MAGAZINE 2025-26
A Leicester car park gave up the remains of King Richard III. The Railway’s car park could also be hiding vital historical secrets.
Ground penetrating radar and samples retrieved by augers - drill-like tools used by archeologists to extract sub-surface deposits without digging down - strongly indicate the presence of a clinker boat.
Clinker refers to the use of overlapping planks of wood to fashion a hull, and is the classic Viking shipbuilding technique.
But how did the boat get here? To Wirral in general and the car park in particular? The answers lie in Wirral’s Viking past and, possibly, an extreme weather event.
Despite being a biochemist, Wallasey born Professor Steve Harding of Nottingham and Oslo Universities has become an authority on Wirral’s Viking heritage, having stumbled upon the subject while a student.
“Just over 1100 years ago,” he tells me, “a group of Viking settlers of primarily Norwegian descent, otherwise known as Norsemen – and joined by some Danes - arrived somewhere between places they would later call Vestri-Kirkjubýr or West Kirby, and Melr or Meols on the shores of north Wirral.
“They had been driven out of Ireland, and their successful landing on the Wirral peninsula initiated a mass migration of their fellow countrymen into the area.
“Soon they had established a community with a clearly defined border, its own leader, its own language, a trading port and, at the centre of this community, a place of assembly or government - the Thing at Þingvöllr, or Thingwall.”
Thingwall is about six miles south of the Hoylake area, just a 15 minute drive, but a slog on horseback or foot if you wanted to turn up to air a grievance or hear what the lawmakers had to say.
This society was answerable to nobody else: the English, the Welsh, the Dublin Norse, the Isle of Man, Iceland, and not even Norway. The Wirral Norse settlement therefore satisfied all the criteria of an independent, self-governing Viking State - albeit a small one.
“However,” Steve continues, “until about 25 years ago hardly anyone in Wirral knew about this. At school children were told the Vikings were foreign bad guys from whom Alfred the Great rescued England.
“It wasn’t understood just how deep Wirral’s Viking roots are, but this heritage is now more and more accessible thanks to the efforts of a growing band of enthusiasts who are proud of the peninsula’s Viking past.”
It wasn’t understood just how deep Wirral’s Viking roots are.
In Wirral there is plenty of supporting place-name evidence, not just settlement names, but also hundreds of minor names.
These include the word ‘carr’ - from Old Norse ‘kjarr’ meaning brushland on a marsh; ‘holm’ – referring to dry land in a marshy area; and ‘rake’ – otherwise known as a lane.
There’s archaeology, too, with hogback stones at West Kirby and Bidston; Viking crosses in Neston, Bromborough, Woodchurch and Greasby; evidence of houses occupied by Vikings at Irby and Lingham; an array of what appear to be Viking Age artefacts from Meols; and a rediscovered story or saga about Wirral’s first Viking Leader - Ingimund.
“The Wirral Vikings were a fairly peaceful bunch,” says Steve. “Having been expelled from Ireland they would have brought Irish wives with them who would have raised their kids as Christians – hence the Viking crosses and churches. They would also have gradually integrated with the Anglo Saxons who spoke a language not too dissimilar to their own.”
It goes without saying that Vikings were skilled seafarers and boatbuilders. On arrival in Wirral they set about establishing Meols as their port, a gateway to prosperity.
It was 1938 when what could be one of their boats was partially uncovered. Building work was underway at the Railway pub when what seemed to a section of an old vessel became visible during excavation. Fearful that this discovery would slow down the job, the find was promptly covered up.
Beforehand, one of the construction workers, John McRae, made notes of its design, estimated size and location. In 1991, his son, also John, compiled them into a report and sketch. This was submitted to National Museums Liverpool, but it seems it was just filed away and no action taken.
Years later, the Railway landlord, a local police officer, and historian Tim Baldock put their heads together and contact was made with Steve Harding. In 2023, a team including members of Wirral Archeology began the first of two investigations to date, but the site is not an easy one. It’s a large, flagged patio space right outside the pub; buried pipes and cables criss-cross the area; and a slab of concrete, possibly laid to support a crane, covers some of the target.
Nevertheless, radar told a promising story, as did those small samples of ancient wood extracted when the underground clues were followed up.
The project’s lead archeologist, Chas Jones, has a fascinating theory. He was surprised by the discovery of topsy turvy wood samples within the confines of the boat’s hull, wood from ancient forests consumed by the sea. He says, “It appears that a powerful surge stripped the layers out at sea, starting with the youngest layers, washing them to shore and then dumping them into the boat. Then, on top of that young wood, the older wood that had been stripped from further out at sea was brought along and dumped on the younger wood.
“What does this mean? The carbon dating evidence suggests that the surge swamped the boat in situ beside the bank of a channel. Its upright position backs this up, also suggesting it was not carried by the surge and deposited where it now rests.”
What is the future of this important piece of the past? The Meols boat’s upper section has rotted away, but there is hope more solid material will have survived lower down in the clay.
Further investigation will put theory to the test, and could pin down the boat’s date. In the meantime, Chas Jones likens it to Skuldelev 1, a sturdy cargo vessel some 50 feet long, constructed in Sognefjorden in western Norway around the year 1030, and now on display at Denmark’s Roskilde Viking Ship Museum not far from Copenhagen.
Next time you play Hoylake in high winds and lose the will to live, spare a thought for the Meols boat’s crew of six to eight at sea in a force 10 gale a millennium ago.
There’s always someone worse off than you.
What is the future of this important piece of the past?
*Royal Liverpool Golf Club apologises unreservedly for this tenuous link.