Crosby is a coastal town in the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. it is north of

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 Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

, south of

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

and

Formby Formby is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under ...

, and west of Netherton. It abuts the areas of

Blundellsands Blundellsands is an area of Crosby in the ceremonial county of Merseyside, England and in the historic county of Lancashire. The area was created as a suburb for wealthy businessmen from Liverpool by the Blundell family of Crosby Hall in the m ...

to the north and Waterloo to the south. It is approximately 6 miles (9.6 km) north of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

History

The town has

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

roots in common with the other ''-by''

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

ed settlements of

to the north and

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, Historic counties of England, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 wa ...

to the east. Crosby was known as ''Krossabyr'' in

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

, meaning "village with the cross". The settlement was recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' of 1086 as ''Crosebi'', and by the year 1212 had become ''Crosseby''. Local people are known as Crosbeians and were referred to as such in the local press but the term is little used today. The opening of the

Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway The Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway was a British railway company, which opened a line in 1848 between Southport and Waterloo, extending into Liverpool in 1850. The company was acquired by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1855. T ...

in 1848 resulted in the growth of Crosby as a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

. Before the creation of Merseyside the town was located in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Governance

Crosby formed part of the Crosby parliamentary constituency from 1950 until 2010. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Crosby from 1997 until 2010 was Claire Curtis-Thomas, a member of the Labour Party; prior to her election the seat was generally considered to be a safe Conservative Party 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 (''née'' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in ...

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 Form ...

was elected to represent the constituency. As a result of boundary revisions for the 2010 general election the Crosby constituency was abolished and Crosby town was divided between two constituencies, with the two electoral wards of South Crosby, Church and Victoria, containing the urbanised bulk of the town which includes the areas of

Great Crosby Great Crosby is an area of the town of Crosby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England and is historically, part of Lancashire. Location In 1907, the Victoria County History described Great Crosby's location thus: 'The a ...

, Waterloo and Seaforth, being absorbed into the expanded Bootle constituency, represented by the Labour MP

Peter Dowd Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle since 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Early life and educ ...

, and the two electoral wards of northern Crosby,

and Manor, which contains residential suburban areas such as,

, Brighton-Le-Sands,

Little Crosby Little Crosby is a small village in the Sefton district of Merseyside, England. Despite being within 8 miles of Liverpool it has retained its rural character by, for example, opting not to have street lights. Until 1974 it was in Lancashire. T ...

, Thornton, and Hightown, forming part of the new Sefton Central constituency represented by

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 was Shadow Minister for Roads from 2023 to 2024, and was Shadow Minister for Sm ...

, also a Labour MP.

Administration

Crosby became part of the

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

of Crosby in 1937 by the merger of the urban districts of Great Crosby and Waterloo with Seaforth, both in the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...

. This borough was succeeded by the new

on 1 April 1974. For elections to Sefton Council Crosby is covered by a range of council wards as detailed above: the Victoria ward, covers Great Crosby and North Waterloo, and is represented by three councillors. They are now all Labour Party councillors Michael Roche, Leslie Byrom CBE FRCIS, and Jan Grace.

Twin towns and sister cities

Crosby, Merseyside is twinned with

Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

, Italy.

Geography

Crosby as an area was composed of a string of settlements along the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

coast. These areas were part of the urban districts of

and Waterloo with Seaforth and the Municipal Borough of Crosby before it too was abolished and became part of the

. These areas are: *

– The main area which gave the town and the old municipal borough its name, despite the confusion that exists, Great Crosby is not the actual town itself but is the largest area of it which was an urban district in its own right which merged with Waterloo with Seaforth urban district to form the Municipal Borough of Crosby and defined the town of Crosby in its present borders. *

– A small village considered to be the oldest existent

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

village in England. *

– An area to the north west of Great Crosby. It abuts the northern section of Crosby Beach, the location of Antony Gormley's ''

Another Place "Another place" or "the other place" is a euphemism used in many bicameral parliaments using the Westminster system (including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom) and several rival educational establishments. Parliaments A member of one h ...

''. * Waterloo – An area situated southwest of Great Crosby, originally known as Crosby Seabank. It includes Crosby Civic Hall and Library, and the Plaza Community Cinema. It abuts the southern section of Crosby Beach, the location of Antony Gormley's ''

''. * Brighton-le-Sands – An area situated between Blundellsands to the north, Waterloo to the south and Great Crosby to the east. * Thornton – A village situated to the northeast of Great Crosby.

Climate

Demography

At the 2001 UK census, Crosby had a population of 51,789. The 2001 population density was , with a 100 to 89.2 female-to-male ratio. Of those over 16 years old, 31.2% were single (never married), 43.2% married and 8.2% divorced. The proportion of divorced people was above that of Sefton and England (both 6.6%), and the incidences of those who were single and married differed significantly from the national and Sefton averages (Sefton: 43.1% single, 35.5% married; England: 44.3% single, 34.7% married). Sefton's 21,250 households included 32.7% one-person, 35.7% married couples living together, 6.6% were co-habiting couples, and 11.3% single parents with their children. Of those aged 16–74, 28.1% had no academic qualifications, similar to 28.9% in all of England and slightly lower than the 31.0% for the Sefton borough.

Education

Independent schools in the area include Merchant Taylors' Boys School, Merchant Taylors' Girls' School, St Mary's College and Streatham Arts School. There are also several

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

s, including

Chesterfield High School Chesterfield High School in Crosby, Merseyside, England, officially opened in 1974. The school has around 1,400 students in years 7–11. The school was created as a comprehensive school by combining Waterloo Park Grammar School for Girls, Haig ...

