Thornton Hough
Encyclopedia
Thornton Hough is a village on the Wirral Peninsula
, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest
origins and historically a part of Cheshire
. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village
and was later acquired by William Lever. Thornton Hough is roughly ten miles from Liverpool
and ten miles from Chester
and part of the Clatterbridge Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral South
. At the 2001 Census
, Thornton Hough had 770 inhabitants of a total of 16,906 people living within the ward.
as Torintone, the name of the village was established when the daughter of local landowner Roger de Thorneton, married Richard de Hoghe during the reign of Edward II
.
By the beginning of the 19th century, Thornton Hough formed part of the Neston Estate owned by Baron Mostyn
of Mostyn, Flintshire
. The population was 165 in 1801, 164 in 1851, 547 in 1901 and 506 in 1951.
Joseph Hirst, a Yorkshire woollen millowner, bought farmland land in 1866 and began the development of a small model village, building a church, a school and 'Wilshaw Terrace'. The village was bought and expanded by William Lever who developed housing for family, estate workers and company staff in a similar way to Port Sunlight
, building another shop, the school, a social club and the Congregational church. Development continued in the early 20th century.
in the parish of Neston, part of the Wirral Hundred and became a civil parish in 1866. It was part of the Wirral Rural District
in Cheshire from 1894 until it was superseded in 1933 by the Wirral Urban District
. Further changes occurred on 1 April 1974, when local government reorganisation
resulted in most of Wirral, including Thornton Hough, being transferred from the county of Cheshire to the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
in Merseyside
.
and Raby are in an Area of Special Landscape Value, a protective designation to preserve the character and appearance of the area There are 22 listed buildings in the village which was made a conservation area in 1979.
Hirst employed Kirk and Sons of Huddersfield to design All Saints Church and its vicarage, a school and school master’s house and Wilshaw Terrace before 1870. All Saints, the parish church
, is a grade II listed building built in 1867, it has a spire
and tower displaying five clock faces. The north transept window, designed by H. Gustave Hiller
is a memorial to James Lever.
Lever's architects used a wide variety of building materials including red and buff sandstone, brick, timber framing, render and pebbledash with roofs made of clay tiles or thick stone slates which creates the impression that the village appears to be older than it is. Lever used several architects, including John Douglas
. The firm of Grayson & Ould
designed the Village Club and Post Office, Weald House, several houses in The Folds and rebuilt Thornton House in 1895 and designed its lodges and stables. Jonathon Simpson built the Lever School and his son, James Lomax-Simpson, rebuilt the Smithy, designed D’Arcy Cottages and extensions to Thornton House. He also designed Saint Georges United Reformed Church
, a reproduction Romanesque
style church in 1906. William and Segar Owen designed various houses including Thicketford.
Thornton Hall, once the home of wealthy shipping merchants, the Bamford Brothers of Liverpool, is believed to have been built in the mid 1800's. It was transformed into a hotel in 1954 and many of its original features remain intact including oak carvings and the ornate mother of pearl embossed ceiling in the Italian Room. Thornton Manor
, built in an Elizabethan
style dates from the 1840s. It is now a wedding venue and provides facilities for corporate functions. Thornton House, a grade II listed building built by Douglas & Fordham in 1893 is a two storey timber-framed house in a mock-Tudor style on a stone base. Thicketford built in 1892 is preserved in a largely unaltered condition. Hesketh Grange, a grade II listed building, was built in 1894 for Leverhulmes father.
with its cricket
pitch and pavilion, tennis court
s, and a children's play area.
The local primary school is Thornton Hough Primary School located on St George's Way. This school building was originally built to serve as a military building, but was turned over for school usage after the Second World War. The original playground has been reduced in size due to the building extensions of decking and garden areas.
The Parish Hall was the original village school until it closed in 1953, it has a Victorian
exterior, although its interior has been updated. The Village Hall is a large extension to the original wooden hall belonging to St George's Church and was built in the 1970s by Collins Construction. It is referred to as the New Village Hall to set it apart from the Parish Hall which is used for the fortnightly youth club. Since it opened, the hall has been used for a variety of local events and as a venue for parties. The hall is used by the badminton
club, play-school, Cubs, Scouts
, Rainbows
, Brownies
and Guides.
