Knowsley (), commonly known as Knowsley Village, is a large village and

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 ...

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 ...

located on the north-east outskirts of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, within the much larger

Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is a metropolitan borough in Merseyside, North West England. It covers several towns and villages, including Kirkby, Prescot, Huyton, Whiston, Halewood, Cronton and Stockbridge Village; Kirkby, Huyton, a ...

It gave its name to the wider borough when it was formed in 1974. Within the boundaries of the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, at the 2001 Census it had a population of 11,343. The parish includes

Knowsley Hall Knowsley Hall is a stately home near Liverpool in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. It is the ancestral home of the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. The hall is surrounded by of parkland, which contains the Knowsley S ...

and

Knowsley Safari Park Knowsley Safari is a safari park and tourist attraction in Prescot, Merseyside, England. It is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). It contributes to ...

. There are three main built-up areas in the parish: the village of Knowsley itself, the southern end of the nearby Knowsley Business Park to the north, and in the south-west a suburban area including

Stockbridge Village Stockbridge Village is an area of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 6,018. Up until 1983, the area was formerly known as Cantril Farm, and was the subject of an article in a special report by ...

and the northern fringe of

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, Liverpool Built-up Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Merseyside, Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Netherley, Liverpool, ...

. To the west of Knowsley is the area of Woolfall Heath.

General information

Knowsley Village consists primarily of two residential areas: a council estate, and a private estate. There is a

parade of shops A shopping parade, also known as a parade of shops, suburban parade, neighbourhood parade, or just a simply a parade is a group of between five and 40 shops in one or more continuous rows, mostly being retail and serving a local customer base; in ...

on Sugar Lane that serve the local community. The village has one public house, The Derby Arms. A second pub, the Pipe and Gannex, was demolished in 2018. There are two public parks, The Rec, off Knowsley Lane, and Mill Lane, as well a woodland in the centre of the village, Syders Grove. Millbrook Manor, a prominent building on the village green, served as the Village school until the 1980s, when it was redeveloped as a restaurant. As of 2019, it was being converted into residential accommodation. The village has two churches, the Anglican St Mary's and the Roman Catholic St John Fisher. St Mary's is a grade II listed building built by the Stanley family in the late 19th century.

History

The name derives from the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

''Cēnwulfes lēah'', meaning "Cēnwulf's wood/clearing". The village of Knowsley is hundreds of years older than the neighbouring city of

. Its name occurs 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 ''Chenulveslei'' in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

West Derby West Derby ( ) is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, in the east of the city. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,382. History West Derby Mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'', West Derby achieved significance far earlier tha ...

South Lancashire South Lancashire is a geographical county area, used to indicate the southern part of the historic county of Lancashire, today without any administrative purpose. The county region has no exact boundaries but generally includes areas that form t ...

, and has been recorded as ''Knuvesle'' (1199); ''Knouselegh'' (1258); ''Knouleslee'' (1261); ''Knusele'' (1262); and ''Knouslegh'' (1346). There are a few notable entries in Knowsley's history: *

King Henry VII Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry ...

visited in 1495. *

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

is said to have performed in a play held in Knowsley in 1589. *

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

is responsible for creating some of Knowsley's landscaped gardens in the 1770s. *

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

wrote "

The Owl and the Pussycat "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" is a nonsense verse, nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine ''Our Young Folks'' and again the following year in Lear's own book ''Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets ...

" while staying at

. From 1895 the area was part of

Whiston Rural District Whiston Rural District was a rural district of the administrative county of Lancashire, England. It was created in 1895 by renaming the Prescot Rural District when the parish of Prescot was removed from that rural district and created a separate ...

. On 1 April 1974 the village became part of the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in the nascent administrative county of Merseyside.

References

External links

Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 34
{{Authority control Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley Civil parishes in Merseyside

General information

History

See also

References

External links