A fortified village was established at Thelwall in 923, in 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.

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.

"—Anglo-Saxon Chronicle[3]An inscription on the Pickering Arms[4] 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".

[5] 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").

As a locality within the Warrington South constituency, Thelwall is currently represented in the House of Commons by Sarah Hall of the Labour Party.