Saughall is a village and former

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 unitary authority of

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 local government changes, by virtue of an order under the Local Gover ...

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 tow ...

, England. Located between

Shotwick Shotwick is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Puddington, on the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village ...

and

Blacon Blacon is a council estate on the outskirts of Chester, England. It was once one of the largest council housing estates in Europe. Geography Blacon is next to the Welsh border, on a hill one mile north-west of and overlooking Chester. The vil ...

, it is approximately north west of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and from Sealand across the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

border. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 to form

Saughall and Shotwick Park Saughall is a village and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Located between Shotwick and Blacon, it is approximately north west of Chester and from Sealan ...

, with parts also incorporated into the parish of Puddington and the

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unpa ...

of Chester. At the 2001 census, there were 3,084 residents in the village reducing to 3,009 at the 2011 census. A total of 3,585 people living in the ward of Saughall, with 48.5% male and 51.5% female. This electoral ward was called Saughall and Mollington at the 2011 census. The total ward population at this census was 4,463.

Etymology

The name Saughall is

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

in origin, meaning "willow nook" or "corner where willows grow".

History

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 mentions the village as ''Salhale''. Most of the land is recorded as in the possession of a Norman baron, William Malbank (or Malbanc). The remainder was held by St Werburgh Abbey in Chester. Saughall was a

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 ...

until cut off from the sea by

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...

in 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 mile ...

. The river had flowed to the sea along the current border between Wales and England, until in the 18th century when it was diverted into its present channelized course to try to improve ship access from the sea to

. The village previously consisted of two townships in the

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 ...

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 ...

. Great Saughall had a population of 147 in 1801, 493 in 1851 and 703 in 1901. Little Saughall had a population of 48 in 1801, 69 in 1851 and 137 in 1901. The civil parish of Saughall was created in 1948 by uniting both settlements, with a combined population of 1,518 in 1951. Between 31 March 1890 and 1 February 1954,

Saughall railway station Saughall was a railway station on the former Chester & Connah's Quay Railway between Chester Northgate and Hawarden Bridge. It was from the village of Saughall, Cheshire. Although it was named for the village, it was actually in Flintshire, Wa ...

on the Chester & Connah's Quay Railway served the village. The station has been demolished and the trackbed is now a cycleway.

Community

The village had two local schools: The Ridings Community Infant School and Thomas Wedge Church of England Junior School. The latter, originally known as Great Saughall School, was built and endowed by Thomas Wedge of Sealand, Flintshire, at his own expense in 1852 as a gift to the people of Saughall and Sealand. In late 2006

Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. ...

agreed to embark on a process that would ultimately lead to the merger of the two schools. In March 2008 the plans were submitted and included building an entirely new united primary school on the school field behind the current Thomas Wedge building. This was completed in 2010; the old schools have been demolished and replaced with Saughall All Saints Primary School. Saughall Windmill is more commonly known as Gibbet Mill and is now a private residence. Some distance outside the village, its name likely dates from the 18th century. It was the location of the murder of a farm labourer by two fellow workers after a disagreement over earnings near the mill. After their trial and execution, their bodies were hung in chains, or "gibbeted" from a nearby

ash tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of subtropical species are evergr ...

, as a warning to other criminals.

References

External links

Saughall and Shotwick Park Parish Council website
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Cheshire West and Chester

Etymology

History

Community

See also

References

External links