I’d count Whiston as more 90/10 Scouse/wool, Prescot about the same an also Kirby. Cronton, Maghull an Rainhill about 60/40 I reckon, never been to Runcorn much so couldn’t say. Maybe there should be some Woolometer set up for each town village
I always noticed growing up a some lads who wanted to be seen as Scouse but came from places like Ormskirk, Frodsham, Widnes etc, an would but on an accent stronger than mine, while throwing in the word ‘lad’ around 5 times in each sentence. Always found that a bit odd but obviously they had some link and wanted to feel part of the city/culture.
The bolded bit is certainly true - we moved out of the City when I was 11 and moved into that general area of Cheshire, all of a sudden everyone around me was ramping up their accent and straining themselves to appear more 'Scouse.' In a way it's nice that people have an affinity with the City and want to feel part of that culture, but it can be done in a way that isn't pure cringey appropriation, putting on an accent etc. The entirety of Helsby seem to want people to think they're Scousers.
Whiston is indeed weird, everyone does sound either pure Scouse or Lancashire, there's no in between and it's bizarre, a real phenomenological curate's egg.
So Stephen Gerrard (Huyton) and Phil Thompson (Kirkby), two of our many European Cup winning captains aren't Scouse?
Huyton is in the City, people from Kirkby I always regarded as Scouse despite them being the other side of the M57, like Andy said above, there's a mix everywhere, my family in Maghull are as Scouse as it gets, though they do come from Norris Green and Sefton mainly.
I like the idea of us whipping up a Woolometer
I tended to find that where I went to College, in Chester, that some of the rougher kids tried putting on a Scouse accent, bad wool beahviour.