750BC In the Iron Age, a hill fort was built on the sandstone outcrop Burton Point. Burton means the settlement by the fort and probably dates from Anglo-Saxon times.
902 Vikings came to Wirral, and evidence of local Viking settlements is given by the stones displayed in Neston parish church.
1085 Neston, Little Neston and Willaston were recorded in the Domesday Book. This was the earliest known use of the name Willaston, as the name of the Hundred of Wilaveston (later Wirral), and Willaston's large green may have been the place of assembly for the hundred. The name 'Edelaue' in Domesday Book, is preserved in Hadlow Road.
1180 Ralph Montalt, Baron of Mold, gave Neston Church to St Werburgh's Abbey, Chester, 'because of my evil deeds'.
1250 The deer park was enclosed, giving Parkgate its name.
1300's Neston parish church dates back in part to the 14th Century.
1470 Barn End and Church House in Burton were built about now.
1500's Neston established itself as a port with important coaching links to London and became the principle departure point for Spain, France and Ireland.
In Burton, Bishop Wilson's cottage was built.
1616 The Farm, Willaston, was built.
1619 Willaston was sold to several local men, who decided they should act as lords of the manor by rotation; the manor court continued until 1907.
1631 The Old Red Lion, Willaston was built, followed by Corner House Farm (now Pollard's Inn) in 1637, Home Farm in 1661, and part of Ash Tree Farm in 1697. Willaston Old Hall, though carrying a date stone 1558, is a similar age.
1663 In Burton Woods Quakers were buried outside the churchyard.
Thomas Wilson was born in Burton, became bishop of Sodor and Man and built a free school in the parish in the 1730's; the present primary school is named after him.
1672 Sir Thomas Mostyn married the heiress of Neston, Leighton and Thornton Hough, so inherited much of Neston. They sold up in 1849.
1689 About now, Stephen Bond established a medical practice, which became Neston Surgery, and which in 1992 moved to its premises in Mellock Lane.
1600's Old Quay House was built as an inn. In 1750 it became the House of Correction to house Irish vagrants en route to Dublin. During World War II the Home Guard used it as target practice and destroyed it.
1700 is the oldest date plate in Little Neston, on The Rocklands, Woodfall Lane. 1731 is the date on 26 The Green, Little Neston, and the White House has the date 1732.
1703 is the oldest date plate in Neston, on Old Bank House at the Cross. Gittins Building was built next door, with a date plate 1744.
1711 is the date stone on St Nicholas house, Burton.
1721 Burton Parish Church, dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, was rebuilt.
The Watch House, Parkgate, was built in the1720s. From 1799 to 1828 it was used by HM Coastguards. Coastguard Cottages were built in 1860, when Parkgate was no longer an active port, but four coastguard families lived there until 1875.
1722 A house, which now forms one-third of The Greenland Fishery Hotel, Neston, was built. The Brown Horse was built in 1724. In 1892 the Black Bull amalgamated with the Greenland Fishery. In 1904 nine pubs stood within 320 yards of the Cross.
1728 King George III granted a Royal Charter for a weekly Market to be held on a Friday: it was held north of Neston Cross.
1733 Vine House, Neston was built, with a crinkle-crankle wall: during frosts, a fire was lit on one side to protect peaches on the other side.
The windmill that stands between Leighton Road and Wood Lane was built between 1732 and 1737, alongside a mill, now gone, built in 1729.
1735 The Nag's Head, Willaston, was built, but has been much altered.
1740 A regular ferry started running between Parkgate and Flint. Handel disembarked in Parkgate after conducting the first performance of his Messiah in Dublin in 1742. Since the end of the 17th century, the silting of the River Dee made access to Neston's New Quay impossible. Ships anchored in the main channel and passengers and goods were rowed to the shore. Schooners operated to Dublin: with favourable winds, the crossing took 15 hours:
1750 The Balcony House, Parkgate was built. In 1780 the Assembly Room was added, in which dances took place.
1759 Ness colliery opened, at the bottom of what is now Marshlands Road, and held mainly by the Stanley family. In 1819 Thomas Cottingham opened the Little Neston colliery on an adjoining site. There was bitter rivalry. The first steam engine in Wirral and west Cheshire was here and George Stephenson visited. Both mines closed in the middle of the nineteenth century but a new colliery opened in the 1870s until 1927.
1762 John Wesley preached in a small chapel house in Parkgate Road, Neston, while waiting for favourable winds to let his ship leave Parkgate. He came through several times as he conducted preaching tours in Ireland.
1765 Emma Lyon was born, the daughter of a blacksmith. By tradition she was born in Swan Cottage, Ness, but historians say a blacksmith was unlikely to have such a big house. She rose from poverty to become Lady Hamilton, and Nelson's mistress. Lady Hamilton visited Parkgate for the sea bathing in 1784.
1787 Parkgate Road took over from Moorside Lane as the main road to Parkgate.
1790 The Parkgate Sea Bathing Charity began, to help working class invalids enjoy being by the sea and sea bathing. In 1881 they purchased a house near the Watch Tower, and men from Chester Infirmary came, usually for three weeks. In 1883 the adjoining house was purchased for women and children.
