11/06/2025
With all the excitement of our Sunday Sessions of free live music beginning this weekend, we thought that it might be a good moment to STOP, look around us and focus upon what makes Birkenhead Priory (c.1150 to 1536) so unique and special.
We’ve shared a recent photograph below of one of the many reasons that visitors come to this ancient site in their thousands each year.
The Undercroft or ‘crypt’ as it is often called was built during the late 1200’s initially as a storage room for meat, food and farm tools. It’s always cool in this stunning room, (ideal for food/meat storage). This stunning space could also have been used as an additional dining area if the Great Hall was full with visitors and ferry passengers prior to the Lodging House being built in 1318.
It is possible to see the original floor level in the Undercroft as the stone floor is still visible on either side of the timber walkways. These timber walkways and the atmospheric lighting were installed when the Priory museum opened in this space during the late 1980’s and made the space more accessible to visitors.
The Priory Museum houses artefacts and treasures discovered on and around the site during the last century or so and presents the fascinating history of Birkenhead Priory and their first ‘ferry across the Mersey’ service from 1150 to 1536.
For lovers of much, MUCH older Wirral history, the Undercroft also contains a section of Triassic sandstone bearing the footprints of ‘Chirotherium’, a DINOSAUR which once roamed the Wirral area 243 million years ago. The slab was unearthed from nearby Higher Bebington White Freestone Quarry, owned by Charles Wells in 1906. The Chirotherium, (‘hand-beast’), is a Triassic trace fossil consisting of five-fingered footprints and whole tracks. These look, by coincidence, remarkably like the hands of apes and bears with the outermost toe having evolved to extend out to the side like a thumb, although probably only functioning to provide a firmer grip in the mud.
You can also explore an intact Chapter House (c.1150), the monk’s Refectory (c.1200’s), Scriptorium (c.1300’s) and the excellent ruins of the Western Range (c. late 1200’s). Plus climb St Mary’s Tower (c.1819 to 1974) for spectacular views.
Birkenhead Priory site OPENING HOURS:
Wednesday to Friday 1.00pm to 5.00pm AND Saturday & Sunday 10am to 5.00pm
(St Mary’s Tower closes at 4.30pm)
FREE ENTRY.
Dogs on leads welcome.
Photo by Samantha Higgins
