Litherland is a town in the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, the urban districts of ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

. It was an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (his ...

, which included Seaforth and

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Historically part of Lancashire, Bootle's ...

to the south and is approximately 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, Everton, Edge Hill, Kensington and Toxteth mark the border with Liverpool city centre which consi ...

History

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

, the name Litherland is a hybrid name, from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''hlið''/''hlith-ar'' which means "slope" and

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''land'' "land". Litherland was mentioned 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 manusc ...

'' of 1086 as ''Liderlant'', however there was no mention of Liverpool at that time. The first manor of Litherland consisted of one half and two quarters, the areas being Litherland including what is now Seaforth (the half) and present day Orrell and Ford (the two quarters). Litherland remained a poor area until the arrival of the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

in 1774, this brought the area into the modern world, originally providing a safe route through

from Liverpool to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington ...

, and eventually in 1816 through to

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

. The route became very busy primarily for goods and later for the transportation of passengers. The outcome of all this activity was to bring prosperous businessmen from the city to the countryside, where they had a desire to live. The canal was crossed by a mechanical lifting bridge built in 1934 (replacing an earlier swing bridge) which was demolished in 1974. The area was the northern extremity of the Bootle and North Docks lines of Liverpool's tramway network. From the boundary with Bootle, it ran for ¾ of a mile along Linacre Road to a terminus at the junction with Bridge Road. This short stretch was the last horse drawn service in Liverpool, switching to electric operation in August 1903, eight months after the rest of the system converted. The Litherland Gala was staged every year and was famous for the procession of shire horses and floats from the docks. The gala procession ended at the

Bryant and May Bryant & May was a British company created in the mid-19th century specifically to make matches. Their original Bryant & May Factory was located in Bow, London. They later opened other match factories in the United Kingdom and Australia, suc ...

sports field. Litherland Town Hall was officially opened in February 1941: ''

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

'' played some of their earliest gigs there in 1961.

Governance

For

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Litherland is within the

constituency represented by the Labour Party MP

Peter Dowd Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle in May 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Early life ...

. Litherland returns six members 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 const ...

from two electoral wards, each with three representatives. The Litherland ward is represented by Patricia Hardy, John Kelly, and Paul Tweed; the

ward's representatives are Owen Brady, Kevin Cluskey and Ian Moncur. All six are members of the Labour Party.

Education

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in the area include Hatton Hill Primary School, English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School, Litherland Moss Primary School,

Lander Road Primary School Lander may refer to: Media and entertainment * ''Lander'' (computer game), computer game published by Psygnosis in 1999 * ''Lander'' (game demo), the 3D game demo provided with the Acorn Archimedes computer * Lander (Transformers), a fiction ...

, Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School, St Elizabeth's Catholic Primary School and St Philip's Church of England Controlled Primary School. Litherland High School is the main

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in the area, while Rowan Park School is a

special school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

for 2 to 19 year-olds. South Sefton College is a

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for ...

which serves students in Litherland as well as the wider southern part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.

Transport

Litherland is served by

Seaforth & Litherland railway station Seaforth & Litherland railway station is a railway station in Seaforth, Merseyside, England, on the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network. It also serves the adjacent area of Litherland. There are around four trains per hour, taking around ...

on the

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 ...

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 Iris ...

line 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 el ...

network. The main road is the

A5036 road The A5036 is a road in Merseyside, England, which comprises two sections separated by a gap of around . Route The northern section (shown right) is a section of trunk road. Starting at the Switch Island junction in Netherton, it heads south- ...

, which connects to

Switch Island Switch Island is a major road junction near Aintree in Merseyside, England, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. The junction is at the western terminus of both the M57 and M58 motorways, which converge on the A59 trunk road, the north- ...

and the

A565 road The A565 is a road in England that is around long and runs from Liverpool in Merseyside to Tarleton in Lancashire. It is a primary route linking the town of Southport to Liverpool and to Preston (latterly via the connecting A59), having bee ...

at Seaforth Dock.

References

External links