The church is situated in
a road called The King's Gap, which runs from the centre of Hoylake
down to the nearby sea. And it gets its name from the fact that King
William sailed with his army from this point to Ireland in 1690, to
fight the famous Battle of the Boyne. In those days, of course,
Liverpool was nothing but a fishing village and all departures for
Ireland were made from the Wirral peninsula. You'll doubtless recall
that Handel sailed from nearby Parkgate for the debut of his Messiah
in Dublin.
As if that wasn't enough
historical revelation for the day, I later learnt from a BBC podcast
that the English king, Athelstan, had inflicted a heavy defeat on the
Scandinavians and Scots in 937 at Brunanburh, Or Bromborough as it's
called today, not terribly far from Hoylake on the Wirral peninsula.
Something else I learned
today – Not only was Philip II of Spain king of England for a few
years – when he was married to Mary Tudor – but during this
period he was partly responsible for reorganising the very English
navy which would defeat his armada a couple of decades later in 1588.
How ironic is that? By the way, it's not generally realised that 75%
of the Spanish ships made their way back home, after a long voyage
around the British Isles. One of the earliest cruises on record.
Final historical fact -
The artist Turner rented a room on Hoylake's main street and
attempted to paint what he regarded as the “remarkable sunsets”
along the coast here. For which I can vouch.
Finally . . . I loved this
comment from somebody or other today:- I have no opinions on
anything, really – the default position of feckless liberals down
the ages.
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