1791 Denhall Quay, Ness was built and was used to send coal to North Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Man as well as inland via canals, and to import roofing slate and limestone. Other industries here included coke and charcoal making, brick and tile making and metal smelting.
1800 Willaston's windmill was built, the largest in Wirral. In 1930 the sails were damaged in a storm: one of its millstones is now part of the village sign on the Little Green.
Parkgate sea wall was extended to form a promenade for visitors. In 1811 a theatre in Drury Lane (enclosed by the Ship Inn in 1860) was giving performances.
1814 The Neston Female Friendly Society was founded to enable all the ladies help each other in times of hardship while the men fought the Napoleonic Wars. In 2003 the society dropped the word friendly, due to costs charged by the Financial Services Authority.The society's motto is Bear ye one another's burdens. The Ladies Day Walk takes place on the first Thursday in June.
1822 The Parkgate Circulating Library was set up by Mary Doyle, a volunteer.
The Red Lion, Parkgate, was already built.
1838 A Methodist church was built in Willaston, near the present Pollard Inn: the current church dates from 1889.
1841 St Winefride's Roman Catholic School, designed by Augustus Pugin, was opened in Little Neston, and in 1843 became the Church. A new school building was opened nearby in 1857. In 1967 children moved to the new Catholic primary school in Mellock Lane.
1843 St Thomas's Church, Parkgate was built as a Congregational Church, later Presbyterian, and in 1910 it became Church of England.
1855 Willaston's Anglican church was opened: until 1865 the village was one of eight townships in the parish of Neston.
Mostyn House School, Parkgate was opened by Edward Price. His nephew, A. S. Grenfell became Head, and his son Wilfred Grenfell was born in 1865. In 1892 as a medical missionary the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen he visited Labrador, and was so shocked by the poverty and ignorance and semi-starvation... that he devoted the rest of his life to Labrador. The school chapel was built in 1897, and a 37-bell carillon is in memory of old boys killed in World War I. The current Head, Suzi Grenfell, is the sixth generation to lead Mostyn House.
1857 The vicarage, on the east side of Neston Cross, became a girl's school until the early 1900s. In 1931 the site was occupied by Irwin's grocers, who were bought by Tesco.
1859 Neston Church of England Infants School was built about now, in Liverpool Road. The building has been converted to flats. The school transferred to Raby Park Road, but later closed.
The first real village school in Willaston, a single room, was built on the Green, where the copper beech tree was planted in 1935. The present school opened in 1930.
1860 A school was built in Parkgate, now Old School House. The present Primary School was built in 1967.
The licensee of the Shrewsbury Arms, now the Hinderton Arms, was Moses Robertson, a veterinary surgeon.
1866 A railway linking Hooton, Willaston, Neston and Parkgate opened, and in 1886 a new station was built at Parkgate,and the line extended to West Kirby. It closed to passengers in 1956 and to goods in 1962, and became the Wirral Country Park for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.
There was an outbreak of cholera in Neston. In 1867, Christopher Bushell, a Liverpool wine merchant, chaired the first Neston Local Board, which installed piped water. In 1882 local people paid for a monument to him, and the Bushell Fountain still stands at Neston Cross.
1872 The Methodist Church, Little Neston, was built.
1875 Neston Parish Church was almost completely rebuilt to the design of Francis Doyle, after extra windows and removal of pillars made the old church unsafe. A gravestone records that John Heveran aged 22, late master in Neston National School, was killed by lightning in Heswall Parish Church in 1875.
1880 Joseph Mealor set up a business in Ness, making ploughs and other farm implements. The business is still running, as Mealors Mowers.
1881 Dr Riddock established the Literary and Debating Society and Library at the Middle School, The Green, Little Neston.
Neston Races took place at Parks Field, Parkgate until at least 1895. Some of the race course was lost when the railway was extended to West Kirby.
1882 A gas works opened in Church Lane, Neston: Gascott House is still there. Later, gas came from Birkenhead, and in the1970s North Sea Gas arrived.
A factory for electric cables was opened on Old Quay Lane, Parkgate, and in 1887 moved to Helsby and grew into British Insulated Callenders Cables.
1884 The Presbyterian Church was built in Parkgate Road, Neston, designed by Francis Doyle, who designed Neston Parish Church.
1889 Neston Town Hall was opened.
1894 Neston Local Board was replaced by Neston-cum-Parkgate Urban District Council: this became Neston Urban District Council in 1933, and bought the Town Hall.
1895 Neston Cricket Club was established.
1896 Neston and Parkgate Hygienic Laundry and Cleaning Company opened on the site of the cable works. The site later became a garden nursery.
The Bidston to Hawarden Bridge railway opened, with stations in Neston (called Neston North while Neston South existed on the Hooton to West Kirby line), and at Burton, called Burton Point (which closed in 1955). It carried iron ore to Summers Steel Works, and now carries passengers between Bidston and Wrexham.
1898 Arthur Kilpin Bulley had Mickwell Brow built at Ness. He established Ness Gardens, and Bee's Seeds, which moved to Sealand in 1911. In 1948 his daughter Lois gave the house and gardens to the University of Liverpool.
