Pensby is a large village on the Wirral Peninsula

Wirral Peninsula

Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, located to the north east of Heswall

Heswall

Heswall is a town in Wirral, in the county of Merseyside, England. Administratively, it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. At the time of the 2001 Census, the total population of the ward was 16,012 , which included the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton...

. Historically part of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, it is within the Pensby & Thingwall Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 311,200, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of...

 and is situated within the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West

Wirral West

Wirral West is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- History :...

. At the 2001 Census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

, the population of the village was 6,900 and the total population for the ward was 13,314.

History

The name Pensby comes from Old Norse, meaning a village or settlement at a hill called "Penn".
The "by" suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

, included in neighbouring place names such as Frankby

Frankby

Frankby is a hamlet on the Wirral Peninsula, England and is located between Greasby and West Kirby. It is part of the Greasby, Frankby & Irby Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is situated in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West...

, Greasby

Greasby

Greasby is a large village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is part of the Greasby, Frankby & Irby Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is situated in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West...

, and Irby

Irby, Merseyside

Irby is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The village covers an area of 20 square kilometres. To the north of Irby lies the associated hamlet of Irby Hill...

, is believed to be Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 in origin.

Pensby was originally a village in Woodchurch Parish

Woodchurch

Woodchurch is an area of the Wirral Peninsula, in England, which is sometimes considered a suburb of Birkenhead. Administratively, Woodchurch is within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West...

, Wirral Hundred. The population was 22 in 1801, 48 in 1901 and 2,996 in 1951.

Lower Pensby was previously known as Newtown. This was due to the building of new houses around the turn of the twentieth century at the crossroads of Pensby Road and Gills Lane.

On 1 April 1974, local government reorganisation

Local Government Act 1972

The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

 in England and Wales resulted in most of Wirral, including Pensby, transfer from the county of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

 to Merseyside.

Education

Pensby's primary schools are Ladymount RC Primary, and Pensby Primary School. The local secondary schools are Pensby High School for Boys

Pensby Sports College

Pensby Sports College is a single sex boys' secondary school in Pensby. The town is located between Irby and Heswall on the Wirral Peninsula, England....

, which was designated a specialist sports college

Sports College

Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, PE, sports and dance. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Sports...

 in 2005 by the Department for Education and Skills, and Pensby High School for Girls.

Sport

The famous Everton FC footballer Dixie Dean

Dixie Dean

William Ralph Dean , better known as Dixie Dean, was an English football player. Dean originally started his career with Birkenhead based Tranmere Rovers before moving on to Everton, the club he had supported as a child, where he became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in English football...

 played for Pensby Institute in his early days, on the fields at the side of Gills Lane. He was sold to Tranmere Rovers

Tranmere Rovers F.C.

Tranmere Rovers Football Club are an English team based in Birkenhead, Wirral. The club currently compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system...

 for the fee of a new kit for the team.

Bus

Services operating in the Pensby area, as of December 2008:

Number	Route	Operator	Days of Operation
22	Caldy-Chester	Avon Buses	Monday-Saturday
71/72	Heswall-Liverpool	First Chester & The Wirral First Chester & The Wirral First Chester & Wirral is a division of bus operator First Manchester Ltd., running local bus services in and around Chester and the Wirral, north west England. The company is a subsidiary of FirstGroup plc, the largest bus operator in Britain....	Monday-Sunday
166/167	Heswall Shore-Heswall	Eazibus	Monday-Saturday
171	Heswall-Birkenhead	A2B Travel	Sunday evenings
172	Heswall-Birkenhead	Avon Buses (Mon-Sat) and A2B Travel (Sun)	Monday-Saturday mornings and Sunday evening
175	Heswall-Irby	Eazibus (M-F) and A2B Travel (Sat)	Monday-Saturday
186	Eastham Ferry-Leasowe	Avon Buses	Evenings and Sundays
272/273	Hooton/Neston-Arrowe Park Hospital	Helms Coaches (Mon-Sat daytime) and Eazibus (evenings and Sundays)	Monday-Sunday
471	Barnston-Liverpool	Arriva North West Arriva North West Arriva North West is a division of Arriva that operates bus services around North West England. It consists of two companies: Arriva North West Ltd and Arriva Merseyside Ltd....	Monday-Friday peak times
472	Barnston/Heswall-Liverpool	Arriva North West	Monday-Saturday