History
The Monks' Ferry
Benedictines on the tide.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Sandstone priory ruins and an old chapter house
- Legend from
- Priory history
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Calm
Before any bridge or tunnel, black-robed monks rowed travellers across the Mersey.
Birkenhead Priory was a Benedictine house founded around 1150 by Hamon de Masci. Soon after it was built the monks took over a ferry carrying passengers across the Mersey to Lancashire. Traffic grew after 1207, when King John made Liverpool a borough. In 1310 the prior complained that the nearest inns were in Chester, and a royal charter of 1318 let the monks build lodgings and sell food. In 1330 Edward III allowed them to charge tolls. Travellers sheltered with them when the weather was too bad to cross. The ferry was run by the monks until the priory was dissolved in 1536, and the chapter house is still a consecrated chapel.