Its name was given by Norwegian Vikings who settled and colonised Wirral in the 10th century. Tranmere in Old Norse is Trani-melr, meaning "crane sandbank" or "sandbank with the cranes". Until the early 19th century, Tranmere was the second most populous settlement in Wirral, with a population of 353 in 1801, centred mainly in the area of what is now Church Road and the nearby hamlet of Hinderton. By 1901, the number of residents had grown to 37,709. Tranmere Old Hall and its estate, was situated around what is now Church Road. It was a large, gabled building constructed around 1614. According to the author Philip Sulley's The Hundred of Wirral, in about 1860:
... was pulled down by an ignorant :wikt:boor|boor who became possessed of it by some mischance, to make way for shops and houses.
Tranmere was absorbed into the County Borough of Birkenhead in 1877 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in 1974, on creation of the county of Merseyside.
Ferry service
granted John Poole the lease of ferry rights at Tranmere in 1586. The Etna, the first steam-powered ferry on the River Mersey operated from Tranmere Pool to Liverpool on 17 April 1817. The early part of the 19th Century were prosperous times for Tranmere's ferry service, but this was to change with the completion of Thomas Brassey's New Chester Road in 1833 and the opening of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway in 1840. Further blows to trade came with the commencement of a horse-drawn tramway in 1877 between New Ferry and Woodside Ferry and the opening of the Mersey Railway between Liverpool and nearby Green Lane railway station in 1886. By 1904, the ferry service had ceased and Tranmere Pool was enclosed as Cammell Laird Dock as part of an extension of the shipyard.
Tranmere contains one of the largest and most expensive World War IIair raid shelters in the country. The shelter consists of a series of tunnels stretching to a total length of, and was designed to house up to 6,000 people; many of them workers at the strategically important Cammell Laird shipyard. However, by the time the tunnels were completed, they were no longer needed as the threat of invasion had diminished. The tunnels were later used by the Ministry of Food for storage, and were considered as a nuclear fallout shelter during the Cold War era. The tunnels were finally sealed off in 1989, amid growing health and safety concerns. The tunnels still exist and building work in 2008 uncovered a shaft, which allowed temporary exploration, before being sealed off again.
Tranmere is made up of industrial buildings and Victorian terraced houses, although it has seen a significant amount of property development recently. The area is host to one of only 35 government neighbourhood pathfinders.
Education
serves the area.
Healthcare
occupies a large site in Higher Tranmere. The original facility on the site was built as the Birkenhead Union Workhouse between 1861 and 1863 and designed by Thomas Leyland. Around 2013, the Victorian hospital buildings were replaced with a modern medical facility and community centre.
Green spaces
Two urban parks are located in Tranmere. Mersey Park to the north and Victoria Park to the south. Victoria Park contains a Community Hall at the bottom of Albany Road, a cricket pitch and clubhouse. Victoria Park was originally the gardens of a large property called The Towers, built in the 1860s as a French-style chateau by Victor Poutz, a French cotton merchant. At the top end stands the Tranmere Cross, which was put on the present site in 1937 and which once marked the entrance to Tranmere on Church Street. Meanwhile, Mersey Park currently hosts one of the many annual Bonfire Night municipal firework displays put on by Wirral Borough Council.
Sport
Tranmere is best known for its football club, Tranmere Rovers F.C., founded in 1884. Tranmere Rovers now plays at nearby Prenton Park, in Birkenhead itself, but has kept the Tranmere name.
Transport
is situated on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. Services operate northbound to Liverpool, via Birkenhead town centre and southbound to Chester and Ellesmere Port.
Notable people
Mersey Park Primary School has several famous former pupils including Jason McAteer and Patricia Routledge. Paul O'Grady, famous for his alter-ego creation Lily Savage, was raised in the area. Colin Haygarth, the Scottish gunmaker, was born in Tranmere. He lived in Milton Road until he was four years old, when his family moved to nearby Irby. He was The Queen Mother's gunmaker from 1965 until 2002, is the oldest living gunmaker in the UK and the last to have done "War Work". He made parts for Sten guns in the workshops of the gunmaker W.C. Carswell in Liverpool, and served in the Irby branch of the Home Guard. Tranmere is also home to the UK's last remaining resident cinema organist, Dave Nicholas, who currently plays for the classic movie evenings at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
