Southport

For other uses, see Southport (disambiguation).

Southport is a seaside town on the north-west coast of England, to the north of Liverpool and the south of Preston. Historically part of Lancashire, it is today part of the borough of Sefton on Merseyside.

Southport has a population of around 93,000 people, with approximately 40% of the population over 55 years old and around 55% defined as social class ABC1.

Southport has many tourist attractions including the longest overland pier in Great Britain. A recent restoration project worth over £7m has helped bring the pier up to date with improved access, lighting and a pier train.

History

Southport, in its present form, was founded by William Sutton (The Mad Duke) in 1792. However, there have been settlements in the area for much longer than that: the northern part of the town around St Cuthbert's Church (in the part of the parish of North Meols now known as Churchtown), was mentioned in the Domesday book, and some areas of the town have names of Viking origin.

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 is a busy and friendly resort.

Southport's suburbs are built around, and still named after, the old villages of the area. From north to south, the districts are: Crossens, Marshside, Churchtown, Blowick, Birkdale, Ainsdale, and Woodvale; home to RAF Woodvale. The town of Formby is south of Southport, with Hightown and Liverpool further southward, along the A565.

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.

Local government and politics

Politically, Southport is a stronghold of the Liberal Democrats with the Conservative Party also strong in some areas. John Pugh is Southport's current Member of Parliament [2]

Southport is within the historic boundaries of Lancashire, and was incorporated as municipal borough in 1866. It became a county borough independent of the Lancashire authorities in 1915, having reached the minimum 50,000 population (the 1911 census gave a figure of 51,643). Birkdale urban district, including the parishes of Birkdale and Ainsdale was added to Southport in 1912.

Under the 1971 Local Government White Paper, presented in February 1971, Southport would have lost its county borough status, becoming a non-metropolitan district within Lancashire. Rather than accept this face and and lose its separate education and social services departments, Southport Corporation lobbied for inclusion in the nearby planned metropolitan county of Merseyside, to join with Bootle and other units to form a district with the 250,000 required population. It was duly included in the metropolitan borough of Sefton

This decision has been regretted by some of the population. A recurring local political issue has been the cross-party movement campaigning for Southport to leave Sefton and form its own unitary authority, perhaps adjoined to the neighbouring West Lancashire authority. Support for this has been seen amongst Liberal Democrat (UK) [3] councillors and within the Southport Conservative Party (UK) [4], [5].

In 1980, a Private Member's Bill proposed restoring Southport to Lancashire, and renaming the residue of Sefton to the Metropolitan Borough of Bootle. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England conducted a review of the area in 1987, which attracted 10,000 messages, of which "70% were pro forma". In 1990 the LGBC made suggestions that Southport, Ainsdale and Birkdale should be made a district of Lancashire: the final recommendations in 1991 "concluded that public opinion was more evenly divided than initially thought", and also that eastward transport links with Lancashire were poor compared to those southward to the Liverpool area.

The government again directed the Local Government Commission for England to make a review in December 1996 (after it had finished the work on the creation of unitary authorities), commencing in January 1997. This review was constrained by the legal inability of the Commission to recommend that the current Sefton-West Lancashire border be altered. In a MORI poll conducted at the behest of the LGCE, 65% of Southport residents supported the campaign, compared to 37% in the borough as a whole. Local MPs Matthew Banks and Ronnie Fearn (MPs for Southport at various times) supported making Southport a unitary authority, with Banks wishing to see it tied to Lancashire ceremonially, but Fearn wishing to see it remain, as a separate borough, in Merseyside.

The commission noted that Southport would have a relatively low population for a unitary authority, even including Formby (89,300 or 114,700), and that it was worried about the viability of a South Sefton authority without Southport, and therefore recommended the status quo be kept. However, the Commission suggested the use of area committees for the various parts of the borough and also that Southport could become a civil parish.

Another request made in 2004 was turned down [6] (the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom) must request such a review).

In 2002, a local independent party calling themselves the Southport Party was established, with a main policy of "Southport out of Sefton" [7], [8]. Three council seats were won in the 2002 local elections, but the following year there were no gains and a drop in the number of votes for the party.

