A 'Prior' engagement

Directly across the Mersey from Liverpool lies Birkenhead, originally named because it was a birchy headland. But of course!

A Benedictine priory was founded there in about 1150 when the monks operated an early forerunner of the famous Ferry 'cross the Mersey

Amongst other things, back in the 13th century the priory served as a staging post for Edward I as he attempted to hammer the Scots (I'd like to offer my sincere apologies... I've never been a Royalist myself) and butcher the Welsh (ditto).

Following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s much of the priory fell into disrepair but the original Norman Chapter House was retained and altered to serve as an Anglican chapel which it continues to do to this day.

Here you can see a particularly fine example of a Norman window (stained glass not original!) and a section of the vaulted ceiling.

The whole site is dwarfed by the Cammell Laird shipyard which is immediately next door. In fact, when the government granted Cammell Laird permission to build a new dry dock in the 1950s they first had to move 1,500 bodies, some of them many centuries old, which had been buried in the priory grounds. They're now reburied at the nearby Landican cemetery.

These days the site is maintained by Wirral Borough Council's Museums service and I'd like to suggest that they give some sort of Employee of the Month award to Phillip who opened the whole place up 20 minutes early for me this morning (I'd forgotten to check the opening times!) and gave me a fascinating bespoke tour.