Tranmere, Merseyside

Tranmere is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the geographical county of Cheshire. At the 2001 Census, the population of Tranmere was 11,668 (5,399 males, 6,269 females).HistoryIts name was given by Norwegian Vikings who settled and colonised Wirral in the 10th century. Tranmere in Old Norse is Trani-melr, meaning "crane (bird) sandbank" or "sandbank with the cranes".Until the early 19th century, Tranmere was the second most populous settlement in Wirral, with a population of 353 in 1801, centred mainly in the area of what is now Church Road and the nearby hamlet of Hinderton. By 1901, the number of residents had grown to 37,709.Tranmere Old Hall and its estate, was situated around what is now Church Road. It was a large, gabled building constructed around 1614. According to the author Philip Sulley's The Hundred of Wirral (1889), in about 1860: "... was pulled down by an ignorant boor who became possessed of it by some mischance, to make way for shops and houses." Tranmere was absorbed into the County Borough of Birkenhead in 1877 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in 1974, on creation of the county of Merseyside.