To date, there have been no further moves to change Sefton's boundaries, but the Boundary Commission indicated in 2004 that a future review is possible:

"whether or not structural change takes place in accordance with our recommendations, the boundaries between or within Sefton and West Lancashire could be reviewed at a later stage to address these long-standing boundary concerns."[9]

however now in 206 ther has been no change to the boundries of sefton and most residance apperar to be contnent to remain a part of Sefton, although the southport party still claim to live in the Lanc's.

Economy

Tourism still plays a large part of the economic make-up of Southport but its reputation of being a nice place to live brings in wealthy families commuting to Liverpool, Preston, Manchester and further afield. Its location, reputation and range of expensive houses also brings in a variety of footballers from local teams.

As a seaside resort, its main attraction are the miles of sandy beach and recently restored seafront, a Victorian pier (the first pier built purely for pleasure in Britain), six golf courses and the wide boulevard, Lord Street, in the town centre. Its shopping, restaurants and bars are worth a visit. The town also has the Southport Theatre and Floral Hall.

Southport also hosts varied events including an annual air show and flower show, an open air classical music concert concluded with a fireworks display, a jazz festival, and the turning on of the pleasant town centre Christmas lights. During the summer there is an Orangemen's March, which is one of the busiest days of the year. Southport hosts the annual musical fireworks championships, and The Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club course. It is also home to the "Southport Weekender" [10], an annual dance event.

Scouting in Southport

The scouting district of Southport has always been an active one, currently there are approximately 700 members in the Southport area. The current groups in the district include:

1st Ainsdale with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections

11th Kew with Beaver and Cub sections

14th St. James with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections

17th St. Patricks with Beaver and Cub sections

19th Emmanual with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections

23rd Lord St West with Beaver and Cub sections

35th Leyland Rd Methodist Sea Scout group with Cub and Scout sections

48th St. Peters Air Scout Group with Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer sections

55th Birkdale United Reform Chruch with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections

58th Holy Family Sea Scout group with Beaver, Cub and scout sections

61st Holy Trinity with Beaver and Cub sections

62nd St. Cuthbert's with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections

71st St. Teresa's with just Scouts

Waterside Lodge Explorers

Southport Scouts enagage in several different town events such as the Carnival and have also started to do a bi-annual Scout and Guide Gang Show. The recent one was such a success that they have decided to continue with the tradition after a 4 year hiatus.

The Southport District Scout headquarters is Waterside Lodge which is situated next to the Marine Lake. The Scouts in this district and many nearby Scout districts use Waterside for activities such as Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, Bell Boating and Dragon Boating and various land activities.

Transport

Road

Newly-opened Marine Way Bridge, running from the town centre to the beach [1]

Due to its position by the coast, Southport is a linear settlement and as such can only be approached in a limited number of directions by road.

The main roads entering Southport are:

• the A565 (from Preston to the north-east),
• the A570 (from Ormskirk and St Helens to the south-east),
• the A565 (from Bootle and Formby to the south).

There is no direct connection to the motorway from Southport; the nearest connections are:

• from the south - junction 3 of the M58 (on the A570, twelve miles)
• from the north - junction 1 of the M65 (on the A582/A59, nineteen miles)

An east-west bypass for the A570 at Ormskirk is planned [11] to relieve congestion on Southport's main access route to the motorway network.

Several areas within Southport town centre have recently undergone major road redevelopment; the largest scheme was the construction of the Marine Way bridge (opened May 2004), which connects the Lord Street shopping district with the new seafront developments. The 50m high structure is thought to have cost in the region of £5m. [12]

Aviation

Southport is home to RAF Woodvale, a small RAF station on the outskirts of the town. It is used by RAF light aircraft as well as civilian aircraft. The station is also home to Merseyside Police's two helicopters.

Southport is also home to Birkdale Sands, a sand runway located on one of Southport's beaches.

Rail

Southport has a railway station with a frequent service of electric trains to Liverpool and a regular service to Wigan, Bolton, Manchester and Rochdale.

The Liverpool line was originally built by the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway in 1848. It was followed on 9 April 1855 by the Manchester and Southport Railway with a line to Manchester via Wigan.

Formerly, Southport was also served by two further railway lines:

• From 1882 the West Lancashire Railway operated from Southport Derby Road station to Preston Fishergate. This line was shut in 1964, however. Nowadays, the towns of Southport and Preston are linked only by the (largely dual-carriageway) A565 and A59 roads.

