| Skelmersdale | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 The Concourse shopping centre, Skelmersdale | |
  Skelmersdale Location in West Lancashire Show map of the Borough of West Lancashire Skelmersdale Location of town centre in Skelmersdale Show map of Skelmersdale | |
| Population | 38,813 |
| OS grid reference | SD487062 |
| • London | 180 mi (290 km)SE |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SKELMERSDALE |
| Postcode district | WN8 |
| Dialling code | 01695 |
| Police | Lancashire |
| Fire | Lancashire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
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Skelmersdale/ˈskɛlmərzdeɪl/ is a town in theWest Lancashire district of England. It sits on theRiver Tawd, 6 miles (10 km) west ofWigan, 13 miles (21 km) north-east ofLiverpool and 15 miles (24 km) south-west ofPreston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813.[1] The town is known locally asSkem/ˈskɛm/.
While the first record of the town is in theDomesday Book of 1086, much of the town, including the current town centre, was developed as a second wavenew town in the 1960s. The town's initial development as a coal town coincided with theIndustrial Revolution in the 19th century; the town lies on theLancashire Coalfield.
Skelmersdale is situated in a small valley on theRiver Tawd. The town was designed to accommodate both nature and compact housing estates, and the town centre contains a large amount of forestation. The Beacon Country Park lies to the east of Skelmersdale, where the Beacon Point lies, along with a golf club. Furthermore, the Tawd Valley Park runs through the centre of the town, where improvement efforts fromthe council are currently ongoing.[2]
The town bordersUp Holland to the east,Ormskirk to the north-west, andSt Helens to the south. Furthermore, the town lies on the periphery ofWigan andGreater Manchester. TheM58 runs to the south of Skelmersdale, from Wigan to Liverpool.
The New Town is the larger eastern part of the town which was built primarily in the 1960s as a second wavenew town, and the 'Old Town' is the much smaller and older part of the town in the south west; Skelmersdale was mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086. The town is further divided into seven wards: Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Birch Green, Ashurst, Digmoor, Moorside and Tanhouse.
Skelmersdale means "Skjaldmarr's valley", from theOld Norse personal nameSkjaldmarr + probably Old Norsedalr (orOld Englishdæl) "dale, valley". The name was recorded asSkalmeresedel in 1136.
It is locally known as "Skem",[3] with a further distinction being made between "Old Skem" (the area which was a small mining town before 1961) and the broader swathe of development on the east side of the town.
Until the creation of Skelmersdale Urban District Council at the end of the 19th century, the town was part of the Parish of Ormskirk in theWest Derby hundred, an ancient subdivision of Lancashire, covering the southwest of the county.
In the mid-14th century, themanor of Skelmersdale was held byWilliam Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre.[4]
In 1858, Blague Gate railway station in Skelmersdale was opened on the new Ormskirk to Rainford line. It was renamed to Skelmersdale railway station in 1874, before closing in 1956 and its demolition shortly after 1968.
Skelmersdale's population in 1851 was only 760, but 50 years later it had increased to 5,699. It was a busy coal mining town.[5] There were over 100 fatalities in Skelmersdale collieries from 1851 to 1900, according to the Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines, and an unknown number of serious injuries. In 1880 there were 14 Skelmersdale collieries—most of them closed in the 1920s and '30s.
The miners, many of whom wereWelsh migrants, brought with them their own brand ofNonconformist Christianity. By the start of the 20th century there were at least six dissenting chapels in the town: two Wesleyan (Berry Street, closed in the 1920s, and Liverpool Road, closed 1969), an independent Methodist, aPrimitive Methodist, aCongregational and a Welsh Chapel (closed in 1963).
Today, there is little to remind people that the town was part of the once greatLancashire Coalfield, although a Skelmersdale Heritage Society was re-established in 2019.
There were also numerousbrickworks in the area, and in the early-20th centuryVictoria County History, Skelmersdale was described as "a particularly bare, unpleasing district" owing to its coal mines andbrickworks.[6]
In 1961 Skelmersdale was designated anew town, designed to house overspill population from the north Liverpool conurbation. The town was the first in the second wave of designations.
