Meols

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meols
Meols shown within Merseyside
Population	5,110 (2001 Census)^[1]
OS grid reference	SJ232900
Metropolitan borough	Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Metropolitan county	Merseyside
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WIRRAL
Postcode district	CH47, CH48
Dialling code	0151
Police	Merseyside
Fire	Merseyside
Ambulance	North West
European Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Wirral West
List of places: UK • England • Merseyside

Coordinates: 53°24′05″N 3°09′19″W / 53.4014, -3.1553

This article is about the village on the Wirral Peninsula. See also Meols Cop for the Southport suburb.

Meols (IPA: /ˈmɛlz/) is a village on the northern coast of the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is generally paired with its neighbour, the larger town of Hoylake, situated immediately to the west. Formerly, Meols was in the county of Cheshire. Since 1 April 1974 it has been in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. The 2001 Census recorded the population of Meols as 5,110 (2,380 males, 2,730 females).^[1]

1 History
2 Description
3 Cultural references
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Meols was named as such by the Vikings; its original name from the Old Norse for 'sand dunes' was melr, ^[2] ^[3] becoming melas by the time of the Domesday Survey.^[4]

Impressive archaeological finds dating back to the Neolithic period suggest that the site was an important centre in antiquity. Since about 1810, a large number of artefacts have been found relating to pre-Roman Carthage, the Iron Age, the Roman Empire, the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. These include items as varied as coins, tokens, brooches, pins, knives, glass beads, keys, pottery, flint tools, mounts, pilgrim badges, pieces of leather, worked wood and iron weapons. They came to be discovered after the beginning of large-scale dredging (to accommodate the needs of the nearby growing seaport of Liverpool) started to cause notable sand erosion along the coastline near Meols. These finds suggest that the site was used as a port as far back as the Iron Age some 2400 years ago, and was once the most important seaport in the present-day northwest of England. Thus trading connections are believed to have reached far across Europe.^[5] ^[6]

Many of the present day inhabitants of Meols show Viking ancestry. In 2002, University of Nottingham researchers began investigating the degree of Viking blood still extant in the village.^[7]

Meols is an amalgam of the two former villages of Great Meols and Little Meols. Both were townships in West Kirby Parish of the Wirral Hundred, becoming part of Hoylake cum West Kirby civil parish in 1894. Great Meols had a population of 140 in 1801, 170 in 1851 and 821 in 1901.^[8] The name Little Meols fell out of use in Victorian times, having been absorbed by Hoylake. From 123 inhabitants in 1801 and 170 in 1851, by 1901 at 2,850, its population had outstripped Great Meols.^[9] The name Great Meols was still in use up to the 1960s, for instance in postal addresses and on the destination indicators of buses from Chester, but not as the name of the railway station. Little Meols was situated to the west (towards Hoylake), in the area served by Manor Road railway station.

Meols was known to be spelt as Meolse^[10] up until when the railway station was placed.^{[citation needed]} The error came about at the time of the station's construction, when rail managers took the spelling of Meols from the Southport suburb of Meols Cop and used it for new signage.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Description

The Railway Inn has an undated boat buried under its car park

Meols is mainly residential with a small yacht and fishing community on its Irish Sea shore line. The centre has a small row of shops adjacent to Meols railway station.

It was home to the cyclist Chris Boardman, winner of a gold medal for Great Britain at the 1992 Summer Olympics, before he moved to Hoylake.

In the 1930s a clinker-built boat was discovered in rebuilding the Railway Inn public house. Ground-penetrating radar equipment was used in September 2007 to confirm the existence of the boat. The vessel is believed to be lying beneath approximately 6ft to 10ft (2m to 3m) of clay.^[11] Professor Stephen Harding, of the University of Nottingham, is seeking funds for an excavation and removal to a museum.

[edit] Cultural references

Andy McCluskey of the 1980s electronic music band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) is from Meols. OMD had a track called Red Frame/White Light which referred to the public telephone box between the church and the Railway Inn in Meols. Hidden within the lyrics was the telephone number of the telephone box. It is claimed that fans would call that telephone number from all over the world.

The television sitcom Watching, produced by Granada Television between 1987 and 1993, utilised Meols as a filming location. This was likely due to the fact that the characters Malcolm & Mrs Stoneway lived in the village.^[12]