Wallasey


Wallasey is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Merseyside in 1974. At the 2021 Census, the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 85,610.

History

Toponymy

The name of Wallasey originates from the Old English word Walh, meaning a Briton, a Welshman, which is also the origin of the name Wales. The suffix -ey denotes an island or area of dry land. Originally the higher ground now occupied by Wallasey was separated from the rest of Wirral by the creek known as Wallasey Pool, the marshy areas of Bidston Moss and Leasowe, and sand dunes along the coast.

Early history

The area was sparsely populated before the 19th century and horse races organised for the Earls of Derby on the sands at Leasowe in the 16th and 17th centuries are regarded as forerunners of the modern Derby.
Old maps show that the main centre and parish church were located at what is now called Wallasey Village, and there were smaller hamlets at Liscard, Poulton and Seacombe, from where there were occasional ferries across the Mersey. There was also a mill, and from the mid-18th century a gunpowder store or magazine at Rock Point, located well away from the built-up areas.
The main activities in the area were farming and fishing. The area also had a reputation for smuggling and “wrecking”, the act of luring ships onto rocks or sandbanks with false lights in order to raid their cargo. Underground cellars and tunnels, which were used to hide cargo pilfered from wrecked ships still exist in the town. As late as 1839, the “Pennsylvania” and two other ships were wrecked off Leasowe in a severe storm, and their cargoes and furnishings were later found distributed among local residents.

Early 19th-century development

By the early 19th century, the shoreline between Seacombe and Rock Point started to become an attractive area to which affluent Liverpool merchants and sea captains could retire. Development at Egremont began around this time, and gained pace with the introduction of steam ferries across the river. The area also had a defensive role overlooking the growing Port of Liverpool. In 1829, Fort Perch Rock was built, and in 1858 Liscard Battery.
In 1835 Liscard Hall was built by another merchant, Sir John Tobin. Its grounds later became Central Park. His family also developed a “model farm” nearby.
With the expansion of trade on the Mersey, new docks were constructed between 1842 and 1847 in the Wallasey Pool, and by 1877 the dock system between Wallasey and neighbouring Birkenhead was largely complete. The area around the docks became a centre for engineering industries, many associated with shipbuilding, and other activities including sugar refining and the manufacture of cement and fertilisers. Bidston Dock, the last in the area, was opened in 1933, but was filled in during 2003.

Later growth and the 20th century

During the latter half of the 19th century New Brighton developed as a popular seaside resort serving Liverpool and the Lancashire industrial towns, and many of the large houses were converted to inexpensive hotels. A pier was opened in the 1860s, and the promenade from Seacombe to New Brighton was built in the 1890s. This served both as a recreational amenity in its own right and to link up the developments along the estuary, and was later extended westwards towards Leasowe. The New Brighton Tower, the tallest in the country, was opened in 1900 but closed in 1919 and dismantled shortly afterwards. However, its ballroom continued as a major venue, hosting numerous concerts in the 1950s and 1960s by local Liverpool bands as well as other international stars.
After 1886, with the opening of the Mersey Railway allowing access via a tunnel to Liverpool, the pace of housing development increased, particularly in the Liscard and Wallasey Village areas. The area now called Wallasey comprises several distinct districts which gradually merged to form a single built-up area during the 19th and early-20th centuries. Further growth continued well into the 20th century and eventually spread into the Leasowe area and beyond to Moreton.
The UK's first guide dog training school, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, was founded in the town in 1931. A statue sits outside the Floral Pavilion Theatre to celebrate this.
The Wallasey Golf Club is where club member, Dr Frank Stableford, developed the Stableford system of points scoring. This was first used in competition in 1932.
Because of its docks and proximity to Liverpool, parts of the area suffered aerial bombing in 1940–41. After the Second World War, the popularity of New Brighton as a seaside resort declined dramatically, as did the use of the docks, and Wallasey gradually became more obviously a residential suburb for Liverpool, Birkenhead, and the other towns in the area.
The Beatles played some of their first shows outside Liverpool at the Grosvenor Ballroom in Liscard in 1960, and over the next few years also played several times at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. On 12 October 1962, they played there as the support act for Little Richard. Wallasey was also the home base of two other leading Merseybeat groups, the Undertakers featuring Jackie Lomax, and the Pressmen featuring Ritchie Prescott and Phil Kenzie who later became a successful saxophone soloist.
The world's first passenger hovercraft service operated from July 1962 to September 1962 between Leasowe and Rhyl in North Wales. Local MP Ernest Marples was responsible as Minister of Transport for introducing parking meters, yellow lines, and seat belt controls to the UK.
The "Solar Campus" on Leasowe Road was the first building in the world to be heated entirely by solar energy. It was formerly St George's Secondary School, and was completed in 1961 to the designs of Emslie Morgan. The solar panels on this establishment have since been removed due to high costs and has been renamed.
Wallasey was struck by an F1/T3 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Governance

There is one main tier of local government covering Wallasey, at metropolitan borough level: Wirral Council. The council is a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which is led by the directly-elected Mayor of the Liverpool City Region. Wallasey gives its name to the Wallasey constituency, which has been held since the 1992 general election by Angela Eagle of the Labour Party.

Administrative history

Wallasey was an ancient parish in the Wirral Hundred of Cheshire. The parish was subdivided into three townships: Liscard, Poulton-cum-Seacombe, and a Wallasey township covering the area around Wallasey Village and stretching westwards along the north coast of the peninsula as far as Leasowe Castle. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Wallasey, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so the townships also became civil parishes.
To better administer the area in light of development in the early 19th century, including at New Brighton in the Liscard township, a body of improvement commissioners was established in 1845. Their district covered all of the Liscard and Poulton-cum-Seacombe townships and most of the Wallasey township, excluding only the westernmost part of the latter township around Leasowe Castle. The commissioners' district was converted into a local board district in 1853, administered instead by an elected local board. The district was extended in 1877 to include the remaining part of the Wallasey township, and thereafter matched the ancient parish. Such districts were converted into urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.
Wallasey Urban District was incorporated to become a municipal borough in 1910. The three civil parishes within the borough were united into a single parish of Wallasey matching the borough in 1912. In 1913, the borough was raised to the status of a county borough, taking over county-level functions from Cheshire County Council. Wallasey Borough Council built itself Wallasey Town Hall to serve as its headquarters; the building was officially opened in November 1920. The parish and borough boundaries were expanded in 1928 to take in Moreton and in 1933 to take in Saughall Massie.
The borough of Wallasey was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the new county of Merseyside.

Geography

Wallasey is situated at the north-east of the Wirral Peninsula, on the western side of the River Mersey and adjoining the Irish Sea. The area is approximately east-north-east of the Dee Estuary at Hoylake. Wallasey is at an elevation of between above sea level, with the highest point being around St Peter and St Paul's Church in New Brighton.
The area now called Wallasey comprises several distinct districts - Egremont, Liscard, New Brighton, Poulton, Seacombe and Wallasey Village. These gradually merged to form a single built-up area during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Unlike in most other towns, there is no single Wallasey town centre, although the main shopping area is centrally located at Liscard. Both the parliamentary constituency and the former County Borough of Wallasey also include Leasowe, Moreton and Saughall Massie, which are now usually regarded as separate settlements.
The town forms part of the wider Birkenhead Urban Area, which in 2011 had a population of 325,000.