Dalton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110,68 ...

, England, near

Skelmersdale Skelmersdale is a town in Lancashire, England, on the River Tawd, west of Wigan, northeast of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813. The town is known locally as Skem . While the first record of the tow ...

and south of the River Douglas. Dalton was listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, and soon after the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

became part of the Barony of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. It remained part of the Manchester

fee A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Republic of Ireland) receive a fee in cont ...

as late as 1733. Dalton had a population of 348 ( 2001 Census), increasing to 383 at the 2011 Census. The local landscape is dominated by Ashurst Hill, which rises above sea level and is crowned by Ashurst's Beacon. The

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

once formed part of a

relay league A relay league is a chain of message forwarding stations in a system of optical telegraphs, radio telegraph stations, or riding couriers. Early 19th century methods of this type evolved into the electrical telegraph networks of the mid-to-late 19t ...

stretching from Everton Brow above

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

Lancaster Castle Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...

, which was in place (though unused) during the Anglo–Spanish War of 1585. The current structure dates from around 1800, when local landowner Sir William Ashurst decided that a more permanent beacon was needed for the oncoming

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

.Ron Freethy
"Beacon watched over troubled past"
''The Bolton News'', 9 February 2002. Retrieved on 26 March 2008.

References

External links

*
Dalton

Dalton Parish Council

Map of Dalton
Civil parishes in Lancashire Villages in Lancashire Geography of the Borough of West Lancashire {{Lancashire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links