Larton is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

near the town of

West Kirby West Kirby () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. In the north west of the Wirral Peninsula and at the mouth of the River Dee, the town is contiguous with Hoylake. It lies within the historic county bo ...

, on the

Wirral Peninsula The Wirral Peninsula (), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...

, in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. Administratively it is part of the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

ward of Greasby, Frankby and Irby in 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 (), and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebingt ...

and is within the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. Larton is located to the north west of the village of

Frankby Frankby () is a village and former civil parish, in the Wirral district, in Merseyside, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula between Greasby and Newton on the outskirts of the town of West Kirby and south of Hoylake. The hamlet of ...

and east of Newton, to which it was historically linked as a combined

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

. Although Newton contains the majority of the former township's population, Larton's name remains in geographical use with the Larton Livery riding school, Larton Farm and a "state of the art" veterinary surgery.

History

The name is of

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

origin, deriving from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''Leir-tún'', meaning "clay farmstead". Larton was previously combined with the nearby hamlet of Newton as Newton cum Larton, part of West Kirby parish of the

Wirral Hundred 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, Cheshire West, Willaston, which was an important asse ...

, in the county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. Its population was 49 in 1801 and 44 in 1851. A

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

from 1866, it was abolished in 1889 and subsumed into the nearby civil parish of Grange. The population of the former Newton cum Larton civil parish had risen to 66 by 1891. Between 1894 and 1933 Larton was part of Wirral Rural District, then

Hoylake Urban District Hoylake () is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the north west of the Wirral Peninsula, near West Kirby and where the River Dee meets the Irish Sea. At the 2021 census, the built up area had ...

until 1974.

Geography

Larton lies on the western side of the Wirral Peninsula, approximately south-east of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

Hoylake Hoylake () is a coast, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the north west of the Wirral Peninsula, near West Kirby and where the River Dee, Wales, River Dee meets the Irish Sea. At the 2021 United K ...

, north-east of the

Dee Estuary The Dee Estuary () is a large estuary by means of which the River Dee flows into Liverpool Bay. The estuary starts near Shotton after a five-mile (8 km) 'canalised' section and the river soon swells to be several miles wide forming t ...

and about west-south-west of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

Seacombe Seacombe () is a district of the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, Seacombe is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was p ...

. The hamlet is situated at an elevation of about above sea level. To the immediate north of Larton is the site of

RAF West Kirby Royal Air Force West Kirby or more simply RAF West Kirby is a former Royal Air Force basic training camp near West Kirby, Cheshire, later Merseyside, England. History RAF West Kirby was established at the beginning of the Second World War as ...

Newton Brook Newton Brook is a tributary of Greasby Brook, in Wirral, Merseyside. The brook starts as two branches, one of which is in the same system of lowland field drainage, south of Hoylake, as the Birket The Birket is a tributary of the River M ...

joins with

Greasby Brook Greasby Brook is a tributary of Arrowe Brook, in Wirral, Merseyside. The brook starts near to Dawlish Road in Thurstaston. The brook flows through Thurstaston Common and around the western side of Greasby, before converging, firstly, with ...

to the north-east of the hamlet.

References

External links

{{Populated Places in Wirral Borough Hamlets in Merseyside Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral