Although I've lived in the Wirral all my life,sad to say there are a lot of places there I've never been to.
Just been looking at these maps 1577 click

1610 click

1819 click

1831 click

Historically part of Cheshire, the Wirral's boundary with the rest of Cheshire was officially "Two arrow falls from Chester City Walls", according to the Domesday Book. Under that definition, places such as Ledsham, Puddington and Saughall would be part of Wirral.

Administered by the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Barnston
Bebington
Bidston
Birkenhead
Brimstage
Bromborough
Caldy
Clatterbridge
Claughton, Merseyside
Eastham
Egremont, Merseyside
Frankby
Gayton
Grange, Merseyside
Greasby
Heswall
Hoose (present day Hoylake)
Irby, Merseyside
Landican
Larton
Leasowe
Liscard
Meols
Moreton, Merseyside
New Brighton, Merseyside
New Ferry
Newton, Merseyside
Noctorum
Oxton, Merseyside
Pensby
Port Sunlight
Poulton
Prenton
Raby
Raby Mere
Rock Ferry
Saughall
Seacombe
Spital, Merseyside
Storeton
Thingwall
Thornton Hough
Thurstaston
Tranmere, Merseyside
Upton
Wallasey
Wallasey Village
West Kirby
Woodchurch
Woodside, Merseyside


Also on the Wirral but administered by Cheshire West and Chester include:

Burton
Capenhurst
Ellesmere Port
Great Sutton
Hooton
Little Sutton
Ness
Neston
Overpool
Parkgate
Puddington
Shotwick
Willaston

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Here's an explanation of Wirral's Crest.

The central shield symbolises the Wirral Peninsula, with a green background between white and blue waves for the Mersey and Dee estuaries. The central charge is the trident from the
crest of Wallasey, epitomising the varied maritime activities of the Wirral - ports, shipbuilding, ferrying, fishing, sailing, seaside holiday resorts. Suspended from the trident is a conventionalised representation of the Wirral Horn, seen in the arms of Wallasey and the device of Wirral U.D.C. This recalls the tenure of the Master Forestership of the Forest of Wirral by 'cornage', the actual horn eventually coming to the Stanley family. The trident and horn are gold.
Above the shield is the closed helm proper to civic arms, with its twisted crest-wreath and decorative mantling in the green and gold of the shield, typifying the rural parts of the
Wirral and the sands of the coastal area. Upon the wreath is the crest, symbolising some of the special natural features of the Wirral. On a sandstone rock representing Hilbre Island
and the high rocky areas of the middle of the peninsula is the oystercatcher from Hoylake's crest, the bird that is seen in huge numbers on the Deeside area particularly. Flanking the
rock are two sprigs of the Bog Myrtle or Sweet Gale, typical of the area, and the whole is enclosed within a gold 'palisado' crown - a coronet of palings signifying protection of these distinctive features of the district. Five points indicate the five areas of the Borough.
The supporters represent the main early influences in the history of the Wirral. On the left is the red lion of Randle Meschines, Third Earl of Chester, who formed the entire Hundred of Wirral into a Forest administered by the Master Foresters from Storeton in the modern Bebington area. The crosier in the lion's paw represents St. Werburgh's Abbey at Chester, whose manors, churches or lands in Wirral included Bebington, Bromborough (site of an earlier Saxon monastery), Eastham, Childer Thornton, Raby and Neston, all or parts of which were also in Bebington Borough.
On the other side is the white lion of the Masseys, founders of Birkenhead Priory, in whose arms, as in those of the former County Borough, the lion and crosier appear, though in the
civic arms the colour of the lion was changed. The white lion is also that of the Domvilles who held Brimstage in Bebington.
For necessary distinction, each lion wears a collar in the form of a letter W, white on the red lion and vice versa.
The motto, By faith and foresight, a good principle for a new authority, is suggested by words in the mottoes of Birkenhead (Fides - 'Faith') and Hoylake(Prospice - 'Look ahead').
The Armorial Bearings were designed by Mr. H. Ellis Tomlinson, M.A., F.H.S.

