Talk:Oxton, Merseyside

The perennial PRENTON Postal area edits
The opening paragraph references to Prenton postal area seems to continually change text without adding anything significant. I think that an example of the problem would help here. Perhaps someone could upload a scan (redacted to preserve anonymity) of a typical bank/utilities/junk mail envelope which shows the Prenton, Merseyside address and a scan (again redacted) from an official source, such as polling card or council tax bill, which show the official address as Oxton, Wirral. Alternatively, some external link showing similar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.41.230.169 (talk) 07:19, 27 October 2012 (UTC)


 * See CH postcode area, the table there, the map there, and the references there. Click on the map there for references for the map. It may be appropriate to add some of those references to this article (I haven't looked in detail). Note that the postal town which appears in a postal address simply proves which sorting office Royal Mail uses, nothing more, nothing less. --  Dr Greg   talk  13:55, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Just wanted to back up Dr Greg about this being for Royal Mail uses. Prenton is an area of Birkenhead but confusingly, brought about by this postal aid, it is also a "post town". This doesn't mean Prenton is a town! Therefore here Oxton is just Birkenhead regardless of whether it falls under Prenton postal town or not.Babydoll9799 (talk) 19:23, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps it should have a reference to the fact that Royal Mail is inconsistent with the offical address, as  used  on election polling cards, council tax letters etc; e.g "The official postal address for Oxton, as declared on election polling cards, council tax forms etc,  is Oxton, Wirral, however the postal services operator Royal Mail replaces this with Prenton, Merseyside despite Prenton being a geographically seperate area of Birkenhead and Merseyside now being a defunct county." The words Prenton could then have a link to the post town page mentioned above. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.254.212 (talk) 23:29, 31 October 2012 (UTC)


 * This all seems a load of fuss about nothing. Frankly, I see no need to mention at all in the main text; it need only appear in the infobox as one of the post towns. The simple fact is that part of Oxton has a CH42 postcode and the other part has a CH43 postcode (and these two postcodes are named "" and ""). --   Dr Greg   talk  01:13, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Being an interested observer I do think it matters though. People get confused and they need to know that Prenton here is just a "post town" a figment of Royal Mail's imagination and that Birkenhead is still the town! Babydoll9799 (talk) 18:46, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry Dr Greg, but I agree with Babydoll9799 - this is quite important. The naming of the towns and villages of the UK is not within the gift of a commercial company. I do know people who now say that they live in Prenton, when in fact, they live in Oxton. The area name is traceable to Old Norse and Tudor - perhaps we owe it to future generations to maintain the continuum rather than an accountant.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.41.236.144 (talk) 23:41, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

This article needs restructuring
This entry has evolved like a badly pruned tree. The issue of the post code could really do with being moved in to a sub-section. I remember the Prenton issue appearing (about 5yrs ago?) as a bit of a rant against Royal Mail. The introduction of Oxton Village is rather random: cf intro para "Originally a village in its own right" then in History "Oxton Village is a mainly early Victorian era settlement"; it's not clear that there is a difference between Oxton (as a ward or suburb) Oxton Village and the Conservation area. Maybe all these things could be moved in a new section called (for example) Geography?

Other items include the electoral results - can this be updated to 2015 results? Also, the notable connections is of dubious quality and is now internally referencing within Wikipedia only - is that sensible? It seems rather cyclic. There is no mention of Oxton in the wikipedia entries for Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie, Elvis Costello, Miles Kane or Charlie Landsborough - in fact most explicitly state that they were born and raised in other areas. These entries really need some sort of evidence for being included here. Nicola Horlick's, Penny Hughes's, F. E. Smith's and Patricia Routledge's only connection appears to be schooling, so maybe this should be made clear, as it is in Routledge's case. PennyDarling (talk) 10:31, 4 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Just taking a passing interest. I agree with you there are some dubious "notable connections". I do think it needs to be clear about the Post Towns as Royal Mail have redefined the town of Birkenhead, unofficially of course. It needs to be clear that Oxton is part of Birkenhead. Babydoll9799 (talk) 09:12, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, agreed, it should definitely clarify the "Prenton Issue", but would you object to a new section (say Geography) that outlines the problem and gave some definition to Oxton (ward & suburb), Oxton Village and the Conservation Area? If no one objects, then I'll clear-out the Notable Connections - I'll give it a few days just in case there are any more comments. I would be interested to hear what people feel about the inclusion of Fraiche, being the only Michelin Starred Restaurant in Merseyside and being named number one restaurant in the UK by the Sunday Times. For that matter, should any other interesting business' be mentioned, as these have direct impact on the nature of Oxton? Pubs, Restaurants, Cafe's et al all add to the character. PennyDarling (talk) 15:34, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

I've updated the Abercrombie article to include an image of the Blue Plaque as this is already available on Wikipedia; so the Abercrombie article now has some reference to Oxton. I've taken the liberty of cleaning up the notable connections sub-section, although I'm not sure that Fraiche is not a valid entry - or maybe that there should be a section that does reference the past and present businesses in Oxton as this is an important aspect village life.PennyDarling (talk) 12:21, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

OK, I have added the new section, discussed above. Please have a read and comment/edit as necessary PennyDarling (talk) 12:21, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Viking Burial Mound in Oxton?
This is a link to a book that discusses Arno Hill on Oxton field as a likely place of a viking burial mound. Apparently it's not named after the Italian river, but comes form the Old Norse Arnis-haugr, the ‘burial mound of Arni’.

"Viking Mersey: Scandinavian Wirral, West Lancashire and Chester" by Stephen Harding, Professor of Applied Biochemistry at Nottingham

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gjwkEfX64MQC&lpg=PA128&ots=eqKVkhZAqQ&dq=Oxton%2C%20North%20Yorkshire%2C&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=Oxton,%20North%20Yorkshire,&f=false

More links to Harding's work at his Uni web space: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/ http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Biosciences/People/steve.harding

Maybe this could be included in the history section somewhere?

PennyDarling 09:53, 13 August 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by PennyDarling (talk • contribs)