Is the Wirral in Liverpool? Are They Scousers?

Head on holiday somewhere and the chances are high that you’ll hear a Scouse accent at some point. Ask the speaker where they’re from and there’s a good chance they’ll say Liverpool, even if they’re actually from the Wirral. Sometimes, this will be because the person wants to claim the ‘cool’ points that come from being from Liverpool, whilst others it will simply be because not a lot of people have heard of the Wirral but everyone has heard of Liverpool.
Those that claim to be from the city but are actually from the peninsula will usually only say they’re from Liverpool when an actual Scouser is in hearing distance, ready to pull them up on their claim.
What’s ‘the Wirral’?

The most obviously question that you might ask is what, exactly, ‘the Wirral’ is. You will sometimes get people referring to it simply as ‘Wirral’, but this is incorrect on account of the fact that ‘the Wirral’ is a shortening of ‘the Wirral peninsula’. Roughly shaped like a rectangle, the Wirral is around 15 miles long and seven miles wide, growing out of Cheshire and sitting with one side opposite Liverpool and the other facing North Wales.
On the West there is the Dee Estuary, whilst to the East lies the Mersey Estuary, with Liverpool Bay lying to the North. The fact that it is physically connected to Cheshire is why it is a peninsula rather than an island.
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The earliest known occupation of the Wirral was around 1,200 BC, during the Mesolithic period. In Meols and New Brighton there is evidence that people lived there through to the Bronze Age. Inhabited by a Celtic tribe prior to the arrival of the Romans, it was an important port from around 500 BC. According to the census taken in 2001, the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral had a population of 312,293. It is unlikely that it has gone up or down in either direction since then.
There are different parts of the Wirral, with the likes of Upton, Caldy and West Kirby seen as more ‘well-to-do’ than places such as Birkenhead and Moreton.
Is it Liverpool?

Whilst some people from the Wirral might like to claim that they are ‘from Liverpool’, the reality is that the Wirral is entirely distinct from Liverpool. In order to get to the city people need to either travel on one of the world famous Mersey Ferries or else travel through one of two tunnels.
The other alternative is to drive the much longer way round that takes you either across the Runcorn Bridge or, if you wish to avoid paying a toll of any sort, around the outskirts of Warrington and St Helens. Whilst Liverpool is very much a city, the Wirral sees two-third of its residents live in one-third of its space, with much of it taken up with greenery.
‘Wirral’ is trending on twitter because of the #coronavirus . GUYS. This is it. This is our breakthrough. Everyone now knows that the Wirral exists and we no longer have to say ‘I’m from/near Liverpool’ when someone asks us.
— ell (@ellussybadussy) January 30, 2020
The Wirral is effectively split into two, with the Northern area being considered to be Merseyside, whilst the Southern area is thought to be Cheshire. The Merseyside part of the Wirral certainly has more of the attributes of people from Liverpool, with most of the inhabitants being less inclined to think of themselves as ‘posh’ when compared to those in Cheshire.
Residents of Birkenhead, for example, are much more likely to have a Scouse accent than those from the likes of Parkgate, Ellesmere Port or Neston. Regardless of whether you’re talking about the North or the South, neither parts of the Wirral can be classed as Liverpool.
Are People From the Wirral Scousers?
The Scouse accent was developed out of the Irish and Welsh immigrants who arrived in the city via the docks. There is also a Scandinavian influence, with sailors from the region also sailing into the docks and lending their voice to the development of the accent and the dialect.
The word ‘Scouse’ itself is a shortened form of ‘lobscouse’, the exact origins of which are unknown but which bears relation to the likes of the Norwegian lapskaus, Swedish lapskojs, Danish labskovs and the Low German labskaus. They are names for stews that were commonly eaten by sailors, adopted by poorer members of society as they were cheap to make.
Bowl of Almost Scouse at the Refreshment Rooms, Rock Ferry, Wirral.
Don’t hang me for treason lads, but it was bang on. 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/HWnXQhmQnr— maladjusted 📷 (@carl_thompson70) March 25, 2023
Interestingly, the poorer people eating Scouse in the 19th century were from Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bootle and Wallasey, being given the name ‘Scousers’ by outsiders because of their love of the dish. In that sense, those from areas such as Birkenhead and Wallasey could therefore claim to be Scousers, even if people from Liverpool would quickly refute that suggestion.
To some, the only people who can claim to be Scousers are those that have purple wheelie bins rather than green ones. Whilst someone from Birkenhead is much more likely to speak with a Scouse accent than someone from, say, Woolton, the latter would have a purple bin whilst the former wouldn’t.
There is also some evidence to suggest that the Benedictine monks that were based in Birkenhead and started the first ferry service in the early part of the 14th century would take bowls of Scouse over to Liverpool. When they did, residents of the city would shout, “Here come the Scousers!”, meaning that a claim from Birkenhead residents to be the original Scousers does have some merit. Some would call those from the Wirral ‘Plastic Scousers’, although that doesn’t tend to apply to everyone.
Instead, that is a term limited to those from the peninsula who try to claim that they’re Scousers or speak with a thick Scouse accent even though they’re not from the city.
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Others would refer to people from the Wirral as ‘woolybacks’. The term ‘wool’ is a derogative one that derives from woolyback. There is no exact sense of where the term originated, with some believing that workers carried heavy wooden bales on their back that would leave traces of the material on their clothes. Another is that those that delivered coal to Liverpool from area such as Lancashire wore woollen fleeces.
Regardless, it is not a complimentary term and is often used to put people down. Even if a Scouser does something that others don’t like, they might get called a ‘wool’ to bring them down to earth.