In the Domesday Book, Hale and Halewood were not mentioned by name but it is thought they were one of the six unlisted 'outliers', or Berewicks, of West Derby. Hale, with its wood, had been given to a Norman knight, Johannes de Hibernia (or Ireland), by William I. In 1081 Johannes ordered a small chapel of ease to be built in Hale and was buried there when he died seven years later.