Ormskirk Parish Church

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Next meeting...

Wednesday 28th May 2025 AGM & Raffle

"Celebrating 45 Years of ODFHS"

Family History and the Landmarks of West Lancashire

Find out more about some of West Lancashire's most iconic and lesser known landmarks

No need to book, just come along,

Guide Hut, Moorgate, Ormskirk (Opposite Hesford's) L39 4RU

Doors open 7pm, talk starts 7.30pm

All welcome, non-members £2.00 entrance

Next Ormskirk Library Family History Helpdesk

Monday 2nd June 2025

10.30 a.m.- 11.30 a.m.

Out and About with ODFHS this Spring and Summer

9th - 17th May Ormskirk Library, a display celebrating 45 years of ODFHS

Saturday 10th-Sunday 11th May, Ormskirk Medieval Festival Coronation Park

ODFHS 45^th Anniversary Competition

2025 is the 45^th anniversary of ODFHS and, in celebration, we’ve decided to mark this with a competition, open to both members and non-members. The subject of the competition is “Who is your most interesting West Lancashire ancestor?” or “What is your most interesting family discovery related to West Lancashire?”. Choose one of these and tell us about it in 300-750 words. Add photos and illustrations as you want.

Entries by email or post - any reasonable format accepted. The winner will get a year’s free membership. Entries must be received by 31^st May 2025 and the results will be announced 1^st August 2025.

The best entries will be published in the ODFHS Magazine “The Ormskirk and District Family Historian” (subject to space). Full competition rules can be found by following this link (click here).

Sharing People's History of West Lancashire project

Family History and the Lost Buildings of West Lancashire

Family History and the Landmarks of West Lancashire

Our books are still available as a digital downloads, please follow this link

Family History and the Landmarks of West Lancashire

A Slice of Gingerbread

A Slice of Gingerbread - the Ormskirk Gingerbread Sellers is available to purchase:

A Slice of Gingerbread

See "Events" and "Meetings" pages for details of upcoming events.

The Parish Church of Ormskirk - St. Peter and St. Paul

Ormskirk Parish Church - a bibliography

Illustrated Itinerary of the County of Lancaster

How and Parsons, 1842

"We entered Ormskirk, thirteen miles from Liverpool, a little after noon, and found it to consist of one principal street, from which the main throughfares branch off somewhat like the last letter but one of the alphabet ... The church was greatly repaired in 1729; it stands on the site of another that existed before the Conquest. The square tower, bold, broad and massy, probably remained from the ancient edifice, for it is much timeworn, and carries marks of considerable antiquity."

Ormskirk Parish Church (St. Peter and St. Paul). A Guide and Short History.

R.G.B. Bailey, Vicar of Ormskirk 1968

Published by The British Publishing Company Ltd., Gloucester

Available for reference in the ODFHS Research Library

From the introduction...

Two Questions

"Two questions are usually the first asked by visitors to the church. The first is: How old is it? and the second: Why are there both tower and spire?

To the first there is no simple answer. A church may have stood here for a thousand years, for the name of the town suggests a Scandanavian origin; but the oldest structural feature, the late Norman window on the north side of the chancel, is thought to have been built around 1170.

The chancel arcade dates from around 1270, the base of the spire from 1430, and the other great tower from 1540 or thereabouts: and other 15th and 16th century work remains.

This leads to the second question: Why tower and steeple? The answer is nothing to do with obstinate sisters. Henry VIII determined on the dissolution of the monasteries, and Burscough Priory had to go. Our tower was built apparently to house some of its bells, the existing steeple being quite inadequate for this. Masons' marks, we are told, suggest that they may have carted some of the stones from the Priory tower, and used them here."

Ormskirk Parish Church. A Guide and Short History. Revised 1972.

Published by The British Publishing Company Ltd., Gloucester

Available for reference in the ODFHS Research Library.

Foreward by the Revd. J.H. Richardson, M.A., Hon. C.F., Vicar of Ormskirk.

"We are indebted for the text of this history to my predecessor, Canon R.G.B. Bailey. It has now been de-designed, revised and re-printed in the hope that it will help both parishoners and visitors to Ormskirk to appreciate the treasures that we have inherited from the labours of christian people in the past. May it also serve to remind us all of the needs and opportunities of the present."

Postscript

At the time of publication of this parish church handbook plans have been approved for the provision of new lighting equipment and fittings throughout the church; the repair and electrification of the church clock; the movement of the Font into a new baptistry sited in the Bickerstaffe Chapel at the east end of the north aisle of the church; and other minor works, all to the design or under the supervision of George Pace, architect.

Ormskirk Parish Church. A Guide and Short History. Revised 1990 (available in the ODFHS Research Library)

Foreward by Canon Keith Thornton, Vicar of Ormskirk

"I have a personal re-action to this massive structure which has stood on this rock for about eight hundred years. It rightly makes me feel small as I look at it from the outside, particularly when I stand next to the great tower. I feel I stand by something which puts me in my place and yet offers me its strength and protection.

I am indebted to my immediate predecessors, Canon R.G.B. Bailey and the Rev. J.H. Richardson for much of the text of this history, and to Mr. John Evans, for bringing it up to date."