Bromborough

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Bromborough
Cheshire

Bromborough Cross
Location
Grid reference: SJ349825
Location: 53°20’10"N, 2°58’41"W
Data
Population: 12,630  (2001)
Post town: Wirral
Postcode: CH62, CH63
Dialling code: 0151
Local Government
Council: Wirral
Parliamentary
constituency:
Wirral South

Bromborough is a large village on the Wirral peninsula of Cheshire. It is found south of Bebington and to the north of Eastham, all contiguous with these towns. In the 2001, the population of the township was 12,630.

Bromborough is one of the many places which contents to be the location of the Battle of Brunanburh; an epic battle fought in 937 at which King Æthelstan defeated the combined armies of Scotland, Strathclyde and Norse Dublin.[1] The identification is made on the basis of the town's name, which is indeed Brunanburh etymologically. Reconstructed from fragments, an Anglo Saxon cross is in the churchyard of local parish church St Barnabas.[2]

History

A charter for a market to be held each Monday was granted by Edward I in 1278 to the monks of St Werburgh's Abbey. The market cross was the traditional centre of the village and also an assembly point for local farm labourers available for hire. The steps of the cross are from the original 13th century monument. The cross itself is a more recent reproduction, presented to the town by the Bromborough Society.[3][4]

A watermill is recorded at Bromborough at the time of the Domesday Book. Bromborough watermill was likely to have been the oldest mill site on the Wirral.[5] Located at what was known as Spital Dam, it was worked until 1940 and demolished in 1949.[6] The site is now children's nursery. A windmill, built in 1787, existed on higher ground also at the same location. Having fallen into disuse and much deteriorated, it was destroyed by gunpowder in about 1878.[4]

An increase in vehicular traffic passing through the area precipitated in Bromborough undergoing extensive redevelopment in the 1930s. Bromborough Hall, built in 1617, was demolished in 1932 to make way for a by-pass and a number of farmhouses and cottages in the area of Bromborough Cross were replaced with shops.[4]

Media

  • Newspapers: the Bromborough and Bebington News and the Wirral Globe.

References

  1. Birthplace of Englishness 'found', BBC News, 20 December 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4112301.stm, retrieved 2 April 2008 
  2. Ancient Cross in Bromborough, Megalithic Portal, http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=16849&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0, retrieved 3 June 2007 
  3. Bromborough Cross Village Centre, Geograph, http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/105940, retrieved 2 April 2008 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Young, Derek & Marian, Pictures From The Past (Book 3), pp. 10–19 
  5. Cheshire Magazine: The Mills of Wirral, C.C. Publishing, http://www.cheshiremagazine.com/Archives/mills.html, retrieved 2 April 2008 
  6. Bromborough, Old Wirral, http://www.oldwirral.com/bromborough.html, retrieved 21 June 2009