Everything about Wirral Peninsula totally explained
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Wirral or
The Wirral is a
peninsula in the
north west of
England. It is bounded to the west by the
River Dee, which forms the boundary with
Wales, and to the east by the
River Mersey. Both terms "Wirral" and "The Wirral" are used locally (and interchangeably), although the merits of each form are the subject of local debate.
The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide. The northern part constitutes the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in
Merseyside, and the southern part the borough of
Ellesmere Port and Neston in
Cheshire. Wirral's boundary with the rest of Cheshire was officially 'Two arrow falls from Chester City Walls', as mentioned in the
Domesday Book. Historically, some places within the
Chester District (such as
Ledsham,
Puddington and even
Saughall) have also been considered part of Wirral. Until
1 April 1974, the peninsula used to be entirely in Cheshire as a
hundred.
Origin of the name
The name Wirral occurs in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as
Wirheal, literally "
myrtle-corner",”from the
Anglo-Saxon wir, a myrtle tree, and
heal, an angle, corner or slope. It is supposed that the land was once overgrown with bog myrtle, a plant no longer found in the area but plentiful around
Formby, to which Wirral would once have provided a similar
habitat. The name was given to the
Hundred of Wirral around the 8th century, although by the time of the
Domesday Book and for some time afterwards the name of the hundred changed to the
Hundred of Wilaveston, which later became
Willaston.
History
Prehistoric settlement
The earliest evidence of human occupation of Wirral dates from the
Mesolithic period, around 7000 BC. Excavations at
Greasby have uncovered flint tools and signs of stake holes and a hearth used by a hunter-gatherer community, and other evidence from about the same period has been found at
Irby,
Hoylake and
New Brighton. Later
Neolithic stone axes have been found at several locations including
Oxton,
Neston, and
Meols, where Neolithic pottery has also been found. At Meols and New Brighton there's evidence of continuing occupation through to the
Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, and funerary urns of the period have been found at
West Kirby and
Hilbre.
Before the time of the
Romans, Wirral was inhabited by a
Celtic tribe, the
Cornovii. Discoveries of artefacts at Meols suggest that it was an important port from at least as early as 500 BC. Traders came from as far away as
Gaul and the
Mediterranean in search of minerals from North Wales and Cheshire. There are also remains of a small
Iron Age fort at
Burton, which takes its name (
burh-
tun) from it. In
Welsh mythology, the Ouzel (or
Blackbird) of Cilgwri was one of the most ancient creatures in the world.
The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
The
Anglo-Saxons under
Æthelfrith, king of
Northumbria,
laid waste to Chester around 616. Æthelfrith withdrew, leaving the area west and south of the
Mersey to become part of
Mercia, and Anglo-Saxon settlers soon took over most of Wirral with the exception of the northern tip. Many of Wirral's villages, such as Willaston,
Eastham and
Sutton, were established and named at this time.
Towards the end of the ninth century, the
Norsemen or
Vikings began raiding the area. They settled along the Dee side of the peninsula, and along the sea coast, giving their villages names such as
Kirby,
Frankby and Meols. They also introduced their own system of local government, with its parliament at
Thingwall. Ancient Irish annals record the population of Wirral by Norsemen led by Ingimund, expelled from Ireland around 902 and getting agreement from Aethelflaed or "
Ethelfleda", Queen of the
Mercian English to settle there peacefully. The boundary of the Norse colony is believed to have passed south of Neston and
Raby, and along
Dibbinsdale. On
10 September,
2007, a 1,000-year-old
Viking transport
longship (
Nordic clinker design) was discovered under the car park of the Railway Inn in Meols.
Bromborough on the Wirral is also the probable site of an epic battle in 937, the Battle of
Brunanburh, which confirmed England as an
Anglo-Saxon kingdom. This is the first battle where England came together as one country, to fight the combined forces of the
Norsemen and the
Scots, and thus historians consider it the birthplace of England. It is thought that the battlesite was so large that it covered a large area of Wirral.
Egil's Saga, a story which tells of the battle, may have referred to Wirral as Wen Heath,
Vínheíþr in
Icelandic.
The Normans and the early Middle Ages
After invading England in 1066 and
subduing Northumbria in 1069/70,
William the Conqueror invaded and ravaged Chester and its surrounding area, laying waste to much of Wirral. The
Domesday survey of 1086 shows that Wirral at that time was more densely populated than most other parts of England, and the manor of
Eastham, which covered most of the eastern side of the peninsula from
Bidston to the
River Gowy, was the second largest in
Cheshire. Of the 28 former lords of Wirral manors listed, 12 bore Norse names. By 1086, most of the area was in the hands of Norman lords such as
Robert of Rhuddlan, his cousin
Hugh d'Avranches, and
Hamo de Mascy. The survey shows only 405 heads of families in the whole of the peninsula, suggesting a total population of 2,000-3,000. At this time, large areas of Wirral were owned by Chester Abbey. In 1278 the Abbey was granted the right to hold an annual three-day fair at Bromborough, but the fair went into decline after the devastation of the
Black Death in 1349. Another fair was established in 1299 at
Burton. Meanwhile, Meols continued as an important port, and the eroded coastline there has provided what is described as
"the largest collection of medieval domestic items to have come from any single site outside London".
The 16th to 18th centuries
A
Subsidy Roll of 1545 shows that the total population of Wirral at the time was no more than 4,000. The peninsula was divided into about 15 parishes (Wallasey, Bidston,
Upton, Woodchurch, West Kirby,
Thurstaston,
Heswall,
Bebington, Bromborough, Eastham,
Neston, Burton,
Shotwick,
Backford and
Stoke). Most of these were divided into smaller townships, of which the largest in terms of population were Neston, Burton, Wallasey,
Tranmere (then within the parish of Bebington) and Liscard. However, none of these were more than small rural villages.