, Holy Family Catholic High School, St. Michael's Church of England High School (formerly Manor High Secondary School) and Sacred Heart Catholic College (formerly Sacred Heart Catholic High School, formerly Seafield Grammar School). Sacred Heart Catholic Academy exterior

Primary schools include Forefield Junior school and Great Crosby Catholic school.

Places of interest

Crosby Beach is home to Antony Gormley's art installation ''

''. The sea views were described in the 19th century by a

First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...

as second only to the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. Crosby's environs include several miles of

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

, a

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

, a number of parks and a large area of woodland known as Ince Woods. Crosby is home to a now closed Carnegie Library built with donations from the American steel magnate

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. Distinctive buildings in Crosby Village include the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

-inspired Crown Buildings and ten pubs – The Crows Nest, The Birkey, The George, Blues Bar, Frankies, Stamps, Corkscrew, Hampsons and Suburb 24. In recent years Crosby has featured in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' "Best Places to Live" list. Crosby is also home to Rossett Park Stadium home of

Marine A.F.C. Marine Association Football Club is an English football club based in Crosby, Merseyside. The club, which was founded in 1894, is a member of both the Liverpool County and Lancashire County Football Associations, and currently plays in the , ...

who play their football in the

Northern Premier League Premier Division The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system. Geographically, the league c ...

. It has a capacity of 2,250 (400 Seated) and is famous for hosting

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

3rd round in January 2021.

Transport

Crosby is served by the railway stations of Hall Road, Blundellsands and Crosby, and Waterloo, on the

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

of the region's

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

network,

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...

. Trains run between and via . Bus services run by Arriva and Stagecoach link the town to Liverpool, Southport and Preston. Other buses include the 133 (Waterloo-Kirkby) and the 206 (Crosby-Hightown).

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by

BBC North West BBC North West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, as well as parts of North Yorkshire (western Craven District, Craven), Derbyshire (western High Peak, Derbyshire, High ...

and

ITV Granada ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

. The local television station TalkLiverpool also broadcasts to the area. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Merseyside, Heart North West, Capital Liverpool,

Hits Radio Liverpool Hits Radio Liverpool, formerly Radio City, is an Independent Local Radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Merseyside, Cheshire and parts of north Wales. As of ...

Smooth North West Smooth North West is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. The station broadcasts to the North West of England from studios at Spinningfields in Manchester. History GMG Radio ...

and Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West. The town is served by the local newspaper, ''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...

'' (and also formerly the ''Crosby Herald'').

Sport

Marine AFC (

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

) and Waterloo RUFC (

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

) are both based in the area. Crosby is also home to Crosby Swimming Club, a member of the

Amateur Swimming Association Swim England is the national governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronised swimming in England. It forms part of Aquatics GB, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scotland ( Scottis ...

(ASA). The Northern Club, a multi-sport club featuring cricket, hockey, crown green bowls, squash, racketball and snooker, is situated in the Moor Park area of Crosby. Crosby Marina is the home of Crosby Sailing Club. The marina is also a venue for the Crosby Scout and Guide Marina Club, who offer dinghy and kayak sailing to local youngsters. Blundellsands Bridge Club, affiliated to the

English Bridge Union The English Bridge Union or EBU is a player-funded organisation that promotes and organises the card game of duplicate bridge in England. It is based at offices in Aylesbury. The EBU is a member of the European Bridge League and thus affiliat ...

, provides facilities for learning and playing Rubber Bridge and

Duplicate Bridge Duplicate bridge is a variation of contract bridge where the same set of bridge deals (i.e., the distribution of the 52 cards among the four hands) are played by different competitors, and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, ev ...

. Crosby is home to an Open qualifying venue – West Lancashire Golf Club.

Notable people

Martyn Andrews Martyn Andrews is a British TV executive producer, television presenter, broadcast journalist, actor and singer. He is currently works at TRT World News in Istanbul. He develops and produces TV formats and documentaries, makes other freelance t ...

(born 1979), television presenter * Cherie Blair (born 1954), barrister and writer * Frank Cottrell Boyce (born 1959), screenwriter and novelist * Stacey Dooley, TV presenter, and her partner

Kevin Clifton Kevin James Clifton (born 13 October 1982) is an English professional dancer and actor, who was a professional dancer on the BBC TV series ''Strictly Come Dancing'', having previously worked as an assistant choreographer. He has also featured on ...

, professional dancer and actor *

Kenny Everett Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English radio Disc Jockey, DJ and television entertainer, known for his zany comedic style. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the m ...

(1944–1995), comedian and radio DJ *Sir Bertram Fox Hayes (1864–1941), sea captain.The New York Times, 16 May 1941, BERTRAM F. HAYES, BRITISH SEA HERO * Margaret Irvine (1948–2023), crossword compiler * J. Bruce Ismay (1862–1937), businessman and Titanic survivor * Ronnie Moran (1934–2017), Liverpool captain and coach * Vincent Nichols (born 1945), Catholic cardinal * John Parrott (born 1964), former professional snooker player * Joe Periton (1901–1980), rugby union player *

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is a British journalist and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' from 2000 to 2012, and again in 2017 for a one-off celebrity special for ''Children ...

(born 1944), television presenter and journalist * Robert Runcie (1921–2000), Anglican bishop * Laurie Taylor (born 1936), sociologist and radio presenter

References

External links

Liverpool Street Gallery – Liverpool 23Titanic Town – Crosby's seafaring connections
– Crosby's links to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

The ''Crosby Herald'' online newspaper
{{authority control Towns in Merseyside Towns and villages in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Liverpool Urban Area Unparished areas in Merseyside