Meols

Meols was named as such by the Vikings; its original name from the Old Norse for 'sand dunes' was {{lang|non|melr}},{{cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Cheshire/Great%20Meols |title=Key to English Place-Names: Meols|publisher=University of Nottingham|accessdate=22 September 2020}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/ |title=Wirral & West Lancs 1100th Viking Anniversary|first=Stephen|last=Harding|publisher=University of Nottingham|accessdate=17 September 2007}}

becoming melas by the time of the Domesday Survey.{{cite web|url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/cheshire2.html|title=Cheshire (L-Z)|publisher=Domesday Book Online|accessdate=17 September 2007}}{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/archaeology/fieldarchaeology/meols2.asp|title=Field Archaeology: Meols, Medieval & after|publisher=National Museums Liverpool|accessdate=17 September 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117062758/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/archaeology/fieldarchaeology/meols2.asp|archivedate=17 November 2007|df=dmy-all}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.hiddenwirral.org.uk/lost-villages-of-wirral/4587687221 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617105235/http://www.hiddenwirral.org.uk/lost-villages-of-wirral/4587687221 |url-status=dead|archive-date=17 June 2015|title=Lost Villages of Wirral|work=hiddenwirral.org.uk|accessdate=28 June 2015}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/archaeology/fieldarchaeology/meols.asp|title=Field Archaeology: Meols, An ancient port|publisher=National Museums Liverpool|accessdate=1 January 2008|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217102604/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/archaeology/fieldarchaeology/meols.asp|archivedate=17 December 2007|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba62/feat3.shtml|title=Great Sites: Meols|publisher=British Archaeology magazine|date=December 2001|accessdate=1 January 2008}}

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.{{cite web|title=Mersey Basin Campaign|url=http://www.merseybasin.org.uk/archive/assets/145/original/Before_the_Storm_-_Edwin_Colyer.pdf|accessdate=28 June 2012}}

The remains of a submerged forest off Dove Point have now also disappeared but they were visible until the spring of 1982.*{{Aut|Reid, C.}}, 1913. Submerged Forests. The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature, Cambridge University Press, 129 pp.{{cite web|title=Hoylake & West Kirby web site - Early history |url=http://hoylakeandwestkirby.com/#/meols-early-history/4538163143 |accessdate=30 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611024906/http://hoylakeandwestkirby.com/#/meols-early-history/4538163143 |archivedate=11 June 2012 |df=dmy-all}}

In 1938, what was believed to be a Viking (Nordic clinker) boat was discovered beneath {{convert|6|-|10|ft|m|0|abbr=in|disp=flip}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6986986.stm |title=Viking ship 'buried beneath pub'|publisher=BBC News|date=10 September 2007|accessdate=10 September 2007}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/radar-scans-reveal-viking-boat-beneath-pub-car-park-401882.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/radar-scans-reveal-viking-boat-beneath-pub-car-park-401882.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Radar scans reveal Viking boat beneath pub car park|work=The Independent|accessdate=10 September 2007|location=London|first=Ciar|last=Byrne|date=10 September 2007}}

Further archaeological work was undertaken in February 2023, by a team from Wirral Archaeology CIC, supervised by a professional archaeologist and Professor Harding.{{cite news |last1=Manning |first1=Craig |title='Viking boat' dig under Wirral pub awaits results after wood samples taken |url=https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/23370983.viking-boat-dig-pub-awaits-results-wood-samples-taken/ |access-date=7 April 2023 |work=Wirral Globe |date=8 March 2023 |language=en}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CHS/greatmeols|title=Great Meols|publisher=GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy|accessdate=15 October 2020}}

Between 1894 and 1974 it was within Hoylake Urban District.{{cite web|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10114743#tab02 |title=Great Meols|publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth|work=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=15 October 2020}}

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{{cite web|url=http://www.greatmeols.wirral.sch.uk/|title=Great Meols Primary School website|accessdate=16 September 2012}} 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{{cite book|last=Hume|first=A.|title=Ancient Meols: or, Some Account of the Antiquities found at Dove Point on the Sea-Coast of Cheshire|year=1863|publisher=John Russell Smith|location=London}}{{cite web|title=Sheet 79 - NE Denbigh (1840)|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/iipmooviewer/view.html?map=first_edition%252Flm_79ne&source=The%2520British%2520Library&website=www.bl.uk&publisher=Ordnance%2520Survey&series=First%2520Series&sheet=79%2520NE%2520-%2520Denbigh|work=First Series|publisher=Ordnance Survey|accessdate=16 September 2012}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CHS/littlemeols|title=Little Meols|publisher=GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy|accessdate=15 October 2020}}

Meols was known to be spelt as Meolse{{cite web|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10007940#tab02 |title=Little Meols|publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth|work=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=15 October 2020}} up until when the railway station was placed.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} 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|date=September 2007}}

Meols is at the north-western corner of the Wirral Peninsula, adjacent to the Irish Sea.

{{Geographic location|width=auto

|title = Neighbouring places

|Northwest = Liverpool Bay (Irish Sea)

|North = Liverpool Bay (Irish Sea)

|Northeast = Hightown (across Liverpool Bay)

|West = Hoylake

|Centre = Meols

|East = Moreton

|Southwest = Hoylake

|South = Newton

|Southeast = Greasby and Saughall Massie

}}

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.

{{cite web|url=https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0 |title=Your Councillors by Ward|publisher=Wirral Borough Council|accessdate=15 October 2020}}

The most recent local elections took place on 6 May 2021.

Image:The Railway Inn, Meols, Merseyside.JPG

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.

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.

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.{{cite web|title=Outrage as red phone box made famous by OMD single 'Red Frame White Light' is removed |url=http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/15485529.Outrage_as_red_phone_box_made_famous_by_OMD_single__Red_Frame_White_Light__is_removed/|website=Wirral Globe|date=21 August 2017|accessdate=21 August 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|title=OMD's red telephone box is now back where it belongs thanks to fans' campaign |url=http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/15604951.OMD_s_red_telephone_box_is_now_back_where_it_belongs_thanks_to_fans__campaign/|website=Wirral Globe|date=18 October 2017|accessdate=7 March 2018|language=en}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.cmsinet.demon.co.uk/watching-tv.net/homepage.htm|title=Watching|accessdate=20 March 2008|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080323045611/http://www.cmsinet.demon.co.uk/watching-tv.net/homepage.htm|archivedate=23 March 2008|df=dmy-all}}

• Listed buildings in Hoylake

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{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/n314/mode/2up|id=pp275-276}}
• {{cite book |last1=Griffiths |first1=David |last2=Philpott |first2=Robert A. |last3=Egan |first3=Geoff |authorlink3=Geoff Egan |title=Meols: the archaeology of the North Wirral coast discoveries and observations in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a catalogue of collections |date=2007 |location=Oxford |series=Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph Series |volume=68 |isbn=978-1905905034 |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-966-1/dissemination/pdf/Meols_text_2020_complete-lo.pdf}}

{{Commons category|Meols}}

• [http://www.friendsofmeolspark.co.uk/ Friends of Meols Park]

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Category:Viking Age populated places

Category:Beaches of Merseyside