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The Wirral is a peninsula in North West England bounded by the River Dee to the west and the River Mersey to the east. It is administered by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council in the north and Cheshire County Council in the south. Previously it was entirely in Cheshire as a hundred.

Usage

When referring to the Wirral peninsula the name is shortened to the Wirral. Something is usually said to be on the Wirral, although Google reveals many occurrences of in the Wirral.

History

Wirral was once an independent Viking mini-state with its parliament at Thingwall. Ancient Irish annals record the population of Wirral by Norsemen led by Ingimund expelled from Ireland and getting agreement from Aethelflaed or "Ethelfleda", Queen of the Mercian English to settle there peacefully. Place name evidence (all the -by names) and archaeological finds (such as two hogback tombstones) corroborate this. Tranmere Rovers FC is the only team in the English League with a Norwegian Viking name: Tranmere = trani melr "cranebird sandbank".

At the end of the twelfth century, Birchen Head Priory stood on a lonely headland of birch trees, facing open countryside and surrounded by the Mersey. It was from here, Merseyside's oldest building, that Benedictine monks operated the first Mersey ferry in 1330, having been granted a passage to Liverpool by a charter from Edward III.

The original ferry service, now famous throughout the world, put Wirral on the map as part of the King's highway, yet for centuries the peninsula remained a cluster of small holdings and hamlets. It wasn't until the 1820s that steam-powered boats improved communication and opened up Wirral's Mersey coast for industrialisation.

The 1820s saw the birth of the renowned shipbuilding tradition when John Laird opened his Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead.

Wirral's first railway was built in 1840 planned by George Stephenson and connected Birkenhead with Chester. This encouraged the growth of Wirral; Birkenhead and Wallasey grew into large towns. In 1847, Birkenhead's first docks and its municipal park, the first in Britain and the inspiration for New York's Central Park, were opened.

The tunnel under the Mersey for the Mersey Railway led to increased development after 1886. The first tunnel was supplemented by a vehicle tunnel in 1934 (Queensway) and a third in 1971 (Kingsway).

Wirral's dockland areas of Wallasey and Birkenhead continued to develop and prosper. A host of other port-related industries then came into existence, such as flour milling, tanning, edible oil refining and the manufacture of paint and rubber-based products. A large chemical and oil refining complex is still in Ellesmere Port.

Another important development was the building in 1888 of the now famous industrial village of Port Sunlight, designed to house employees at the original firm of Lever Brothers, now part of the Unilever group. The village, which turned Lord Leverhulme's philanthropic dream into reality provided workers with a benign environment.

Places on the Wirral

Whilst the Wirral contains much countryside, there are many urban districts. Birkenhead, Bebington and Wallasey were once boroughs in their own right, while some districts were part of these.

Towns and villages on the Wirral include:

Sights

Despite containing urban and industrial areas, the Wirral still has picturesque villages, sandy beaches, large areas of land owned by the National Trust and views across the two estuaries and out into the Irish Sea. Many villages of the Wirral are well preserved with their characteristic red sandstone buildings and walls. Sights or places of interest include:

Wirral in literature

  • Sir Gawain spent Christmas on Wirral before his confrontation with the Green Knight.
  • Wilfred Owen, one of the greatest poets of the First World War, grew up in Tranmere.
  • Olaf Stapledon, a writer, spent much of his life in West Kirby and Caldy, and many landscapes mentioned in his works can be identified.

Famous people

Music

Transport

The M53 runs along the length of the Wirral from near Chester. At the north eastern end, the Wirral is joined to Liverpool by three tunnels under the River Mersey: two road tunnels Mersey Tunnels, one from Wallasey and one from Birkenhead and the Mersey Railway tunnel. The Wirral Line of Merseyrail links many parts of the Wirral to Lime Street station in Liverpool and many other suburbs. The Mersey Ferry also regularly crosses to Liverpool. The nearest airports are Manchester International Airport and John Lennon Airport in Liverpool.

Sport

The Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake takes place in 2006.

See also

External links

Wirral | Peninsulas of England

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Wirral Peninsula".

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