Lovely maps nice find, the 1600 map seems to show us an an island,as the Mersey and the Dee are connected, I think like the perambulations of Wirral says something about the tidal flow along the river,when they built the canal they used the river as a route.

Looking at the earlier maps either the name Birkenhead didn't exist
or was too insignificant to be put on a map

What is Fairfield between Heswall and Bromborough on the google map?.
Never heard of it

On the 1610 map does Wirral boundary follow the Mersey/Dee Canal as I've marked?

Great find! Its interesting to see how the names and the area has changed over the years!
I remember reading about the history of Birkenhead a while ago and how it got its name from a bircen tree located at Woodside. Not sure when it was named though.

That's Fairfield house, just past Whitehouse lane and Manor rd next to Brooklet farm, it's privately owned by a very nice guy.

Boundry wise I thought Wirral started from Northgate.

Brilliant Derekdwc. What a find.

The 1577 map clearly shows a building on the banks of the inlet at Poulton. I wonder if this could be on the same site as Bird's House, Poulton?. My thoughts are 'yes'.

The link below to 'The Wapentake of Wirral' shows the list of Officers and Lords of the Hundred of Wirral. Going back to 1300's where it shows Edisbury, Bucklow and Broxton were part of the Hundred of Wirral.

http://www.oldwirral.com/files/The_wapentake_of_Wirral.pdf

page 161 onwards.

Deredwc, it has Morton Priory on the 1610 map, which,as I understand was Birkenhead Priory, because of the lands in Moreton which supported it.Being closed in 1536 by Henry VIII and so it would have been 'destroyed'.

On that 1610 map, with so few places marked, the Priory, which doesn't seem to be in the same place as the Priory now, was important enough to be shown, although "decayed".

Sorry Chris 'decayed'. My eyes are also decayed.

i was born in birkenhead,cheshire,my birth certificate doesnt mention wirral.they even say that tranmere rovers are from wirral when they are from birkenhead.i am a birkonian and proud of it,i will never lose my identity.

I too was born and brought up in Birkenhead and am also proud of it. But as children we were always taught that our address was 'Birkenhead, Wirral, Cheshire'. That was when Wirral was simply a geographical location and not a local government area, as it became in 1974. The fact is that if you're from Birkenhead, you're also from Wirral - and there's nothing wrong with that.

I've always given my address as Birkenhead, Merseyside, no mention of Wirral

I'd always thought it was named for a birch tree on the headland, which was shortened to birch on head etc etc. I didn't read it anywhere it was just my mum who'd told me it years ago so it could be that she made it up!

I was interested to see on the first map on this thread that Wirral was originally Wyre Hall, I didn't know that. I love local history, it's fascinating

I was born before 1974 when it was cheshire.I rather stay am a cheshire lad And not a plastic scousers from merseysid...

great thread Derek its very interesting and its the first time iv seen the crest!

When the Wirral museum was open in Birkenhead Town Hall they displayed a Roman map of Wirral which showed a shipping navigation channel between the Dee and the Mersey. This must have been a canal of some sort which had been dug between them as I don't think there was any natural channel.

These links may also interest you
click
and
click

If anything it might have been either the River Goey or River Twine? (I googled names but got no hits - any info anyone?)
Are there such rivers now?

The Ellesmere Canal
The easy section from the Mersey to the Dee near Chester, now part of the Shropshire Union Canal, was first used in 1795, and joined to the Chester Canal in 1797.


The Ellesmere Canal was a canal in England and Wales planned to link the Rivers Mersey, Dee, and Severn, but the Ellesmere Canal as originally envisaged was very different from what was eventually constructed.
Part of the Ellesmere Canal has now become known as the Llangollen Canal, part forms part of the Montgomery Canal, and part forms part of what is now called the Shropshire Union Canal main line.

on 1831 map

Could the River Goey be the River Gowy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Gowy