This Blog (and Website) is about my experiences in the county that I was born, raised and have resided in, for more than half a century. If you read my pages and posts, you may notice that I refer to some of my favourite cities, including Liverpool and Manchester, as being in Lancashire. At the time of my birth, they were. Also, I'm not suffering from any delusions of grandeur. I refer to the project as 'My Lancashire' because it is the place as I see it.
Lancashire History
Lancashire is a county in the northwest of England. The county did not exist at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, making it one of the youngest of the traditional counties. The County of Lancaster was first recorded in 1168 under King Henry II. In 1267 Edmund Crouchback was created 1st Earl of Lancaster. On 6th March 1351 Henry, Earl of Lancaster, was made a Duke and was also granted Palatinate powers - the royal powers, or the powers belonging to the palace.
My map is based on the historic county palatine boundaries that existed before 1st April 1974. What some might call 'April Fools' day! Under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county was abolished, as were the county boroughs. The urbanised southern part largely became part of two metropolitan counties, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
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| Map of the Lancashire County Palatine |
The county was originally divided up into six 'hundreds'. A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales and also some parts of the world. Lancashire's hundreds consisted of Amounderness, Blackburnshire, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salfordshire & West Derby. The map below illustrates how the county was divided up into these hundreds.
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| Map of the Hundreds of Lancashire |
A 'Hundred' was an administrative division of a shire, and in many ways the forerunner of the modern district in England. They were particularly important in Saxon times. However, they gradually declined as other forms of administration developed. A court was held monthly within the hundred at a fixed open‐air location. It was presided over by the hundred reeve, who was a representative the king, and consisted of freeholders who considered minor criminal and civil cases. The Hundred could also levy taxes. Manorial and shire courts gradually took over the functions of the hundred court, but as a unit of administration it formally survived until the Local Government Act of 1894. In origin, a hundred was either a hundred hides or a hundred families.
The Industrial Revolution
Historically, Lancashire was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, its cotton mills supplying the Empire and the World. Although competition and changed technology have swept many of the great mills away nevertheless Lancashire is still home to industrial might, and the great towns and cities which grew up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries still thrive.
To be continued...