Hightown 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 authority ...
in the
Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, located midway between the City of
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 popul ...
and the coastal resort of
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Irish ...
. It is 8 miles north of
Liverpool city centre
Liverpool city centre is the commercial, cultural, financial and historical centre of Liverpool, England.
The inner city districts of Vauxhall, Liverpool, Vauxhall, Everton, Liverpool, Everton, Edge Hill, Merseyside, Edge Hill, Kensington, Liv ...
and is located on the coast near the boundary of the
Mersey Estuary
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
and
Liverpool Bay
Liverpool Bay is a bay of the Irish Sea between northeast Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside to the east of the Irish Sea. The bay is a classic example of a region of freshwater influence. Liverpool Bay has historically suffered from redu ...
. The
River Alt
The River Alt is an urban river that flows across Merseyside in England. The river has suffered from heavy pollution from industry and sewage upstream and run-off from farmland in its lower reaches. It empties into the River Mersey, near to wher ...
joins the sea at this point and forms an estuary. There is a pumping station on the River Alt at Altmouth, built 1972, as part of a programme to alleviate flooding in the area. This is on the Altcar Rifle Range, a Territorial Army base originally established in 1860 by Lt. Col. Gladstone.
The village is featured in 'Lancashire Life' magazine, May 2004 'Tales of the sea at Hightown, near Southport' pp. 150–154
by Harold Brough, photographs by John Cocks.
History
A dictionary of English Place-Names, A. D. Mills (OUP, Oxford, 1991) lists only a Hightown as a part of Congleton in Cheshire (there is also part of Banbury in Oxfordshire called Hightown). However specific books on Lancashire place names do list this Hightown in what was formerly Lancashire. Altmouth as a settlement features on many old maps prior to the 18th Century, north of where the village is now, bordering Altcar parish. Alt Grange is recorded as 13th Century. David Mills in his book "The place-names of Lancashire" does give High Town dated 1702. However he gives no source or reference. Understandably Mills appears to have not visited the small West Lancashire coastal village or he would not have given the description "the major town .. The name appears to be modern and self-explanatory". The first recorded mention of the place name Hightown is in Nicholas Blundell's Diaries. Nicholas Blundell's Diaries, Vol. 3 1720 (published 1972) refers to visiting High-Town Greene on the 18 May 1722 (p. 77). There is still a village green today (oddly triangular) near the pub and railway station but unlike when Nicholas Blundell visited there are no cattle pens on it. However the earliest record of the place is probably in a probate record for Richard Riding of Moorhouses in Little Crosby husbandman from 1715. Moorhouses was a hamlet on the shore where Hightown is today, it is remembered in the name of one of the modern closes. The inventory for Richard Riding's property records it as being of the property of “Richard Rydeing of the Hytown within Crosbie Parava.” High Town is recorded on Greenwood's Map of Lancashire, 1818, north east of where the village is today, approximately at the junction of Orrell Hill Lane with the modern A565
Hightown is historically part of the estate of the Blundell family of Little Crosby and many houses still pay a nominal ground rent annually to the Whitlock-Blundell estate. Hightown beach is the site of a former wartime military base known as
Fort Crosby
Crosby Battery, also known as Crosby Point Battery and Fort Crosby, was an artillery battery situated between Crosby, Merseyside, Crosby and Hightown, Merseyside, Hightown in Lancashire, United Kingdom. The battery was used for port defence and a ...
. The fort was situated midway between Hightown and Hall Road and housed a number of Italian and German POW's during WWII. Following its decommission at the end of the war a small cinema screen within the complex was reputedly used by local residents for a number of years until the camp was finally demolished in the mid-1960s. Remains of many of the buildings, pathways and fences can still be seen today.
During the early part of the 20th century the village formed its own voluntary fire service following a number of deaths and injuries resulting from the excessive time taken for the Crosby Fire Service to reach the village. The most notable of these incidents was the loss of a family during a blaze within the lighthouse which once stood close to the site of Fort Crosby. The lighthouse was built in 1839. The most prominent buildings at the turn of the 20th Century were the Truant School, next to the railway line, and the Hightown Hotel (the village pub). In 1901 “There were 20 officials and 114 boys in the truant school at Hightown, belonging to the Liverpool education authority.”
Listed buildings and Second World War remains. heritagegateway.org.uk (a partnership project of English Heritage) lists Hightown Cross and three listed buildings in Hightown: the Cross itself, Whitedge Farmhouse (Alt Road) and Rose Cottage. In the immediate vicinity Moss Farmhouse, North End Lane, is also listed. Three World War Two invasion defence pillboxes can be seen near Gorsey Lane and are listed in the database, each as: Type 23 World War II concrete pillbox, constructed in the period 1940 to 1941. These are found in the Defence of Britain Archive of the Council for British Archaeology, 2002.
