Kingsley is 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 authorit ...

and a village in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is approximately 5 miles south east of the town of

Frodsham Frodsham is a market town, civil parish, and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population was 8,982 in 2001, increasing to 9,077 at the 2011 Census. It is s ...

. The village is home to two primary schools – Kingsley St John's Church of England Primary School and Kingsley Community Primary School.

History

Kingsley is first listed 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 ...

of 1086 as ''Chingeslie'' in the Roelau Hundred. The village is listed as having been held from Earl

Hugh d'Avranches Hugh d'Avranches ( 1047 – 27 July 1101), nicknamed ''le Gros'' (the Large) or ''Lupus'' (the Wolf), was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. Early life and career Hugh d'Avra ...

by a Saxon named Dunning. It has land for two ploughs, and home to five serfs, one villein, and three bordars. It also mentioned one and a half fisheries, four hays for roe deer, and a hawk's eyrie. The earl brought the woodland of one league long and one league wide into his forest. The forest mentioned was the ancient forest of Mara and Mondrem which was greatly reduced in size subsequently and is now known as

Delamere Forest Delamere Forest is a large wood in the village of Delamere in Cheshire, England. The woodland, which is managed by Forestry England, covers an area of making it the largest area of woodland in the county. It contains a mixture of deciduous and ...

. In 1260, the village was listed as ''Kingisleg''. The name of the village ultimately derives from "king's lea" – the meadow of the king.Scholes, R. (2000). pages 96–97. The village was for a long time known for its independence, as shown in its early Quaker meeting house, as well as its siding with the Parliamentarians during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

Governance

Kingsley was a township in Frodsham ancient parish. It was made a separate civil parish in 1866, having been made a separate

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

in 1853. It was originally in Eddisbury Hundred, and after the reforms of the 19th century, became part of Runcorn Rural District. It was also in Runcorn Poor Law Union and Runcorn

Sanitary District Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures: *Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies *Rural sanitary dis ...

until 1974, and in the borough of

Vale Royal A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipa ...

from 1974 to 2009. An electoral ward in the same name exists. This stretches from

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...

in the north to

Norley Norley is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, north of Delamere Forest, near the village of Cuddington. The population at the 2011 census was 1,169. Its name is derived from “Norlegh”, which means “north clearing”. Histo ...

in the south. The total population of this ward taken at the 2011 Census was 4,222.

Religion

Until the 19th century, the local parish church was that of St Laurence, at Overton in nearby Frodsham. In 1851 the red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist was consecrated, having been built to a design of George Gilbert Scott, and in 1853 it became the village's parish church. The current

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 ...

chapel, Hurst Methodist Chapel, was built in 1871. Between 1864 and 1967 there was a second Methodist chapel, Brookside Methodist Chapel.

Demography

Population

* 1801: 661 * 1851: 1067 * 1901: 1066 * 1951: 1503 * 2001: 2026 * 2011: 1986

Notable residents

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), and 2002 Chicago Marath ...

Bob Carolgees Bob Carolgees (born Robert Frederick Johnson; 12 May 1948) is a British comedy entertainer who appeared on the Saturday morning TV series '' Tiswas'' and then later in its adult versions '' O.T.T.'' and ''Saturday Stayback''. He is best known fo ...

Emily Speed Emily Speed (born 1979, Chester) is an artist based in Liverpool. Her practice spans drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and performance. It explores the relationship between architecture and the human body. Speed has show ...

Luke Browning Luke Browning (born 31 January 2002) is a British racing driver, he is the current GB3 Championship Champion driving for Hitech Grand Prix. He was also the champion of the 2020 F4 British Championship with Fortec Motorsports. Career Junior ...

Transport

The nearest railway station is 3 miles away at Acton Bridge on the West Coast mainline for trains to Liverpool and Birmingham and links, via Runcorn and Crewe to intercity services. Delamere railway station is 3.1 miles away with services to Northwich, Manchester and Chester. Alternatively, there is Frodsham railway station which is 3.2 miles away for services to Manchester, Chester and North Wales. By 2018 there will be services once again to Liverpool from Frodsham.

Community

Kingsley is home to a number of community services including a community centre, The Kingsley Village Institute, Kingsley Cricket Club, Kingsley Youth Group (formerly KU17's), Scouts (Beavers, Cubs & Scouts) and Guide groups and The Kingsley Players, an amateur dramatic society. As well as a website there is a village Facebook group for advertising and discussing local events The village prints and distributes its own newsletter, ''The Kingsley News'', which is published every month (except August).

Kingsley Cricket Club

The Cricket Club has two senior teams playing in the Meller Braggins Cheshire Cricket League, a Sunday XI, and a midweek team (The Kingsley Knights) playing in the Chester and District Midweek Cricket League. The club has a junior division with U18, U15, U13, U11 and U9 squads playing fixtures throughout the summer.

History

Governance

Religion

Demography

Population

Notable residents

Transport

Community

Kingsley Cricket Club

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links