Grange, Merseyside


Grange is a small suburb on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Contiguous with West Kirby and Newton, it is part of the West Kirby & Thurstaston Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

History

According to the Domesday Book, Grange was one of the estates owned by Robert de Rodelent. It 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. 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.
Until 1 April 1974, Grange, along with the rest of the Wirral, was part of the county of Cheshire.

Geography

Grange is in the north-western part of the Wirral Peninsula, approximately south-east of the Irish Sea at Hoylake, less than east of the Dee Estuary at West Kirby and west-south-west of the River Mersey at Seacombe. 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

Founded 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 is Wirral's oldest surviving grammar school. Glegg's vision that it should have ‘continuance and endure for evermore' has certainly been fulfilled and over the years, his little 12 pupil school has been transformed into a dynamic establishment of over 1300 students – which includes over 400 male and female students in the Sixth Form.

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

is the nearest to Grange, less than to the west. This station is on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network, with frequent services to Liverpool.