Boundaries and Borders - It Happened in Lancashire! A great book of facts, people and moments that shaped the county.

FOREWORD

In 1974, Edward Heath decided to demolish over 800 years of our history. He savaged our traditional counties and replaced them with new artificial ones that few wanted. Lancashire was particu- larly badly hit. The southwest was hived off with Wirral to make Merseyside. The southeast was tacked onto a bit of Cheshire to form Greater Manchester. To the north, all Furness that was once Lancashire-over-the-Sands (the sands of Morecambe Bay) was taken, along with all Cumberland and Westmorland, to create Cumbria. Finally, a chunk of south Lancashire, including the towns of Widnes and Warrington, was ceded to Cheshire.

I live in the village of Lowton St Luke which is (just) in Heath’s Greater Manchester. My postal address is Lowton, Warrington, Cheshire, and the postal sorting office is in Newton- le-Willows, Merseyside! Yet I am a Lancastrian, and proud of it.

A Yorkshire tyke writing a similar book about their county would similarly protest. Indeed, they did protest and had Heath’s ridiculous Cleveland obliterated. Before 1974 the River Hodder was part of the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire, and then the Fairsnape ridge, putting most of the Forest of Bowland in the County of the White Rose. Further south, the old boundary put villages like Sawley and Gisburn, Barnoldswick and Earby firmly in Yorkshire. No longer, officially. Heath plonked them into Lancashire along with some fells in the Lune valley.

The effect on our county has been great and often laughable. Up to 1974 the Lancashire coastline was 216 miles long; the new Lancashire has a coastline of only 118 miles. Today the most southerly point in official Lancashire is near the villages of Sefton and Kirkby, where most people speak with a scouse accent, whereas the most northerly point of Merseyside is the north end of Southport, which is by the Ribble, not Mersey!

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It Happened in Lancashire

Up to 1974, Coniston Water was Lancashire’s largest lake; today it is Stocks Reservoir that, up to 1974, was in Yorkshire! Until 1974, Lancashire’s highest point was the Old Man of Coniston (at 3,631'); today it is Leck Fell (at 2,057'). And if you are into cricket, most clubs in the Lancashire League are not now in Lancashire, nor is Old Trafford, HQ of Lancashire Cricket Club.

Greater Manchester! Ugh!

Away with it all, I say. This book deals with The County Palatine of Lancaster, and its boundaries are the pre-1974 ones (forgive me if I stray into what was Yorkshire, but if I do there will be a good reason). There are other Counties Palatine, but Lancashire is the only The County Palatine. The County Palatine has, at its head, the Duke of Lancaster, and the dukedom is held by the Crown. So when drinking the Loyal Toast, whilst non-Lancastrians say, ‘The Queen’, we raise our glasses to ‘The Duke of Lancaster!’

An awful lot has happened in Lancashire and to include it all would require several big tomes. I have therefore had to be highly selective. I hope that you enjoy what I have selected, and that it makes you proud to be a Lancastrian (or extremely jealous if you are not).

Malcolm Greenhalgh Lowton, Lancashire

PS. Since this book was first published, many affected by the 1974 reorganisation have lobbied to have our traditional counties recognised by Government. In response, the Government has agreed that the traditional counties, with their boundaries and local cultures, do still exist, and that the 1974 boundary changes and inventions such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria were and are solely for administrative purposes. So, though you may still be administered by one of these, you are still a LANCASTRIAN!