Threapwood

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Threapwood
Flintshire, Cheshire
Threapwood Windmill.jpg
Derelict windmill on the Cheshire side
Location
Grid reference: SJ4408045101
Location: 53°0’0"N, 2°49’60"W
Data
Post town: Malpas
Postcode: SY14
Dialling code: 01948
Local Government
Council: Cheshire West & Chester
Parliamentary
constituency:
Eddisbury

Threapwood is a small village and parish on the border of Flintshire and Cheshire. Lower Threapwood lies in the former, with Upper Threapwood in the latter. It is close to the villages of Shocklach, Worthenbury and Malpas.

Etymology, history

Threapwood developed on an area of common land, historically a tract of woodland lying between Flintshire and Cheshire, which was traditionally reputed to have fallen outside of county, parish and township boundaries: it was therefore outside the jurisdiction of any Justice of the Peace and paid no land tax or parish rates. This status was reflected in its name, with threap being a common Old English place name element referring to disputed boundary areas.[1]

This vague administrative status was to lead to Threapwood gaining a reputation as a home to "abandoned characters of every description, and especially of women of loose or blemished morals".[2] It was also a refuge for military deserters.[3] Various attempts were made to bring Threapwood within the normal administrative structure; by the Militia Acts of 1792 it was decreed to be in Worthenbury - though for the purposes of the militia only - and the Mutiny Act 1797 placed it in the parish of Malpas.[4]

It remained extra-parochial until 1857.

Buildings

Churches

  • St John (Church of England) in the Flintshire part. Founded 1817 as a chapel to Malpas (formerly extra-parochial), becoming the parish church for Threapwood in 1968.
  • United Reformed Church (Independent/Congregational). Built 1850.

Other

  • War Memorial
  • A derelict brick tower windmill to the south-east of the village (in the Cheshire part)[5] still contains much of the internal mechanism, though in a ruinous state of repair.

Sources

  1. Winchester, W. Discovering Parish Boundaries, Shire, 2000, p.42
  2. GENUKI : Flintshire, Threapwood, St John
  3. See Pickering, D. Statutes at Large from the 26th to the 30th year of King George III, Cambridge: Charles Bathurst, 1766, p.329
  4. Cathrall, W. The History of North Wales: Comprising a Topographical Description of the Several Counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Merioneth, and Montgomery, v2, 1828, p.233
  5. Pevsner, Nikolaus and Hubbard, Edward (1971). The Buildings of England: Cheshire. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-300-09588-0

Outside links

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about Threapwood)