The history of Liverpool can be traced back to 1190 when the place was known as 'Liuerpul', possibly meaning a pool or creek with muddy water, though other origins of the name have been suggested. The borough was founded by royal charter in 1207 by King John, made up of only seven streets in the shape of the letter 'H'. Liverpool remained a small settlement until its trade with Ireland and coastal parts of England and Wales was overtaken by trade with Africa and the West Indies, which included the slave trade. The world's first commercial wet dock was opened in 1715 and Liverpool's expansion to become a major city continued over the next two centuries.
By the start of the nineteenth century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool. In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened. The population grew rapidly, especially with Irish migrants; by 1851, one quarter of the city's population was Irish-born. As growth continued, the city became known as "the second city of the Empire", and was also called "the New York of Europe". During the Second World War, the city was the centre for planning the crucial Battle of the Atlantic, and suffered a blitz second only to London's.
From the mid-twentieth century, Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries went into sharp decline, with the advent of containerisation making the city's docks obsolete. The unemployment rate in Liverpool rose to one of the highest in the UK. Over the same period, starting in the early 1960s, the city became internationally renowned for its culture, particularly as the centre of the "Merseybeat" sound which became synonymous with The Beatles. In recent years, Liverpool's economy has recovered, partly due to tourism as well as substantial investment in regeneration schemes. The city was the European Capital of Culture for 2008.
Iron Age and Britons
In the Iron Age the area around modern-day Liverpool was sparsely populated, though there was a seaport at Meols. The Calderstones are thought to be part of an ancient stone circle and there is archaeological evidence for native Iron Age farmsteads at several sites in Irby, Halewood and Lathom. The region was inhabited by Brythonic tribes, the Setantii as well as nearby Cornovii and Deceangli.
Romans The area came under Roman influence in about 70 AD, with the northward advance to crush the druid resistance on Anglesey and to end the internal strife between the ruling family of Brigantes. The main Roman presence was at the fortress and settlement at Chester. According to Ptolemy, the Latin hydronym for the Mersey was Seteia Aestuarium, which derives from the Setantii tribe.
In 2007 evidence of a Roman tile works was found around the Tarbock Island area of the M62 and various Roman coins and jewellery have been found in the Liverpool area.
Anglo-Saxons After the withdrawal of Roman troops, land in the area continued to be farmed by native Britons. The Hen Ogledd (Old North) was subject to fighting among four medieval kingdoms: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia eventually defeated its rival Northumbria as well as the Celtic kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, with the Battle of Brunanburh perhaps taking place at nearby Bromborough. The settlements at Walton (Wealas tun meaning 'farmstead of the Wealas'), and Wallasey (Wealas-eg meaning 'island of the Wealas') were named at this time with Wealas being Old English for 'foreigner', referring to the native Celtic and Romanized inhabitants.
Vikings The pseudo-historical Fragmentary Annals of Ireland appear to record the Norse settlement of the Wirral in their account of the immigration of Ingimundr near Chester. This Irish source places this settlement in the aftermath of the expulsion of the Vikings from Dublin in 902 and an unsuccessful attempt to settle on Anglesey soon afterwards. Following these setbacks, Ingimundr is stated to have settled near Chester with the consent of Æthelflæd, co-ruler of Mercia. The Norse settlers eventually joined up with another group of Viking settlers who populated west Lancashire, and for a time had an independent Viking mini-state, with Viking placenames evident all over Merseyside.
Viking placenames include the suffix -by from Old Norse byr meaning village or farm, as found in Kirkby, West Kirby, Crosby, Formby, West Derby, Roby, Frankby, Greasby, Irby, Raby. The -teth suffix from stathir meaning homestead as in Toxteth and Croxteth. The -dale suffix comes from dalr meaning valley as found in Kirkdale, Ainsdale, Birkdale. The prefix hale from halh meaning river meadow as found in Hale Bank and Halewood. The word Meols and suffix -mere come from melr meaning sandbank as in Meols and Tranmere. The Norse name Thorsteinn is shown in Thursaston. The thing-vollr in Norse meaning assembly field is found in Thingwall place names on both sides of the Mersey in West Derby and Wirral.
Norman In 1086, the Domesday Book survey lists Roger de Poitou as the South Lancashire tenant-in-chief for Inter Ripam et Mersam lands between the Ribble and Mersey rivers, in the West Derby Hundred and, at the time, the northern part of Cheshire. The Wirral settlements are administered as the Hundred of Wilaveston from the village of Willaston.
