It lends its name to our county, but the River Mersey is not restricted to the borders of Merseyside.
Stretching for around 70 miles across the North West of England, the river formed part of the Lancashire -Cheshire border for centuries. Due to the advent of new counties and changes of borders, the river now runs from Greater Manchester, through Cheshire and into Merseyside.
The river itself begins at Stockport. This means that Stockport County's ground Edgeley Park is the nearest football stadium to the Mersey - not Anfield, Goodison Park or Prenton Park. However, Everton's planned move to Bramley Moore dock would place the club right on the banks of the Mersey estuary.
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Below, we trace the river from its formation at Stockport, through to the Irish Sea, where it empties.
How the river is formed
The River Mersey is formed by the junction of the River Goyt and the River Tame in the centre of Stockport. It then flows west through the suburbs of Greater Manchester.
It passes through or near Heaton Mersey, Didsbury, Northenden, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Stretford, Sale, Ashton on Mersey, Urmston and Flixton before flowing into the Manchester Ship Canal at Irlam. The course of the canal follows much of the Mersey's old course to Rixton, where the river leaves the canal to the north.
Before the construction of the canal, the river passed through the Cheshire town of Lymm. The old bed of the river can still be seen near Irlam and Warburton.
For hundreds of years, the Mersey has formed some of the border between Cheshire and Lancashire and its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for boundary. Back then, it may have been the border between Mercia and Northumbria.
Returning to the present day, from Rixton, the Mersey meanders through to Warrington, at which point it becomes tidal. The Mersey widens west of Warrington and then narrows soon after as it heads to the Runcorn Gap.
The Runcorn Gap
Separating Runcorn and Widnes, the Runcorn Gap is bridged by the Silver Jubilee Bridge (more commonly known as the Runcorn Bridge) and the railway bridge. One mile upstream is the much newer Mersey Gateway bridge, which opened in 2017.
On the Widnes side, the manmade Spike Island sits between the Mersey and the Sankey Canal. Famous for hosting the Stone Roses' iconic 1990 gig, the island was the centre of Britain's chemical trade in the 19th century.
The Mersey Estuary
Heading west from the Runcorn Gap, the river widens again into an estuary (a body of water which is made up of a mix of sea water and river water) three miles at its widest point, found approximately between Ellesmere Port and Speke. The Mersey estuary heads north, with the city of Liverpool on its east and the Wirral Peninsula on its west.
Once between Birkenhead and Liverpool city centre it narrows to a width of less than a mile. Docks, which were built into the bed of the Mersey, stretch across the Liverpool side for almost 8 miles.
The estuary is essentially a transition zone between the Irish Sea and the river itself. The mix of waters is known as brackish water and the Mersey estuary itself is affected by silting.
The Mersey ends at Liverpool Bay, where it empties into the Irish Sea, some 70 miles from Stockport.
