Grange (historically known as Caldy Grange, which gives its name to the local grammar school) is a suburb of

West Kirby West Kirby () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. In the north west of the Wirral Peninsula and at the mouth of the River Dee, the town is contiguous with Hoylake. It lies within the historic county bo ...

, on the

Wirral Peninsula The Wirral Peninsula (), 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 Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...

, in 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 (), and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebingt ...

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. The suburb is contiguous with Newton to the north east.

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

part of 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 ...

, it is within the local government ward of West Kirby and Thurstaston and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West.

History

According to the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, Grange (also called Great Caldy, or Caldy Grange) was one of the estates owned by Hugh Delamere, consisting of a single household. The land later passed into the hands of Basingwerk Abbey, until the dissolution of the Monasteries. In the seventeenth century it became the property of William Glegg who also founded Calday Grange Grammar School, and it remained the property of the Gleggs until 1785, when it was bought by John Leigh, a Liverpool solicitor and property speculator, who refounded the grammar school. He passed it on to his son John Shaw Leigh who later went on to buy

Luton Hoo Luton Hoo is an English country house and estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Saxon word Hoo means the spur of a hill, and is more comm ...

. By the twentieth century the area was in the hands of the trustees of Madame de Falbe, his son John Gerard Leigh's widow, who had remarried to Christian de Falbe, the Danish ambassador. Grange was a township in West Kirby 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, Cheshire West, Willaston, which was an important asse ...

, which became a civil parish in 1866 and included the hamlets of Caldy Grange and Newton Carr. The civil parish was part of Wirral Rural District, then from 1933

Hoylake Urban District Hoylake () is a 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 meets the Irish Sea. At the 2021 census, the built up area had ...

, within the county of

. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished and the area became unparished, in

. The population was recorded at 10 in 1801, 105 in 1851, 299 in 1901 and rising to 7,657 by 1951.

Geography

Grange is in the north-western part of the Wirral Peninsula, approximately 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 ...

, less than east 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 ...

and 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 ...

Seacombe Seacombe () is a district of the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, Seacombe is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was p ...

. Grange is situated on the eastern side of the ridge which includes Grange Hill, with the area at an elevation of between above sea level.

Education

In 1636 local landowner William Glegg founded Calday Grange Grammar School on the present site on Grammar School Lane, off Column Road. It was established as a free grammar school and is Wirral's oldest surviving grammar school. Glegg's vision was that the school should have ‘continuance and endure for evermore'. Over the years, his little 12 pupil school has been enlarged into an establishment of nearly 1,400 students – which includes over 400 male and female students in the Sixth Form. The locality is also served by Hilbre High School and West Kirby Grammar School at secondary education level.

Sport

Shooting

Grange Rifle and Pistol Club is a private members club which was established in 1942. and offers many types of shooting including air rifle/pistol, black powder pistol, gallery rifle, smallbore rifle, long barreled revolver, fullbore rifle and archery.

Swimming

Near the grammar school on Gourley's Lane is Calday Grange Swimming Pool which is home to Calday Grange Amateur Swimming Club, West Kirby Amateur Swimming Club, Hoylake Amateur Swimming Club, Woodchurch Swimming Club and the Peninsula Canoe Club.

Transport

Road

The B5139 passes around and through Grange to the north. The B5139 has junctions with the B5192 Saughall Massie Road and the A540 Column Road, the latter of which runs along the western side of Grange.

Rail

West Kirby railway station West Kirby railway station serves the town of West Kirby, in Merseyside, England. It is the terminus of the West Kirby branch line, one of the two branches of the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network. There is a central island platform betwee ...

is the nearest to Grange, less than to the west. This station is on the Wirral line of the

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...

network, with frequent services to

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

References

Bibliography

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