Lord Street, Southport - 01704 533 333 info@sefton.gov.uk

Even though Southport in its present form was founded in 1793, there have been settlements in the area since the Domesday Book, and some areas of the town have names of Viking origin.

Of the time of the Domesday Book the area was sparsly populated and only a small area of fishing hamlets were located in what now is the northern part of the town. This area was called meles meaning sand dunes, it was also part of the hundred of West Derby. These small hamlets grew in the 11th and 12th century due to the booming local fishing industry.

The area soon grew and the hamlets became part of the parish of North Meols. From south to north these villages were Southaws, Hawiside, Little London, Higher Blowick, Lower Blowick, Rowe-Lane, Churchtown, Marshside, Crossens, and Banks. North Meols was centred around St. Cuthbert's Church in Churchtown, although there were vicarages in Crossens and Banks.

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 and created a booming farming industry.

William Sutton was born in North Meols in 1792. He was the landlord of the Black Bull Inn in Churchtown (now the Hesketh Arms). In the early 1790's he realised the importance of the newly created canal systems across the UK, he gambled with the idea of a hotel by the seaside just 4 miles (6 km) away from the newly constructed Leeds and Liverpool Canal. So in 1792 he built a bathing house in South Hawes, two miles south-west of Churchtown. William arranged transport links from the canal that ran through Scarisbrick 4 miles away from the hotel. At the time South Hawes was an almost unihabited place that was riddled with sand dunes. The local people thought he was mad and so they called him The Mad Duke.

However he quickly made a profit and others decided to open hotels nearby. Southport grew quickly in the 19th century as it gained a reputation for being a more refined seaside resort than its neighbour-up-the-coast Blackpool.

Southport Pier is a Grade II listed structure in Southport, Merseyside, England. At 3,650 feet (1112 m) it is the second longest in Great Britain.

Southport Pier is referred to as the first true 'pleasure pier', being one of the earliest pier structures to be erected using iron. A design from James Brunlees was approved at a cost of £8,700 and on the 4th August 1859 a large crowd witnessed the driving home of the first support pile. The opening of the pier was celebrated on the 2nd August 1860.

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte lived in exile on Lord Street, the main thoroughfare of Southport, between 1846 and 1848, before returning to France, where he became President and subsequently Emperor of the French. During his reign, he caused much of the medieval centre of Paris to be replaced with broad tree-lined boulevards, covered walkways and arcades, just like Lord Street. On the strength of this coincidence, it has been suggested that the redevelopment may have been inspired by memories of Southport's town centre.

On the night of the 9 December 1886, the worst lifeboat disaster in the history of the UK occurred off the shores of Southport. A cargo ship called the Mexico was on its way to South America when it found itself in difficulty. Lifeboats from Lytham, St. Annes and Southport set off in order to try and rescue those aboard the vessel. The crews battled against storm-force winds as they rowed towards the casualty. The entire crew from the St. Anne’s boat was lost and all but two of the Southport crew were too. In all, 28 lifeboatmen lost their lives on that night, leaving many widows and fatherless children. A memorial was erected in Duke Street Cemetery and a permanent exhibition can be seen in the Museum of the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport. Mexico was just one of many shipwrecks in the Southport area.

In 1925, the RNLI abandoned the station at Southport and left the town with no lifeboat. However, in the late 1980s, after a series of unfortunate tragedies, local families from Southport started to raise funds and eventually bought a new lifeboat for the town stationed at the old RNLI lifeboat house. The lifeboat is completely independent from the RNLI and receives no money from them. Instead it relies entirely on donations from the public.

The town contains examples of Victorian architecture and town planning. These can be mostly found on Lord Street and the surrounding areas. A particular feature of the town is the extensive tree planting. This was one of the conditions required by the Hesketh family when they made land available for development in the 19th century. Hesketh Park at the northern end of the town is named after the Hesketh family, having been built on land donated by Rev. Charles Hesketh.

Southport today is still one of the most popular seaside resorts in the UK. It hosts varied events including an annual air show, and the largest independant flower show in the UK. The town is at the centre of England's Golf Coas and has hosted The Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in the past.

Through the years the area has been called several names dating as far back as before the Norman Conquest of England. A popular story about the naming of the town, claims that Dr Miles Barton of Ormskirk named the area Southport when he was invited to a party by the founder of the town, William Sutton. The party was a celebration for the success of Mr. Sutton's venture. After good fare and enough drink, Dr Barton stood up to make a toast, referring to the hamlet as "South..." However, having forgotten where he was and still focused on his glass of port, it was "...Port" that he finished with. "South Hawes" would have been the correct name at the time, but "South Port" took hold, with the latter name appearing in written records as early as 1798.