Our story
A new club with a very old name.
Gravesberie FC was founded by proud Greasby residents who wanted a club that celebrates where we come from. Our name and our crest both tell the story of a village where people have lived for more than 10,000 years. We want to build a club that every Greasby resident can be proud of, for years to come.
Why "Gravesberie"?
Gravesberie is how our village was written in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is one of the oldest written records of Greasby. By taking the name, we remember the generations who lived, farmed and played here long before us.
10,000 years of Greasby
- c. 8500 BC
The first people of Greasby
Hunter-gatherers camp beside Arrowe Brook, among the first people to settle western Britain after the last Ice Age. Archaeologists from National Museums Liverpool excavated the site between 1987 and 1990. They found a hearth, about 12,500 stone tools and burnt hazelnut shells, which radiocarbon dating places between about 8500 and 8300 BC. It is the earliest known settlement in Merseyside.
- Anglo-Saxon times
A farm by the grove
Anglo-Saxon settlers name the place from the Old English græf (a grove) and burh (a fortified place), giving roughly “the settlement by the grove”.
- c. 900 AD
Norse Wirral
Norse settlers make their home on the Wirral and adapt the name with their own word býr, a farmstead. Over the centuries it becomes Greasby. A stone cross stood in the heart of the village, believed by local historians to be of Norse design.
- 1086
Gravesberie in the Domesday Book
William the Conqueror's great survey records the village as Gravesberie, a small settlement of eight households. Before 1066 it had been held by a man named Dunning.
- 1862
The iron cross
The old stone cross stood until around 1860. In 1862 John Ralph Shaw, lord of the manor, paid for an iron cross on a sandstone plinth to replace it. The date and his Latinised initials, IRS, are cast into the cross. Since 1945 it has stood on Mill Lane, facing Home Farm.
- 1900s to today
From village to community
Greasby was a farming village of 123 people in 1801. After the Second World War, new homes spread across its fields. In 1974 it moved from Cheshire into the new county of Merseyside. By the 2001 census it was home to nearly 10,000 people.
Our crest
At the centre of our crest is Greasby's cross, the landmark that has marked the heart of the village for generations. The IRS 1862 on its base is the inscription cast into the iron cross by John Ralph Shaw. Around the edge, c.8500 BC marks the date of Greasby's first settlers beside Arrowe Brook.
Our ambition
People have called Greasby home for more than 10,000 years. Gravesberie FC is our small part in its next chapter. We're starting with one team, the Under 13s, and we dream of growing a club with teams for every age, a home in the village and a future that all of Greasby can be proud of.
What we stand for
- Pride in Greasby. A club for the village, run by people from the village.
- Fun first. Children play because they enjoy it. We keep it that way.
- Everyone welcome. Boys and girls, all abilities, no trials.
- Safe and respectful. FA-trained, DBS-checked coaches and a clear safeguarding policy.
Sources: Greasby local history: the Mesolithic site · Local Heritage List: the Greasby iron cross · Greasby (Wikipedia)