People have lived in the area now known as Hoylake for more than 6,000 years.  Stone Age communities left their mark and Celts, Romans, Saxons and Vikings farmed and fished here.  In the Middle Ages the settlement in this area was destroyed by storms.  Subsequently, the hamlets of Little Meols, Hoose and Great Meols grew up and these were eventually merged into one village and called Hoylake.  The name is derived from 'Hoyle Lake', a channel of water between Hilbre Island and Dove Point.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Hoyle Lake was used as a safe anchorage for some of Liverpool's merchant fleet with two lighthouses, a customs depot and a lifeboat station.  A thriving fishing community existed and with the arrival of the railway in the 1860s Hoylake became a popular seaside destination.

One daily reminder of Hoylake's history is King's Gap, the road to the sea down which King William III rode in 1690 before setting sail for Ireland and the Battle of the Boyne against James II.

Another are the fishermen's cottages in Seaview and Lake place, originally in the heart of Hoose.  The nearby Plasterers Arms pub has its lounge and snug walls lined with old photographs of the fishermen and lifeboat men of Hoylake at the height of the fishing industry.

There is an excellent document about what is known of more ancient local history here (although focusing more perhaps on the area defined by what is now called Meols rather than what is now called than Hoylake)