The boundary of the Viking colony is believed to have passed south of Neston and Raby, and along Dibbinsdale. Evidence of Norse speech on the Wirral can still be seen from place name evidence – such as the common (meaning "village" in Scandinavian languages) – suffixes and names such as Tranmere, which comes from ("cranebird sandbank"). Viking Age sculpture corroborates this. Recent Y-DNA research has also revealed the genetic trail left by Scandinavians on the Wirral, specifically relatively high rates of the haplogroup R1a, associated in Britain with Scandinavian ancestry. Bromborough on the Wirral is also one of the possible sites of an epic battle in 937, the Battle of Brunanburh, which confirmed England as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. This is the first battle where England united to fight the combined forces of the Norsemen and the Scots, and thus historians consider it the birthplace of England. The battle site covered a large area of the Wirral. Egil's Saga, a story which tells of the battle, may have referred to the Wirral as Wen Heath, in Icelandic. The Normans and the early Middle Ages After invading England in 1066 and subduing Northumbria in 1069/1070, William the Conqueror invaded and ravaged Chester and its surrounding area, laying waste to much of the Wirral. The Domesday survey of 1086 shows that the Wirral then was more densely populated than most of England, and the manor of Eastham, which covered most of the east of the peninsula from Bidston to the River Gowy, was the second largest in Cheshire. Of the 28 former lords of the Wirral manors listed, 12 bore Norse names. By 1086, most of the area was in the hands of Norman lords such as Robert of Rhuddlan, his cousin Hugh d'Avranches, and Hamo de Mascy. The survey shows 405 family heads living in the peninsula, suggesting a total population of 2,000–3,000. The Earls of Chester ruled the whole of the County Palatine, including the Wirral, almost as "a kingdom within a kingdom" for about 250 years. Between 1120 and 1123, Earl Ranulph le Meschin converted the Wirral into a hunting forest, an area in which game, particularly deer and boar, could be allowed to flourish undisturbed. A chief forester was appointed with a ceremonial horn, and the position soon became a hereditary responsibility of the Stanley family. However, after complaints from the residents about the wildness of the area and