• In 1884, another line from Southport to Liverpool was opened: the Cheshire Lines Committee's North Liverpool Extension Line from Liverpool Central to Southport Lord Street. The West Lancashire Railway sponsored the Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway to provide a connection to the CLC line, joining it at Altcar and Hillhouse [13]. These lines ultimately proved uncompetitive, however, and the Southport services were withdrawn in 1952.

In July 1897 both the West Lancashire and the Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railways were absorbed into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&Y). The L&Y had a large terminus at Southport Chapel Street and could see no sense in operating two termini at very close proximity. On 1.5.1901 the L&Y completed a remodeling of the approach lines to Central to allow trains to divert onto the Manchester to Southport line and into Southport Chapel Street Station. Southport Central was closed to passengers and it became a goods depot eventually amalgamating with Chapel Street depot. It survived intact well into the 1970's.

Sport

Southport is somewhat lesser known for its sporting prowess, but being surrounded by other North-West cities this is understandable. The eastern side of town towards Blowick and Kew is home to the "Sandgrounders" - Southport FC, a club with a long football league history and common FA Cup giantkillers, they play at Haig Avenue and currently find themselves in the Nationwide Conference league. There is also a league for local amateur football teams. Southport is also home to a rugby union club, Southport RUFC [14], who play at the Recreational Ground on Waterloo Road, Hillside.

The junior section of Southport RUFC are known as the Southport Sharks [15], have sides that range from 7 years old upwards. They also play on the same grounds, and train every Sunday 10am-12pm.

Watersports on Marine Lake

However, the town is probably best known for golf; the Royal Birkdale Golf Club situated in the dunes to the south of the town is one of the venues on The Open Championship rotation and has hosted two Ryder Cups. Nearby Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club is also a two time Ryder Cup venue and Hillside Golf Club hosts many major events as well as being a final open qualifying course. Many smaller links courses also surround the town.

Southport's location by the coast also lends itself to some more specialised sporting activities - Ainsdale Beach south of the town is popular for kite sports, including kite-surfing. The Marine Lake [16] lies nestled between the town centre and the sea and is used for a variety of watersports including waterskiing, sailing and rowing. The lake is home to the West Lancashire Yacht Club and Southport Sailing Club, both of which organise dinghy racing. The annual Southport 24 Hour Race, run by the WLYC, is an endurance race of national standing, with an average turnout of 60 to 80 boats.

The flat and scenic route alongside the beach is very popular with cyclists, and is the start of the Trans Pennine Trail, a cycle route running across the north of the country to Selby in North Yorkshire, through Hull and on to Hornsea on the East coast.

Famous Residents

• Derek Acorah, medium.
• Jean Alexander, actress
• Marc Almond, lead singer of Soft Cell.
• Michael Arlen, author and playwright.
• Robin Askwith, actor.
• Jim Beglin, footballer, Liverpool FC.
• Dora Bryan, actress.
• Kenny Dalglish, footballer.
• Gomez (band), musical group
• Alan Hansen, footballer.
• Sophie Howard, page 3 Glamour Model.
• Steve Jones, photographer.
• Lee Mack, comedian & presenter of They Think It's All Over
• Mike Newell, football player/manager
• Albert Pierrepoint, executioner, retired to Southport.
• Red Rum, record breaking racehorse
• Arthur Richardson, VC.
• Miranda Richardson, actress.
• Adrian Scott Stokes, painter.
• Mark Seagraves, footballer
• A.J.P. Taylor, historian (born in Birkdale)
• Tony Tenser, film publicist and producer.
• Bill Tidy, UK's Top Cartoonist
• Marcus Wareing, chef.
• Ronnie Whelan, footballer.
• Edmund Taylor Whittaker, mathematician.

External links

Sculler on Marine Lake

• Southport Tourism's Official Site
• Southport's Unique Shopping Experience
• Southport FC
• Pleasureland Amusement Park Southport
• Southport Flower Show
• Details of schools in Southport
• Southport Visiter - Southport and District's primary bi-weekly newspaper
• Southport Champion (local newspaper)
• Southport Champion Charity Carnival
• "Napoleon III was inspired to build the grands boulevards of Paris after a jolly holiday in Southport, research suggests."