Upton is a village in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, England, and is situated within of Birkenhead, of the Dee Estuary, a similar distance from the River Mersey, and from Liverpool Bay. The village is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. Upton was in the traditional county of Cheshire. At the 2011 census, the population was 16,130. Upton was originally settled as an Anglo-Saxon farming community, and remained as a farming community until the village's rapid urbanisation and expansion from the mid-19th century. This was brought about by the development of Liverpool as a major port, with rail and road links across the Mersey estuary. The village now has a strong service economy which is based primarily around healthcare and retail, with a variety of places nearby, and within the village, to pursue sport and leisure activities. History Etymology The name Upton is from the Old English upp, meaning up, high or a hill, and tūn, meaning a farmstead or settlement. Upton therefore could be explained as meaning Hill Farm. This is still recognisable today, as Upton is on a low hill. As the name Upton is relatively common, it was sometimes known historically as Upton in Wyrhale (in 1307) or Upton by Birkenhead. The name Overchurch may translate as "shore church", from the Old English ofer meaning a shore and cirice, a church. This implies that, during the Anglo-Saxon era, the shoreline of the Irish Sea was much closer to the centre of the village. Ownership of the manor Upton was originally settled as a farming community, during the Anglo-Saxon period. In Norman times, Upton was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Optone and was written as being in the possession of William Malbank. The manor passed to the Orrebies under the family of Praers, and then through the Arderne family, and by marriage to Baldwin of Bold in 1310. His descendants owned the manor for six generations, before it was sold in 1614. Subsequent owners have included the Earls of Derby. Notably, as a likely consequence of the 8th Earl of Derby who lived at nearby Bidston Hall. From Elizabethan times, the manor was associated with Upton Hall, which passed hands along with the manor. Upton Hall was sold by the Webster family to the Society of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) who turned it