Description
Ormskirk, a market and union town, a township, and a parish in Lancashire. The town stands on the L. & Y.R., at the junction of the branch from St Helens, 2 1/2 miles SE of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and 12 N by E of Liverpool. It does not figure in Domesday book, yet it is known to have taken its name from a "kirk" or church founded by Orm, a Saxon magnate who acquired large estates in the vicinity by marriage with the daughter of a Norman nobleman; and it appears on record in the time of Richard I., when a priory was founded at Burscough by Robert Fitz Henry, who is supposed to have been a descendant of Orm. The manor belonged till the Reformation to Burscough Priory and now belongs to the Earl of Derby. The town is well built; contains four chief streets going rectangularly from a central market-place; is governed by an urban district council consisting of twelve members, and is well supplied with water ; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and publishes a weekly newspaper. It has a head post office, a railway station, four banks, a session-house and magistrates' room, a public library, a church, two dissenting chapels, a grammar school, a working-men's institute with library and concert-room, a dispensary, a cottage hospital, and a workhouse. The session-house and magistrates' rooms are a handsome stone building in Derby Street, include police offices, and adjoin the savings bank. The church is large and of various dates, chiefly in the Perpendicular style; and comprises nave, three aisles, chancel, and three mortuary chapels; has a fine Norman window of 1070 date, a massive embattled tower at the W end of the church, and another with a spire at the W of the S aisle standing side by side, which is unique in England; and contains in two of the mortuary chapels effigies of knights and their ladies. The building was thoroughly restored in 1879-91 at a cost of about £17,000. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels. The Wesleyan chapel was built in 1878, and the Congregational chapel was reseated and restored in 1881. The grammar school was founded in 1614 under the will of Henry Ascroft; is a Tudor structure in Ruff Lane; and has an endowed income of £75. The dispensary is a small but ornamental building in the Doric style, in Burscough Street. The workhouse stands in Wigan Road; was built at a cost of about £20,000, and has accommodation for 500 inmates. New schools were erected in 1885, and a mortuary chapel and an infectious hospital were added in 1891. A weekly market is held on Thursday; cattle fairs are held on Whit-Monday, Whit-Tuesday, and 10 and 11 Sept.; rope and twine making is carried on; and there are several breweries, a steam corn mill, an iron foundry, and large printing and publishing works. The town is celebrated for its gingerbread. Acreage of the town, 573; population, 6298. The town gives its name to one of the parliamentary divisions of South-West Lancashire.
The township is contenninate with the town. The parish contains also the townships of Burscough, Scarisbrick, Bickerstaffe, Skelmersdale, and Lathom. Facts and objects of interest in other parts than the town are noticed in the articles on the several townships. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Liverpool; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Derby. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, 8033.
Ormskirk Parliamentary Division of South-West Lancashire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 64,096. The division includes the following:- Ormskirk-Aughton, Bickerstaffe, Bnrscough, Downholland, Halsall, Lathom, Lydiate, Maghull, Melling, Ormskirk, Scarisbrick, Simonswood, Skelmersdale; Prescot (part of)- Croxteth Park, Knowsley, Prescot; Wigan (part of)-Dalton, Upholland, Kirkdale (part of)-Aintree, Kirkby, Litherland, Lunt, Netherton, Onell and Ford, Sefton.
