Eastham, Merseyside

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Eastham is a small town, located on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Eastham is so-called because it was originally a hamlet East of the larger settlement of Bromborough.

[edit] Location

It is located close to the M53 motorway, and lies directly on the A41 road, the main road between Birkenhead and Birmingham. It is also close to the city of Chester. It shares a proximity to the village of Port Sunlight, which is considered by many to be the birthplace of the British soap industry.

[edit] History

The original village (inhabited since Saxon times) is clustered around St. Mary's church, whose churchyard contains an ancient yew. Much of the surrounding land was once owned by the powerful Stanley family.

The 'Bear Pit' at Eastham Woodland & Country Park as it stands in 2006.

Since the Middle Ages, a ferry service operated across the river Mersey between Eastham and Liverpool, the early ferries being run by monks from the Abbey of St. Werburgh. By the late 1700's, up to 40 coaches each day arrived at a newly built pier, carrying passengers and goods for the ferry. Paddle steamers were introduced in 1816 to replace the sailboats, but the demand for a service declined in the 1840's with the opening of a railway link between Chester and Birkenhead Woodside Ferry. In 1846, the owner of the ferry, Thomas Stanley, built the Eastham Ferry Hotel and shortly after, the Pleasure Gardens were added to attract more visitors. The gardens were landscaped with Rhododendrons, Azaleas, ornamental trees and fountains. Attractions included a zoo, with bears, lions, monkeys and antelope, an open air stage, tea rooms, bandstand, ballroom, boating lake, water chute and a loop-the loop roller coaster.

Entertainers performed in the gardens during summer, and included Blondin, the famous tight-rope walker who once wheeled a local boy across a high wire in a wheelbarrow. In 1894, the Manchester Ship Canal was opened by Queen Victoria, bringing added prosperity to the area and a Jubilee Arch was built at the entrance to the Pleasure Gardens in 1897 to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

In 1854 the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, whilst in the position of United States consul in Liverpool, visited Eastham and declared it to be: "the finest old English village I have seen, with many antique houses, and with altogether a rural and picturesque aspect, unlike anything in America, and yet possessing a familiar look, as if it were something I had dreamed about." The English Note-Books (1870).

In its heyday Eastham Ferry was known as the 'Richmond of the Mersey', but its popularity declined during the 1920's and the last paddle steamer crossing took place in 1929. The Pleasure Gardens fell into disrepair during the 1930's and the Iron pier and Jubilee Arch were later dismantled. In 1970, to commemorate European Conservation Year, the area was designated a Woodland & Country Park and today, it is once more a popular place of recreation.

Eastham Lock forms the western end of the Manchester Ship Canal. In the 1930s, significant housing development joined Eastham to neighbouring Bromborough leaving the Mersey side of the Wirral continuously built up to New Brighton.

Eastham Rake railway station opened in 1995.