AGM - Committee Members

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Website: www.hilbreisland.org.uk

Our thanks are offered once again to Richard Smith for continuing to help us with the Friends of Hilbre web site. The site has been on-line now for about 2 years and has had about 35,000 hits. Val collects/edits the information for the web site from various contributors, and delivers this to Richard who formats it for our web site. The paper copy of the Newsletter is firstly despatched to members of The Friends of Hilbre and at a later date ’posted’ on our web site. Folk across the world are thus able to keep up with news of Hilbre Islands.

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Historical Research

Hoylake Historical Society gave us a generous grant of £500 for books and materials at our AGM last year. We have been spending it on DVDs, books and materials which can soon be used by visiting groups. The idea is to show that Hilbre was a part of the local community and economy as far back as records survive.

The myths about Hilbre are great fun, but hide the real issues of life here, and what the monks of Chester Abbey were really doing on the islands. I have given many history talks locally, based on research material such as translated Latin documents from the Abbey’s records. Gone is the medieval pilgrimage to a Saxon (or even Celtic) saint. Also the ancient cemetery and a saint’s tomb; the only burial we can be sure of on Hilbre was a tall man placed under a grave slab dating from about 1100. Who was he? This is more exciting to me than a mythical Celtic princess. The islands at that time were the property of an abbey in Normandy, at St. Evroult Notre Dame du Bois.

The grey sandstone grave-cover c1100 was found in 1864 in the place then believed to be
the ancient cemetery on the island. Only the upper portion now remains and this is kept
in the Charles Dawson Brown Museum near St. Bridget’s Church, West Kirby.

Sources: ‘The Early Monuments of West Kirby’ by W.G. Collingwood in West Kirby and Hilbre by
John Brownbill, 1928. Reliques of the Anglo-Saxon Churches of St. Bridget and St. Hildeburga,
West Kirkby, Cheshire by Henry Ecroyd Smith, 1870

The French abbey, in ruins, is still there, but most of its records have perished in the wars in Europe since the early times. A monk called Orderic Vitalis, raised in Shrewsbury, but employed as a writer of history at St. Evroult, left several volumes of his chronicles when he died in the 12th century. His works include a candid pen portrait of Hugh Lupus, the Earl of Chester who gave West Kirby and Hilbre to St. Evroult. He was fat and aggressive, but well respected!

Other myths include Hilbre’s supposed Roman lighthouse, based on a misunderstanding of a learned article written only 130 years ago. A historian working in the Mediterranean suggested that the Dee estuary, and other rivers in north west England, would be good places for Roman navogation lights, but no archaeological evidence has ever been found of one on Hilbre. In addition, the medieval lamp in Hilbre’s monastic chapel was almost certainly a prayer lamp, donated with yearly payments for prayers in memory of the deceased relative or friend of a later Earl.

Perhaps the use of these learned papers and books, written as the result of careful research in the last 150 years, will help modern students to make better sense of Hilbre’s past, and that of Wirral and Cheshire, too.

by Sue Craggs

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History and Heritage Fair 10th March 2007

The Friends of Hilbre were one of dozens of local groups and organisations represented at the recent History and Heritage Fair held at the Wirral Museum {formerly the Birkenhead Town Hall}. The groups represented wide-ranging interests relating to Wirral’s past, present and future. The all-day event was very well attended with significant numbers of visitors coming from places outside of Wirral.

Our display stand attracted a number of praiseworthy comments from both visitors and representatives from some of the other groups at the event. Over the years our displays have evolved and expanded so that we now have a professional-looking comprehensive range of material, both historic and current, relating to the Hilbre Islands.

The Friends of Hilbre Family Evening in August

  Seal Watching Training with the Hilbre Ranger

Dave, the Hilbre Ranger, with members of The Friends of Hilbre
on the Seal Watching Training course (Val Burnett).

Dave Cavanagh, the Hilbre Ranger, gave another excellent refresher/training session for Seal Watching Trainees on 3rd February this year. The total number of trained members from 2006 and 2007 is now 26. Dave’s training has equipped members with sufficient knowledge to man the telescope and to answer questions posed by visitors to the island about the Atlantic Grey Seals in the Dee Estuary.

A trainee Seal Watcher learning to use the telescope with Colin’s help.
by Val Burnett

It is hoped that members who attended training days in 2006 and 2007 will volunteer for at least one session on Hilbre. Some dates have already been arranged and others will follow. Will trained members please get in touch with June who has agreed to act as the contact for volunteers on Seal Watching Duty. Thank you members who have already volunteered.

Contact for Seal Watching Volunteers
June at our hotmail address:
thefriendsofhilbre@hotmail.com
or
Hilbre Ranger, Dave Cavanagh 632 4455 {phone before 6.00pm please}.


Atlantic Grey Seals hauled-out on the Lifeboat Station slipway this year.
This was a very unusual occurrence as the Grey Seals usually
haul-out on the West Hoyle Sandbank in the Dee Estuary.
© Steve Williams

Val and Barbara staffed the Friends of Hilbre stall at St. Bridget’s Church Fair in June.

Please will members contact Val or Barbara to let them know when they are available to staff the MIU or to help at the other venues by phone or by e-mailing:

thefriendsofhilbre@hotmail.com

See: Mobile Information Unit and Other Events for dates.

Silver seas from Hilbre Island’s shore.
© Anne Hulbert