Skelmersdale endured mixed economic fortunes during the last three decades of the 20th century. With the economic downturn in the late 1970s, large industrial employers left the town en masse, resulting in an increase in crime, drug abuse and poverty. Today, West Lancashire has a crime rate below the national average. 2006 saw a regeneration drive for the town coordinated throughEnglish Partnerships and the Northwest Regional Development Agency and publicly headed by the designerWayne Hemingway.[7] Among the proposals was a new central focus for the entertainment and commerce for the town in the evening.[3]
In 2012, a £20m vision to create a regenerated town centre for Skelmersdale was revealed. It is expected to create as many as 500 permanent jobs, and current projections seem to satisfy that target.[citation needed] Although Skelmersdale faces a looming employment crisis, the regeneration of the town centre is a step towards recovery, and up to 100 extra jobs would be generated during the scheme's construction phase alone.[8]
Proposals included a new food store as well as a number of bars, shops and restaurants, and a five-screen cinema. A new promenade would be fronted by these establishments to overlook the Tawd Valley Park, and a new civic square would also be created between the Concourse Shopping Centre and the town library. Regeneration specialists St Modwen have been working on the proposals with West Lancashire Council and the Homes and Communities Agency.[9]
In January 2020, work began on a newLidl supermarket and aB&M store, along with an additional vacant retail unit, which would later be leased out toPoundstretcher,[10] and work began on a new two-screen cinema operated byUS company Star Cinemas in May 2020, which opened in May 2021 under the name Ultra Star Cinema (However it was re-branded to "Capitol Cinema" in June 2021.)[11] In June 2020,Lancashire County Council acquired the site of the former Glenburn Sports College, and approved £2 million of funding to demolish the site and prepare the location for development as a railway station.[12]
The new Lidl store opened on 9 June 2022,[13] and the B&M store opened on 6 July 2022.[14] In addition to this, the third vacant retail unit was taken up byPoundstretcher, which opened on 1 November 2022.[15] In addition to this, the pathway between West Lancashire College and the Concourse Shopping Centre opened in June, however, the high street linking the two sites has not yet been constructed. In addition to this, the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Park was constructed in the area, linking in with the new town centre developments. The park opened in June but was closed again in August due to vandalism and health and safety concerns due to missing safety equipment.[16]
There are plans to redevelop the land behind the new Lidl store to build a new health and wellbeing centre, featuring agym,swimming pool,café, andchildren's play park.[17] This will also result in the demolition of the existing Nye Bevan site. Plans have also been submitted byEG Group and approved by West Lancashire Borough Council to build a Starbucks café in the car park of the town'sAsda store.[18]
Skelmersdale has been designed to work on a roundabout system and there is only one set of traffic lights in the town. For ease of access, there is a subway network allowing pedestrians to move through the town without needing to cross potentially hazardous roads. However, the subway system was called into question in 2020 by formerWest Lancashire MPRosie Cooper and others with regard to its safety and sustainability, as they are not regularly maintained by the county council.[19]
TheM58 motorway runs along the south of Skelmersdale from Wigan and the nearbyM6 motorway to theSwitch Island interchange at Liverpool. TheA570 and theA577 both provide connections.
The New Town areas of Skelmersdale have a road-naming system where residential streets rarely feature words such as "Road" and "Street" and single-name roads are common, e.g. Abbeywood, Fairburn, Brierfield, Thornwood. "Road", "Street", "Lane" and "Drive"do appear in road names, but only in the parts of the town that pre-date or post-date the New Town development. The road names in New Town areas are also arranged in a loosely alphabetical format with large areas being defined by a single letter, for example, Larkhill, Leeswood, Ledburn and Lindens all connect to Ashley Road in the Ashurst area.
Roads in the industrial estates and the main roads in the town such as Gillibrands Road follow the usual naming conventions, although the industrial estates do feature street names beginning with the same letter. For example, Pikelaw Place, Penketh Place, Pinfold Place and Priorswood Place are all part of the Pimbo Industrial Estate.
