Suburb of Wirral in Merseyside, England
This article is about the suburb in Merseyside, England. For the place in Southport, see
Meols Cop
.
Human settlement in England
Meols
(sometimes known as
Great Meols
) is a suburb in the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
,
Merseyside
, England. On the north coast of the
Wirral Peninsula
, it forms a contiguous built up area with the nearby town of
Hoylake
which lies to the west.
Historically
in
Cheshire
, since 1 April 1974 it has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.
The
2001 census
recorded the population of Meols as 5,110.
[2]
In the
2011 census
specific population figures for Meols were not available. The total population of the
Hoylake and Meols
local government
ward
was 13,348.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Meols was named as such by the
Vikings
; its original name from the
Old Norse
for 'sand dunes' was
melr
,
[4]
[5]
becoming
melas
by the time of the
Domesday Survey
.
[6]
[7]
Impressive archaeological finds dating back to the
Neolithic
period suggest that the site was an important centre in antiquity. Since about 1810, a large number of artefacts have been found relating to pre-Roman
Carthage
, the
Iron Age
, the
Roman Empire
,
Armenia
, the
Anglo-Saxons
and the Vikings.
[8]
These include items as varied as coins which belonged to the
Coriosolites
in
Brittany
. Also, tokens, brooches, pins, knives, glass beads, keys, pottery, flint tools, mounts, pilgrim badges, pieces of leather, worked wood and iron tools. They came to be discovered after the beginning of large-scale dredging (to accommodate the needs of the nearby growing seaport of
Liverpool
) started to cause notable sand erosion along the coastline near Meols. These finds suggest that the site was used as a port as far back as the
Iron Age
some 2,400 years ago, and was once the most important seaport in the present-day
North West England
. Thus trading connections are believed to have reached far across Europe.
[9]
[10]
Some of these artefacts are on display locally, at the
Museum of Liverpool
.
In the 1890s the local authorities built the first sea wall. The rapidly eroding coastline was saved, but the sea wall changed the currents and archaeological sites at Meols were buried in the sand.
[11]
The remains of a
submerged forest
off Dove Point have now also disappeared but they were visible until the spring of 1982.
[12]
[13]
In 1938, what was believed to be a Viking (
Nordic
clinker
) boat was discovered beneath 2?3 m (6?10 feet) of
clay
when the 'Railway Inn' public house was being rebuilt. Workers at the time covered the ship over again so as not to delay the construction of the pub's new car park.
[14]
The pub landlord mentioned its previous discovery to local police constable Tim Baldock, who contacted
Professor Stephen Harding
of the
University of Nottingham
.
Ground penetrating radar
(GPR) equipment was used to confirm existence of the boat and precise location on 10 September 2007.
[15]
Further archaeological work was undertaken in February 2023, by a team from Wirral Archaeology CIC, supervised by a professional archaeologist and Professor Harding.
[16]
Cores of soil were drilled and samples taken away for analysis. By using
Carbon14
dating,
dendrochronology
and wood assessment, the group aim to discover the age of the boat and where the wood it was constructed from was felled.
Meols was formerly called Great Meols. It was a township in
West Kirby
parish of the
Wirral Hundred
before becoming a
civil parish
from 1866. On 31 December 1894 it was abolished to create the Hoylake and West Kirby civil parish. Great Meols had a population of 140 in 1801, 170 in 1851 and 821 in 1901.
[17]
Between 1894 and 1974 it was within
Hoylake Urban District
.
[18]
On 1 April 1974,
local government reorganisation
in England and Wales resulted in most of the Wirral Peninsula, including Meols, transfer from the county of
Cheshire
to the newly created county of
Merseyside
.
The historic name of
Great Meols
survives in the name of the primary school
[19]
and the Anglican church. It was still in more general use up to the 1960s, for instance in postal addresses and on the destination indicators of buses from
Chester
. There also used to be a village called
Little Meols
, on Meols Drive between Hoylake and West Kirby
[20]
[21]
The name Little Meols fell out of use in
Victorian
times, having been absorbed by Hoylake. From 123 inhabitants in 1801 and 170 in 1851, by 1901 at 2,850, its population had outstripped Great Meols.
[22]
Meols was known to be spelt as
Meolse
[18]
[23]
up until when the railway station was placed.
[
citation needed
]
The error came about at the time of the station's construction, when rail managers took the spelling of Meols from the Southport suburb of
Meols Cop
and used it for new signage.
[
citation needed
]
Geography
[
edit
]
Meols is at the north-western corner of the Wirral Peninsula, adjacent to the
Irish Sea
.
Governance
[
edit
]
Meols is within the parliamentary constituency of
Wirral West
. The current Member of Parliament is
Margaret Greenwood
, a
Labour
representative.
At
local government
level, the area is incorporated into the
Hoylake and Meols
Ward
of the
Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
, in the
metropolitan county
of Merseyside. It is represented on
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
by three councillors.
[24]
The most recent
local elections
took place on 6 May 2021.
