Gayton is a village in the Wirral district, in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England, located between

Heswall Heswall () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was historically part of Cheshire and became part of Merseyside in 1974. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 202 ...

and Parkgate. At the 2001 Census, the population of Gayton stood at 3,110.

History

The name is of

Viking Vikings were 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 settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

origin, deriving from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

''Geit-tún'', meaning 'goat farmstead'. Gayton was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the parish of Heswall, in 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, Cheshire West, Willaston, which was an important asse ...

, in 1866 Gayton became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

. The hamlets of Dawstone and Oldfield are also included as part of Gayton. The parish population was 100 in 1801, 144 in 1851, 180 in 1901 and 832 in 1951. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of

Wirral Urban District Wirral Urban District was an urban district in Cheshire, England from 1933 to 1974. It was created from part of the disbanded Wirral Rural District and covered an area on the south-west side of the Wirral Peninsula. The largest settlement was ...

in the county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. William of Orange stayed at Gayton Hall in 1689 en route to the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ) took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Sc ...

in Ireland, and knighted his host, Sir William Glegg. Gayton Windmill, built of red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and Wirral's oldest tower mill, ceased operation in 1875. It has since been converted into a private residence.

Geography

Gayton is on the western side of the Wirral Peninsula, and is situated at the eastern side of the

Dee Estuary The Dee Estuary () 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 wide forming t ...

. The village is approximately south-south-east of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

Hoylake Hoylake () is a coast, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the north west of the Wirral Peninsula, near West Kirby and where the River Dee, Wales, River Dee meets the Irish Sea. At the 2021 United K ...

and about west-south-west of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river 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 h ...

Port Sunlight Port Sunlight is a model village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in ...

. The village is situated at an elevation of between above sea level.

Transport

Rail

The nearest railway station to Gayton is

Bus

Services operating in the Gayton area, as of January 2015:

References

Bibliography

External links

Photo: Gayton Windmill

Merseytravel
{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Former civil parishes in Merseyside