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In September 2011, the company providing most of Skelmersdale's bus services,Arriva North West, closed its depot in Skelmersdale, which employed 129 people. The depot was first constructed forRibble Motor Services in the 1970s, and the premises were sold. Skelmersdale is now served by buses from Arriva depots in St Helens, Bootle and Southport. In 2023, aStagecoach service to Headbolt Lane in Kirkby was introduced, and in late 2023, aPreston Bus service to Rainford was also introduced.[20][21]
Since the closure ofSkelmersdale railway station in 1956, the town has become the second most populous town in theNorth West, afterLeigh, without a railway station.[22] The nearest railway station isUpholland railway station on theWigan Wallgate toKirkby branch line (historically part of theLiverpool and Bury Railway line).[23] TheSkelmersdale Branch previously connected Skelmersdale toOrmskirk and Rainford Junction.
In 2009,Network Rail proposed to extend the existing quarter-hourlyLiverpool Central to Kirkby service, to terminate at a new station in the centre of Skelmersdale. Rainford would then become an interchange station for services to and from Wigan Wallgate.[24] In 2009, theAssociation of Train Operating Companies published a report, Connecting Communities, which also recommended the opening of a new rail link to Skelmersdale.[25] This time the recommendation was via the Skelmersdale Branch from Ormskirk. In February 2017, Lancashire County Council identified the site of the former Glenburn Sports College / West Lancashire College Westbank Campus site as the preferred location for a railway station for the town. Despite the Glenburn Sports College being owned by the council, the Westbank Campus site was owned byNCG and required purchase by the council in order for the station to be built.[26]In 2017, Merseytravel and Lancashire County Council committed £5 million into a study to investigate the possibility of re-opening the station. Combined with the creation of a new station atHeadbolt Lane in Kirkby, it is believed that the scheme could cost around £300 million to develop.[27]
In 2020,Lancashire County Council acquired the site of the former Glenburn Sports College, and approved £2 million to demolish the buildings on the site and prepare the area for the construction of a railway station.[28]
Plans for the reopening were dealt a blow when the Department for Transport announced in July 2022 that it was rejecting the Strategic Outline Business Case.[29] The DfT instead suggested that better bus links with the Kirkby–Wigan rail line would be a cheaper way of improving connectivity for Skelmersdale. This would be introduced with the 319 Stagecoach bus service, which runs between Skelmersdale Bus Station andKirkby Railway Station, and will run to Headbolt Lane Railway Station once a normal Merseyrail service to Headbolt Lane resumes.
In 2022, Lancashire County Council announced that intends to 'dispose' of the former Glenburn Sports College and West Lancashire College land, under theSchool Standards and Framework Act 1988.[30]
Skelmersdale has a number of primary schools, and has two high schools:Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Engineering College andLathom High School.Glenburn Sports College closed on 31 August 2016 following an unsuccessful campaign backed by former local MPRosie Cooper to prevent the closure.[31]
West Lancashire College has a campus in the centre of the town. The college merged withNewcastle College in 2007[32] and was graded as 'good' in a recentOfsted inspection.[33] In 2021,Brian Cox launched the college's 'School of Science', a £1.3 million facility with the intention of increasing the number of students who studyscience, technology, engineering and mathematics.[34]
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There is aTranscendental Meditation movement community within Skelmersdale, called "European Sidhaland".[35] It has aMaharishi School which, as of 2019, performed 'well above average' according toOfsted.[36] In 2011, it was one of 24 schools that applied for and received government funding as a flagshipfree school.[37]
Skelmersdale is also home to a large public library with facilities including free internet access and an extensive local history section.[38]
The town is host to a number of cultural and social organisations, such as the Artz Centre which provides opportunities in creative fields,[39] and The Birchwood Centre which aims to reduce social isolation and homelessness.[40]
The town featured in TV seriesUtopia and features in the musicalBlood Brothers.[41]
According to urban planning consultancy Space Syntax, Skelmersdale's fragmented streets have made its centre relatively inaccessible and this has resulted in segregated land use.[42] According to a 2017Lancashire County Council report, Skelmersdale has one of the highest percentages of children living in poverty in Lancashire at 27%, and the highestaccident and emergency attendance rate in Lancashire for 0–4 and 5–19 year olds.[43] Furthermore, Skelmersdale's poverty levels are above the national average.[44]
Skelmersdale's crime rates are above the Lancashire average at 93 crimes per 1,000 people, and is the 21st most dangerous overall out of Lancashire's 236 towns, villages, and cities. Skelmersdale was the worst medium-sized town in Lancashire in 2020 for drugs.[45]
Although consisting predominantly of housing estates, Skelmersdale's industry includes theCo-operative Bank which employs 650 people,[46] distribution centres forAsda,[47]P&G,[48]Victorian Plumbing,[49][50] aWalkers snack food factory,[51] Chemist 4 U[52] and many others. Skelmersdale formerly housed the corporate base and a distribution centre forMatalan, the discount clothing and homewares store, who later relocated to Knowsley Industrial Park.[53][54]Frederick's Dairies, now owned by R&R Ice Cream UK Ltd, who make ice cream forCadbury, and many others, are also located in Skelmersdale.[55]
Skelmersdale's town centre is made up of the Concourse Shopping Centre,[56] (colloquially known as "the Connie") as well as a supermarket, a library, a swimming pool and gym named after formerMinister of HealthAneurin Bevan (however there are plans to redevelop these facilities),West Lancashire College's main campus, a multistorey car park, and the Tawd Valley Retail Park.
