Upton, Wirral

Upton
Cheshire
The centre of Upton Village
Location
Grid reference:	SJ270881
Location:	53°23’6"N, 3°5’56"W
Data
Population:	16,130  (2011)
Post town:	Wirral
Postcode:	CH49
Dialling code:	0151
Local Government
Council:	Wirral
Parliamentary constituency:	Wirral West

Upton is a village in the northern part of the Wirral peninsula of westernmost Cheshire. It was once the most important village of this part of the Wirral, though never great by the standards of the county, until the Industrial Revolution transformed the peninsula.

The village is four miles from Birkenhead. It is four miles from the Dee Estuary and a similar distance from the River Mersey, and two miles from the Irish Sea. It is in the parish of Overchurch.

At the 2011 census, the population was recorded at 16,130.

Upton was a farming community until the village's rapid urbanisation and expansion from the mid-19th century. This was brought about by the development of Liverpool as a major port, with rail and road links across the Mersey estuary. The village now has a strong service economy which is based primarily around healthcare and retail, with a variety of places nearby, and within the village, to pursue sport and leisure activities.

History

Middle Ages

Upton is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Optone and was written as being in the possession of William Malbank.

Later the manor came by marriage to Baldwin of Bold, in 1310, and his descendants owned the manor for six generations, before it was sold in 1614. Subsequent owners have included the Earls of Derby.

Early modern

Upton Manor

From the Elizabethan Age, the manor was associated with Upton Hall, Upton, until Upton Hall was sold by the Webster family to a Roman Catholic foundation, the Faithful Companions of Jesus, who turned it into a school; Upton Hall School.

Upton was the primary economic centre of northern Wirral until the industrial development of Birkenhead during the mid-19th century. Five important local roads converged on the village, and its main thoroughfare was the place of a weekly market. Fairs were also held in the village at Michaelmas and Easter.

Upton was a township in the parish of Overchurch. When the original parish church at Overchurch was pulled down in 1813, a runestone, attributed to the 7th or 8th centuries, was discovered in the ruins. It has been interpreted as a memorial to Æthelmund, perhaps a local leader or missionary. The stone is now kept at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester.

"..though now only a small village, Upton was formerly considered the metropolis of the lower mediety of Wirral, and had two annual fairs of considerable importance, and also a weekly market that was discontinued in 1620, the village having been recently almost entirely rebuilt, contains several good houses, among which may be particularly mentioned Upton Hall ..."

—said of Upton in the History of the Hundred of Wirral by William Williams Mortimer, 1847.

A major contributor to the village was William Inman, owner of the Inman Line, who donated money for the construction of St. Mary's Church. Inman resided at Upton Manor, within the grounds of Upton Park. Both Upton Manor and St. Mary's Church were designed by John Cunningham.

Few buildings remain in Upton from before the mid-19th Century. Two notable examples are the Stone House at the top of the village, on Ford Road, and the Old Smithy on Rake Lane, both built of local red sandstone, hewn into large blocks and typical in construction to many old buildings found throughout Cheshire and Lancashire farming communities.

Second World War

Just before the Second World War, the War Department requisitioned a large amount of land to the northern side of Arrowe Farm for weapons storage. A camp was built, known as 64 Anti-Aircraft Ordnance Depot. The site had three reinforced bunkers for storage of ordnance Iin the area which is now occupied by Sainsbury's). The site eventually came into the use of the Territorial Army and part of the area is currently in use by Army and Air Force cadets.

During this period, RAF West Kirby was also situated just under two miles west the centre of the village.

Churches

St. Mary's Church.

Holmleigh, Church Road

• Church of England:
  • St Mary's Church, the parish church. This is a large church, consecrated in 1868.

The original Norman church was a steepled church, of decorative design, and was situated opposite Upton Manor on Moreton Road, standing since the Middle Ages. The steeple was damaged by a storm in 1709 and, by 1813, the church was in such poor condition that it was petitioned to be demolished. The church is understood to have been built on the site of at least one previous Saxon church.

Greenbank Church was built in 1813 and was situated closer to the centre of the village, next to Greasby Road. This church reused material from the former Norman church, though was of much simpler design. This church was used until the construction of St. Mary's and was later demolished. At this time, the Overchurch runic stone was discovered.

The church had its own office and meeting room, situated in Holmleigh, which was next door to the church hall, on Church Road. Holmleigh was originally built by William Inman, for his estate bailiff, in 1869. The building was given to the church, in 1884, by another owner and became the vicarage in 1911, though a new vicarage was built in 1928 and the building was sold, only for the church to repurchase Holmleigh in 1985 for its present use.

