Wirral's oldest village once had its own zoo and airfield.
The original village of Eastham is still centred around St Mary's Church, which was founded in 1152. In the southernmost part of Merseyside on the Wirral Peninsula, the village dates back more than 1,000 years to when it was part of the royal Manor of Eastham, which stretched from Ellesmere Port in the south to Meols in the north.
At the time, what is now Eastham was just "scattered farmsteads", according to David Allan, an expert on its history. Massive housebuilding projects to the west and north after WWII transformed the village, once "a big stagecoach route" and ferry crossing with cottages, into a commuter town of more than 13,000 people.
