Prehistoric settlement The earliest evidence of human occupation of the Wirral dates from the
Mesolithic period, around 12,000BC. Excavations at
Greasby have uncovered flint tools, signs of stake holes and a hearth used by a hunter-gatherer community. Other evidence from about the same period has been found at
Irby,
Hoylake and
New Brighton. Later
Neolithic stone axes and pottery have been found in
Oxton,
Neston, and
Meols. At Meols and New Brighton there is evidence of occupation through to the
Bronze Age, around 1000BC, and funerary urns of the period have been found at
West Kirby and
Hilbre. Before the time of the
Romans, the Wirral was inhabited by a
Celtic tribe, the
Cornovii. Artefacts discovered in Meols suggest it was an important port from at least 500BC. Traders came from
Gaul and the
Mediterranean localities to seek minerals from North Wales and Cheshire. There are remains of a small
Iron Age fort at
Burton, for which the town was named ( being
Old English for "fort town"). In
Welsh mythology, the
ouzel (or
blackbird) of Cilgwri was one of the most ancient creatures in the world.
English and Norse ,
Eastham 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 took over the Wirral except the northern tip. Many of the Wirral's villages, such as Willaston,
Eastham and
Sutton, were established and named at this time. Towards the end of the 9th century,
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,
Greasby and Meols. They introduced their own local government system with a parliament at
Thingwall. The pseudo-historical
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland appears to record the Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement of the Wirral peninsula in its account of the immigration of
Ingimundr near Chester. This Irish source places this settlement in the aftermath of the Vikings' expulsion from
Dublin in 902, and an unsuccessful attempt to settle on
Anglesey soon afterwards. Following these setbacks, Ingimundr is stated to have settled near Chester with the consent of
Æthelflæd,
co-ruler of Mercia. The boundary of the Viking colony is believed to have passed south of Neston and
Raby, and along
Dibbinsdale. Recent
Y-DNA research has also revealed the genetic trail left by Scandinavians on the Wirral, specifically relatively high rates of the
haplogroup R1a, associated in Britain with Scandinavian ancestry.
Bromborough on the Wirral is also one of the possible sites 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 united to fight the combined forces of the
Norsemen and the
Scots, and thus historians consider it the birthplace of England. The battle site covered a large area of the Wirral.
Egil's Saga, a story which tells of the battle, may have referred to the Wirral as Wen Heath, in
Icelandic.
The Normans and the early Middle Ages After invading England in 1066 and
subduing Northumbria in 1069–1070,
William the Conqueror invaded and ravaged Chester and its surrounding area, laying waste to much of the Wirral. The Domesday survey of 1086 shows that the Wirral then was more densely populated than most of England, and the manor of
Eastham, which covered most of the east of the peninsula from
Bidston to the
River Gowy, was the second largest in Cheshire. Of the 28 former lords of the 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 405 family heads living in the peninsula, suggesting a total population of 2,000–3,000. The
Earls of Chester ruled the whole of the
County Palatine, including the Wirral, almost as "a kingdom within a kingdom" for about 250years. Between 1120 and 1123,
Earl Ranulph le Meschin made several edicts that converted the Wirral into a
hunting forest. This made the area subject to
Forest Law which made the hunting of game, such as
deer and
boar, by unauthorised persons subject to harsh penalties. To enforce the forest laws was a chief forester who was appointed with a
ceremonial horn, and the position soon became a hereditary responsibility of the
Stanley family. However, after complaints from minor Wirral landowners about the wildness of the area and oppression by the Stanleys,
Edward the Black Prince as Earl of Chester agreed to a charter confirming the disafforestation of the Wirral, shortly before his death from
amoebic dysentery. The proclamation was issued by his father
Edward III on 20 July 1376. At the end of the 12th century,
Birkenhead Priory stood on the west bank of the Mersey at a headland of
birch trees, from which
the town derives its name. The ruined priory is Merseyside's oldest surviving building and its
Benedictine monks provided the first official
Mersey ferry service around 1330, having been granted a passage to
Liverpool by a charter from Edward III. 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 declined after 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".
16th, 17th and 18th centuries A
Subsidy Roll of 1545 shows that the population of the Wirral was no more than 4,000. The peninsula was divided into 15 parishes (Wallasey, Bidston,
Upton, Woodchurch, West Kirby,
Thurstaston,
Heswall,
Bebington, Bromborough, Eastham,
Neston, Burton,
Shotwick,
Backford and
Stoke). Most parishes were subdivided into smaller townships, of which the largest in terms of population were Neston, Burton, Wallasey,
Tranmere (then within the parish of Bebington) and Liscard, and were the same size as 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 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 the 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 under the Dee, and a quay at Denhall was used for coal exports. The development is a mixture of industrial, office, residential and leisure facilities. Planning permission was granted in 2010 and work began on the site in 2011, with development work potentially lasting for 30 years. == Geography ==