would sail up to Dort-Pool and Nesson you must have a care of the out Scar-Rocks . . . You may Anchor at Dort-Pool in three Fathom water."

Map No. 30, dated 1689, shows Dorpoole as one house on the shore, without any sign of a quay, as at Neston. The Scar Rocks are opposite West Kirby. Eerbey-hall is marked.

The following have also been consulted, but they give practically no fresh information. The name is usually spelt Dalpool. (1) Murdock Mackenzie, sen., A Maritim Survey of Ireland and the West of Great Britain, taken by order of the Admiralty, vol. ii, 1776. (2) Capt. Joseph Huddart, The Coasting Pilot for Great Britain and Ireland; map dated 12 May, 1794. (3) C. Smith's New Map of the County Palatine of Chester, 1804. (4) George Thomas, A Survey of the harbour of Liverpool, made by order of the Admiralty, 1813. (5) James Hunter's New Map of the Hundred of Wirral, Chester, 1820. (6) W. Swire and W. F. Hutchings' Map of the County Palatine of Chester, 1830.

Just about half a mile north of Thurstaston station, on the northern boundary of the parish, a tiny stream flows into the estuary. On the shore at this point is a massive rounded archway of the local red sandstone, some of the stones being as much as six feet long. From this a jetty runs into the sea while the beach for some distance around is strewn with a quantity of squared stones; it would appear as if at some time there had been a quay, or a sea wall to protect the bank against erosion, and that the archway was made to allow the stream (which would be larger in winter) egress to the sea. The bed of the stream for some distance from its mouth contains many squared stones. Further north a line of large and long stones stretches along the beach for a considerable distance. None of the work appears of any great age.

Sulley mentions that " in 1823 efforts had been made to establish a dock and a line of steamers at Dawpool,” and adds, "Fortunately all these schemes came to nought."

The scheme is thus referred to in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1822.1

The establishment of the port at Dawpool, near Chester, is in progress, and a speedy report is expected on the subject from that intelligent engineer Mr. Telford. Independently of the general accommodation which packets would afford at that station, the ready communication between Dublin and the depôt at Chester, where nearly 40,000 stand of arms are kept, with other warlike stores, is a subject of vital importance, especially at a time when the sister Island is in a state of dangerous fermentation."

I have not been able to find any advertisements of the sailing of packets from Dawpool in the Liverpool newspapers of the period. The scheme was soon abandoned.2 It would appear, however, that previous to this time some importations were made at Dawpool, as the parish registers contain the burial entries of two officers of customs at Dawpool, in the years 1777 and 1792.

Lists of vessels hailing from Wirral in 1541, 1544 and 1571, are extant in the City of Chester archives; but while Hilbre, West Kirby and Caldy to the north and Heswall and Neston to the south are credited with a number of trading vessels, none appear as belonging to Dawpool. Dean Swift, it may be mentioned, landed at Darpool" from Dublin in 1707 and sailed thence for Ireland in 1709.*

In 1860-1 John Baskervyle Glegg (in respect of the Hundred of Caldy), was returned in the list of Lords of the Manors entitled to unclaimed wreck, his rights extending from Leighton on Dee to Seacombe (except the manors of Caldy, Wallasey and Liscard).5

1 Vol. xcii, pt. i, 364.

It was not until the early years of the nineteenth century that the long struggle between the Dee and the Mersey came to an end, the contest being abandoned when Dawpool and Connah's Quay were given up as points of departure for Ireland through the same silting trouble. See The Evolution of a Coast Line, by William Ashton (1920), 167.

3 Wirral N. & Q. 1, 16 et seq.

A Wirral N. & Q. 1, 16.

The Wapentake of Wirral, by Ronald Stewart-Brown, 137n.

IRBY.

Hugh Lupus granted Erby (or Erberia) to his newly founded abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester, in 1093. The manor house has been described above. After the dissolution of the abbey the manor was sold by the crown, and after several changes became eventually the property of Edward Glegg of Irby, esq.

Edward Glegge of Irby, gent., died in 1703, and has a memorial tablet (see below) in Thurstaston church, which

GLEGG.

gives particulars of his family. His will, dated 10 December, 2 Ann, 1703, was proved C.C. Chester by John Scorer, 29 Jan. 1703[-4], power being reserved to Jane Glegge, the widow, and John Glegge renouncing.1

All debts etc. to be paid except a charge of £1000 upon my estate. All personal estate shall go and be amongst my yonger children equally as they attain ye age of one and twenty. Whereas I did sometyme purchase two or more certaine Sable, 2 lions counter- closes in Irby called ye Longloones and passant in pale, argent. Sowerloones my eldest sonn and heire shall have ye same paying my yonger children one hundred pounds when he shall attain the age of one and twenty, if there be three or more then living, but if but two then nothing at all. My wife shall have all my estate [etc.] in Greasby during widowhood and untill my sonn attain ye age of one and twenty. . . over and above ye interest of a debt due from ye estate of Sr. John Wenden of London, knight. If wife re-marry before, then she is to have £20 and testator bequeathes all estate in Greasby and Irby and all personal estate to Sir William Glegge of Geaton, knight, John Scorer of London, gentl', John Glegge of Tranmoore, gentl', for ye use of my children as is aforesid. If sons die without lawful issue leaves all estate in Irby and Greasby which was formerly the lands of Edward Glegge of Grange, esqr., deceased, my late father. to my nephew Edward Glegge of Grange, esqr., and his heires males 1 On 1 Oct., 1708 Jane Glegg appeared and was sworn.

