Caldy

It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being owned by Hugh of Mere and being named ‘Calders’. Nearby is a large area of National Trust land called Caldy Hill. Many of the houses and walls in the village centre are built from the local red sandstone.

Caldy was a township in the West Kirby parish{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1404|title=History of Caldy, in Wirral and Cheshire|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=27 September 2024}} of the Wirral Hundred. The population was 92 in 1801, 142 in 1851, 202 in 1901 and 607 in 1951.{{citation|url=http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/chs/caldy.html|title=Cheshire Towns & Parishes: Caldy|publisher=GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy|accessdate=26 April 2008}} Until the twentieth century, Caldy was effectively a farming and agricultural village. However, The Caldy Manor Estates Company divided the land into smaller building plots, and from this one of the north of England's most exclusive residential villages emerged.{{citation|title=Caldy, Village of Dreams (draft)|first=Mark|last=Hughes}}{{dubious|date=March 2009}}

In 1866 Caldy became a separate civil parish,{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10006442|title=Relationships and changes Caldy CP/Tn through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=27 September 2024}} between 1894 and 1933, Caldy was part of Wirral Rural District, then subsequently Wirral Urban District. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/wirral.html|title=Wirral Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=27 September 2024}} and local government reorganisation in England and Wales resulted in most of Wirral, including Caldy, transfer from the county of Cheshire to Merseyside.

Caldy railway station was on the Hooton to West Kirby branch of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway. The station closed in 1954 and the trackbed is now the 'Wirral Way' of Wirral Country Park.

Caldy is on the western side of the Wirral Peninsula, on the eastern side of the Dee Estuary. The village is approximately {{convert|3.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} south-south-east of the Irish Sea at Hoylake and about {{convert|11|km|mi|abbr=on}} west-south-west of the River Mersey at Woodside. The centre of the village has an elevation of about {{convert|44|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level.{{cite web|url=http://www.osola.org.uk/elevations/|title=SRTM & Ordnance Survey Elevation Data in PHP|accessdate=1 November 2016|archive-date=27 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627005017/http://www.osola.org.uk/elevations/|url-status=dead}}

{{Geographic location|width=auto

|title = Neighbouring places

|Northwest = West Kirby

|North = Grange

|Northeast = Larton
Frankby

|West = Point of Ayr
(across Dee Estuary)

|Centre = Caldy

|East = Thurstaston Common

|Southwest = Mostyn
(across Dee Estuary)

|South = Bagillt
(across Dee Estuary)

|Southeast = Thurstaston

}}

Calday Grange Grammar School is between Caldy and West Kirby, with West Kirby Grammar School and Hilbre High School nearby.

Caldy Rugby Football Club, a rugby union club, play at Paton Field in nearby Thurstaston. The team currently compete in

the Championship, the second tier of the rugby union pyramid in England.

Caldy Cricket Club play at Paton Field in nearby Thurstaston in the summer months. They currently field four Saturday teams in the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition.

File:Caldy Village (geograph 2541339).jpg

Caldy is at the junction of the B5140 and B5141 roads, and is near to the A540.

The nearest railway station to Caldy is West Kirby, on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network after Caldy railway station was closed in 1954.

Caldy is noted for having many well-known residents, particularly those connected to professional football, such as Robbie Fowler{{citation|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7955397.stm|title=Fowler admits phone drive offence|publisher=BBC Merseyside|date=20 March 2009|accessdate=20 March 2009}} and Rafael Benítez.

Rafael Benitez in a press conference referred to "John the milkman" in the Wirral while launching a cryptic attack on previous Liverpool club owner Tom Hicks and managing director Christian Purslow.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8073255/Former-Liverpool-manager-Rafael-Benitez-attacks-former-owner-and-Anfield-hierarchy.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez attacks former owner and Anfield hierarchy | date=19 October 2010}}

The poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry lived in Caldy as a child, as did his brother the England rugby player Wilfrid Lowry, and the science fiction author Olaf Stapledon lived in Caldy from 1940 until his death in 1950.

Sir Cyril Clarke KBE, FRCP, FRCOG, (Hon) FRC Path, FRS, physician, geneticist and lepidopterist, lived in Caldy for many years until his death in November 2000.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

• Listed buildings in Hoylake

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|title=The History of the Hundred of Wirral|first=William Williams|last=Mortimer|year=1847|publisher=Whittaker & Co.|location=London|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyhundredw01mortgoog#page/n310/mode/2up|id=pp270-273}}

{{commons category|Caldy}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120325062540/http://www.caldycricketclub.co.uk/ Caldy Cricket Club Website]
• [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/ Merseytravel]

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough}}

Category:Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Category:Former civil parishes in Merseyside