Thingwall is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. The village is situated approximately to the south west of

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

and north east of

Heswall Heswall () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was historically part of Cheshire and became part of Merseyside in 1974. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 202 ...

. Historically part of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, the area is within the Pensby and Thingwall Ward 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 (), and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebingt ...

and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. At the 2001 census, Thingwall had 3,140 inhabitants. The 2011 census registered the total ward population at 13,007.

History

From the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

, meaning 'assembly field', the name indicates that it was once the site of a Germanic ''thing'' (or ''þing''). Similar place names in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

include Tynwald,

Dingwall Dingwall (, ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest castle north ...

, and Tingwall; see also Thingvellir in Iceland and Tingvoll in Norway. A place called "Tingvalla" can also be found in the swedish town

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

where it can be dated back to the viking age as a councel- and marketplace. The settlement was recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Tuigvelle'', and has been variously known as ''Fingwalle'' (1180); ''Thingale'' (circa 1250); ''Thynghwall'' (1426). Thingwall was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the parish of Woodchurch, in Wirral Hundred, in 1866 Thingwall became a separate

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Birkenhead St Mary and became part of Birkenhead county borough. The population was 52 in 1801, 96 in 1851, 156 in 1901 and 652 in 1931. Traditional buildings/walls in the area are constructed of locally-quarried yellow

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. Several small sandstone quarries once existed in the area including one at the top of the appropriately named Quarry Lane. Little evidence of these quarries now exists as the land has been redeveloped for housing or for the construction of a second above-ground fresh water

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

. Thingwall Mill was constructed in the eighteenth century on the site of a much older medieval mill. Damaged in a storm in 1897 and subsequently disused, the mill was demolished in 1900. However, remnants of the building, including the original millstone, can still be found on Mill Road. Thingwall Hall was built in 1849 for a Liverpool merchant and demolished in 1960. It was part of the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital from 1917, providing care for long-term patients. On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation in England and Wales resulted in most of Wirral, including Thingwall, being transferred from the county of

Geography

Thingwall lies on the western side of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, from the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

at Hoylake, from the Dee Estuary and about from the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river 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 h ...

at Rock Ferry. Thingwall sits at the western side of the wide and shallow glacial

U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of Glacial period, glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with s ...

, formed during the Quaternary Ice Age, between Thurstaston Hill and Storeton Ridge. The underlying bedrock is

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

of the Helsby Sandstone Formation and the Wilmslow Sandstone Formation, and Triassic siltstone of the Tarporley Siltstone Formation. This is overlain with boulder clay from the Quaternary Ice Age, similar to the nearby Dee Cliffs, and clay soil. The bedrock is not usually visible, as it is at the summit of Thurstaston Hill.

Governance

Thingwall is part of the

, in the

metropolitan county Metropolitan counties are a Subdivisions of England, subdivision of England which were originally used for Local government in England, local government. There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyn ...

of Merseyside. The village is part of the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. The current Member of Parliament is Margaret Greenwood, a

Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been describe ...

representative. At

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

level, the village is part of the Pensby and Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Thingwall is represented on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by three councillors. The most recent local elections took place on 6 May 2021.

Notable people

* Alan Gill and David Balfe, English musicians with the late 70s/early 80s bands Radio Blank, Dalek I Love You and The Teardrop Explodes, both raised in Thingwall. David Balfe went on to run his own record labels, to one of which he signed Blur, and later became the inspiration behind their 1995 number one song, "

Country House image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

". * Marty Willson-Piper, English guitarist and songwriter with Australian band The Church, was raised in Thingwall. * Septimus Francom, English athlete, born in Thingwall. * George Payne, English footballer, died in Thingwall.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Viking Wirral
{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Former civil parishes in Merseyside Thing (assembly)