Wallasey

Wallasey, town in Merseyside, north-western England. It is situated on the Wirral peninsula, north of Birkenhead, and is a dormitory town for Liverpool. The Domesday Book records the settlement as Walea, and a document of 1351 mentions it under the name of Waleysegh, from wala (Old English, “Welsh”) and ēg (“island”)—literally, “island of the Welsh”. The name originally applied to the surrounding area, which became isolated from the rest of the peninsula by Wallasey Pool (an inlet of the River Mersey) at high tide, forming an island. With the rise of commercial shipping, the area became notorious for shipwrecks. There has been a church at Wallasey since the 6th century and stones found there indicate an early Norman building. The structure that stands today mostly dates from the late 1850s. The town probably had the country’s first racecourse, as horse races have been recorded in Wallasey since the early 17th century. Population (1991) 80,955.