Upton is a village in the parish of Overchurch on the Wirral Peninsula

Wirral Peninsula

Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, situated close to Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

. At the 2001 Census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

, the population was 15,731 (7,268 males, 8,463 females), although as a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 311,200, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of...

, encompassing a larger area, it was recorded as 16,200.

History

Upton was originally settled as a farming community, during the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 period. In Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 times, Upton was listed in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

of 1086 as Optone and was written as being in the possession of William Mallbank.
Upton was the primary economic centre of northern Wirral until the industrial development of Birkenhead during the mid-19th century. The main thoroughfare of the village was also the place of a weekly market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

. Fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

s were also held in the village at Michaelmas

Michaelmas

Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...

 and Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

.

A Runestone was discovered in the ruins of Upton's Norman parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 in Overchurch. The stone is now kept at the Grosvenor Museum

Grosvenor Museum

Grosvenor Museum is in Grosvenor Street, Chester, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building. Its full title is The Grosvenor Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, with Schools of Science and Art, for Chester, Cheshire and North Wales...

 in Chester

Chester

Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

.

In 1847, William Williams Mortimer said of Upton in his History of the Hundred of Wirral:

"..though now only a small village, Upton was formerly considered the metropolis of the lower mediety of Wirral, and had two annual fairs of considerable importance, and also a weekly market that was discontinued in 1620, the village having been recently almost entirely rebuilt, contains several good houses, among which may be particularly mentioned Upton Hall..."

A major contributor to the village was William Inman

William Inman

William Inman was the owner of the Liverpool, New York and Philadelphia Steamship Company, also known as the Inman Line, which ran services from Liverpool to New York & Philadelphia, in the United States, for emigration in the mid-19th century.He was the owner of Upton Manor, in the grounds of...

, owner of the Inman Line

Inman Line

The Inman Line which operated from 1850 until its 1893 absorption into American Line, was one of the three largest 19th century British passenger shipping companies on the North Atlantic, along with the White Star Line and Cunard Line...

, who donated money for the construction of St. Mary's Church. Inman resided at Upton Manor, within the grounds of Upton Park.

Upton was a township

Township

The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...

 in the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Overchurch in the Wirral Hundred, Its population was 141 in 1801, 227 in 1851 and 788 in 1901.

Community

Upton has a number of schools: Overchurch Primary School, St. Joseph's Primary School, St. Benedict's High School (now closed and demolished), Upton Hall School FCJ

Upton Hall School FCJ

Upton Hall School FCJ, is a single sex girls' Roman Catholic voluntary aided grammar school located in Merseyside, England. It is one of four Catholic schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, and was founded as a girls' convent school by Nuns of the Society of the Faithful Companions of Jesus...

, a grammar school for girls and Hayfield School on Manor Drive.

St. Mary's Church is Upton's Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 parish church. It is a large church, which was consecrated on 28 April 1868.
St. Joseph's Church, the local Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 parish church, was opened on 31 August 1954.

Victory Hall, a community hall rebuilt in 1963, was originally sited in a large Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 villa

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

, which had been purchased by public subscription.
Upton Library was opened in 1936 and built in the Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 style of architecture. The village's war memorial

War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...

 is located within its grounds.

The Village Youth Project, known as 'The Bank', is a youth club set up in 1999. It provides a range of activities for the youth of Upton. It runs various events for the community, including a popular annual fair, situated at Overchurch Primary School each summer. The club also organises many residential visits to various parts of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The village is represented in sport by Upton Cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 Club, which was established in 1901, and Upton Victory Hall Lawn Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 & Badminton

Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

 Club. In football, Upton FC has teams for both boys and girls of all abilities and ages from six onwards.

Upton Park is an area of recreational open space and woodland. The park was part of William Inman's Upton Manor estate and had included a racecourse

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 between 1922 and 1924. Part of the Upton Park site is now the Moreton Spur road, connected to the M53 motorway.

Transport

Upton today is most notable for its central location between Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

 and West Kirby

West Kirby

West Kirby is a town on the north-west corner of the coast of the Wirral Peninsula, England, at the mouth of the River Dee across from the Point of Ayr in North Wales. To the north-east of the town lies Hoylake, with the suburbs of Grange and Newton to the east, and the village of Caldy to the...

. The consequence of this is that road transport through Upton is uncharacteristically efficient for the rural suburban area of Wirral. Upton is situated at the junction of roads from Birkenhead, Moreton

Moreton, Merseyside

Moreton is a town on the north coast of the Wirral Peninsula, England. In the 2001 Census, it had a population of 17,670 ....

, Greasby

Greasby

Greasby is a large village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is part of the Greasby, Frankby & Irby Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is situated in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West...

, Saughall Massie

Saughall Massie

Saughall Massie is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is bordered by Greasby, Meols, Moreton and Upton. The village is part of the Moreton West & Saughall Massie Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wallasey...

 and Arrowe Park

Arrowe Park

Arrowe Park is an area of parkland, woodland and leisure facilities to the west of Birkenhead within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, England. The park comprises approximately of land.-History:...

. The road network was further enhanced with the building of a bypass

Bypass (road)

A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....

 (the A5027) in the early 1980s. The M53 motorway

M53 motorway

The M53 is a motorway in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and Cheshire on the Wirral Peninsula in England. It can also be referred to as the Mid Wirral Motorway...

, at Junction 2, is situated less than a mile from the centre of the village and connects directly to the bypass.

The exception to this is rail transport, as Upton is not part of the major rail link from Birkenhead to West Kirby, which instead passes around the more densely populated coast. Upton railway station

Upton railway station

Upton railway station serves the village of Upton, Wirral and the Noctorum area of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The station is situated on the Borderlands Line. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Arriva Trains Wales....

 exists as part of the Borderlands Line

Borderlands Line

The Borderlands Line is the railway line between Wrexham, Wales, and Bidston, Wirral, England.Passenger train services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales between Wrexham Central and Bidston. Trains run every hour Monday to Saturday daytime, every two hours after 18:45 and on Sundays...

 between Bidston

Bidston

Bidston is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the geographical county of Cheshire...

 and Wrexham

Wrexham

Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...

. Due to its location, the station is more of service to the Noctorum

Noctorum

Noctorum is a suburb of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the 2001 Census the population of Noctorum was 4,990 ....

 community, rather than Upton. This is not considered a problem however, as the locality is well served by regular bus services.

Notable people

• Andrew Baddeley an English middle distance runner competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

External links

• Upton In the Hundred of Wirral Local history website.
• St.Mary's Church
• Upton Library
• Upton Cricket Club