Grappenhall is a suburb of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The populati ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

of Grappenhall and Thelwall, which had a population of 9,377 at the 2001 census.

History

Grappenhall is mentioned 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 manusc ...

of 1086 with the name ''Gropenhale'' and with a valuation of five

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

Sandstone carving of 'Cheshire Cat', St Wilfrid's Church, Grappenhall

St Wilfrid's Church has a carving of a cat on the west face of the tower. This may have been

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's inspiration for the grinning

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Ch ...

in ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

''. The church itself was first constructed in 1120, though was rebuilt 400 years later. The church was also, at a time, in the possession of the Boidelle (Boydell) family. Along with the church, the centre of the village contains two pubs, the Parr Arms and the Ram's Head, and Grappenhall Hall Residential School (no longer a residential school) and St Wilfrid's Primary School. Bradshaw Community Primary School is located north of the village centre.

Leisure

Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden is near the village. Grappenhall is home to the 25th Warrington East (St Wilfred's) Scout Troop.

Sport

There is a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

, which is the home of Grappenhall Cricket Club. Australian cricketer Steve Smith was signed for the club for five weeks in 2007, when he was 17.

Library

The Grappenhall Community library is a community-run library in the village. It was opened by the local authority in 1959 before being handed over to the Friends of Grappenhall Library after closure on 2 April 2011 due to local authority cuts. The library is run by the Friends of the Grappenhall library who pay £10 a year to help with its upkeep.

In popular culture

Parts of the '' Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes'' were filmed in the centre of Grappenhall. The village name appears in the title of the song "Grappenhall Rag", by the

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south ...

singer-songwriter Bryn Haworth.

References

External links

Images of the church and its cat.Grappenhall Youth & Community AssociationThe Flickr Grappenhall Photography GroupWDCC, Warrington District Camera Club, which is based in Grappenhall
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Warrington