The village has a number of shops and a post office
next to which is the British Legion, known as "the Mens' Club" as women were barred except for on two days per year. The Village Stores struggled to compete with the bigger and cheaper supermarkets before its closure in 2007. It is now the Tower Tearooms, 'The Seven Stars', is a traditional pub established in the 1840s on what was once a turnpike
route between Birkenhead
and Neston. In 1905 the smithy
moved from its original site into a half timbered building and was extant in 2009.
Just outside the village is The Westwood Grange Country Club, a restaurant/nightclub facility on the border of Thornton Hough and Neston.
Festival was held between 1999 and 2006. Residents participating made scarecrows of varying designs and quality, which were judged at the end of a week-long open season which attracted visitors from local areas. The festival also included a fête
on the village green. The festival was not held between 2007 and 2010, but there are plans for a smaller scale revival in 2011.
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...
, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
origins and historically a part of Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village
Model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...
and was later acquired by William Lever. Thornton Hough is roughly ten miles from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and ten miles from Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
and part of the Clatterbridge Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 311,200, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of...
in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral South
Wirral South
Wirral South is a county constituency in Merseyside, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election, and was first contested in 1983.-History:...
. At the 2001 Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
, Thornton Hough had 770 inhabitants of a total of 16,906 people living within the ward.
History
Mentioned in the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as Torintone, the name of the village was established when the daughter of local landowner Roger de Thorneton, married Richard de Hoghe during the reign of Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
.
By the beginning of the 19th century, Thornton Hough formed part of the Neston Estate owned by Baron Mostyn
Baron Mostyn
Baron Mostyn, of Mostyn in the County of Flint, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1831 for Sir Edward Lloyd, 2nd Baronet, who had earlier represented Flint Boroughs and Beaumaris in the House of Commons. His son, the second Baron, sat as a Member of Parliament for...
of Mostyn, Flintshire
Mostyn
Mostyn is a small village in Flintshire, North Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Dee, and located near the town of Holywell.Mostyn once served as a port from which ferries used to sail to Dublin on the Liverpool-Dublin route...
. The population was 165 in 1801, 164 in 1851, 547 in 1901 and 506 in 1951.
Joseph Hirst, a Yorkshire woollen millowner, bought farmland land in 1866 and began the development of a small model village, building a church, a school and 'Wilshaw Terrace'. The village was bought and expanded by William Lever who developed housing for family, estate workers and company staff in a similar way to Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
, building another shop, the school, a social club and the Congregational church. Development continued in the early 20th century.
Governance
Thornton Hough was a townshipTownship (England)
In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...
in the parish of Neston, part of the Wirral Hundred and became a civil parish in 1866. It was part of the Wirral Rural District
Wirral Rural District
Wirral was a rural district in Cheshire, England from 1894 to 1933. It was created under the Local Government Act 1894 from the Wirral rural sanitary district.The parishes of Landican and Prenton became part of the county borough of Birkenhead in 1928....
in Cheshire from 1894 until it was superseded in 1933 by the Wirral Urban District
Wirral Urban District
Wirral was an urban district in Cheshire, England from 1933 to 1974. It was created from part of the disbanded Wirral Rural District, and covered an area in the south-west of the Wirral Peninsula...
. Further changes occurred on 1 April 1974, when local government reorganisation
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
resulted in most of Wirral, including Thornton Hough, being transferred from the county of Cheshire to the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 311,200, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of...
in Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
.
Landmarks
Thornton Hough and the villages of BrimstageBrimstage
Brimstage is a village located in the centremost part of the Wirral Peninsula, England, east of Heswall and west of Bebington. The village is located in the Clatterbridge Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral South.At the time of the 2001 Census,...
and Raby are in an Area of Special Landscape Value, a protective designation to preserve the character and appearance of the area There are 22 listed buildings in the village which was made a conservation area in 1979.
Hirst employed Kirk and Sons of Huddersfield to design All Saints Church and its vicarage, a school and school master’s house and Wilshaw Terrace before 1870. All Saints, the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, is a grade II listed building built in 1867, it has a spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
and tower displaying five clock faces. The north transept window, designed by H. Gustave Hiller
H. Gustave Hiller
Henry Gustave Hiller was an artist based in Liverpool, England. He studied at the Manchester School of Art and is mainly known as a designer of painted gesso reliefs and stained glass.-Stained glass:...
is a memorial to James Lever.
