In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Hoylake like this:
HOOSE, or Hoylake, a village, a township, and a chapelry in West Kirby parish, Cheshire. The village stands on the coast, near the mouth of the Dee estuary, 7½ miles W by N of Birkenhead; is now a favourite watering place; has a post office, ‡ of the name of Hoylake, under Birkenhead; is connected with Birkenhead by a railway, completed in 1866; and has a race-course on which races are run, in May and Sept., by the Liverpool hunt. ...
The railway to it commences on the Mersey at Seacombe ferry; passes near the N side of the Birkenhead docks; proceeds through Poolton village to Bidston; is joined there by a branch from the Wallasey-Bridgeroad in Birkenhead; proceeds, by way of Moreton, Saughall-Massey and Great Meols, to Hoylake; and was authorised, in 1865, to be extended 4¾ miles to New Brighton, and in 1866, to be extended 8¼ miles to Parkgate. A roadstead, called Hoylake, originally Hoyle-Lake, is opposite the village; serves for vessels waiting a night or a tide, to go through the Rock channel to Liverpool, or up the Dee to Chester; has anchorage in from 3 to 5 fathoms; is considerably sheltered, along the outer side, by a shoal, called the Hoyle Sands, 4 miles long and 3 miles wide; and has two dioptric fixed lights, erected in 1865 in place of old ones, 71 and 47 feet high, put up in 1763. -The township comprises 230 acres of land, and 2, 140 of water. Real property, £1, 431. Pop., 664. Houses, 136.—The chapelry was constituted in 1860; and is larger than the township. Pop., 1, 017. Houses, 202. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Chester. Value, £150. Patron, the Bishop of Chester.
Hoylake through time
Hoylake is now part of Wirral district. Click here for graphs and data of how Wirral has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Hoylake itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Hoylake, in Wirral and Cheshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1157
Date accessed: 16th April 2024
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