Brotherton Park and Dibbinsdale Local Nature Reserve informally known as Dibbinsdale is a combined park and local nature reserve managed by the

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 321,238, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, B ...

and located in

Bromborough Bromborough is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it is situated on the Wirral Peninsula, to the south east of Bebington and to the north of Easth ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral ...

, England.

History

Dibbinsdale takes its name from the River Dibbin which flows through the area. It is thought to have formed part of the boundary in the 10th and 11th centuries between the

Norse Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nor ...

colony in Wirral, to the north and west, and

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

to the east and south. After the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

, the whole area became part of the

Hundred of Wirral The Hundred of Wirral is the ancient administrative area for the Wirral Peninsula. Its name is believed to have originated from the ''Hundred of Wilaveston'', the historic name for Willaston, which was an important assembly point in the Wirral ...

.Stephen J. Roberts, ''A History of Wirral'', 2002, In the 1800s the land on which Brotherton Park resides was part of an estate called 'Woodslee', this estate was bought in 1866 by a Liverpool Merchant called Robert Rankin who built 'Woodslee' house on the site as a wedding present for his daughter. The estate comprised Woodslee, servants cottages, a lake, stables,

coach house Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * C ...

, a

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

and formal gardens with a

rockery A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...

. At some stage it was sold

William Johnston of Liverpool William Johnston of Woodslee, Bromborough, Cheshire (1841–1917) was an early benefactor of the University of Liverpool in Liverpool, England. He was a wealthy Northern Irish ship owner who began business in Liverpool in 1863. The Johnston Lab ...

who is listed as living there in the 1901 Census. In 1919 the estate was bought by

Lord Brotherton Edward Allen Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton (1 April 1856 – 21 October 1930), known as Sir Edward Brotherton, Bt, between 1918 and 1929, was an industrialist in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England and a benefactor to the University of Leeds ...

, an industrialist and

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

who donated the estate to the council in the 1930s, by the 1940s the house had become dilapidated and was demolished. In 1978 Brotherton Park and Dibbinsdale was designated a local nature reserve owing to the ancient woodland and became a single entity with much of Dibbinsdale donated by the Lancelyn Green family.

Brotherton Park

Brotherton Park is an urban park with an informal grassed area for recreation, dog walking and picnicking.

Dibbinsdale Local Nature Reserve

Dibbinsdale is a local nature reserve with a woodland valley which is an example of

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

in the Merseyside area. It is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Facilities

The park has woodland walks, nature trails, a meadow, historic woodland, wetland habitats, a small unmanned visitor centre, a rangers office, toilets and a free car park.

References

External links

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral: Brotherton Park & Dibbinsdale LNR

Steven Round Bird Photography - Many wild bird images from Dibbinsdale
{{SSSIs Merseyside Parks and commons in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Merseyside Local Nature Reserves in Merseyside