Lever's architects used a wide variety of building materials including red and buff sandstone, brick, timber framing, render and pebbledash with roofs made of clay tiles or thick stone slates which creates the impression that the village appears to be older than it is. Lever used several architects, including John Douglas
John Douglas (architect)
John Douglas was an English architect who designed about 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall. He was trained in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester, Cheshire...
. The firm of Grayson & Ould
Edward Ould
Edward Augustus Lyle Ould was an English architect.Ould was a son of the rector of Tattenhall, Cheshire. He became a pupil of the Chester architect John Douglas and in 1886 he joined in partnership with the Liverpool architect G. E. Grayson. His early work was influenced by Douglas,...
designed the Village Club and Post Office, Weald House, several houses in The Folds and rebuilt Thornton House in 1895 and designed its lodges and stables. Jonathon Simpson built the Lever School and his son, James Lomax-Simpson, rebuilt the Smithy, designed D’Arcy Cottages and extensions to Thornton House. He also designed Saint Georges United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
, a reproduction Romanesque
Romanesque
Romanesque may refer to:*Romanesque art, the art of Western Europe from approximately AD 1000 to the 13th century or later*Romanesque architecture, architecture of Europe which emerged in the late 10th century and lasted to the 13th century...
style church in 1906. William and Segar Owen designed various houses including Thicketford.
Thornton Hall, once the home of wealthy shipping merchants, the Bamford Brothers of Liverpool, is believed to have been built in the mid 1800's. It was transformed into a hotel in 1954 and many of its original features remain intact including oak carvings and the ornate mother of pearl embossed ceiling in the Italian Room. Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor is a large house in the village of Thornton Hough, Wirral, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building. The house was first built in the middle of the 19th century and has been altered and extended in a number of phases since...
, built in an Elizabethan
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
style dates from the 1840s. It is now a wedding venue and provides facilities for corporate functions. Thornton House, a grade II listed building built by Douglas & Fordham in 1893 is a two storey timber-framed house in a mock-Tudor style on a stone base. Thicketford built in 1892 is preserved in a largely unaltered condition. Hesketh Grange, a grade II listed building, was built in 1894 for Leverhulmes father.
Amenities
Thornton Hough's central feature is the village greenVillage green
A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...
with its cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
pitch and pavilion, tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
s, and a children's play area.
The local primary school is Thornton Hough Primary School located on St George's Way. This school building was originally built to serve as a military building, but was turned over for school usage after the Second World War. The original playground has been reduced in size due to the building extensions of decking and garden areas.
The Parish Hall was the original village school until it closed in 1953, it has a Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
exterior, although its interior has been updated. The Village Hall is a large extension to the original wooden hall belonging to St George's Church and was built in the 1970s by Collins Construction. It is referred to as the New Village Hall to set it apart from the Parish Hall which is used for the fortnightly youth club. Since it opened, the hall has been used for a variety of local events and as a venue for parties. The hall is used by the badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
club, play-school, Cubs, Scouts
The Scout Association
The Scout Association is the World Organization of the Scout Movement recognised Scouting association in the United Kingdom. Scouting began in 1907 through the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell. The Scout Association was formed under its previous name, The Boy Scout Association, in 1910 by the grant...
, Rainbows
Rainbow (Girl Guides)
A Rainbow Guide is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations who is between the ages of 5 and 7 . Exact age limits are slightly different in each organisation...
, Brownies
Brownies (Girl Guides)
A Brownie is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations for girls from their seventh birthday to their tenth birthday. Exact age limits are slightly different in each organisation.-History:...
and Guides.
The village has a number of shops and a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
next to which is the British Legion, known as "the Mens' Club" as women were barred except for on two days per year. The Village Stores struggled to compete with the bigger and cheaper supermarkets before its closure in 2007. It is now the Tower Tearooms, 'The Seven Stars', is a traditional pub established in the 1840s on what was once a turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
route between Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
and Neston. In 1905 the smithy
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
moved from its original site into a half timbered building and was extant in 2009.
Festival
The Thornton Hough ScarecrowScarecrow
A scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...
Festival was held between 1999 and 2006. Residents participating made scarecrows of varying designs and quality, which were judged at the end of a week-long open season which attracted visitors from local areas. The festival also included a fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
on the village green. The festival was not held between 2007 and 2010, but there are plans for a smaller scale revival in 2011.