Wallasey, Cheshire
Historical Description
Wallasey, a village, a township, and a parish in Cheshire. The village stands 3½ miles NNW of Birkenhead, and has a station on the Wirral railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Liverpool. The township extends to the coast, and comprises 1586 acres of land and 10 of water, with 532 of foreshore; population, 2067. For parish council purposes it is divided into eight wards, each returning three members to the urban district council. Leasowe Castle, a prominent feature, has been separately noticed. There are a working-men's institution, with library and reading-room, and a cottage hospital. A lighthouse is on the N coast, and has been twice removed inland in consequence of encroachment by the sea. Submerged remains exist of an ancient forest, and some very interesting animal fossils have been found. The parish includes also the townships of Liscard and Poulton-with-Seacomb, and the towns of New Brighton and Egremont, and is bounded on the S by a creek of the Mersey, called Wallasey Pool, along the N margin of Birkenhead. Acreage, 3326 of land and 82 of water, with 779 of adjacent tidal water and 846 of foreshore; population of the civil parish, 33,229; of the ecclesiastical, 2803. Seacomb, Liscard, Egremont, and New Brighton form separate ecclesiastical parishes. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chester; net value, £309 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The old church was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1857, only the tower and outer walls remaining; it has been restored, and is used as a mortuary chapel. The new church was built in 1859. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Cheshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Wallasey St. Hilary | |
Hundred | Wirrall | |
Poor Law union | Wirrall |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wallasey from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wallasey (St. Hilary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cheshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Wallasey are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cheshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Cheshire, 1580 is available on the Heraldry page.