HOYLAKE

'Hoylake' is a seaside town in Merseyside, England, a few miles to the west of Liverpool. It is located on the western corner of the Wirral Peninsula, where the estuary of the River Dee meets the Irish Sea. As of the 2001 Census, the population of Hoylake, as part of the Hoylake & Meols Ward, was 13,042.

Contents

History

Civic history

Community

Transport

Railways

Sport

Golf

Rugby Union

Sand Yachting

People

References

External links

History

In 1690, William III set sail from Hoylake with a 10,000-strong army to Ireland, where his army was to take part in the Battle of the Boyne. The location of departure remains known as Kings Gap.^[2]
The name Hoylake was derived from Hoyle Lake, a channel of water between Hilbre Island and Dove Point. ^[3] The present day township grew up in the nineteenth century around the small fishing village of 'Hoose'.^[4]
The Royal Hotel was built by Sir John Stanley in 1792, with the intention of developing the area as a holiday resort. The numerous steam packet vessels sailing between Liverpool and North Wales which called at the hotel provided valuable patronage. By the mid-nineteenth century a racecourse was laid out in the grounds of the hotel. The hotel building was demolished in the 1950s. ^[5]
The Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial is a notable local landmark, as it was designed in 1922 by the British sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger who was responsible for a number of war memorials around the world, including the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London.

Civic history

The township of Hoose was part of the West Kirby Parish, Wirral Hundred. It became part of Hoylake cum West Kirby civil parish in 1894. ^[6]
The population was 60 in 1801, 589 in 1851 and 2,701 in 1901. ^[7]
Hoylake had its own urban district council and mayor, until 1974 when it was absorbed into the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Wirral when local government reorganisation took place across the UK. At that point, Hoylake ceased to be in Cheshire, and became part of the nascent county of Merseyside. This did not please some Wirral residents who have since campaigned unsuccessfully for a return to Cheshire, although some have been mollified by the more recent change in postcode district from L47 to CH47.

Community

Hoylake is a largely residential area and there is an active nightlife in the town centre, which is located at the original village of Hoose.^[8]
The town supports a permanent lifeboat station and a sailing club.
Due to the silting up of the Dee estuary, the traditional industry of fishing is no longer economically viable and has largely died out.

Transport

Railways

Hoylake has two railway stations: Hoylake and Manor Road, both of which are situated on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network.

Sport

Golf

Hoylake is the home of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, built on the site of the Royal Hotel racecourse. ^[8] It has hosted many major tournaments such as The Open Championship and the Walker Cup. The club is often referred to as "Hoylake". It hosted the Open again in July 2006, after a gap of almost 40 years, with Tiger Woods earning the Claret Jug for the second year in a row.
Hoylake-born amateur golfer John Ball Jnr. won the Open in 1890, becoming the first Englishman to do so. Another local amateur, Harold Hilton became Open champion two years later. He won again in 1897 at his home club of Royal Liverpool.

Rugby Union

Hoylake RFC rugby club was founded in 1922. Its predecessor, connected with the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, had been founded in the 1890s. British Open golf champion Harold Hilton was also captain of the rugby team for the 1890/91 season. ^[10]

Sand Yachting

Hoylake has one of the premier sites for Sand Yachting in Britain, on the banks around a quarter of a mile offshore, and is to host the European Sand Yacht Championships, possibly the largest event in the sport worldwide, in September 2007, opening Sunday September 16th.^[11]

People

The former Olympic Games cyclist Chris Boardman (1968- ) was born in Hoylake.
Helen Forrester (1919- ), author of ''Twopence to Cross the Mersey'' was also born in the town. ^[12]
Former actress and current (as of 2007) Labour MP Glenda Jackson (1936- ), James Bond actor Daniel Craig (1968- ) and pianist Stephen Hough (1961- ) grew up in Hoylake. James Skelly, Bill Ryder-Jones, Nick Power, Lee Southall, Paul Duffy, and John Duffy, from the band The Coral, were also raised there.
John Lennon's first wife Cynthia moved from Liverpool to Hoylake after their divorce in 1968 Cynthia had also grown up in Hoylake as a child. Their son Julian Lennon (1963- ) spent much of his early life in Hoylake. ^[13]

References

1.
★ Population Data (Hoylake & Meols) 2001 Census ONS
2. Walker Art Gallery, frieze of King William III setting sail to Ireland from Hoylake
3. Young, D., & Young, M. ''Pictures From The Past: Hoylake, Meols & West Kirby'
4. Hoylake
5. Hoylake RFC History
6. Cheshire Parishes: Hoose (Hoylake)
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. http://www.visitliverpool.com/site/european-sandyacht-championship-p131121
12. Fantastic Fiction: Helen Forrester Retrieved 29 August 2007
13. Julian Lennon Biography

External links

★ Wirral Website: Hoylake

★ Royal Liverpool Golf Club

★ Hoylake Lifeboat

★ Hoylake Sailing Club

★ Wirral Sand Yacht Club

★ The 2007 European Sandyacht Championships

★ Hoylake Fishing

★ Kingsmead School