Place:Liverpool, Lancashire, England

NameLiverpool
Alt namesLitherpolsource: Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 301
Liuerpulsource: Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 301
Liverpolsource: Oxford: English Place Names (1960) p 301
Abercrombysource: neighbourhood or ward
Castle Street (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
Exchangesource: neighbourhood or ward
Great George'ssource: neighbourhood or ward
Lime Street (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
Mount Pleasantsource: neighbourhood
Pitt Street (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
Rodney Street (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
Scotlandsource: neighbourhood or ward
St. Anne's (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
St. Paul's (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
St. Peter's (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
Vauxhall (Liverpool)source: neighbourhood or ward
TypeParish, Borough (county)
Coordinates53.417°N 3°W
Located inLancashire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inMerseyside, England     (1974 - )
See alsoWest Derby Hundred, Lancashire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Liverpool (metropolitan borough), Merseyside, Englandmunicipality it became after 1974


NOTE: This is an article about the City or County Borough of Liverpool as it existed until 1974. In that year its local government was replaced by the Metropolitan Borough of Liverpool which is now, officially, the "City of Liverpool" but no longer the County Borough of Liverpool. Many suburbs which had up to then had their own municipal government were brought into a central organization called a unitary authority. The Metropolitan Borough of Liverpool has a separate page here in WeRelate.

In 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, the new County of Merseyside was created from the southwest corner of Lancashire and a portion of the neighbouring County of Cheshire known as the Wirral. Liverpool was the largest conurbation of this area and became one of five Metropolitan Boroughs of Merseyside.

Image:Liverpool 1917 revised.png :the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Until 1974 Liverpool was a County Borough in Lancashire, England. It was, first and foremost, a seaport, with docks along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, which were the place of departure for millions of people who left Britain for North America, Australia and New Zealand during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was also an industrial and commercial centre from the early 19th century and a place of employment for thousands of people from Ireland whose livelihoods at home had been devastated by the potato famine of the late 1840s.

Liverpool was founded as a ancient borough in 1207 and became a county borough in 1888. By 1917 all the parishes marked in red on the map had become part of the county borough. In 1922 they were all abolished and became part of the civil parish or City of Liverpool. West Derby Rural and Croxteth Park were absorbed in 1928 and Speke in 1932. The city government was set up as a ward system, but the ward boundaries and the older parish boundaries bore no relation to each other. Each of the parishes of Liverpool has a separate page in WeRelate where historical information on the local area has been accumulated.

Liverpool's urbanisation and expansion were largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, the import of sugar from the West Indies and general trade from Ireland and mainland Europe furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. Liverpool is also well known for its inventions and innovations, particularly in terms of infrastructure, transportation, and general construction. Railways, ferries and the skyscraper were all pioneered in the city.

Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect.

Neighbourhoods of Liverpool

Liverpool has many neighbourhoods. Some of these are within the original parish of Liverpool, and some can be identified as belonging to one of the other original parishes. Many spread across parish boundaries. Neighbourhoods and ward names that link with the parish of Liverpool (starting at the north end of the parish and working south) are: Scotland, Vauxhall, St. Paul's, St. Anne's, Exchange, Lime Street, Castle Street, St. Peter's, Abercromby, Pitt Street, Rodney Street, and Great George's. This list is provided in alphabetical order under "Alt names" at the top of the page. (Source:National Library of Scotland Maps website, map of Lancashire CV1 surveyed 1845-1864 and published 1851.)

History

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Liverpool.

Research Tips

  • See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes were ecclesiastical (described as ancient parishes), 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.
  • An urban district was a type of municipality in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish and were used for urban areas usually with populations of under 30,000. Inspecting the archives of a urban 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.
  • The terms municipal borough and county borough were adopted in 1835 replacing the historic "boroughs". Municipal boroughs generally had populations between 30,000 and 50,000; while county boroughs usually had populations of over 50,000. County boroughs had local governments independent of the county in which they were located, but municipal boroughs worked in tandem with the county administration. Wikipedia explains these terms in much greater detail.
  • 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 City of Liverpool from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911. This is the introduction to a series of ten sections entitled "the castle and development of the town", "trade, population and geographical growth", "municipal government", "the docks", "churches", "the Cathedral", etc.
  • A list of Liverpool Churches including opening dates along with other interesting historical information. A helpful resource for history and family history researchers.
  • Liverpool Snippetts is a collection of newspaper images covering various events and containing many names. Dates range from 1811-1928.
  • Old Liverpool Cemeteries Online Historical information and FREE searchable database's of burial records.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Liverpool. 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.