Pensby

The name Pensby comes from Old Norse, meaning a village or settlement at a hill called "Penn".{{cite book|title=The Hundred of Wirral|first=Philip|last=Sulley|date=1889|publisher=B. Haram & Co.}}{{cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Cheshire/Pensby |title=Key to English Place-Names: Pensby|publisher=University of Nottingham|access-date=5 April 2021}}

The "by" suffix, included in neighbouring place names such as Frankby, Greasby, and Irby, is Viking in origin.

Over time, the name has been spelt variously as Penisby (c.1229), Penlisby (1307) and Pemmesby (1523).{{cite web|url=https://pdfslide.net/documents/wirral-historic-settlement-study-national-museums-historic-settlement-study-merseyside.html |title=Wirral Historic Settlement Study: Brimstage|publisher=National Museums Liverpool/English Heritage|pages=75|date=December 2011|work=Merseyside Historic Characterisation Project|access-date=5 April 2021}}

Lower Pensby was previously known as Newtown. This was due to the building of new houses around the turn of the twentieth century at the crossroads of Pensby Road and Gills Lane.{{cite book|title=Arwe: The Story of Arrowe, Pensby and the Liverpool Slave Trade |first=Greg|last=Dawson|year=1994|publisher=Dawson Publishing|isbn=0-9522598-1-8}}

The population of the village over time was recorded at 22 in 1801, 48 in 1901 and increasing significantly to 2,996 by 1951.{{cite web|url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CHS/pensby|publisher=GENUKI UK & Ireland Genealogy|title=Pensby|access-date=20 July 2020}}

{{Geographic location|width=auto

|title = Neighbouring places

|Northwest = Irby

|North = Thingwall

|Northeast = Thingwall

|West = Thurstaston

|Centre = Pensby

|East = Barnston

|Southwest = Heswall

|South = Heswall

|Southeast = Heswall and Thornton Hough

}}

Pensby was formerly a township in the parish of Woodchurch, in the Wirral Hundred. It became a civil parish in 1866. Historically within the county of Cheshire, it was part of the Wirral Rural District from 1894 and Wirral Urban District from 1933. 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=29 September 2024}} Further changes occurred on 1 April 1974, when local government reorganisation resulted in most of Wirral, including Pensby, transfer from Cheshire to the newly formed metropolitan county of Merseyside.{{cite web|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10157523 |title=Pensby CP/Tn|publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth|work=A Vision of Britain through Time|access-date=5 April 2021}}

Pensby is represented nationally through the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. As of {{year}}, the current Member of Parliament is Matthew Patrick, a Labour representative. At local government level, it is part of a Pensby and Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. It is represented on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council by three Labour councillors.{{cite web|url=http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0|publisher=Wirral Borough Council|title=Your Councillors by Ward|access-date=7 January 2015}} The most recent local election in Pensby took place on 4 May 2023.

File:Pensby High School for boys (2).JPG

Pensby's primary schools are Ladymount RC Primary, and Pensby Primary School. The local secondary school is Pensby High School.

St. Michael and All Angels Church is a Church of England building on Gills Lane. The Emmanuel Holiness Church is an independent Evangelical ministry which is on Heswall Mount. The Holy Family Catholic Church is on Pensby Road.

File:The Hope Centre, Pensby (3).JPG

Pensby has two community centres, the Hope Centre, adjoining Ridgewood Park on Fishers Lane, and the Kylemore Drive Community Centre. There is also an adult day centre on Somerset Road. Pensby Library is on Pensby Road. The 3rd Heswall Scout group is also based in Pensby.{{cite web|url=http://www.3rdheswall.org.uk|title=3rd Heswall Scout Group|publisher=West Wirral Scouts|access-date=20 July 2020}}

The Pensby Hotel was the single pub in the village, but after a £500,000 cannabis bust by police, was boarded up and left empty after October 2013. There was a campaign for the building to be listed as a community asset, meaning that the community would have been given six months to prepare a bid for it, which may or may not have been accepted by the owner, but community asset status was rejected by Wirral Council in September 2015. Planning permission was subsequently granted for the demolition of the building and construction of the new care home, and demolition began in October 2016.

Pensby Wood and Ridgewood Park are adjacent to Fishers Lane. Arrowe Park is approximately {{convert|1|mi|km}} north of Pensby.

The famous Everton FC footballer Dixie Dean played for Pensby Institute in his early days, on the fields at the side of Gills Lane. He was sold to Tranmere Rovers for the fee of a new kit for the team.{{cite web|url=http://www.bluekipper.com/dixie/legend.htm |title=Everton History - Dixie Dean|publisher=bluekipper.com|access-date=9 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405004502/http://www.bluekipper.com/dixie/legend.htm |archive-date=5 April 2008}}{{cite web|url=http://www.toffeeweb.com/players/past/DeanWR.asp|title=Everton Past Player Profile: William Ralph Dean|publisher=toffeeweb.com|access-date=9 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112215742/http://www.toffeeweb.com/players/past/DeanWR.asp|archive-date=12 November 2010|url-status=dead}}

Pensby recreation centre and bowling club is on Pensby Road.

Pensby is on the B5138 Pensby Road, which connects to the A540 and the A551.{{cite web|url=http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=B5138|title=B5138|publisher=Sabre|access-date=7 January 2015}} Junction 3 of the M53 motorway is within two miles of the village.

Services operating in the Pensby area, as of January 2020:

Heswall railway station on the Borderlands line is located approximately {{convert|2|mi|km}} south-east of Pensby and provides services between Wrexham and Bidston.

File:Pensby Hall front elevation.tif

Pensby Hall is a two storeyed red sandstone dwelling with a slate roof. The windows are a mix of casements and sashes, some of which are mullioned. Built in 1688, with some structural additions to the property in the 19th century, it was designated a Grade II listed building in 1962.{{NHLE|num=1343516|desc=Pensby Hall|access-date=5 April 2021}}

• The guitarist Karl Benson, from the indie band Half Man Half Biscuit, is from Pensby.{{cite web |url=https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/track-by-track-nigel-blackwell-talks-to-paddy-shennan-about-the-voltarol-years/ |title=Interview: Track by track – Nigel Blackwell talks to Paddy Shennan about The Voltarol Years |publisher=The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project |date=25 April 2022 |access-date=26 October 2023}}

• Listed buildings in Heswall

{{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/n328/mode/2up|id=p.288}}

{{commons category|Pensby}}

• [http://www.itpas.org.uk Irby Thurstaston & Pensby Amenity Society]

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough}}

Category:Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Category:Former civil parishes in Merseyside