Listed as in poor condition (surveyed in 2000) is Coastal Battery S0011771 (Crosby Point Battery), between Coastguard Station and Hightown, north of Crosby. This is near the end of the West Lancs Golf Course, a mile south from Hightown station just off the footpath from Hall Road to Hightown. When Sefton Council upgraded the Sefton Coastal Footpath they blocked up two gun emplacements that remained of the Fort Crosby site. A former resident alleged in 2011 that Sefton Council had deliberately neglected the World War II heritage at Hightown, but there is no evidence of deliberate neglect. An exhibition by artist Tom Fairclough 'Collateral' contained peaceful but evocative pictures of the rubble that make up the sea defences at the mouth of the Alt. Fairclough documented how the rubble was the remains of houses from the destruction in Bootle in the blitz of May 1941.
The most authoritative local history reference on Hightown, Merseyside is:
"My Hightown 1897 - 1969" by Joe Bulman. 1st ed. 1975. The 3rd ed. revised and enlarged by Andrew Lee-Hart and
Matthew Tinker published by Sefton Libraries Corporation, Southport, 2003. This edition of the book contains 40 photographs, 2 maps & 8 appendices including personal stories of men listed on the Hightown War Memorial (Appendix 3 by Hal Giblin), and history of The Truant School (Appendix 7 by Andrew Lee-Hart).
Transport
The village is served by
Hightown railway station
Hightown railway station serves the village of Hightown in Merseyside, England. The station is located on the Southport branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line.
History
Hightown opened in 1848 as an intermediate station on the Liverpo ...
, on the
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...
of the
Merseyrail
Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...
network. Services run to
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Irish ...
and to
Hunts Cross
Hunt's Cross is a suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located on the southern edge of the city, bordered by the suburbs of Woolton, Allerton, Speke and Halewood and delineated by the West Coast Main Line, Hillfoot Avenue, Merseyrail Northern L ...
via Liverpool city centre. The Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway opened in 1848 (from Southport to Waterloo initially). It was absorbed in the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, 1850. There is also a local bus service that runs to Hall Road, located in nearby Crosby.
Sport
The Blundellsands Sailing Club celebrated its centenary in 2007. The clubhouse is located on the foreshore and the post code is L38 0BU. On the beach, approximately 50 metres from the Sailing club are the remains of a three- to four-thousand-year-old forest.
Hightown also has its own sports club, th
Hightown Club which also celebrated its centenary in 2007. A brief history was written at this time and featured on the Club's cricket website and in local media.
Today the Hightown Club offers sporting and social facilities for lawn bowls, cricket, squash, tennis and junior football
, although in the past there have been highly successful hockey and rugby sections. The rugby section sadly folded in 2000 and men's hockey merged with Northern in the mid-1980s.
The Hightown ladies hockey team were one of the country's most prominent clubs in the 1980s and 90s, when they were led by England international Maggie Souyave. Since then they have played in several locations outside the village before eventually settling at Cheshire club Bowdon.
Cricket is most prominent sport played at the club, with the 1st XI currently playing in the Premier League of the
Liverpool and District Cricket Competition
The Love Lane Liverpool and District Cricket Competition is regarded as the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Liverpool area and since 2000 has been a designated ECB Premier League. The Competition operates a three ...
. The captain for the 2012 season will be Shaun Vosloo, who replaced Ian Sutcliffe following the latter's 11-year reign as skipper.
On 16 January 2011 the Club was completely destroyed by a large fire due to an electrical fault near the function suite.
Since the fire, all the sporting sections have been using temporary facilities and the club is planning a complete rebuild of the clubhouse, with work to commence in 2012.
[http://hightown.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10356650&cid=200 ]
Governance
From 1950 until 2010 Hightown was within the boundaries of the
Crosby Crosby may refer to:
Places
;Canada
*Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario
*Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario
;England
*Crosby, Cumbria
*Crosby, Lincolnshire
*Crosby, Merseyside
** Crosby (U ...
constituency, whose
MP from 1997 until 2010 was
Claire Curtis-Thomas
Claire Curtis-Thomas (formerly Curtis-Tansley; born 30 April 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Crosby from 1997 to 2010. Curtis-Thomas' time as an MP was most notable for her involvement in ...
, a member of the
Labour Party. Prior to her election the Crosby seat was generally considered to be a safe
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
stronghold with Tory MPs elected at every election barring the
1981 Crosby by-election where
Shirley Williams
Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...
of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
was elected to represent the constituency. As a result of boundary revisions for the
2010 general election the Crosby constituency was abolished with its northern parts, including Hightown, being merged with the Eastern parts of
Sefton that were formerly part of the
Knowsley North and Sefton East constituency, to form the new constituency of
Sefton Central, which is currently represented by the
Labour Party MP Bill Esterson
William Roffen Esterson (born 27 October 1966) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefton Central since 2010. He has been Shadow Minister for International Trade since 2016. He was Shadow Min ...
.
For elections to
Sefton Council
Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the county of Merseyside, north-western England. The council was under no overall control from the 1980s until 2012 when the Labour Party took control. It is a cons ...
the 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 authority ...
of Hightown is within the
Manor electoral ward and is represented by three
councillors
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
. The councillors of Manor ward ar
Martyn Barberof the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
John Gibsonof the
Liberal Democrats, an
Steve McGinnityof the
Labour Party.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Hightown, Merseyside
References
External links
www.hightownvillage.orgA Walk Round Hightown - The Hightown HikeHightown Train Times
{{Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
Civil parishes in Merseyside
Beaches of Merseyside