A History of Eastham

 

Eastham Village lies on the far south-eastern point of the current Wirral local authority, adjacent to the River Mersey, at the start of the Manchester Ship Canal, and is cited as one of Wirral's oldest villages, inhabited since Anglo Saxon times.  It's name is derived from its location, east of the principal settlement Willaston, with 'ham' meaning 'home'. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the village centre is characterised by a mix of buildings, with small terraces of cottages interspersed among larger and more opulent villas. The medieval street pattern evolved around the village church of St Mary's, which was established in 1152 built from local sandstone and whose churchyard contains an ancient Yew tree reputed to be over 1700 years old, one of the oldest trees in England. Within the church parish are several very important grave stones, the oldest dated 1612 which reads; "William Stanley of Hooton was buried heare the fourth of January the yeare of our Lord God 1612. Death restes in the ende. His wife Anne Herbert, and left by her livinge one son, and six daughters. Death Miseries". The Grade II Listed Church of St Mary established in 1852 by the Third Earl of Chester, Randal of Gernons was extensively added to between the 13th and 15th centuries and restored in the 1870s. The village sundial (dated 1798) and village cross (dated 1891) are both Grade II Listed. The Stanley Arms, although unlisted, has a carved stone stag's head, the heraldic emblem of the Stanleys, set in the wall. This came from the original powerful Stanley family seat at Hooton Hall from where they ruled much of the surrounding land. The Tap is one of Wirral's oldest Inns and was formerly the boat house for the old Ferry and The Hooton Arms was once the home of the village schoolmaster. All this makes this one of the most attractive of Wirral villages and one which was designated a Conservation Area in 1974.

Church of St Mary

Until the 19th century, Eastham was a predominantly agricultural settlement with some fishing from the River Mersey supplementing this. The village is closely associated with Eastham Ferry, originally run by monks from the Abbey of St, Werburgh from the Middle Ages as both goods and Liverpool businessmen crossed the Mersey on the 'Eastham Packet' which was established as early as 1358. The first paddle steamer, the 'Princess Charlotte', crossed the river to Eastham in 1816, the first of  some twenty nine paddle steamers on this route. At one time the village streets rattled and rang to the cheerful sounds of some forty stagecoaches a day, as they passed through the village on their way to Chester, North Wales and the Midlands. An enigmatic sandstone jetty reached by extant steps carved in the cliff face, known as Job's Ferry, is located about 800 yards north of the current Eastham pier. It was thought to be the point from which locally quarried sandstone was sent to Liverpool, required for the extensive construction work as the city rapidly developed. In 1846, the owner of the ferry, Thomas Stanley, built the Eastham Ferry Hotel and shortly afterwards, the Pleasure Gardens were added. These attracted more visitors boasting a zoo with over 100 animal cages and various hair-raising fairground rides, an open-air stage, tea rooms, bandstand, ballroom, boating lake and a water chute. In 1884 the famous tight rope walker, Blondin, thrilled the crowds that flocked from the smokey, confined streets of Liverpool to the green fields and bluebell woods of the gardens to see him perform. The bear pit is still there, along with the remains of three fountains, once part of the zoo. In 1894, the Manchester Ship canal was opened by Queen Victoria bringing added prosperity to the area and a Jubilee Arch was built at the entrance to the Pleasure Gardens in 1897 to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

In 1854 the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, whilst in the position of United States consul in Liverpool, visited Eastham and declared it to be: "the finest old English village I have seen, with many antique houses, and with altogether a rural and picturesque aspect, unlike anything in America, and yet possessing a familiar look, as if it were something I had dreamed about. There were thatched stone cottages intermixed with houses of a better kind…It was not merely one long street, as in most New England villages, but there were several crooked ways, gathering the whole settlement into a pretty small compass."

As road traffic increased with the advent of motor vehicles the village was by-passed in 1922 by the current New Chester Road and some peace returned to the old village. In its heyday Eastham Ferry was known as the 'Richmond of the Mersey', but its popularity declined during the 1920s and the last paddle steamer crossing took place in 1929. The Pleasure Gardens fell into disrepair during the 1930s and the iron pier and Jubilee Arch were later dismantled. The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal inevitably led to increased industrialisation around Eastham and more dramatic changes came in the late 1940s, when the great oil-dock project revived industrial activity. Eastham oil dock was the largest in Britain with great oil tankers berthing there to unload their cargo of crude, via a pipe work, to the refineries at Stanlow. At this time new housing estates were built and there were fears that Eastham and its surrounding woods and fields would be lost. Woodlands to the north of the village were designated a Country Park in 1970 and the historic village core a Conservation Area four years later.

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/04/a-history-of-greasby.html