Other communications were also improving.
Turnpike roads linking Chester with Eastham, Woodside, and Neston were built after 1787. In 1793, work began on the
Ellesmere Canal, connecting the River Mersey with Chester and
Shropshire through the
fluvioglacial landform known as the
Backford gap, and the town of
Ellesmere Port began to develop.
The excavation of the New Cut of the Dee, opened in 1737, to improve access to Chester, diverted the river's course to the Welsh side of the estuary and took trade away from the Wirral coastline. Although plans were made to overcome its gradual silting up, including one in 1857 to cut a ship canal from a point between Thurstaston and
Heswall to run along the length of Wirral to Chester, this and other schemes came to nothing, and the focus of general trade moved irrevocably to the much deeper Mersey. However, from the late 18th century there was
coal mining near Neston, in tunnels stretching up to two miles under the Dee, and a quay at Denhall was used for coal exports., and covers an area of 60.35
square miles, bounded by the
Cheshire Plain, the
River Dee and the
River Mersey. The
Irish Sea lies to its north west side., historian Stephen Roberts defines it as
"the peninsula which is bounded by the Dee and Mersey estuaries, Irish Sea and... the route of the Shropshire Union Canal between Ellesmere Port and Chester". The original Hundred extended slightly further east, to the River Gowy. Many villages of Wirral are well preserved with their characteristic red
sandstone buildings and walls. Sights or places of interest include:
Bidston Hill
Caldy Hill
Hilbre Island
Lady Lever Art Gallery
Thurstaston Common and Thor's Stone
"The Thing" - site of Wirral's Viking parliament
Mersey Ferry
Ness Gardens
North Wirral Coastal Park and Leasowe Lighthouse
Port Sunlight
Victorian Pleasure Gardens at Eastham Country Park
Williamson Art Gallery
Wirral Way and Hadlow Road railway station
Accents and dialects
The peninsula has a range of accents, though the proximity of the accents of Liverpool and Cheshire means that many people's are between the two. In Birkenhead, Wallasey and Moreton the influence of Liverpool is particularly strong. Accents in the South and West Wirral areas are not as strong, however. Neston once had a distinctive dialect derived from the migrant workers at the Denhall Colliery but this is now all but extinct.
Wirral in literature
Sir Gawain spent Christmas on Wirral before his confrontation with the Green Knight. » The wilderness of Wirral:
few lived there » Who loved with a good heart
either God or man
Olaf Stapledon, a writer, spent much of his life in West Kirby and Caldy, and many landscapes mentioned in his works can be identified.
Notable people
The area has been home to many notable people, including: Ian Botham (cricketer), Matt Dawson (rugby player), Emma Hamilton (mistress of Horatio Nelson), Glenda Jackson (actress and politician), John Peel (disc jockey and radio presenter) and Harold Wilson (Prime Minister who was Head Boy of Wirral Grammar School for Boys). Several pop groups also come from the area including The Boo Radleys and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A full list of notable people from the Wirral can be found on List of notable people from The Wirral.
Television and Film
The television sitcom Watching, produced by Granada Television between 1987 and 1993, was partly set and filmed at various Wirral locations, particularly Meols.
The Lime Pictures production Hollyoaks films occasionally, on location, on the Wirral.
The film Chariots of Fire was filmed at various locations on the Wirral including the Oval Sports Centre, Bebington and the Woodside Ferry Terminal.
Although ostensibly set in Liverpool, the film The 51st State was partly filmed around the docks, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral.
The 2006 TV series, starring Ricky Tomlinson was a follow-up to the film, and featured a fictional football club called Wirral County, a parody of Tranmere Rovers, who Bassett (Tomlinson) managed after bring sacked from the England job.
The Ealing comedy, "The Magnet" (1950), was filmed in Wallasey and New Brighton.
Transport
The M53 motorway runs along the length of Wirral, from near Chester. At the north eastern end, Wirral is joined to Liverpool by three tunnels under the River Mersey: two road tunnels Mersey Tunnels, one from Wallasey (Kingsway) and one from Birkenhead (Queensway) and the Mersey Railway tunnel.
The Wirral Line of the electrified Merseyrail network links West Kirby, New Brighton, Chester and Ellesmere Port via many other suburbs to Liverpool Lime Street station through the underground Liverpool Loop line. Another National Rail line (known recently as the Borderlands Line or "Mid-Wirral line") offers hourly diesel services from Bidston (on the West Kirby branch of the Wirral Line) to Wrexham in North Wales.
The Mersey Ferry regularly crosses to Liverpool from both Woodside and Seacombe, providing both a commuter shuttle service and pleasure cruises.
The nearest airports are Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Manchester Airport.
Sports
Tranmere Rovers Football Club is Wirral's principal football club and play at Prenton Park, Birkenhead. They currently play in Coca Cola League 1.
Several Football League teams have played at New Brighton including the defunct New Brighton Tower F.C. and New Brighton A.F.C., who now play in the West Cheshire League.
The Open Championship took place at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake in 1897, 1902, 1907, 1913, 1924, 1930, 1936, 1947, 1956, 1967 and 2006.
Vauxhall Motors F.C. are the leading non-league football club on the Wirral. They play in the Blue Square North Division (formerly Conference North) and play their home games at Rivacre Park.
Cammell Laird F.C. are a non-league football club on the Wirral and play in the Northern Premier League at Kirklands, Rock Ferry.
Hoylake, in north west Wirral is one of the premier European land sailing or sand yachting sites, and was host to the week-long European Championships in September 2007.
West Kirby, in north west Wirral, is home to the Marine Lake which is used for windsurfing, sailing and sea kayaking and hosts the international Wilson Trophy sailing competition.Further Information
Get more info on 'Wirral Peninsula'.
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