Storeton Woods has a long and varied history.
While it may be best known today for mysterious paranormal sightings, the woods on the Wirral has been a hub of activity for thousands of years. The area close to Bebington is nestled around the small village of Storeton which was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Stortone.
The grounds cover around 31 acres and are owned by the Friends of Storeton Woods. The paths now taken by dog walkers were once walked by dinosaurs and Romans and might have been the site of the most important battle in English history.
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The area is on the site of a quarry that was present at the time of the Roman occupation. The quarry was filled in with soil from the excavation of the Queensway Tunnel in the 1920s.
In June 1838, workmen at Storeton Woods Quarry discovered a fossilised dinosaur footprint in the sandstone and was named Chirotherium Storetonese.
The footprints were originally left by a reptile over 200 million years ago in the soft mud, perhaps at a lake edge within the tropical desert that covered most of northern Europe. The footprints were preserved in the drying mud and were eventually buried by sand. The stone footprints are currently housed in the World Museum in Liverpool and the British Museum.
Most of Storeton village is built from the stone quarried on Storeton Ridge and was also used in many other buildings, including Birkenhead Town Hall and surprisingly the Empire State Building in New York.
The ridge close to the woods might also have been the site of the Battle of Brunanburh was fought in 937 between Æthelstan, King of England, and an alliance of Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scotland, and Owain, King of Strathclyde. Æthelstan's victory is cited as the point of origin for the foundation of the English nation.
However, the location of the battle has been lost to history and has been the subject of lively debate among historians. Wirral Archaeology, a local volunteer group, believes that it may have identified the site of the battle close to the woods but it is being kept secret until it can be properly excavated.
The woods are known for the Lantern Man, a tale that dates back to the 1970s of an abnormally tall hooded man who holds out a lantern with one hand and wields a huge sharp sickle with the other.
Last year dog walkers in the area reported hearing "ghostly female voices" at night. One woman claims to have heard a "woman giggling" in the woods at night before the voices went further away as she approached them.
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