The Concourse is home to a number of national chain stores. The Concourse used to have an artwork byAlan Boyson, in the shape of a pyramid. The pyramid was located in front of the entrance opposite the ecumenical centre until the early to mid-1980s but was removed for safety reasons.[57]
There are also smaller shopping parades in Skelmersdale which include Sandy Lane Shopping Centre, Digmoor Parade and Ashurst Shopping Centre.
Skelmersdale is in theWest Lancashire parliamentary constituency, and has been represented byAshley Dalton, aLabour Party MP, since the2023 West Lancashire by-election. Furthermore, as of June 2021, Skelmersdale is represented by three Labour Party councillors across three wards onLancashire County Council, and all twelve borough councillors for wards in Skelmersdale onWest Lancashire Borough Council are members of the Labour Party.[58] Until the2021 United Kingdom local elections, Skelmersdale had only elected Labour Party councillors for over fifty years.[59]
Skelmersdale Independent Party, established in February 2019, is active in the town and advocates for the establishment of a Skelmersdale Town Council.[60] While the party has contested multiple seats onWest Lancashire Borough Council, it has been unsuccessful in gaining seats.
The town's football team,Skelmersdale United F.C., plays in the West Division of theNorthern Premier League and was aFA Vase winner in 1971. One of its former players,Steve Heighway, went on to play forLiverpool. FormerEverton midfielderLeon Osman, who takes his son to Dalton St Michael's Primary School in nearby Dalton, played for the club in his youth. FormerCardiff City playerCraig Noone also once played for the club. Skelmersdale Football Club is currently located at JMO Sports Park in the town.
The town is host to anarchery club, the Bowmen of Skelmersdale,[61] whose collective members hold 19 county records and 14 world records held by three members of the same family (Melissa-Jane, Harriet and Gary Daniel), six of which were claimed at the National Flight Championships on 19 August 2006 held at RAFChurch Fenton.[62] Furthermore, Skelmersdale Cricket Club was established in 1891.[63]
TheMerseyside Nighthawks, anAmerican football team who play at JMO Sports Park in the town, are members of theBAFA National Leagues and play in the Premier North Division.
Skelmersdale has units of theAir Training Corps,Army Cadet Force andSea Cadet Corps. These units take part in the local community life and are routinely seen attending theRemembrance Sunday parade in the old town.
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1439 (Skelmersdale) Squadron, Air Cadets, formed at Upholland Grammar School in 1941 as the 'Beacon Squadron' and provided airmanship training for young men and those about to join the RAF in time for theBattle of Britain. The squadron continues to provide airmanship training to young men and women in addition to other activities. They are based on Daniels Lane.
The Army Cadets are part of 'S' Company of the Lancashire Force. They are based on Daniels Lane.
TheSea Cadets has a unit in Skelmersdale that trains cadets aged from 10 to 17 years. The unit is located on Tawd Road.
West Lancashire is twinned withErkrath (Germany) andCergy-Pontoise (France).
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