The Official Guide to West Lancashire Rural District : West Lancashire Rural District Council : E.J. Burrow & Co. Ltd. : nd [c.1961] : cover

West Lancashire Rural District Council was based in Ormskirk, a town that did not form part of this extensive local authority whose administration stretched from the Mersey to the Ribble in a broad swathe of mostly agricultural lands that bordered the coastal strip of Southport and Ainsdale. In fact, thanks to the boundary of the RDC crossing the estuary of the River Ribble it looks as if the end of the pier in Lytham was almost in their jurisdiction!

 

The area formed one of the largest Rural District Council's in England at over 65,000 acres although the population in 1961 was only 55,804. The highly fertile land, much of which in the north had been reclaimed from the Ribble, is still noted for the production of potatoes, vegetables and market gardening. The Council, formed in 1894, had been expanded in 1932 when Sefton RDC was merged with them, was abolished under the 1974 Local Government reforms and although various parishes were split off into the new Merseyside Metropolitan County, the majority passed to the new West Lancashire Borough Council.

 

The cover has sketches of three of the villages within the District; Bispham, Halsall and Lydiate.

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