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Wirral or The Wirral (pronounced /ˈwɪrəl/) is a peninsula in the north west of England, bounded by the River Dee to the west and the River Mersey to the east. Both terms "Wirral" and "The Wirral" are used locally, although the merits of each form are the subject of local debate.

The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 10 miles (16.1 km) long and 7 miles (11.3 km) 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. The peninsula used to be entirely in Cheshire as a hundred.

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 2.1 Places on Wirral 3 Landmarks 4 Accents and dialects 5 Wirral in literature 6 Notable people 7 Television and Film 8 Transport 9 Sports 10 See also 11 References

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. This can still be seen from place name evidence - such as the common '-by' (meaning "town" in Danish) suffixes and names such as Tranmere, which comes from trani melr ("cranebird sandbank"). Similarly, archaeological finds (such as two hogback tombstones) corroborate this.^[1]

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 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.^[1][2]

At the end of the twelfth century, Birchen Head Priory stood on a lonely headland of birch trees 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. Birkenhead, the largest town on Wirral, received its name from the Priory. It derives from the original spelling of Birchen Head meaning "headland with birch trees".

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.

During the 14th century, a charter confirming the disafforestation of Wirral was issued by King Edward III. This took place on July 20, 1376.^[3]

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 River 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).

During the Second World War it held two RAF airfield, RAF West Kirby and RAF Hooton Park (now the site of Vauxhall Motors Ellesmere Port factory) and a number of Anti Aircraft sites in order to protect the Birkenhead and Liverpool docks.

In 1929, the 3rd World Scout Jamboree was held at Arrowe Park and this celebrated the 21st Anniversary of the publication of Scouting for Boys. Thirty-five countries were represented by 30,000 Scouts, plus another 10,000 British Scouts who took the opportunity to camp in the vicinity. This was certainly the greatest assembly of international youth the world had ever seen up to that time.^{[citation needed]} Two things stand out from the Arrowe Park Jamboree - the numbers and the mud! During the occasion, it rained so much that the clay soil could not absorb the water and the site soon resembled a sea of mud!

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. This was 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.

Wirral can be defined as both a geographical peninsula and socio-cultural area. . The current Metropolitan Borough of Wirral has a population of 312,293 people (according to the 2001 census) ^[4], 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.^[5] The Shropshire Union Canal joins the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port and the River Dee at Chester. This makes the geographical peninsula, as a technicality, an island. However, it has been noted that 'it is difficult to find any work in which there is a written description of the exact area defining The Wirral Peninsula.'^[6]

In the north of the peninsula, the River Fender, Arrowe Brook and Greasby Brook drain into the River Birket, which itself flows into the River Mersey via Wallasey Pool (Birkenhead Docks). Further south, the River Clatter and River Dibbin drain into the Mersey at Bromborough Pool. ^[7]

Two approximately parallel Triassic sandstone ridges run down the length of the peninsula. The western ridge is made up of Grange & Caldy Hills at 256 feet in height, then Thurstaston Hill (298 ft), Poll Hill in Heswall (350 ft, the highest point on the Wirral) and Burton (222 ft). The less continuous eastern ridge consists of Bidston Hill (231ft), Prenton (259ft) and Storeton Hill (229ft). ^[7]

The major urban centres of Wirral are to its east; these include Birkenhead and Wallasey. To the west and south, Wirral is more rural. Two thirds of the population of Wirral live on one third of the land - in Birkenhead and Wallasey, according to Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. Other towns to the south and west of this area are usually considered part of Wirral; notably, Ellesmere Port is often described as one of its 'border towns'.^[8]

The towns and villages on the Wirral are in one of three local authorities:

• The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral: Category:Towns and villages in Wirral
• The Borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston: Category:Ellesmere Port and Neston
• The following places on the Wirral are in Chester District: Capenhurst, Ledsham, Puddington, Saughall, and Shotwick.

Despite containing urban and industrial areas, Wirral still has picturesque villages, sandy beaches, large areas of land owned by the National Trust as well as views across the two estuaries and out into the Irish Sea.^[9] 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
• Prenton Park
• Victorian Pleasure Gardens at Eastham Country Park
• Williamson Art Gallery
• Wirral Way and Hadlow Road railway station

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, though the residents are sometimes disparagingly called Plastic Scousers. 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.^[10]

• 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.

The area has been home to many notable people, including: Ian Botham (cricketer), Daniel Craig (actor), 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 group 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.

• The television sitcom Watching, produced by Granada Television between 1987 and 1993, was partly set and filmed at various Wirral locations, particularly Meols. ^[11]
• 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 Mike Bassett: Manager, starring Ricky Tomlinson was a follow-up to the film Mike Bassett: England Manager, 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 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.

• Tranmere Rovers Football Club is Wirral's principal football club and play at Prenton Park, Birkenhead. They currently play in Coca Cola League 1.

• 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 is host to the week-long European Championships in September 2007.^[12]

• 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.

• The Wirral Hundred

Coordinates: 53.35702° N 3.07574° W