Wirral's Viking Trail

The Church of St Mary and St Helen, Neston It is likely that there was a pre-Norman church on the site of the present Church of St Mary and St Helen in Neston. It was recorded that Neston had a priest in the Domesday Book of 1086, although the first mention of a church is of one built around 1170 by a family named Montalt, as an act of reparation for the inhumanity and misdeeds committed by members of the family in the subjugation of the district. There were several additions to the church over the years and is likely that alterations were made during the Commonwealth period in the 17 th century. The joint dedication to Mary, mother of Jesus and Helen, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, is unique in the Anglican Church . Inside the nave there is a collection of sandstone fragments, which were found in the foundations in 1874, when much of the dilapidated Norman church was pulled down and rebuilt. Originally thought to be Saxon, the style is clearly Vikin...

  Some major Wirral place-names Wirral:1611 map by John Speed Abbreviations      ON                         Old Norse      OE                         Old English      ODan                     Old Danish      OIr                         Old Irish      Pers. n.                   personal name     DB                                Domesday Book (1086/7) Arrowe “A shieling”, from ON erg or ærgi . A shieling...

Steve delivered the Hakon Hakonsson Lecture in Largs in 2016 called "Science and the Vikings". This is a link to the recording which was made of the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx308UyMaWs pdf link to the book:  https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/Science_and_the_Vikings_Harding_LargsHS_2017.pdf  Amazon link to get your own copy of Steve's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Vikings-Stephen-Harding/dp/1527207064

  West Kirby hogback The hogback front The hogback in St Bridget’s Parish Church, West Kirby dates from the 10 th or early 11 th century AD and is of Anglo-Norse origin. It was discovered during the restoration of the church in 1869-70 on the site now covered by the aisle and was restored by the Merseyside Conservation Centre in 1999. In the Charles Dawson Museum next to the church, there are a number of fragments from the same period, including tenth- or eleventh-century circle-headed crosses. The collection has been taken to indicate that an early medieval ecclesiastical and burial landscape developed at West Kirby. The wealthy patrons of the church commemorated by the monuments might have included landed elites, merchants and their followers. West Kirby is a Scandinavian place-name (ON kirkju-býr ‘ village with a church ’. It is West ~ to distinguish the place from Kirkby in Wallasey.) The church’s dedication to the Irish St Bridget has been connected to Hiberno-Norse activ...