Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Oldest ? in the Wirral

Oldest Skeleton from Wirral. Taken from
www.wirralhistory.net ..........there's a reconstruction picture to go with it.

Roman Leasowe Man

In July 2005 the Museum of Liverpool Life welcomed the return to the North West of a long-absent resident. The oldest surviving skeleton from Merseyside, found on the Wirral shore in 1864, had finally returned to the region. As part of the Living with the Romans exhibition, which ran from 23 July 2005 to 4 June 2006, the skeleton was borrowed from the Natural History Museum in London as the centrepiece of a display on our Romano-British ancestors. The skeleton was found by workmen repairing the embankment at Leasowe on the north Wirral coast. They came across the body laid out under a bed of peat. The owner of nearby Leasowe Castle, Sir Edward Cust, donated the remains to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1864. Eventually the skeleton found its way to the Natural History Museum in London where it was recently rediscovered by Dr Silvia Gonzalez, a scientist from Liverpool John Moores University. For over a century the skeleton was thought to be prehistoric, perhaps as old as 4000 BC. However, radiocarbon dating has shown that the skeleton is actually Roman in date. As such it is the only Roman skeleton from Merseyside.



A 21st century reconstruction of the skull. A reconstruction of the skull was commissioned for the 'Living with the Romans' exhibition. The skull was first scanned in three dimensions with a laser scanner by National Museums Liverpool's Conservation Technologies team.

The plans for the building were never put down on paper Emslie Morgan kept the plans in his head and died with out passing on the system and scientists from all over the world came to St Georges to try and work out how he had done it .

i believe the oldest church building to be the one in wallasey village, St. Hillary's Church.

I'd love to know what evidence there is for the Druids on the Wirral!!!

The Tudor tower at St.Hilary's certainly makes it one of the oldest buildings on the Wirral, but it's not that dissimilar to the tower at St.Oswalds, Bidston.

There are a number of church sites (including Woodchurch, Overchurch, St.Hilary's, and Bromborough) which are certainly very ancient. Woodchurch is one of the most interesting, but any links to druidism are probably very speculative.

How is this possible when Leasowe didn`t even exist until around 1940?

It was all marshland and before then the sea went over it. (pity it still didn`t really).

I think Sea levels have changed quite substantially over the centuries.

Judging by the evidence of the submerged forrest at Meols/Dove Point, the north Wirral coastline once extended much further out than it does at present.

Cheshire Cheese is the oldest cheese being made in England (ref wikipedia)
Does anywhere on Wirral make it?

the Wirral's not in Cheshire !...(lights blue touch paper and retires)

Yes it is. it has always been in Cheshire although is was in Merseyside for a few years.

PB

The majority of Cheshire cheese is made in Shropshire, around Whitchurch.

I always thought the Wirral was Merseyside too!

Wirral used to be part of Cheshire until the government made boundary changes (1970s?) which lumped it with Liverpool(which was part of Lancashire) and called it Merseyside

I think you'll find it was also part of Mercia for quite a long time before it ever became Cheshire!

Indeed, The post codes were changed to L when we came under Merseyside, for example L41 would now be CH41, which I think actually denoted Chester and the L denoted Liverpool.

PB

But that was well before our time, the post code changes were quite recent on comparison.

PB