Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SOUTHPORT

SOUTHPORT, a town and three chapelries in North Meols township and parish, Lancashire. The town stands on the coast, at the termini of railways from Liverpool, Preston, and Manchester, 18½ miles N by W of Liverpool; was, in the early years of the present century, a poor hamlet, called South Hawes; came into notice, about 1830, as an attractive watering-place; grew rapidly, from that time, into a handsome town, with spacious streets and promenades; occupies a quondam sandy waste, absorbent of moisture, and now well embellished; enjoys a salubrious climate; includes a chief street 270 feet wide, perfectly straight, and nearly a mile long; publishes two newspapers; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, seventeen hotels, a pier, baths, an extensive bathing-beach, a park of 30 acres, a well constructed market house, a fish-market, a town hall, three churches, eleven dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a cemetery with three handsome chapels, four public day schools, a convalescent hospitaland sea-bathing infirmary, a hydropathic hospital, and a dispensary. The pier was erected in 1860, at a cost of £10,000; and extended since, at an additional cost of £15,000; and is 4,395 feet long. The town hall was built in 1853, at a cost of about £4,500; is in the Grecian style, with a portico; and contains assembly and sessions rooms, and police court-rooms, offices, and cells. Christ Church was built in 1820, and has been much enlarged; is in the early English style, and nearly square; and has a fine tower and spire 180 feet high. Trinity church was built in 1837, and has been enlarged. St. Paul's church was built in 1864, at a cost of about £ 4,500: is in the decorated English style; and has a tower and spire 132 feet high. The Chapel-street Independent chapel is in the classic style, with Corinthian portico. The Lord-street Independent chapel is in the pointed style, with a fine spire. The Mornington-road Wesleyan chapel also is in the pointed style, with a lofty spire. The Trinity Wesleyan chapel was built in 1864, at a cost of about £9,000; is in the early English style, and cruciform; and has gables surmounted with carved crosses, and a lofty tower with brooch spire. Pop. of the town in 1868, about 16,500.-The three chapelries are Christ-church, St. Paul, and Trinity. Pop., 5,490, 3,500, and 4,025. The livings are p. curacies in the diocese of Chester. Value of C., £678; of St. P., £300; of Trinity, £550.* Patron of C., the Rev.Hesketh; of St. Paul and T., Trustees.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and three chapelries"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: North Meols AP/CP       Lancashire AncC
Place: Southport

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