A village in the middle of the Wirral has remained relatively overlooked by tourists despite its picturesque houses and beautiful views.
Thornton Hough has been around for centuries- the area was even named in the 1086 Doomsday book - but it wasn't until William Lever, Viscount Leverhulme, decided to transform the town into a model village in the 19th century that it took the shape it has today. The Leverhulme estate still manages much of the surrounding land and owns many of the houses in the village.
But despite being a town of outstanding beauty and stillness and what you would expect would be an ideal spot for a weekend getaway, people who live there say that tourism to the town just isn't a thing. They told the ECHO that life inside the village is as peaceful as it is in photographs.
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Velma and William Birch, both retired, moved to Thornton Hough 11 years ago from Pensby, Wirral. Velma said: "It's very quiet. There's no shops or anything.
"It's too quiet for us. We wouldn't like lots and pubs, there's just about enough in the village as it is with the one up the road and the hotel- there's plenty of things like that.
"But the post office has closed and it could do with a shop that does the general things. There's nothing like a little Tesco express, nothing like that.
"There needs to be more shops definitely, because if you need anything you have to get in the car and go up the road and currently I can't drive because of an injury. It's a nuisance." William agreed, and also said: "We drive up to Heswall usually, it's only about two miles."
Yet, ironically, the same road that takes Velma and William to their weekly shop is also something that causes them a lot of grief. The Thornton Common Road provides necessary ease of access, and a bus route, to the town but amid the stillness of Thornton Hough they said that it has become a anxiety-inducing ear-sore, especially since the pandemic struck.
William said simply: "The main road has got a lot busier. It's too much for us." Looking at the road's placing on a map you would see that it provides a necessary link through the area between Chester High Road and the M53. But Maureen, 67, who has lived in the village for four years, said that there may be another reason for the busynessof the road.
Speaking about her time in Thornton Hough, she said: "People keep themselves to themselves so it's up to you really, like anywhere. There are little communities and little cliques and you've got the village hall if you want to meet people. The pub over the road, that's the centre of the village.
"There's a club as well, believe it or not, which is something we didn't expect when we moved here. Pre-covid they had loads of things going on, they're just getting back to normal now but before they had bands on, they had little festivals and I noticed that they're just starting to get back to it now.
"On a Saturday night you can't park outside here. It is still quite energetic at times and people come from all over to the club because they're certain bands, they're quite niche bands."
Yet, for Maureen the occasional noise provides a vital injection of life into the village. As did the Thornton Manor which meant that the village would often see droves of bridesmaids and groomsmen flock to the wedding services put on in the luxury stately venue
She said: "They did do beautiful weddings there but there was a fire and there's been a lot of damage. Lots of weddings were held there so when I was doing the gardening I would get a lot of people stopping and asking about the church, about the architecture, about the Leverhulme estate or the manor."
The Leverhulme estate and its longevity are something that is thematic about Thornton Hough. The whole village seems preserved in time, not only due to it's well kept houses and streets but the slow turnover of the people inhabiting the village homes also, and it's one thing Maureen loves most about the village.
She said: "We only came to stay here for maybe a year, and then move on but we've been here now coming up to four years and we've got no intention of moving. Once people come they don't leave. [For] a lot of villagers their parents lived here and lived on the estate so they've stayed in their parents house.
"Houses don't change very often here because people stay here such a long time. It's like when people come they never want to leave again."
Shirley Taylor, 60, is someone who has felt that mysterious draw of Thornton Village, despite the fact she has never been resident there. She said: "I've been coming here since I was a kid to play on the fields, and I've brought my children here and I've also brought my grandchildren here."
Shirley's experience of Thornton Hough is also a testament to the town's reliance on the Thornton Common Road. She now works as a cook in the village hall, but said that all the times she would come prior she didn't even know the village hall existed, because it is on the other side of the village to the road.
She said: "For all the years that I've been coming to Thornton Hough [before working here] I never knew that there was a coffee shop here or a even a village hall. I think it's because we cant advertise down the bottom road and that's the main run through. Tourism to the area isn't great. They seem to stumble across the village really.
"You could almost say that it's sort of dead really, because sometimes you don't see anybody. It used to be moving, but we've been in lockdown for two years and I think that's had a profound effect on everything."
