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Meolse, Little

MEOLSE, LITTLE, a township, in the parish of West Kirby, union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Wirrall, S. division of the county of Chester, 9 miles (W.) from Birkenhead; containing 134 inhabitants. This township, like the preceding, was held by Robert de Rodelent; and after him, the Grosvenors and the Meolses became the capital lords of the soil. The mesne manor was held by the Lancelyns, of Poulton, and passed with their other manors and estates to Randal Greene in right of his wife Elizabeth, sole heiress of the Lancelyns. Little Meolse was afterwards sold to the Stanleys of Weaver; and is now, like Great Meolse, the property of the Stanleys of Alderley, and the Stanleys of Hooton. The township comprises 550 acres. The greater part was a waste, until Lord Stanley of Alderley granted a building-lease for a term of eighty years, which has led to the erection of several pleasing villas. These, for summer residences and the convenience of excellent sea-bathing, notwithstanding the apparent want of attraction from their being seated amid sandhills on the desolate extremity of a mere promontory, are in great request, and a considerable increase may be anticipated in their number. In this township and Hoose is Hoylake, where his lordship's father erected, on the margin of the sea, one of the most spacious hotels in the county, now much frequented during the bathing season. A little to the north is a smaller hotel. A commodious church, also, has been erected by the lady of Mr. Swainson, which affords great accommodation to the inhabitants and the numerous visiters attracted hither, who before had no place of worship nearer than the parish church; it is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and is a neat edifice in the Norman style, from designs by Mr. Picton, of Liverpool. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Bishop of Chester, with an income of £100. In 1690, the Duke of Schomberg encamped with his army near Hoylake, previously to his embarkation for Ireland.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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