The Bushell Hospital, Goosnargh - geograph

Goosnargh ( ) 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 authorit ...

in the City of Preston district 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 Lancash ...

, England. The village lies between Broughton and

Longridge Longridge is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is situated north-east of the city of Preston, at the western end of Longridge Fell, a long ridge above the River Ribble. Its nearest neigh ...

, and mostly lies in the

of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in the civil parish of Goosnargh. The parish of Goosnargh had a population of 1,204 recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 1,316 at the 2011 Census. The village population in 2011 was 1,072.

Toponymy

The name, meaning "Gosan's or Gusan's hill pasture", derives from Gosan or Gusan (an

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

personal name) and ''erg'' ( Norse for "hill pasture"). The name appeared 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 manus ...

as ''Gusansarghe'' but by 1212 had changed to ''Gosenargh'', closer to today's pronunciation. However, one reference suggested ''Gusansarghe'' was from Old Norse ''gudhsins hörgi'' (related to ''

hörgr A hörgr (Old Norse, plural ''hörgar'') or hearg (Old English) was a type of altar or cult site, possibly consisting of a heap of stones, used in Norse religion, as opposed to a roofed hall used as a ''hof'' (temple). The Old Norse term is attes ...

''), meaning "at the idol's (god's) temple."

Goosnargh village

The Anglican parish church of St Mary the Virgin is situated on Church Lane. Trinity

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

Church, originally dating from the early 1880s, is situated on Whittingham Lane. Goosnargh has two public houses, ''The Grapes'' located on Church Lane and ''The Stags Head'' on Whittingham Lane. The ''Bushells Arms'', also located on Church Lane, closed in 2010 and is now a private residence. There is also a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

, hairdresser, pharmacy, village hall, florists and a fish and chip shop in the village. There used to be a gift shop and an estate agent in the village but these have closed down. The village is also the location of the Whittingham and Goosnargh Social Club. The village holds an annual festival on the first Saturday after the Spring Bank Holiday Monday during which there is a procession through the village. The procession includes decorated floats, fancy dress, maypole dancing and marching bands. The village gave its name to the Goosnargh Cake, a type of

caraway Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Etymology The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...

seed

shortcake Shortcake generally refers to a dessert with a crumbly scone like texture. There is multiple variations of shortcake most of which are usually served with fruit and cream, one of the most popular being strawberry shortcake which is typically s ...

biscuit. Goosnargh Cornfed Chicken and Duck is championed by chefs including Gordon Ramsay. The oldest house in Goosnargh is Stone Cottage on Goosnargh Lane. It is now 339 years old. The beams in the 900-year-old local church have traces of sea salt in them. People believe they were from old Viking long boats. The village itself has a population of 1,540, much of which is included in the

of Whittingham. There are two bus services to Goosnargh, numbered 45 and 46, with an hourly service on each route. The 45 connects the village with Preston city centre, Fulwood, Longridge, and Blackburn, while the 46 goes to Preston, Cottam, and Longridge. There are also a number of school buses which run through the village (584, 585 and 678). Goosnargh village has a primary school: Goosnargh Oliversons C of E. Broughton High School, Longridge High School and St Cecilia's RC High School are the three high schools whose catchment areas include Goosnargh. The footballers

Lily Parr Lilian Parr (26 April 1905 – 24 May 1978) was an English professional women's association football player who played as a winger. She is best known for playing for the Dick, Kerr's Ladies team, which was founded in 1917 and based in Preston, ...

and

Peter Corr Peter Joseph Corr (23 June 1923 – 1 June 2001) was an Irish footballer. Corr played as an outside-right for, among others, Everton and Ireland. In 1949 he was a member of the Ireland team that defeated England 2–0 at Goodison Park, becomin ...

both died in Goosnargh. Bushell House, formerly known as Bushell's Hospital, on Mill Lane, is a retirement home and a

Grade II 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 Ir ...

dating from 1722.