Meols is mainly residential with a small yacht and fishing community on its Irish Sea shore line. The centre has a small row of shops adjacent to
Meols railway station
, the 'Railway Inn' public house and a primary school. The
North Wirral Coastal Park
stretches from Dove Point in Meols to
New Brighton
. There is also a local community park known as
Meols Park and Recreation Ground
and a
bowling green
. The Friends of Meols Park are a community group set up in 2007 to help maintain and improve the recreation ground.
Transport
[
edit
]
The area is served by
Meols railway station
on the
West Kirby
branch of
Merseyrail's
Wirral line
.
A number of school services also serve Meols.
Notable people and cultural references
[
edit
]
Cyclist
Chris Boardman
, winner of a gold medal for Great Britain at the
1992 Summer Olympics
, lived in Meols before moving to nearby Hoylake.
Miles Kane
, former member of the
Little Flames
,
the Rascals
, one half of
the Last Shadow Puppets
with the
Arctic Monkeys
frontman
Alex Turner
and now a successful solo artist, is from Meols.
Andy McCluskey
, the co-founder, singer and bass guitarist of the
electronic music
band
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
(OMD) is also from Meols. OMD had a track called "
Red Frame/White Light
" from their
self-titled debut album
which referred to the public telephone box between the church and the Railway Inn on Greenwood Road, Meols. Hidden within the lyrics was the telephone number of the telephone box (632-3003). It is claimed that fans would call that telephone number from all over the world. The telephone box was removed by
BT
in August 2017 but was returned by October after a campaign by fans of the duo, and now displays a plaque noting its significance.
[25]
[26]
The television
sitcom
Watching
, produced by
Granada Television
between 1987 and 1993, utilised Meols as a filming location. This was likely because the characters Malcolm and Mrs Stoneway lived in the village.
[27]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Coordinate Distance Calculator"
.
boulter.com
. Retrieved
6 March
2016
.
- ^
"Wirral 2001 Census: Meols"
. Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Archived from
the original
on 16 June 2008
. Retrieved
17 September
2007
.
- ^
UK Census
(2011).
"Local Area Report ? Hoylake and Meols Ward (E05000963)"
.
Nomis
.
Office for National Statistics
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
"Key to English Place-Names: Meols"
. University of Nottingham
. Retrieved
22 September
2020
.
- ^
Harding, Stephen.
"Wirral & West Lancs 1100th Viking Anniversary"
. University of Nottingham
. Retrieved
17 September
2007
.
- ^
"Cheshire (L-Z)"
. Domesday Book Online
. Retrieved
17 September
2007
.
- ^
"Field Archaeology: Meols, Medieval & after"
. National Museums Liverpool. Archived from
the original
on 17 November 2007
. Retrieved
17 September
2007
.
- ^
"Lost Villages of Wirral"
.
hiddenwirral.org.uk
. Archived from
the original
on 17 June 2015
. Retrieved
28 June
2015
.
- ^
"Field Archaeology: Meols, An ancient port"
. National Museums Liverpool. Archived from
the original
on 17 December 2007
. Retrieved
1 January
2008
.
- ^
"Great Sites: Meols"
. British Archaeology magazine. December 2001
. Retrieved
1 January
2008
.
- ^
"Mersey Basin Campaign"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
28 June
2012
.
- ^
*
Reid, C.
, 1913.
Submerged Forests
. The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature, Cambridge University Press, 129 pp.
- ^
"Hoylake & West Kirby web site - Early history"
. Archived from
the original
on 11 June 2012
. Retrieved
30 June
2012
.
- ^
"Viking ship 'buried beneath pub'
"
. BBC News. 10 September 2007
. Retrieved
10 September
2007
.
- ^
Byrne, Ciar (10 September 2007).
"Radar scans reveal Viking boat beneath pub car park"
.
The Independent
. London.
Archived
from the original on 12 May 2022
. Retrieved
10 September
2007
.
- ^
Manning, Craig (8 March 2023).
"
'Viking boat' dig under Wirral pub awaits results after wood samples taken"
.
Wirral Globe
. Retrieved
7 April
2023
.
- ^
"Great Meols"
. GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"Great Meols"
.
A Vision of Britain through Time
. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
"Great Meols Primary School website"
. Retrieved
16 September
2012
.
- ^
Hume, A. (1863).
Ancient Meols: or, Some Account of the Antiquities found at Dove Point on the Sea-Coast of Cheshire
. London: John Russell Smith.
- ^
"Sheet 79 - NE Denbigh (1840)"
.
First Series
. Ordnance Survey
. Retrieved
16 September
2012
.
- ^
"Little Meols"
. GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
"Little Meols"
.
A Vision of Britain through Time
. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
"Your Councillors by Ward"
. Wirral Borough Council
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- ^
"Outrage as red phone box made famous by OMD single 'Red Frame White Light' is removed"
.
Wirral Globe
. 21 August 2017
. Retrieved
21 August
2017
.
- ^
"OMD's red telephone box is now back where it belongs thanks to fans' campaign"
.
Wirral Globe
. 18 October 2017
. Retrieved
7 March
2018
.
- ^
"Watching"
. Archived from
the original
on 23 March 2008
. Retrieved
20 March
2008
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Meols
.