WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



measures 2,214^ acres, 1 consists of a broad band ot 

 sand-hills, fringing the sea-coast and raising the surface 

 of the land to some fifty feet above sea-level. The 

 seashore itself is flat and sandy, and a large expanse of 

 sand is uncovered at low tide. The sand-hills are 

 covered with a dense growth of dwarf willow and 

 star-grass, or sea marram, which by their long subter- 

 ranean stems and roots bind the shifting sands to- 

 gether. The sand-hills are so strictly preserved on 

 account of 'game,' that the naturalist has little chance 

 of searching the hills for the many uncommon wild 

 plants which grow there. Inland from the shore it is 

 quite flat, and the land is occupied by cultivated fields 

 yielding crops of corn and potatoes in a sandy soil. 

 There are no brooks, but numerous ditches drain the 

 lower portions of the district. 



The northern portion of the township is occupied 

 by the residential district of Birkdale, the houses being 

 usually surrounded by gardens. Two railways cross 

 it going north to Southport, viz. the Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire, with a station named Birkdale ; and the 

 Cheshire lines, by the shore, with a station called 

 Birkdale Palace, near the large Hydropathic Hotel. 

 The population in 1901 was 14,197. 



A local board was formed in 1863,* and a school 

 board in 1883.* The township is now divided for 

 local government into four wards, each returning three 

 members to the urban district council. The town 

 hall was built in 1872. A recreation ground was 

 opened in 1886. 



Wibert held the manor in 1066, 



MANOR when it was assessed as two plough-lands 

 and its value was 8/. It was placed at 

 the head of the privileged district of three hides com- 

 paratively free from the interference of the reeve of 

 the royal manor of West Derby. 4 



It was certainly made a portion of the Bussels' fee 

 of Penwortham, and may have been held by Warin 

 Bussel under Roger of Poitou before I loo. Of the 

 barons of Penwortham it was held by Roger son of 

 Ravenkil, and descended to his son Richard, lord of 



NORTH MEOLS 



Woodplumpton and founder of Lytham Priory. Two 

 only of Richard's five daughters left issue Maud, wife 

 of Sir Robert de Stockport, and Amuria, wife of 

 Thomas de Beetham ; 5 their heirs continued to hold 

 it down to the time of Edward II. 



By this time there had probably been an infeu- 

 dation in favour of the Halsall family. In 1346' 

 the fourth part of a knight's fee in Argar Meols was 

 held by Otes de Halsall ; he rendered io/., but it was 

 stated that the place ' had been annihilated by the sea 

 and there was no habitation there.' 7 From an inqui- 

 sition taken in 1404 it appears that the manors of 

 Argar Meols and Birkdale had been held by Otes' father, 

 Gilbert, so that the transfer from the old lords to the 

 new must have taken place about 1 3zo. 8 The matter 

 is somewhat complicated by the statement in a feodary 

 compiled about 1430 that 'Thomas de Beetham and 

 his parceners' held the fourth part of a knight's fee in 

 Argar Meols, 9 while in a later feodary (1483) it is 

 stated that Hugh de Halsall held it of the king in 

 chief. 10 The more correct statement would appear to 

 be that from the beginning of Edward Ill's reign the 

 Halsall family held it of the king as of his barony of 

 Penwortham, though this intermediate barony is 

 usually omitted in the inquisitions." 



The manor descended regularly with the Halsall 

 estates until their dispersal early in the seventeenth 

 century by Sir Cuthbert Halsall. 12 The most interest- 

 ing incident in connexion with their tenure was an 

 inquiry in 1503, when the escheator was endeavour- 

 ing to prove that Sir Henry Halsall held lands and 

 tenements in Argar Meols of the king, as duke of 

 Lancaster, in chief, Sir Henry in reply asserting 

 that the place had long ago been swallowed up by 

 the sea. 13 



It was about 1632 that Birkdale, Meandale, and 

 Ainsdale were sold by Sir Cuthbert Halsall to Robert 

 Blundell of Ince. Boundary disputes at once began 

 with Sir Charles Gerard, who had purchased Halsall 

 and Downholland. The latter's son, created earl of 

 Macclesfield after the Restoration, carried on the dis- 



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