Pensby

Pensby and Thingwall
—  Village  —
Pensby and Thingwall  Pensby and Thingwall shown within Merseyside
Population	13,007 (2011 Census.Ward)
OS grid reference	SJ271829
– London	178 mi (286 km)[1] SE
Metropolitan borough	Wirral
Metropolitan county	Merseyside
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WIRRAL
Postcode district	CH61
Dialling code	0151
ISO 3166 code	GB-WRL
Police	Merseyside
Fire	Merseyside
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Wirral West
List of places UK England Merseyside

Coordinates: 53°20′17″N 3°05′42″W / 53.338°N 3.095°W

Pensby (local /ˈpɛnzbi/) is a large village on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, north east of Heswall. Historically part of Cheshire, it is in the Pensby and Thingwall Ward of the Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. At the 2011 Census, the population of the ward was 13,007.^[2]

History

The name Pensby comes from Old Norse, meaning a village or settlement at a hill called "Penn".^[3] The "by" suffix, included in neighbouring place names such as Frankby, Greasby, and Irby, is Viking in origin.

Pensby was originally a village in Woodchurch Parish, Wirral Hundred. The population was 22 in 1801, 48 in 1901 and 2,996 in 1951.^[4]

Lower Pensby was previously known as Newtown. This was due to the building of new houses around the turn of the twentieth century at the crossroads of Pensby Road and Gills Lane.^[5]

On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation in England and Wales resulted in most of Wirral, including Pensby, transfer from the county of Cheshire to Merseyside.

Government

The village is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. The village is part of the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. The current Member of Parliament is Margaret Greenwood, a Labour representative.

The area is also part of a local government ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, this being Pensby and Thingwall Ward. Pensby is represented on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by three councillors. These are Phillip Brightmore Louise Reecejones and Michael Sullivan, who are all Labour councillors.^[6] The most recent local elections took place on 22 May 2014.

Confirmed candidates for United Kingdom local elections, 2014[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Louise REECEJONES	1334	32.65
	Conservative	Denis Thomas KNOWLES	1172	28.68
	UKIP	Jan DAVISON	916	22.42
	Liberal Democrat	Damien William CUMMINS	390	9.54
	Green	Allen John BURTON	274	6.71

The electorate numbered 10,520, there was a turnout of 39% and the majority is 162. The result was declared at 12:06.^[8]

Community

Schools

Pensby High School

Pensby's primary schools are Ladymount RC Primary, and Pensby Primary School. The local secondary school is Pensby High School.

Churches

St. Michael and All Angels Church is a Church of England building on Gills Lane. The Emmanuel Holiness Church is an independent Evangelical ministry which is on Heswall Mount. The Holy Family Catholic Church is on Pensby Road.

Leisure

The Hope Centre on Fishers Lane

Pensby has two community centres, the Hope Centre, adjoining Ridgewood Park on Fishers Lane, and the Kylemore Drive Community Centre. There is also an adult day centre on Somerset Road. Pensby Library is on Pensby Road. The 3rd Heswall Scout group is also based in Pensby.^[9]

Public Houses

The Pensby was the single pub for the village, on Pensby Road, but after a £500,000 cannabis bust by police, has been boarded up and left empty since October 2013. There was speculation that it would become a Hungry Horse pub or a nursing home, but there is a campaign for the building to be listed as a community asset, meaning nothing can happen to the building without the majority of the community giving the go ahead. Community asset status was rejected by Wirral Council in September 2015.

Parks and Commons

Pensby Wood and Ridgewood Park are adjacent to Fishers Lane. Arrowe Park is approximately half a mile north of Pensby.

Sport

The famous Everton FC footballer Dixie Dean played for Pensby Institute in his early days, on the fields at the side of Gills Lane. He was sold to Tranmere Rovers for the fee of a new kit for the team.^[10][11]

Pensby recreation centre and bowling club is on Pensby Road.

Transport

Road

Pensby is on the B5138 Pensby Road, which connects to the A540 and the A551.^[12] Junction 3 of the M53 motorway is within two miles of the village.

Bus

Services operating in the Pensby area, as of January 2015:

Number	Route	Operator	Days of Operation
175	Heswall-Irby	Arriva North West	Monday-Saturday
471	Heswall-Liverpool via Irby	Arriva North West/Stagecoach	Monday-Sunday
472	Barnston/Heswall-Liverpool	Arriva North West/Stagecoach	Monday-Sunday

Rail

The nearest station is Heswall.

See also

• Listed buildings in Heswall

References

1. "Coordinate Distance Calculator". boulter.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
2. "Pensby and Thingwall ward 2011". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
3. Sulley, Philip (1889), The Wirral Hundred
4. Cheshire Towns & Parishes: Pensby, GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy, retrieved 9 July 2010
5. Dawson, Greg (1994), Arwe: The Story of Arrowe, Pensby and the Liverpool Slave Trade, Dawson Publishing, ISBN 0-9522598-1-8
6. "Your Councillors by Ward". Wirral Borough Council. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
7. Election Result for 22 May 2014, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, retrieved 7 January 2015
8. "Election Result for Pensby and Thingwall ward on 22 May 2014". Wirral Borough Council. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
9. "West Wirral Horn" (PDF). West Wirral Scouts. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
10. Everton History - Dixie Dean, bluekipper.com, archived from the original on 5 April 2008, retrieved 9 July 2010
11. Everton Past Player Profile: William Ralph Dean, toffeeweb.com, retrieved 9 July 2010
12. "B5138". Sabre. Retrieved 7 January 2015.

Bibliography

• Mortimer, William Williams (1847). The History of the Hundred of Wirral. London: Whittaker & Co. p.288.

External links

• Irby Thurstaston & Pensby Amenity Society