Population 6,183 Metropolitan borough St Helens Country England Local time Friday 8:42 PM Civil parish Seneley Green | OS grid reference SJ556993 Region North West Sovereign state United Kingdom Metropolitan county Merseyside | |
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Weather 11°C, Wind SE at 11 km/h, 82% Humidity | ||
Garswood is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The village is near to neighbouring Ashton-in-Makerfield and within a civil parish called Seneley Green.
Contents
Map of Garswood, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, UK
History
Historically within Lancashire, Garswood is from Old English wudu "wood" with an uncertain first element. The name was recorded as Gratiswode (undated).
Garswood has seen, along with extensive farming, much coal mining activity in its past, due to strata running up to an adjacent fault causing much outcropping of coal seams. Mining has taken place using (comparatively) shallow shafts and many drifts. The last drift mine in the Garswood area, Quaker House Colliery, closed in 1992. Extensive opencast mining has taken place in more recent times and still continues in the area.
The village contains the Railway Hotel, the Stag Hotel and the Simms Road Inn public houses. It also has a Labour Club and a Conservative Club.
Education
In 1588 Seneley Green (as it was then known) became the site of Ashton-in-Makerfield Free Grammar School, the area's first free grammar school, founded by Robert Byrchall on land granted for the purpose by Sir Thomas Gerard. Whilst the original building has long since demolished, today the site is used as Garswood Public Library. Ashton-in-Makerfield Free Grammar School was attended by Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Garswood County Primary School is located in the centre of Garswood and has roughly 300 pupils.
Sport
Garswood United F.C., formed 1967, joined the Mid-Cheshire League in 1988. They won Division Two in 1990 and Division One in 1996. The club plays at Simms Lane End, Simms Lane.
Garswood is 4 miles (by road) from St Helens rugby league stadium and 5½ miles (by road) from Wigan rugby league and football stadium.
Garswood is also 2½ miles (by road) from Haydock Park Racecourse.
Former Wigan Athletic midfielder Michael Millett lived in Garswood.
Transport
Garswood railway station provides direct rail links to Liverpool, St. Helens and Wigan, plus many other stations along the same line.
Road links are provided by the village's proximity to the M6 motorway and the East Lancashire Road (A580). Garswood is close to Haydock's Industrial / Business Estates, where companies such as Sainsbury's and Booker have warehousing facilities, creating employment for a large surrounding area.