Raby () is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the

Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, England. Administratively it is located within the

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 321,238, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Be ...

as part of

Clatterbridge Clatterbridge is a hamlet (place), hamlet on the Wirral Peninsula, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is to the south-west of Bebington and close to the M53 motorway. Clatterbridge is also the name of Clatterbridge (w ...

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. The settlement is within the parliamentary constituency of

Wirral South Wirral South is a constituency in Merseyside, England represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Alison McGovern of the Labour Party since 2010. Constituency profile Wirral South covers the central part of the Wirral peninsu ...

. Raby is situated approximately to the north east of the town of

Neston Neston is a town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in Cheshire, England. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The village of Parkgate is located to the north west and the villages of Little Neston and Ness ...

and close to Merseyside's boundary with

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. The hamlet of

Raby Mere Raby Mere is a Hamlet (place), hamlet on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Adjacent to the Green Belt, woodland and open countryside, it is known for its Mere (lake), mere, a lake that has been used for leisure purposes for many years. The hamlet ...

is located to the east. At the time of the

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 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

, Raby had a total population of 100.

History

The name is of

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

origin, deriving from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''Ra-byr'', meaning 'boundary settlement'. It is believed to be so named because it lay close to the boundary which existed in the 10th and 11th centuries between the Norse colony in Wirral to the north, centred on

Thingwall Thingwall is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England. The village is situated approximately to the south west of Birkenhead and north east of Heswall. Historically part of Cheshire, the area is within the Pensby and Thingwal ...

, and

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

to the south. Raby was a township in Neston Parish of the

Wirral Hundred The Hundred of Wirral is the ancient administrative area for the Wirral Peninsula. Its name is believed to have originated from the ''Hundred of Wilaveston'', the historic name for Willaston, which was an important assembly point in the Wirral ...

with a population of 131 in 1801, 195 in 1851, 350 in 1901 and 308 in 1951.

Geography

Raby is in the central part of the Wirral Peninsula, approximately south-south-east of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

at Leasowe Lighthouse, east-north-east of the

Dee Estuary The Dee Estuary ( cy, Aber Dyfrdwy) is a large estuary by means of which the River Dee flows into Liverpool Bay. The estuary starts near Shotton after a five-mile (8 km) 'canalised' section and the river soon swells to be several miles ...

at Parkgate and about west of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

at Eastham. The hamlet is situated at an elevation of around above sea level.

Community

Raby is a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

community, comprising a few houses, two

farms A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

and an old,

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, the 'Wheatsheaf', which is well known in the locality. The pub is owned by the Leverhulme Estate, which owns much land locally. Raby, along with the neighbouring villages of

Brimstage Brimstage () is a village in the centremost part of the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is approximately east of Heswall and south west of Bebington. Administratively, it is within the Clatterbridge Ward of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

Thornton Hough Thornton Hough () is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever, founder of Lever ...

, are within an Area of Special Landscape Value, a protective designation to preserve the character and appearance of the area. This is part of the Wirral Unitary Development Plan of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. The parish church is

All Saints Church, Thornton Hough All Saints Church is in Raby Road, Thornton Hough, Merseyside, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the Deanery of Wirral, South, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the diocese of Chester. The church is recorded in the National He ...

. The local primary school is Thornton Hough Primary.

Transport

Road

Raby is accessible from the A540 to the south-west, the B5151 to the east and the B5136 to the north.

Bus

Services operating in the Raby Area as of 2015:

Rail

The nearest station to Raby is

Bromborough railway station Bromborough railway station is one of two stations serving the town of Bromborough in Merseyside, England. The station is situated on the Chester and Ellesmere Port branches of the Wirral Line, part of the Merseyrail network. History The ...

, about to the east. This station is on the

Wirral Line The Wirral line is one of two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line. The Wirral line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with b ...

of the

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...

network, with frequent services to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral