WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



NORTH MEOLS 



measures 2,214^ acres,' 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 

 visually 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, 

 Mj4N0R when it was assessed as two plough-lands 

 and its value was Ss. 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.* 



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 iioo. Of the 

 .barons of Penwortham it was held by Roger son of 

 Ravenkil, and descended to his son Richard, lord of 



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 ; ' 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 10/., but it was 

 stated that the place ' had been annihilated by the sea 

 and there was no habitation there.' ' 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 1320.* 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,' while in a later feodary (1483) it is 

 stated that Hugh de Halsall held it of the king in 

 chief" 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." 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." 



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 DownhoUand. The latter's son, created earl of 

 Macclesfield after the Restoration, carried on the dis- 



^ 2,699 J Census Rep. 1901. The fore- 

 shore measures 2,605 acres, 



^ Loud. Gaa. 2 June, 1863. 



8 Ibid. 28 Aug. 1883. 



* V.C.H. Lanes, i, p. 284A. 



^ The inquisition after the death of 

 Thomas de Beetham (1249) shows that 

 he held 8 oxgangs of land here of the earl 

 of Lincoln, rendering 12s. yearly, and 2 

 by knight's service from which he took 

 nothing. In 1242-3 Thomas de Beetham 

 and Robert de Stockport were said to 

 hold the fourth part of a knight's fee here. 

 SeeLancj. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 149, 171. In 1254 the holding 

 is said to be one plough-land, worth in all 

 issues 16s. yearly, and the tallage of the 

 tenants in bondage worth 21. 6d. ; ibid. 

 X71. In 1311 Nicholas de Eaton and 

 Joan his wife, daughter and heir of Rich- 

 ard de Stockport, are mentioned as ten- 

 .ants 5 De Lacy Inquest (Chet. Soc), 22 ; 

 while in 1323-4 Ralph de Beetham alone 

 is mentioned, and he is said to have held 

 it * by fealty without any other service ' ; 

 Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36*. 



^ In 1345 there were cross-suits by 

 Robert de Cowdray as lord of North Meols, 

 and Gilbert de Halsall as lord of Argar 

 Meols of which Birkdale was a part, each 

 alleging that the other had trespassed ; 

 De Banc. R. 342, m. 374, 3741/. 



' Lay Subsidies (Lanes.), ^^. Ar- 



gar Meols seems in fact to have 

 peared, though the name survived in 

 official documents and in tradition. Birk- 

 dale first appears as its substitute or suc- 

 cessor in 1295 in the De Lacy Compotus. 

 As a name Birkdale occurs in a charter of 

 Cockersand Abbey about 1200 ; it was in 

 Ainsdale or upon the border ; Cockersand 

 Chartul. (Chet. Soc), ii, 575, 581. 



^ Towneley MS. DD. n. 1456. It was 

 Gilbert de Halsall who acquired from the 

 Blundells of Crosby the adjacent manor of 

 Ainsdale. In 1752 it was customary to 

 assess the old Halsall estate in Ainsdale 

 along with Birkdale ; though Ainsdale 

 was, properly speaking, in another town- 

 ship and parish ; see Farrer, North Meols, 

 98. In 1377 accord was made at Halsall 

 between Otes de Halsall and the lord of 

 North Meols (William de Aughton) for 

 pasturage of their lands of North Meols, 

 Ainsdale, Birkdale, and Argar Meols, there 

 being apparently no clearly defined boun- 

 daries ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 233. 

 9 Dods. MSS. Ixxxvii, fol. 59. 



10 Duchy of Lane Misc. cxxx, fol. 8. 

 The Beetham family had by that time 

 lost their manors. 



^^ Argar Meols is included in a feodary 

 of Penwortham made about 1505. 



^^ See the account of Halsall, 



^8 Duchy Pleas. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 23-4. 



In 1508 Sir Henry had eight messuages 

 and 20 acres of pasturage in Birkdale 

 held of the abbot of Cockersand. This 

 appears to be the Halsall estate in Ains- 

 dale, of which mention has already been 

 made as being considered part of Birk- 

 dale ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, 

 n. 50. 



A dispute between Edmund Hulme 

 and Henry Halsall in 1555 revealed 

 more clearly the uncertainty as to the 

 boundaries and tenures ; whereas the 

 former claimed the * manor' of Ainsdale 

 and asserted that it was wholly within the 

 parish of Walton, the * manor ' of Birk- 

 dale being wholly within North Meols ; 

 Henry Halsall fell back upon the state- 

 ment that though there once was a place 

 called Ainsdale it had long been washed 

 away and lost. The land in dispute was 

 called Meandale or Birkdale Hawes ; the 

 bounds were stated to begin at the spring 

 wall near Ainsdale demesne and to follow 

 certain stoups to the Brown Hill or Brown 

 Brante and so to the Falcon Hawc, and 

 then west to the sea. There had formerly 

 been frequent disputes owing to cattle 

 straying over the bounds ; sec Duchy 

 Pleaiy iii, 218-22. Edmund Hulme 

 closed the dispute by selling his rights to 

 Henry Halsall ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F, 

 bdle. 16, m. 134. 



