level & BTEC education and is rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted. In February 2018, TES FE Awards named the College UK 'Sixth Form College of the Year'. The college prioritizes social mobility, ...

, which was established by the local education authority in 1988.

Transport

Claughton Village lies on the A5027 road, which continues on westbound to

Saughall Massie Saughall Massie () is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Moreton West & Saughall Massie Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wallasey. A small village primarily ...

and joins the A553 road towards Birkenhead.

Birkenhead Park railway station Birkenhead Park railway station is a station serving the town of Birkenhead, in Merseyside, England. It lies on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. History The name of the station comes from nearby Birkenhead Park, one of the UK's fi ...

is located approximately to the east of Claughton. This station is on the

Wirral Line The Wirral line is one of two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line. The Wirral line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with ...

of the

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...

network.

Notable people

The artist Harry B. Neilson grew up in Claughton, living in a house in Forest Road called Airliewood which his father had built in 1863. War artist

Edgar Downs Edgar Downs, ROI, (1876–1963) was a British painter, known for painting agricultural scenes. Downs was born on 12 October 1876 at Claughton, Birkenhead, the son of William Downs. He was educated at Birkenhead School and the Academy of Fine ...

was born in Claughton in 1876, as was

Cecil Arthur Lewis Cecil Arthur Lewis (29 March 1898 – 27 January 1997) was a British fighter ace who flew with No. 56 Squadron RAF in the First World War, and was credited with destroying eight enemy aircraft. He went on to be a founding executive of the Brit ...

, the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

fighter ace and BBC executive, in 1898.

Others

* Charles Alford, church minister, incumbent at Christ Church, Claughton * John Blakeney, priest, curate of Christ Church, Claughton *

Gruffydd Evans, Baron Evans of Claughton David Thomas Gruffydd Evans, Baron Evans of Claughton, DL (9 February 1928 – 22 March 1992) was a British solicitor and Liberal politician. As Lord Evans, held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside. He was created a life peer a ...

, politician, educated in Birkenhead and lived in Claughton * Cecil Holden, cricketer, died in Claughton *

Stephen Ladyman Stephen John Ladyman (born 6 November 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet from 1997 until 2010. Early life He attended the Birkenhead Institute Grammar School for Boys (became th ...

, Labour politician, educated in Claughton * Charles Reed, architect, died in Claughton * John Taylor, church minister, vicar of Christ Church, Claughton * William Taylor, church minister, curate in Claughton * Harry Verelst, cricketer, born in Claughton *

Frederick Smeeton Williams Frederick Smeeton Williams (1829 – 26 October 1886) was an English minister in the Congregational church, Congregational Church, best known for his books on the early History of rail transport in Great Britain, history of UK railways. Bio ...

, church minister, worked in Claughton * Arthur Willmer, cricketer, born in Claughton

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Birkenhead

History

Civic history

Geography

Governance

Economy

Education

Transport

Notable people

Others

See also

References

Bibliography

External links