Tarvin

Tarvin
Cheshire
Tarvin
Location
Grid reference:	SJ491669
Location:	53°11’42"N, 2°46’0"W
Data
Population:	2,728  (2011)
Post town:	Chester
Postcode:	CH3
Dialling code:	01829
Local Government
Council:	Cheshire West & Chester
Parliamentary constituency:	Eddisbury

Tarvin is a village in Cheshire, about six miles east of Chester, near the junction of the A51, towards Nantwich and Tarporley, and the A54, towards Northwich and on to Manchester, but mercifully bypassed each side by these two two main trunk roads.

The village had a recorded population of 2,693 at the 2001 census.

The parish of Tarvin encompasses Tarvin itself and neighbouring hamlets including Duddon, Clotton, Stapleford, Burton, Hoofield and Oscroft. Much of the surrounding land is Green Belt.

Name

The origin of the village's name is uncertain. Apart from Terve of the Domesday Book and the current name Tarvin, the village has also been referred to as Tervyn, a spelling found in records of an assault on a monk in 1326) and Terfyn, suggesting a Welsh origin (not uncommon in Cheshire).

In Thomas Pennant's account of a journey from Chester to London in 1811, it is suggested that 'Terfyn' comes from the Welsh language word for "boundary", suggesting this might refer to the boundary of Delamere Forest. Others have suggested that it was the boundary of the lands of the Kings of Gwynedd.

It has also been suggested that 'Tarvin' comes from the Latin terminus, by way of the Welsh terfyn, indicating that the river once known by that name, now the Gowy, could mark the eastern extent of the Roman prata legionis, the land annexed by the Romans (from the Cornovii) to support their fortress at Chester.

Churches

• Church of England: St Andrew's Church (Grade I listed)
• Methodist: Tarvin Methodist Church

Abiout the village

Tarvin has two public houses, The George & Dragon and the Red Lion. It has three restaurants or takeaways of local or international cuisine, a café and a good range of local shops, amongst them four hairdressers and a barbers shop.

There are tennis and bowling clubs and a King George V Playing Field, and a community centre and library.

Early history

The Roman road from Deva Victrix (Chester) to Condate (Northwich) passed Tarvin, about half a mile to the north. A Roman coin of Constantius Chlorus (AD 293–305) was found in the area and other finds in other nearby villages reinforce the evidence of the Romans presence in the area. West of Tarvin the Roman road crosses the River Gowy, which in earlier times, this river was called the Tarvin.

A Saxon cross dating to the 10th/11th century has been unearthed by archaeologists in Tarvin. The find, made in a Civil War trench, is very rare. The Saxon cross may have been broken up before the assault of Chester in 1645 by the Parliamentary garrison.

Tarvin appears as a substantial manor in the Domesday Book of 1086 (listed as Terve), the largest community in the Hundred of Rushton with 30 households. Tarvin Manor comprises some 2,000 acres of cultivable land (22 ploughlands) as well as 'woodland'. The Domesday Book records the Lord of Tarvin Manor in 1066 as the bishop of Chester, and the same in 1086 but adds the name William Malbank, who was named as Lord or Tenant-in-Chief across over 100 manors in Cheshire after the conquest. According to Ormerod "Tarvin is one of the few Cheshire manors which experienced no change in its proprietor at the Conquest, being the property of the Bishop of the diocese, who retained his former possessions after that event."

Around 1226, Alexander de Stavenby bishop of Lichfield founded the prebend of Tarvin which, at £26 13s 4d, was the highest endowment of Lichfield Cathedral. The prebend occurs at a similar date to the changes to the borders of Cheshire due to yielding some hundreds to Wales; furthermore Bishop Alexander de Stavenby was a diplomat acting for King Henry III both with France and spent time in Wales trying to renew truces. As the disputed Hundred of Dudestan (Duddeston) included manors only a few miles from Tarvin, such as Christleton, Waverton and Stapleford, the choice of Tarvin for the prebend (apart from it already being an episcopal manor) may have been carefully chosen to be on the boundary between England and the disputed parts of border with Llewelyn's territory. In these days Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd was reported to have a strong alliance with Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester.

Under Sir John Savage, Tarvin was elevated to a market town. Tarvin Grammar School was founded by Randall Pickering junr., a freeman of the Haberdasher's Company living in St Martin Pomary, London, whose father was born in Tarvin. Having given £40 in his lifetime for the building of a schoolhouse, his will of 1641 gave a further £20 for the finishing of it, the first schoolmaster to be nominated and chosen by his two executors, who were also his kinsmen. The will also provided an endowment of £200 for purchase of lands, the rents from which were to support the school: lands were purchased in Tattenhall. The number of children was limited to 20 (of whom 6 to be from the 'towne of Tarvin' and the rest 'in the other townes belonging to the parish of Tarvin'), and there was a house for the master. The ten feoffees for the management of the trust were to be inhabitants of the town. One of the masters (for 36 years) was John Thomasen, described as the finest penman in England, and responsible for translating many works from Greek for Queen Anne. The grammar school survived until final closure in 1939. Restored in 1997, the building is to the left approaching the entrance to St. Andrew's church, and is used as parish rooms. The endowment survives and individual grants from it are available through the Tarvin Educational Foundation "to assist the educational needs of students of secondary school age or older who live in the ancient parish of Tarvin."

Civil War

In the Civil War, Tarvin found itself at a strategic location close to Chester. The village changed hands several times, first occupied by Parliamentarians, then on 12 November 1643 a skirmish was fought here between the garrison and Royalists from Chester, and another in January 1644 there was another skirmish. In July of 1644 the Royalists occupied Tarvin and beat off a large Roundhead assault. In September the Roundheads recaptured the place and occupied it with a strong garrison within strong earthworks. The Parliamentary governor of Tarvin was sufficiently confident in the strength of his fortifications and the size of his garrison that he refused to surrender to the King's men even when it was known that King Charles I himself was in the area with an army. Tarvin remained in Parliamentarian hands until the end of the war.

The church shows signs of its part in the battles: there are cannonball and musketball holes in the wall of the church tower next to the west door. It has been said that prisoners were shot against this wall, which explains some of the bullet holes. The church was also used as a refuge by soldiers and the tower was probably used as a lookout post.

Later history

On the Monday the last day of April 1752 at about noon, the Great Fire of Tarvin broke out in the north-west part of the village. Fanned by strong winds, within a couple of hours the greater part of the place burnt down, leaving the timber-framed buildings of Church Cottages and Bull’s Cottage (opposite Tarvin Hall) standing at its extremities. The City of Chester, by way of a collection from house to house, collected £300 to aid the sufferers. Many of the buildings in Tarvin date from the rebuilding and remodelling in the following years, and little is known of the original village layout, though many of the buildings have their foundations directly cut into the sandstone and these foundations may well pre-date the fire.

In the 18th century two turnpike roads were built through Tarvin: the road from Lichfield by way of Nantwich and Tarporley and the road from Northwich. In the twentieth century these routes had become so busy as to require bypasses.

The station in 1961

From 1875 Tarvin was indirectly served by Barrow for Tarvin railway station more than two miles distant on the Cheshire Lines Committee route from Chester to Manchester. The line remains open but the station closed in June 1953, though it still stands albeit in poor condition and is now privately owned.

In the 1960s the village was expanded substantially and there was a major influx of the young families of white-collar workers from the major companies in the area.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Tarvin)

• Tarvin Village
• Tarvin Environment Group
• Tarvin Community Centre

References

• Hanshall, J.H. (1817), The history of the county palatine of Chester, Printed by John Fletcher and sold by Arthur K'all bookseller, p. 456