1901 The Royal Oak, Little Neston, an ancient single storey thatched building, burnt down and was replaced by the present building.
1902 Neston sewage works was built
1903 Henry Neville Gladstone, son of the Prime Minister, bought Burton Manor from the Congreve family and enlarged and remodelled it. The Gladstones sold the manor in 1924 and in 1948 it became a college.
Neston Institute was built. In 1912, you could go to the pictures in the afternoon for a penny. In World War I it was Neston Red Cross Hospital, and is now Neston Civic Hall.
1907 Neston Library was established, with funds from Andrew Carnegie, on land given by the family of the late Dr Russell of Vine House. From 1930 members of the public were allowed to select books themselves.
1908 Neston Methodist Church was built, replacing a corrugated iron mission house. A local tug-boat owner paid for it, and his nephew, Captain Matthew Webb (the first man to swim the English Channel) spoke here on temperance.
1909 The new Council School in Burton Road, Neston was first used.
1918 During World War I William La Touche Congreve and Christopher Bushell were each awarded the Victoria Cross.
1920 The Neston War Memorial Hospital was opened in a large house by The Green, Little Neston. It closed in 1964 and was later demolished.
1921 The New Cinema in Chester Road, Neston opened, and remained in business until 1961.
The Congregational Church in Bushell Road was built. The church later amalgamated with the Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church, and the building is now used by Freemasons.
1923 The Parkgate open-air baths were established, but closed in 1950. The Boathouse Tearooms were built in 1926.
1928 The half-timbered Red Lion, Willaston closed for business.
The Durham Ox public house, Little Neston closed.
Electricity supply came from Birkenhead.
Neston & Parkgate Housing Society was formed. In 2008 it plans to join Adactus Housing Association.
1930's Some 30 fishermen still worked from Parkgate, exporting shrimps, mussels and cockles to Liverpool, Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
1948 Council Houses were built in Mellock Lane, Little Neston.
1949 Reg Chrimes was elected to the Neston Urban District Council aged 24. In 1995 he was made a Freeman of the Borough, and when he retired in 2007 he had served for 58 years, a national record.
1953 The Garden of Remembrance was created alongside the Neston Library.
Neston Secondary School opened. It later became Neston Comprehensive School, and in 1972 Neston High School.
1960's Many houses were built in Little Neston, off Lees Lane and West Vale.
1974 Neston Urban District Council merged to form part of Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council.
1979 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought 5000 acres of the Dee salt marsh. In 1992 they opened Inner Marsh Farm, Burton, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, as is the Dee Estuary.
1999 Postcodes changed from L64 to CH64
2000 The Millennium Bridge was installed to carry walkers, horse-riders, and cyclists on Sustrans Route 56, along the Wirral Way over Bridge Street, Neston.
2003 The Neston Market Town Initiative (MTI) was launched after a consultation (Healthcheck), with £1 million from the North West Development Agency for social and economic regeneration in Burton, Little Neston, Ness, Neston and Parkgate.
The Lottery Fund gave £75,000 for community action, which led to the Neston Community Association, now ch64inc.
Neston Library was renovated, having been extended in 1973. The windows advertise CDs, DVDs and computer terminals.
2007 The Government accepted the petition initiated by Neston Civic Society for Neston including Parkgate, Little Neston and Ness, to have a Parish Council.
Stanney Fields Park, Neston gained the Green Flag Award.
Neston and Little Neston were runners-up in the Cheshire Community Pride Competition.
The University of Liverpool opened a new Small Animal Hospital at the Leahurst Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Chester High Road. Wood Park Farm opened new facilities for dairy cows alongside Ness Heath Farm, both now part of Leahurst.
The Neston website, www.neston.org.uk was established.
2008 St Thomas's Church, Parkgate is being renovated
A new Resource Centre in Burton Road, Neston is being built
A new supermarket and Town Square is being planned between Brook Street and Raby Road, Neston
Many Neston shops are using the Market Towns Initiative Shop Front Scheme to renovate their premises.
Burton Manor is being used by the new University of Chester
Ness Gardens is considering a link with the Royal Horticultural Society
Neston Parish Council is to be established.
A West Cheshire unitary authority will replace Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, and Cheshire County Council.
To read more about the history of the area, there are lots of books, including:
Yesterday's Wirral Neston Parkgate & Heswall, pub. Ian & Marilyn Boumphrey 1980
Burton in Wirral A History ed. PWH Booth, pub. Burton & South Wirral Local History Society 1984
Yesterday's Wirral No 6 Neston Parkgate, Heswall, pub. Ian & Marilyn Boumphrey 1991
Neston 1840-1940 ed. Geoffrey Place, pub. Burton & South Wirral Local History Society 1996
Neston at War 1939-1945 ed. Geoffrey Place, pub. Burton & Neston History Society 1999
England's Mistress - The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams. pub. Arrow 2007
Timeline CH64 was created for Citizens' Week 2008 to list some events in Burton, Little Neston, Ness, Neston, Parkgate and Willaston. Please send any comments or corrections to w.r.ward@liverpool.ac.uk