Birkenhead

Seaport and industrial town in the Wirral, Merseyside, England, opposite Liverpool on the Wirral peninsula, on the west bank of the Mersey estuary; population (2001) 83,700. It developed as a shipbuilding town with important dock facilities, but other principal industries now include engineering and flour-milling. The Mersey rail tunnel (1886), the Queensway road tunnel (1934), and a passenger ferry service link Birkenhead with Liverpool.

History
The first settlement on the site of Birkenhead developed around a Benedictine priory founded in 1150. Birkenhead was still a small village when William Laird established a boilermaking and shipbuilding yard in the town in 1824, the forerunner of the immense Cammell Laird yards, and in 1829 the first iron vessel in the UK was built here. The Laird shipyards were extended to cover the whole river front from Woodside Ferry Terminal to Tranmere. The Wallasey docks were constructed between 1842 and 1847 in the Wallasey Pool, an artificial basin created from a natural creek off the Mersey. They were amalgamated with Liverpool docks in 1855, and the creation of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (1858) in effect made the Mersey a single port. By 1877 the dock system was complete, and the Bidston Dock was added in 1933. However, the shipbuilding industry declined in the 20th century, resulting in the closure of the last Cammell Laird shipyard in 1993. Europe's first tramway system was built in Birkenhead in 1860. The Wallasey Pool district was also a centre for engineering industries, many associated with shipbuilding, and other activities including sugar-refining and the manufacture of cement and fertilizers. The Scout Movement was inaugurated in Birkenhead by Robert Baden-Powell in 1908.

Features
The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum includes a collection of English watercolours and Liverpool porcelain, and a separate gallery has exhibits illustrating the history of the town's shipbuilding industry. Woodside Ferry Terminal displays the history of Mersey Ferries, and the warship HMS Plymouth and the submarine HMS Onyx are preserved in the Historic Warships Museum.