Liverpool itself is not listed in the Domesday Book but there is a large settlement listed at West Derby (Derbei). Other settlements are named in the West Derby Hundred including Bootle (Boltelai), Kirkdale (Circhdele), Walton (Waletone), Toxteth (Stochestede), Smithdown (Esmidune), Wavertree (Wauretreu), Childwall (Cildeuuelle), Allerton (Alretune), Little and Much Woolton (Uluentune), (Ulletone), Speke (Spec), Tarbock (Tarboc), Roby (Rabil), Huyton (Hitune), Knowsley (Chenulveslei), Kirkby (Cherchebi), Melling (Melinge), Maghull (Magele), Lydiate (Leidte), Sefton (Sextune), Thornton (Torentun), Litherland (Liderlant), Crosby (Crosebi), Formby (Fornebei), Ravenmeols (Mele), Little Altcar (Acrer), Ainsdale (Einulvesdel), North Meols (Otegrimele).
Origins of the name The name comes from the Old English liver, meaning thick or muddy, and pol, meaning a pool or creek, and is first recorded around 1190 as Liuerpul. According to the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, "The original reference was to a pool or tidal creek now filled up into which two streams drained". The adjective Liverpudlian is first recorded in 1833.
Origins of the town
Although a small motte and bailey castle had earlier been built at West Derby, the origins of the city of Liverpool are usually dated from 28 August 1207, when letters patent were issued by King John advertising the establishment of a new borough, "Livpul", and inviting settlers to come and take up holdings there. It is thought that the King wanted a port in the district that was free from the control of the Earl of Chester. Initially it served as a dispatch point for troops sent to Ireland, soon after the building around 1235 of Liverpool Castle, which was removed in 1726. St Nicholas Church was built by 1257, originally as a chapel within the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill. In the 13th century Liverpool as an area consisted of just seven streets.
With the formation of a market on the site of the later town hall, Liverpool became established as a small fishing and farming community administered by burgesses and, slightly later, a mayor. There was probably some coastal trade around the Irish Sea and there were occasional ferries across the Mersey. However for several centuries it remained a small and relatively unimportant settlement, with a population of no more than 1,000 in the mid 14th century. By the early 15th century a period of economic decline set in and the county gentry increased their power over the town, the Stanley family fortifying their house by building Stanley Tower on Water Street. This was a catalyst for a feud between the Stanley and Molyneux families since the Molyneux family had permission to live at the nearby Liverpool Castle at that time. The resulting rivalry nearly spilled into a riot in 1424. In the middle of the 16th century the population of Liverpool had fallen to around 600 and the port was regarded as subordinate to Chester until the 1650s.
Elizabethan era and the Civil War
In 1571 the people of Liverpool sent a memorial to Queen Elizabeth I, praying relief from a subsidy which they thought themselves unable to bear, wherein they styled themselves "her majesty's poor decayed town of Liverpool". Some time towards the close of this reign, Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, on his way to the Isle of Man, stayed at his house, the Tower; at which the corporation erected a handsome hall or seat for him in the church, where he honoured them several times with his presence.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the town began to be able to take advantage of economic revival and the silting of the River Dee to win trade, mainly from Chester, to Ireland, the Isle of Man and elsewhere. In 1626, King Charles I gave the town a new and improved charter.
During the English Civil War there were three sieges of Liverpool. After the Roundheads captured Liverpool in 1643, a second siege took place in June 1644 led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine who arrived in Liverpool with 10,000 men in an attempt to capture Liverpool Castle for the King. He camped in Everton during the siege and he is remembered in the area through placenames and inspired the nickname of 'Prince Rupert's Tower' for the Everton Lock-Up that was built over a century later in the area (this small jail is also depicted on the Everton Football Club badge). To defend the town the Roundheads dug a trench around much of the town. Prince Rupert succeeded in capturing the town and the castle but later that same year the Roundheads recaptured Liverpool.
Transatlantic trade The first cargo from the Americas was recorded in 1648. The development of the town accelerated after the Restoration of 1660, with the growth of trade with America and the West Indies. From that time may be traced the rapid progress of population and commerce, until Liverpool had become the second metropolis of Great Britain. Initially, cloth, coal and salt from Lancashire and Cheshire were exchanged for sugar and tobacco; the town's first sugar refinery was established in 1667.
In 1699 Liverpool was made a parish on its own by Act of Parliament, separate from that of Walton-on-the-Hill, with two parish churches. At the same time it gained separate customs authority from Chester.
Slave trade, privateering In 1699 the first known slave ship to sail from Liverpool departed, its name and number of victims unknown. The last recorded slaving voyage out of Liverpool was in 1862, of a total of 4,973 such voyages. One example is the Liverpool Merchant that set sail for Africa on 3 October 1699, the very same year that Liverpool had been granted status as an independent parish. It arrived in Barbados with a 'cargo' of 220 Africans, returning to Liverpool on 18 September 1700. By the close of the 18th century 40% of the world's, and 80% of Britain's activity in the Atlantic slave trade was accounted for by slave ships that voyaged from the docks at Liverpool. In the peak year of 1799, ships sailing from Liverpool carried over 45,000 enslaved people from Africa.