Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History The Wirral : 1611 Map

Taken from 'The Romance of Wirral' book by A.G Canon

Thats fascinating thanks for sharing Paul, infact its interesting as I found a map (not original) near some bins/skip of lancashire dated 1610 only yesterday so seems strange seeing the lower half of the north west at that time in this one. Heres a link to it if your interested.

Leverpoole?. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. The names of most the districts are completely different with the exception of northwich.

Crackin map - more settlements on West Worral Coast than east - interesting...
Like the way they call the rivers 'Flu' - don't want to catch 'Mersey Flu' !!

interestingly enough it appears we're an island on that map as you close to Chester you can see an old river than went in between the Dee and Mersey.

Someone will have a better idea but looks like its either the River Gowy or what has more recently become part of the Shropshire Union Canal looking at maps today. They look like they run a similar route?? Fascinating that!

If you read the Wirral Hundred by Mortimer, their is a little piece in it about a river that went between the Mersey and the Dee when the tide came in the water flowed both ways,the canal is in the same valley at Chester.

yeah wasn't that river sealed up to speed up the mersey and swap the flow of the dee to the wales side which in turn created the marshlands at parkgate.

Until the River Dee silted up it was indeed a busy route for ships serving Chester. Parkgate in the 18th Century was a busy port as well as a few other dotted small ports on the west cost of the Wirral. After the Dee silted up it meant large ships could no longer sail in the shallow water. From the 1800s the Mersey then became the main principal river to serve ports - which resulted in Liverpool changing from a small fishing village to a huge port in a short space of time.

Flu = Fluvius. Latin.

ps. changed "Worral" to "Wirral" hope you don't mind.

At one time, Wallasey was an island, cut off by the Wallasey Pool, only accessable by a bridge. I think a while ago, they found sunken remains of the old Roman bridge to wallasey!

The bit I like is Hibre Island,it looks as if it was massive,just wonder if it was wishful thinking by the person who did the map.

When the workers were digging out the Wallasey Pool in about 1850 to construct the dock they came across remains of an oak timbered bridge. It would of spanned some 100 feet in length and rested on rocks on either side.

Possibly, Chris, but when appended to the name of a river on a map 'flu' is usually short for 'flumen'.

Thanks for that; I'd forgotten flumen. I think either can be used; both are Latin for river: flumen, 3rd. declension, neuter or fluvius, 2nd. declension, masculine.