ABOUT FORMBY MERSEYSIDE .

Historically a part of Lancashire, it now forms part of the Liverpool City Region. Formby was built on the plain adjoining the Irish Sea coast. Largely a residential town, Formby becomes a tourist hot spot during the summer months, with day trippers attracted to its beaches, sand dunes, and wildlife.

Erosion of sand on the beach at Formby is revealing layers of mud and sediment, laid down and covered in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age, approximately 3,500 - 4,000 years ago. These sediments often contain the footprints of humans and animals (most commonly aurochs) from that period.

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The common place-name ending -by is from the Scandinavian abyr meaning “homestead”, “settlement” or “village”. The village of Formby was originally spelt Fornebei and means “village belonging to Forni”. At that time Fornibiyum was a well-known Norse family name. He could have been the leader of the invading expedition which took possession of this coast. Until its closure in 1998, Oslo Airport in Norway was situated in a town called Fornebu. It was from Ireland in about 960 AD that these Norsemen or Viking first came to the west coast of Lancashire, first trading or raiding and then settling. Tradition says that the Viking invaders failed to defeat the native Anglo-Saxons on the coast of Formby, so they sailed inland, up the River Alt, and attacked from the rear. It is more probable that the Viking invaders simply found that the area was thinly populated and took control without any blood being shed. It is thought that the Romans used Formby as a major pass through for their troops during the time of their settlement.