Southport

Southport is a seaside town in Lancashire. It faces the Irish Sea to the west and forms part of the Liverpool City Region. The town has a population (2021 census) of 94,421.

History

Although the town itself was only established in the 1790s, there has been permanent settlement at the site of present-day Southport since medieval times. The Domesday Book (1086) records a settlement, Otergimele, at the site of the present-day town. The name appears to be of Old Norse origin (as is the case with many local place-names), from Oddrgrimir, a given name, and melr meaning a "sand-bank".

In 1792, William Sutton, the landlord of the Black Bull Inn in Churchtown (now the Hesketh Arms) and known to locals as "The Old Duke", realised the importance of the newly created canal systems across the UK and established a bathing house in the virtually uninhabited sand dunes at South Hawes by the seaside just four miles (6 km) away from the newly constructed Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Despite the lack of a port in the area, the bathing house became known as the South Port Hotel, which was soon adopted as the name of the town.