THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD CHURCHES OF WIRRAL
greater esteem. But St. Oswald has two
churches in Wirral, Backford and Bidston.
In history St. Oswald was associated with
St. Edwin, each being slain by Penda, the
heathen king of Mercia. St. Edwin was
the first Christian king of Northumbria;
it was his Queen Ethelburga who brought
with her from Kent St. Paulinus as her
chaplain. In 627 King Edwin was
baptized in the church of St. Peter, York,
the first York Minster. In 636 he was
defeated and slain by Penda. His successor,
King Oswald, was one of the
greatest and best of all kings we have had
in England, to be ranked with the French
St. Louis and our own Alfred. He fell
in 642. His skull was preserved at
Lindisfarne.
At Bidston this patron saint is portrayed
in a window at the west end of
the south aisle, and in a finely executed
wood carving in the central panel of the
pulpit.
Stoak church is dedicated to St. Lawrence,
who was a deacon of Rome and was
martyred in 258 a. D. by being broiled to
death. On this account representations
of this saint usually show a grid-iron.
Very little is known of him, but tradition
94