Place:Woodchurch, Cheshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

Woodchurch was one of the eight townships in the ancient parish of the same name, in the Wirral Hundred. The other townships in the ancient parish were Arrowe, Barnston, Landican, Noctorum, Oxton, Pensby, Prenton and Thingwall. Each of the townships became a civil parish in 1866. (Source:A Vision of Britain through Time)

Woodchurch was part of the Wirral Rural District from 1894 until 1933 when the civil parish was abolished and the area became part of Birkenhead. The population was 52 in 1801, 96 in 1851, 140 in 1901, and 113 in 1931. At the 2001 Census the population of the original township was 8,400. The township covered 339 acres.

In the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974 the entire Wirral Peninsula, with the exception of the municipal borough of Ellesmere Port and urban district of Neston at the southern end, became the Metropolitan Borough of the Wirral in the new administrative county of Merseyside.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Woodchurch.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Woodchurch from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WOODCHURCH, a township and a sub-district in Wirral district, and a parish partly also in Birkenhead district, Cheshire. The township lies 4 miles WSW of Birkenhead [railway] station, and has a post-office under Birkenhead. Acres: 331. Real property: £822. Population: 94. Houses: 16.

"The parish contains 7 townships and a part in Wirral district, and 2 and a part in Birkenhead district. Acres: 5,792. Population in 1851: 2,927; in 1861: 3,922. Houses: 650. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Chester. Value: £1,100. Patron, the Rev. P. R. Robin. The church is late perpendicular, with decorated English tower. The vicarage of Oxton is a separate benefice. There are an endowed school for boys with £55 a year, a national school for girls, and charities £30.

"The sub-district includes the Wirral part of W. parish, two other parishes, three other townships, and an extra-parochial tract. Acres, 44,764. Population, 4,030. Houses, 736."

Research Tips

• Diagram of Sanitary Districts in Cheshire showing Civil Parishes 1888 produced by the Ordnance Survey and provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• An Ordnance Survey map of Cheshire circa 1944 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time
• GENUKI references for Woodchurch
• A description of Woodchurch from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 (courtesy of A Vision of Britain through Time)