Location Guides

Well served by leisure, education, culture and retail options - and within a short drive of both rail and road transport networks - Bebington is a small town on the east of the Wirral Peninsula, and a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Located on the south bank of the River Mersey, on the Wirral Peninsula, Birkenhead is characterised by Gothic architecture and extensive parkland. With a wide variety of culture, education, leisure and retail options on the doorstep - and close to both rail and road transport networks - Birkenhead is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Dating back to at least the 12th Century, Bromborough is located on the east side of the Wirral Peninsula and is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is home to a nature reserve, an historic market and a retail park.

Home of a Middle Ages ferry service to Liverpool, Eastham has been inhabited in some form since the Anglo-Saxon period and its name, when literally translated, means ‘East Home’ in reference to its location relating to the important Anglo-Saxon centre of Willaston. The village is located on the south east of the Wirral peninsula and is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

One of the longest settled areas in the UK, with signs of human habitation dating back to 8500BC, Greasby (which has been spelled multiple ways - including Gravesberie in the Anglo-Saxon Domesday Book) is a small village in the northwest of the Wirral Peninsula and is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Dating back at least as far as the 13th Century, Heswall is a small town on the Wirral Peninsula and on the eastern side of the Dee Estuary. While closer to the Dee than the Mersey, the towers of both Liverpool Cathedrals can be seen from the town on a clear day.

Located at the northwestern corner of the Wirral Peninsula, where the River Dee meets the Irish Sea, Hoylake is a seaside town with a rich history - even having been the site of a King’s departure for war in Ireland. It is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

A small village on the Wirral Peninsula and a short way from both the River Dee and the Irish Sea, Irby is thought to have been named by the Vikings and the name can be translated as ‘the farmstead of the Irishmen’. Irby is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Leasowe, from the Anglo-Saxon Leasowes meaning meadow pastures, has been a part of the ancient Wirral area for hundreds of years and boasts many historic buildings - including some more and less successful firsts. Located on the north coast of the Wirral Peninsula, the area is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Though Liscard appears in documents no earlier than the 13th Century, the name hints at a longer past and is likely from the Welsh Llys Carreg meaning ‘hall at the rock’, the township sits to the north east of the Wirral Peninsula and is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England.

Meols - sometimes known as Great Meols in reference to the former village of Little Meols which lay between Hoylake and West Kirby - is a village on the northern coast of the Wirral Peninsula which dates back to at least the Viking era.

Neston is mentioned in ‘The Great Survey’ Domesday Book in 1086, though its history likely goes back much further - its name deriving from the Old Norse Nes-tún meaning ‘farmstead at a headland’. Neston is a part of the borough of Cheshire West and Chester.

A seaside destination for tourists for hundreds of years, New Brighton was a popular seaside resort for the gentry of the Regency period (early 19th Century) and has been a popular summer spot for locals and tourists alike. New Brighton is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

The village of Oxton, now a suburb of Birkenhead is thought to have been inhabited for around a thousand years, with its name derived from the Old Norse Oxa-tún meaning ‘a farm where oxen are kept’. Oxton is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

Parkgate was built as a port town following the silting of the River Dee prevented shipping at Chester, Burton and Neston, it was located at the gates of the Neston’s hunting park - hence the name Parkgate. The village is on the banks of the River Dee and 100 km2 of salt marsh - separated by a sandstone sea wall. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester.

A village located on the west of the Wirral Peninsula and forming part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Pensby derives its name from Old Norse meaning a village near the hill called ‘Penn’ - this is unique in the surrounding towns which take their -by suffix from the time of Viking occupation.

Port Sunlight is one of the most recent settlements on the wirral - a model village built by the Lever brothers in 1888 and was declared a conservation area in 1978 to preserve its unique character. The village is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Notable for its Grade 2 listed ferry terminal and parish church of St Paul, Seacombe is another of the Wirral’s ancient areas and is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Domesday Book - a ‘Great Survey’ written following the crowning of William the Conqueror - as Seccum. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

Like many of its fellow villages on the Wirral, Thingwall takes its name from Old Norse - specifically þing vollr meaning ‘assembly field’ - and the area has been inhabited for longer still. With its older buildings and walls constructed from local yellow sandstone, Thingwall is a picturesque village on the Wirral Peninsula and part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

Like many of its neighbours, Thurstaston can trace its history back to at least the 11th Century and its name to the anglicisation of Old Norse - in this case Thorsteinn-tún or ‘the farm or homestead of Thorsteinn’. Located on the west of the Wirral Peninsula, Thurstaston is a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Like much of the Wirral, Tranmere owes its name to early Viking settlers and the name Tranmere is the result of the gradual anglicisation of Trani-melr meaning, roughly, ‘the sandbank with the cranes’. Tranmere is a suburban town on the Wirral Peninsula and part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

Located in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula and equidistant from both the River Dee and River Mersey, Upton is a village that dates back to at least the 13th Century and owes its name, like the other places in the UK called Upton, to an Old English description Upp-tūn, translated approximately to ‘farm upon a hill’.

Situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, Wallasey’s name has Germanic origins and derives from Walha and the suffix -ey and translates approximately to Island of Strangers. The town hosted a forerunner to the modern Derby horse race on the sands at Leasowe and was home to the first guide dog school. Wallasey is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.

Located at the mouth of the River Dee, on the north west tip of the Wirral Peninsula, West Kirby is a town which dates back to at least the Viking era - its name, originally Kirkjubyr, translates from the Norse as ‘village with a church’. Famous in the area for its beautiful marine lake, Kirby is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside.