Norse work if you can get it...

It's been another very blustery, drizzly day today but I braved the elements for an early walk at Thurstaston Common, a 250 acre area of parkland, wood and heath which is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Local Nature Reserve. One of my favourite local views can be had from the top of Thurstaston Hill (298 ft / 91 m) where, on a clear day, you can see the whole of the Wirral Peninsula and onwards - across the Mersey to Liverpool, out across the Irish Sea and, from this bench, across the Dee Estuary to the Clwydian Hills of North Wales.

Today, as I have mentioned, was not a clear day!

This part of the Wirral was a Norse colony in the 10th and 11th centuries and the name Thurstaston means "village of Thorsteinn", deriving from the Old Norse name Thorsteinn and the Old English word for farm or village, tún. A record from 1048 names the area as Torstestiune and the village is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Turstanetone.