Hi Margaret - thank you for your great reply! We went out to dinner and talked about the possibilities of sayign just Wirral instead of The Wirral. I drove me mad! We couldn't hardly find an instance when I could just say Wirral without 'The'. And as you quite rightly say - 'The' gives it a sense of importance - if it needed more! It's not my home I have to say - my bungalow is but the area isn't - my 'Home' is about 90 miles north of here. But having said that - it is a great place and I love it. I travel 'home' whenever I can, but if the truth were known I probably wouldn't move from here. My only gripe is that I wish they would define Little Sutton as being somewhere, we are yards away from the Wirral sign and feel as though we have been shut outside. Geographically the Wirral Peninsula is much larger than the Wirral and I wish some council would recognise that and put up signs saying 'you are entering the Wirral Peninsula'. I also find very confusing traveling to places on the Wirral and finding signs that say 'you are now leaving the Wirral' - then a sign saying 'Merseyside', a few more hundred yards and you are back 'Welcome to the Wirral'. As a newcomer it seems to me that 'the Wirral' doesn't even know where it is! Oh Dear - I feel a ragging from Gordon coming on! - Jackie

Jackie wrote :- >Oh Dear - I feel a ragging from Gordon coming on! With Marged at the helm I don't think there'll be any "ragging" allowed from me or from anyone else! I know for a fact that Marged would wish this list to remain the friendly, informative forum it always was under Caryl Williams' leadership and I for one intend to do my utmost to help her keep it that way. My "little dig" at Jackie was of course tongue-in-cheek and had no other motive than to get a topic of conversation going during a quiet spell on the list. Mind you, as Paul (Chapman) has pointed out in his post this morning the purists weren't using the definite article (ie "the") when referring to the peninsular of Wirral as long ago as the 14th century! :-) Regards Gordon >Hi Margaret - thank you for your great reply! >We went out to dinner and talked about the possibilities of sayign just >Wirral instead of The Wirral. I drove me mad! We couldn't hardly find an >instance when I could just say Wirral without 'The'. And as you quite > >rightly say >'The' gives it a sense of importance - if it needed more! >It's not my home I have to say - my bungalow is but the area isn't - my >'Home' is about 90 miles north of here. But having said that - it is a >great >place and I love it. I travel 'home' whenever I can, but if the truth >were >known I probably wouldn't move from here. >My only gripe is that I wish they would define Little Sutton as being >somewhere, we are yards away from the Wirral sign and feel as though we > >have been >shut outside. Geographically the Wirral Peninsula is much larger than the >Wirral and I wish some council would recognise that and put up signs > >saying >'you are entering the Wirral Peninsula'. >I also find very confusing traveling to places on the Wirral and finding >signs that say 'you are now leaving the Wirral' - then a sign saying >'Merseyside', a few more hundred yards and you are back 'Welcome to >the Wirral'. As a >newcomer it seems to me that 'the Wirral' >doesn't even know where it is! >Oh Dear - I feel a ragging from Gordon coming on! - Jackie