Historically, the current town was known as Great Neston, in order to be distinct from the smaller nearby hamlet of Little Neston. Before the rise of Birkenhead in the 1820s, it was the largest town in the Wirral Hundred. Created in 1866, the civil parish of Great Neston included the hamlets of Clayhill, Hinderton, Moorside and part of Parkgate. The population of Great Neston was 1,486 in 1801 and 1,524 in 1851. In 1894, both Great Neston and Little Neston were combined to create the Neston-cum-Parkgate civil parish and by 1901, the population had risen to 2,201.