Ince Blundell is a village and

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 ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, the urban districts of Fo ...

in the ceremonial county of

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral ...

and historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

, England. It is situated to the north of

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

on the A565 road and to the east of the village of Hightown. There are two associated hamlets of

Lady Green Janet W. Hardy is an American writer and sex educator, and founder of Greenery Press. She has also been published as ''Catherine A. Liszt'' and ''Lady Green''. She is the author or co-author of eleven books, and frequently collaborates with Dossi ...

and

Carr Houses Carr Houses is a hamlet situated half a mile east of Ince Blundell, in Sefton, Merseyside, England. It is a traditional grouping of farm buildings built on medieval footings. Rigmaiden Farm and Cottage date back to the 17th century. Kiln Barn and ...

History

Ince Blundell is probably the oldest settlement within the Borough of Sefton. The name Ince comes from ''Hinne'' a Celtic word meaning "island in the marsh". This name bears evidence to Ince lying on a sandy ridge in the Alt valley, a place that in the past had been marshland. In the 14th century, John Blundell, whose family were the predominant landowners in the area, added his surname to Ince. This was to distinguish it from the Ince in

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 coun ...

and

Ince-in-Makerfield Ince-in-Makerfield or Ince is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. The population of the Ince ward at the 2011 census was 13,486, but a southern part of Ince was also listed under the Abram ward (north ...

near Wigan. Built from 1720, Ince Blundell Hall was the home of the Blundells of Ince, who became the Weld-Blundells, until 1959. The house is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, and is now a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

run by the Canonesses of Saint Augustine.

Governance

From 1997 until 2010 the village and civil parish of Ince Blundell was part of the

Knowsley North and Sefton East Knowsley North and Sefton East was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. History A primar ...

constituency represented by

George Howarth Sir George Edward Howarth (born 29 June 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley. He also served the seat's predecessors since being elected in a by-election in 1986, firstly as the ...

, a Labour Party MP. As a result of boundary revisions for the 2010 general election the Knowsley North and Sefton East constituency was abolished with Sefton East, including Ince Blundell, being merged with the northern parts of the former Crosby constituency, which was also abolished, to form the new Sefton Central constituency which is represented by the Labour Party MP

Bill Esterson William Roffen Esterson (born 27 October 1966) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefton Central since 2010. He has been Shadow Minister for International Trade since 2016. He was Shadow Mi ...

. For elections to

Sefton Council Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the county of Merseyside, north-western England. The council was under no overall control from the 1980s until 2012 when the Labour Party took control. It is a cons ...

, the village and civil parish of Ince Blundell is part of Ravenmeols electoral ward which has three councillors. Two are members of the Formby Residents Action Group (FRAG), Bob McCann (who also sits on the Ince Blundell Parish Council), Maria Bennett, and the third councillor, Nina Killen, represents the Labour party.

Description

There is a village hall with a cafe attached, the Sunshine Cafe, open Monday to Friday. On the site of the old Weld Blundell Public house there is now a Euro garage with a Spar, Greggs and Starbucks attached. There is also a pub, the Pheasant, a short distance away at the other end of Orrell Hill Lane at its junction with Moss Lane. In 2006 and 2007, Ince Blundell entered the North West in Bloom competition, part of the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom campaign.

Ince Blundell Hall statues

Ince Blundell Hall was noted for the collection of

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

statues from

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

and

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

, as well as 17th and 18th-century Italian sculptures by artists such as Carlo Albacini and

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (c. 1716 – December 9, 1799) was an Italian sculptor who worked in Rome, where he trained in the studio of the acclimatized Frenchman, Pierre-Étienne Monnot, and then in the workshop of Carlo Antonio Napolioni, a restore ...

. They were collected by Henry Blundell and housed first in a purpose-built Garden Temple (1792), and later in a scaled-down version of the Pantheon (1802-1804). The ancient sculptures, including some from Hadrian's Villa at

Tivoli Tivoli may refer to: * Tivoli, Lazio, a town in Lazio, Italy, known for historic sites; the inspiration for other places named Tivoli Buildings * Tivoli (Baltimore, Maryland), a mansion built about 1855 * Tivoli Building (Cheyenne, Wyoming), a ...

, are now located in the World Museum,

. Henry Blundell also collected paintings and furniture, some of which is also at the Walker Art Gallery. Henry's estranged son Charles Robert Blundell (1761-1837) made a large collection of drawings many of which are also at the Walker.

References

External links

Ince Blundell Village website

Ince Blundell Hall

MultiMap aerial photograph
{{Authority control Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Civil parishes in Merseyside