Saughall is a village in the

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 ...

of Saughall and Shotwick Park, in the unitary authority area of

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 structural changes to l ...

and the ceremonial county 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 ...

, England. Located between Shotwick and Blacon, it is approximately north west of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

and from Sealand across the Welsh border. At the 2001 census, there were 3,084 residents in the village reducing to 3,009 at the 2011 census. A total of 3,585 people living in the ward of Saughall, with 48.5% male and 51.5% female. This electoral ward was called Saughall and Mollington at the 2011 census. The total ward population at this census was 4,463.

Etymology

The name Saughall is

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 ...

in origin, meaning "willow nook" or "corner where willows grow".

History

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 mentions the village as ''Salhale''. Most of the land is recorded as in the possession of a Norman baron, William Malbank (or Malbanc). The remainder was held by St Werburgh Abbey in Chester. Saughall was a fishing village until cut off from the sea by

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

in the Dee estuary. The river had flowed to the sea along the current border between Wales and England, until in the 18th century when it was diverted into its present channelized course to try to improve ship access from the sea to

. The village previously consisted of two townships in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Shotwick, Wirral Hundred. Great Saughall had a population of 147 in 1801, 493 in 1851 and 703 in 1901. Little Saughall had a population of 48 in 1801, 69 in 1851 and 137 in 1901. The civil parish of Saughall was created on 1 April 1948 by uniting both settlements, with a combined population of 1,518 in 1951. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 to form Saughall and Shotwick Park, with parts also incorporated into the parish of Puddington and the

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...

of Chester. Between 31 March 1890 and 1 February 1954, Saughall railway station on the Chester & Connah's Quay Railway served the village. The station has been demolished and the trackbed is now a cycleway.

Community

The village had two local schools: The Ridings Community Infant School and Thomas Wedge Church of England Junior School. The latter, originally known as Great Saughall School, was built and endowed by Thomas Wedge of Sealand, Flintshire, at his own expense in 1852 as a gift to the people of Saughall and Sealand. In late 2006 Cheshire County Council agreed to embark on a process that would ultimately lead to the merger of the two schools. In March 2008 the plans were submitted and included building an entirely new united primary school on the school field behind the current Thomas Wedge building. This was completed in 2010; the old schools have been demolished and replaced with Saughall All Saints Primary School. Saughall Windmill is more commonly known as Gibbet Mill and is now a private residence. Some distance outside the village, its name likely dates from the 18th century. It was the location of the murder of a farm labourer by two fellow workers after a disagreement over earnings near the mill. After their trial and execution, their bodies were hung in chains, or "gibbeted" from a nearby ash tree, as a warning to other criminals.

References

External links

Saughall and Shotwick Park Parish Council website
{{authority control Villages in Cheshire Former civil parishes in Cheshire Cheshire West and Chester

Etymology

History

Community

See also

References

External links