Goosnargh parish

Goosnargh parish includes the small villages of Inglewhite and

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

, and Beacon Fell Country Park. The northernmost part of the parish, including Whitechapel and Beacon Fell, lies within the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

. The

River Brock The River Brock is a river running through the county of Lancashire in England. Commencing its journey on Fair Snape Fell, the infant River Brock runs beneath the Bleasdale Circle before continuing via Claughton and Bilsborrow to St Michae ...

forms part of the parish boundary on the northwest and north sides. The parish contains the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church of St Francis, Hill Chapel, and an adjoining Catholic primary school of the same name. The sixteenth-century Catholic

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

George Beesley was born at the site. Waddecar Scout Activity Centre (formerly Waddecar Scout Camp), on Snape Rake Lane on the southern bank of the

, was established in the mid-20th century. Only one side of one road in Goosnargh village, including the parish church, lies within Goosnargh parish; almost all of the village lies within adjacent Whittingham parish. This may explain why the village is sometimes referred to as "Goosnargh and Whittingham", as if there were two villages. Some road signs on entering the village display "Goosnargh and Whittingham". The website of the local "Goosnargh & Whittingham Whitsuntide Festival" refers to "the twin villages of Goosnargh and Whittingham". An article in a local newspaper also refers to "the villages of Whittingham and Goosnargh". However, no modern maps show a village marked "Whittingham" and the website of Whittingham Parish Council refers only to the village of Goosnargh. The parish was part of

Preston Rural District Preston was a rural district in Lancashire, England from 1894 to 1974. It surrounded Preston on the north, west and east sides. The district was created under the Local Government Act 1894. It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government A ...

throughout its existence from 1894 to 1974. In 1974 the parish became part of the

Borough of Preston The City of Preston () is a city and non-metropolitan district in Lancashire, England. On the north bank of the River Ribble, it was granted city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. The ...

, which became a city in 2002.

Local businesses

Two miles out of Goosnargh village is Ye Horn's Inn, noted for its roast duck and incorporating the Goosnargh Brewing Company. The brewery produces a number of beers including Goosnargh Gold, Goosnargh Truckle and Real Goosnargh Bitter (RGB). Five of the 10

Lancashire cheese Lancashire is an English cow's-milk cheese from the county of Lancashire. There are three distinct varieties of Lancashire cheese. Young ''Creamy Lancashire'' and mature ''Tasty Lancashire'' are produced by a traditional method, whereas ''Crumbly ...

dairies listed on the British Cheese Board's website in 2009 are located in Goosnargh parish: Butler's, Greenfields, Mrs Kirkham's, Shorrocks and Carron Lodge. In July 2015 an outbreak of bird flu was officially confirmed at Field Foot Farm on Eaves Green Lane in the parish and a exclusion zone was established, within which movement of poultry, birds and mammals was forbidden without licence. The strain of flu was identified as H7N7, and there was little risk to public health. 170,000 birds were expected to be culled. The parish is the home of Goosnargh Gin which is inspired by the nearby Bowland Fells.

Fallout bunker

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the operations bunker of RAF Barton Hall was located at a site on Langley Lane on the border of the parishes of Goosnargh and Whittingham. After the war the

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 Decembe ...

21 Group Headquarters and the Western Sector Control of the

United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was a British civilian organisation operating to provide UK military and civilian authorities with data on nuclear explosions and forecasts of fallout across the country in the event ...

took over the bunker. In the bunker was the standby national control of the famous "

four-minute warning The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile ...

" air-raid warning system for the UK. The ROC and UKWMO were disbanded between 1991 and 1995 and the nuclear bunker was closed.Subterranea Britannica: Royal Observer Corps: Preston
accessed 6 November 2007 The premises are now used as a veterinary practice.

In popular culture

The name "Goosnargh" appears in the works of

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

. In ''

So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' is the fourth book of the '' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' "trilogy of six books" written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just befo ...

'', it is a Betelgeusian word used by

Ford Prefect The Ford Prefect is a line of British cars which was produced by Ford UK between 1938 and 1961 as an upmarket version of the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia small family cars. It was introduced in October 1938 and remained in production until 19 ...

"when he knew he should say something but didn't know what it should be." Alternatively, in '' The Meaning of Liff'', his comic dictionary based on

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

place names Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

, it is defined as "Something left over from preparing or eating a meal, which you store in the fridge despite the fact that you know full well you will never ever use it."

References

External links

Whittingham HospitalGoosnargh & Whittingham Whitsuntide FestivalGoosnargh Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Civil parishes in Lancashire Geography of the City of Preston