Vikings on the Wirral Peninsula

Scientists have determined that there is plenty of Viking blood in the veins of men in the Liverpool area of England.
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The DNA study focused on 150 men in the Liverpool region, namely Wirral and West Lancashire, who had family names that had been in use locally from before 1700.

The study revealed that 50 percent had a Y-chromosome of type R1a, and which the Celts do not have, that shows they have Norwegian origins.

The study was carried out by professor of biochemistry Stephen Harding at the University of Nottingham, and professor of genetics, Mark A. Jobling at the University of Leicester.

An earlier study of 150 men with a father and paternal grandfather from Wirral, the peninsula outside Liverpool, had the same results.

"It confirms that this area was once densely populated by Vikings. There has been a great deal of immigration and emigration since then, so we were very excited to see what we would find," Harding said.

History professor Torgrim Titlestad from the University of Stavanger was interested by the study's findings, and said that the first Vikings established their political system in Wirral.

"It is first and foremost York that Norwegians associate with Vikings and England, but Wirral also has an exciting Viking past," said Titlestad from Wirral. Titlestad is in England for the presentation of the study, and is about to release a book in English called Viking Norway.

Harding said that the first Vikings came to Wirral in 902, and were Norwegians that had lived for a few years in Dublin.

"They did not conquer Wirral, but were largely peaceful people who needed a place to live. I had heard a bit at school that Norwegian Vikings had lived in Wirral, but until I got interested in the subject as an adult I had no idea that there had existed a Norwegian Viking state in Wirral," Harding said.