• United Reformed Church: Upton URC, opened in 1900, with the final service held on 26 July 2015.
• Roman Catholic: St Joseph's Church, opened in 1954.

About the village

Parks and Commons

• Arrowe Park, less than a mile from the centre of the village. The 3rd World Scout Jamboree was held here in 1929. The park is used, weekly, by amateur football teams playing against the Arrowe Park Blades FC and for the Wirral Radio Control Flying Society.
• Warwick Park, a small suburban park of 31 acres in Overchurch. The park was originally known as Warwick Hay.
• Overchurch Park nearby to Warwick Park, which includes the site of the old Norman Church and graveyard.
• Upton Meadow, a public common with a semi-natural woodland, bordered by Arrowe Brook and separating Upton from Greasby.
• Salacre Common, a smaller public common. This was originally the front garden of a large house and is the closest green space to the centre of the village.

Upton Meadow Millennium Wood

Upton Meadow Millennium Wood is a semi-natural woodland, a community forest and a county wildlife site which has informal public access. The area has a mile of footpaths and a bridleway along the western boundary and is one of the last remaining unbuilt, natural areas in Upton. Parts of the site are ancient woodland, while others were planted in 1997, the year the site was leased to the Woodland Trust.

The woodland contains a mixture of species such as oak, ash, hazel, birch, blackthorn and hawthorn. Additional plantations by the local council, in 1980, have also included maple, grey alder, grey willow and guelder rose. Other plants include holly, elm and sycamore. The area has a pond which contains a good population of invertebrates and some amphibians, with a significant colony of toads.

The meadow extends over 37 acres.

Business parks

A former major employer was the Champion spark plug factory on Arrowebrook Road. The factory was opened in 1968 and at its peak employed over 1,000 people, but was closed in 2006. The buildings remained, and the site is now operated as the Wirral Business Park and, informally, as the Champion's Business Park.

Upton Retail Park is a small retail park which was developed in the early 1990s. The development was built on 14 acres of Upton Meadow, which caused local protest to the new development on a green space.

Society and leisure

Upton Library

Victory Hall, a community hall rebuilt in 1963, was originally sited in a large Victorian villa, which had been purchased by public subscription.

• Scouts: Overchurch Upton Scout Group was formed in 1924.
• Youth project: The Village Youth Project, known as The Bank, is a youth club set up in 1999.

Sport

Victory Hall.

• Cricket: Upton Cricket Club, established in 1901. The club originally had its own tennis and football clubs. However, the tennis club had folded, on this site, by 1968.
• Tennis and Badminton: Upton Victory Hall Lawn Tennis & Badminton Club, established in 1919. Its ground is behind a large house on the corner of Salacre Lane, known as "The Elms". The sports club also provides facilities for croquet and bowls.
• Football: Upton FC, founded in 1994.

Upton Park is an area of recreational open space and woodland. The park was part of William Inman's Upton Manor estate and had included a racecourse between 1922 and 1924.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Upton, Wirral)

• Upton In the Hundred of Wirral - Local history

References

• Boumphrey, Ian; Boumphrey, Marilyn (1992). Yesterday's Wirral. pp53–64. ISBN 0-9507255-7-9. 
• Rubery, Jim (2003). The Wirral ~ Photographic Memories. pp111–113. ISBN 1-85937-517-0. 
• Swan, David (Summer 2004). "Upton Memories". Wirral Champion Journal 12 (2). pp49–53. SSN 1470-2746. 
• Lysons, Rev. Daniel (1810). Magna Britannia Vol.2, Pt.2 The County Palatine of Chester. London: Printed for T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.721. https://books.google.com/books?id=_ysgAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA721. 
• Irvine, Wm. Fergusson (1900). The Registers of Upton in Overchurch, Cheshire, 1600–1812. London: Privately printed for the Parish Register Society. https://archive.org/stream/registersuptoni00irvigoog#page/n6/mode/2up. 
• Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cheshire, 1971; 2011 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09588-3page 104–105
• Pullen, Robert; Burnley, Kenneth (1993). Set Upon a Hill: The Story of St. Mary's Church and Parish. Upton, Wirral. Wallasey: Eaton Press. 
• Randall, David (1984). The Search for Old Wirral. Countryvise. ISBN 9780907768807. OCLC 263480984. 
• Mortimer, William Williams (1847). The History of the Hundred of Wirral. London: Whittaker & Co.. pp248–249. https://archive.org/stream/historyhundredw01mortgoog#page/n288/mode/2up.