Place:North Meols, Lancashire, England

Watchers
NameNorth Meols
Alt namesBankssource: settlement in parish
Far Bankssource: settlement in parish
Holmessource: settlement in parish
Hundred Endsource: settlement in parish
Mere Browsource: settlement in parish
TypeAncient parish, Parish
Coordinates53.682°N 2.925°W
Located inLancashire, England
See alsoWest Derby Hundred, Lancashire, Englandhundred in which it was located
West Lancashire Rural, Lancashire, Englandrural district of which it was a part 1894-1974
West Lancashire (borough), Lancashire, Englanddistrict municipality of which it has been part since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
:the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

North Meols is a civil parish in the West Lancashire District of Lancashire, England. The parish covers the village of Banks and the hamlet of Hundred End. Prior to 1894 the parish covered a wider area including much of what is now Southport.

The civil parish is based on an ancient parish located to the north and east of the town of Southport, which straddled what the border between the present counties of Merseyside and Lancashire. North Meols included Crossens, Marshside and Churchtown in the north of Southport (all redirected there), and then extended east towards Preston to encompass the rural villages of Banks, Far Banks, Hundred End, Mere Brow and Holmes (all re-directed here) in West Lancashire. It was bounded to the south by the Martin Mere wetland.

History

Dating from before the Norman Conquest, this area of small farming and fishing villages was originally known as "Otegrimeles", from the Norse word "melr", meaning sand-dunes.The present pronunciation "mee-als" stems from Old Norse influences on the local dialect.This is also found in other dialects with strong Norse connections, especially the dialect of Shetland. Compare, however with Meols pronounced as "mells", on the nearby Wirral.

Historically, North Meols has been centred around St Cuthbert's Church in Churchtown, although there were vicarages in Crossens, Banks and Birkdale. Parts of the parish were almost completely surrounded by water until large scale drainage of Martin Mere and other marshland in the 19th Century. This left behind a legacy of fine agricultural soil, which is still exploited to this day - the primary industry in the area is farming, especially of flowers and vegetables.

To this day, the northern part of the district retains a lot of its rural character, with the only large-scale development being the construction of a large number of new homes in Banks. The southern districts, although now fully incorporated into Southport have also not been fully urbanised; Churchtown retains its attractive centre and extensive botanic gardens, and the marshes to the west of Crossens and Marshside have been preserved for their wildlife.

Image:West Lancashire RD with title.png

Research Tips

  • See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes (known as ancient parishes) were ecclesiastical, under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
  • Rural districts were groups of geographically close civil parishes in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish. Inspecting the archives of a rural district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
  • Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
  • Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
  • FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
  • Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
  • A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
  • A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
  • GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
  • The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
  • A description of the parish of North Meols from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1907
  • A description of the township of North Meols from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1907
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at North Meols. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.