2 Sour Loons is a field towards Greasby and west of Limbo lane. Long Loons does not appear to be in the parish.

yeilding to my daughters five hundred pounds over and above ye mortgage of one thousand pounds. Appoints as executors my father-in-law John Scorer of London, my wife Jane Glegge, John Glegge, my onely brother. Witnesses: John Glegge, Ann Jackson Thomas Yong.

Armorial seal, indistinguishable.

The will of Jane Glegg of the City of Chester, widow, weake, dated 10 Nov., 7 George, 1720, was proved C.C. Chester 8 July 1721, by the executrix. Jane Glegg was buried at Thurstaston as relict of Edward Glegge of Irby, gentleman, 7 March, 1720; and is commemorated on her husband's tablet.

Testatrix leaves all personal estate to my Dare and will beloved Dater Ann Glegg," paying my son Roger twinty pound, and makes my only Dater Ann Glegg executrix. Witnesses: Tho. Bennett, Mary Bennett, John Crane. The will appears to be a holograph.

THURSTASTON COMMON.

"Thurstaston Common," more properly perhaps, Irby heath,1 appears, even in the last century, to have been somewhat more extensive than it is at present. It lies between Irby and Thurstaston on the south and Caldy and Frankby on the north, and formerly at least was in due season a glorious blaze of golden gorse and purple heather. Its beauty was naturally an offence to King Demos, however, and since the major portion was devoted to the use of the public he has swiftly seen to it that a succession of fires should leave a great part of it a blackened expanse of earth and rocks. The western portion forms a scarp overlooking the strip of flat land between it and the estuary of the Dee, here some five miles wide, and from the highest point in the south-west corner of the heath the view of the Welsh hills and mountains is magnificent,

1 It is so styled in C. Smith's New Map of the County Palatine of Chester, 1804. Swire & Hutchin's Map of the County Palatine of Chester, 1828 and 1829, published by Henry Teesdale & Co.; A new Map of the Hundred of Wirral, published by J. Hunter, Chester, 1820; Pigot & Co.'s map, N.D.

с

extending from the range south of Mold to the Great Orme's Head. Probably few who see the latter in the dim haze wot that it has aught to do with Thurstaston, yet it was close to it, under the walls of his castle at Deganwy, that Robert de Rodelent, the Norman grantee of Thurstaston after the Conquest, met his end at the hands of the Welsh in 1088.

The first portion of the heath acquired for the enjoyment of the public was under an Award of the 15 December, 1883, confirmed by the Land Commissioners on the 22nd following, and consisted of forty-five acres at the south end, "allotted and awarded unto the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor of the parish of Thurstaston. . . in trust as a place for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants of Thurstaston, Birkenhead and neighbourhood. . . the . . control is vested in the said Churchwardens and Overseers jointly and equally with the Corporation of Birkenhead and the expenses. . . shall be defrayed in equal proportions"... " Thor's stone" is to be preserved in its present state, and no stone to be worked by any one.1 Three other lots on the north side, amounting in all to 98 acres, have since been presented by generous donors to the National Trust, the first of the three being in the custody of the Corporation of Birkenhead.2

Ormerod in his original edition stated:

"Irby lies partly in the parish of Woodchurch, and partly in Thurstanston. From the village of the latter it is separated by a moor, on which are some broken fragments, which have very 1 Information kindly supplied by Mr. James Fearnley, town clerk of Birkenhead.

2 The properties of the Trust include: "65. Thurstaston Heath (1916). Twenty-seven and a half acres of moorland adjoining Thurstaston Common, Cheshire, situate about 7 miles from Liverpool. Presented by Sir A. V. Paton in memory of his brother, Captain M. B. Paton, who fell in action in Gallipoli. The land is under the management of the Birkenhead Corporation, subject to the control of the Trust. In 1917, Sir A. V. Paton, Mr. A. K. Bulley and Mr. W. C. Stapledon presented a further sixty-four acres of adjoining land. In 1918 Sir A. V. Paton presented a further seven acres of land adjoining, known as Irby Hill." Twenty-sixth Report of the National Trust for places of historic interest or natural beauty, 1920-1.