Thelwall
| Thelwall | |
|---|---|
 Thelwall
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| Thelwall shown within Cheshire | |
| OS grid reference | SJ647874 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Warrington |
| Postcode district | WA4 |
| Dialling code | 01925 |
| Police | Cheshire |
| Fire | Cheshire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Thelwall is a suburban village in Warrington, Cheshire, England, located close to the Lymm junction of the M6. It is a popular misconception that Thelwall is the 'smallest city in England' (although Thelwall is not in fact a city, nor if it were would it be the smallest in England as the City of London, which truly is the smallest city in England, is marginally smaller).
A fortified village was established at Thelwall in 923 during the reign of King Edward the Elder, which is mentioned in two very early sources, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
"Kynge Edwarde made a cite at Thelewall in [th]e northe parte of [th]e Marches, nye the water of Mersee, where he put certeyne knyghtes."--Higden's Polychronicon
"A.D. 923. This year went King Edward with an army, late in the harvest, to Thelwall; and ordered the borough to be repaired, and inhabited, and manned. And he ordered another army also from the population of Mercia, the while he sat there to go to Manchester in Northumbria, to repair and to man it. This year died Archbishop Plegmund; and King Reynold won York."--Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
An inscription on the Pickering Arms records that "In the year 920 King Edward the Elder founded a city here and called it Thelwall". According to Sir Peter Leycester it was "so called from the stakes and stumps, cut from the trees, wherewith it was environed about as a wall". It is more likely that the original meaning of Thelwall was "pool by a plank bridge" (the earliest record of the name is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 923 as "Thelwæl", in 1241 it occurs as "Thelewell").
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Wikipedia