Townships: Thingwall

THINGWALL

Tingwell, 1177; Thingwell, 1228; Tingewall, 1297.

This township, with an area of only 175 acres, appears originally to have formed part of the manor of West Derby; but although in recent times it has been described as extra-parochial, it belonged ecclesiastically to Childwall and paid tithes as part of it. For parochial purposes it was at one time included in the township of Much Woolton, but has since 1877 been attached to Huyton-with-Roby. (fn. 1) There was no separate return of the population in 1901. It consists of the estate known as Thingwall Hall, standing on a hill, rising to an elevation of 166 ft. above mean sea-level, in the centre of the township, with the old manor house, now a farm house, and a few other dwellings. The London and NorthWestern Company's railway from Liverpool to Manchester crosses it. The geological formation consists of the upper mottled sandstone of the new red sandstone or trias.

Among the field-names on the tithe map of 1849 are White meadow, Hargreaves meadow, Legons croft, Starch field, Copper flat, and Spake croft.

MANOR

THINGWALL first appears upon record in 1177, when it was tallaged half a mark with the other members of the royal demesne of West Derby. (fn. 2) King John gave it to Richard son of Thurstan in exchange for his thegnage estate of Smithdown, (fn. 3) from which time the tenure of this hamlet, assessed as one plough-land, was described as thegnage. One moiety, however, had been given to the ancestor of Henry de Walton. In 1212 Richard son of Thurstan apparently held one oxgang in demesne; of him Henry de Walton held four oxgangs, Alan held two oxgangs for 40d. rent, and William the remaining oxgang for 20d. The tenant of the Walton moiety was Hugh de Thingwall. (fn. 4)

The descent of the superior lordship from Richard son of Thurstan to the family bearing the local name has not been traced. The Walton moiety descended with the other estates of the family until 1489, when it passed out of sight. (fn. 5)

Hugh de Thingwall and his descendants became the chief personages in the manor. (fn. 6) Richard, the son of Hugh, about 1250 held three oxgangs here, another in Walton, and other land in Knowsley; he gave his estates to Roger his son, who married Alice daughter of Adam de Aigburth. (fn. 7) In 1298 William the son of Roger held de antiquo conquestu eight oxgangs of land—i.e., the whole of the manor— rendering one mark a year. (fn. 8) He held the moiety of the vill in 1324 for 6s. 8d. a year; (fn. 9) and his son Roger in 1346 held three oxgangs for the twentieth part of a knight's fee and 5s. rent. (fn. 10) Thomas Anderton of Ince in Makerfield died in 1529 seised of three oxgangs in Thingwall and Walton, held of the king in chief as the twentieth of a knight's fee. (fn. 11)

The two oxgangs held by Alan in 1212 do not appear again.

The single oxgang then held by William was in 1346 held by William son of John de Thingwall; (fn. 12) a John son of John de Thingwall was admitted to land in West Derby in 1323. (fn. 13) Later this portion was acquired by the Mossocks of Bickerstaffe, descending with their estates to the end of the seventeenth century. (fn. 14)

William Boulton held a messuage and lands here at his death, 6 September, 1632. (fn. 15) In 1725 there was a suit between John Tutt and John Mercer as to the latter's lands in Thingwall and West Derby. Thomas Crowther, a Liverpool merchant, was living at the hall, then called Summerhill, in 1824. Twenty-one years later Thingwall was purchased from the executors of Thomas Case by Samuel Thompson, descending to his son and grandson, Samuel Henry Thompson and Henry Yates Thompson. (fn. 16) At the beginning of 1899 Miss Annie Thompson sold it to Sir David Radcliffe, who in 1903 sold it to a land company. (fn. 17) The mansion house with ten acres of land became the property of a Belgian religious order, the Brothers of Charity, and is used as a poor-law school, known as St. Edward's Home.