All About Skelmersdale: One of the First ‘New Towns’
Mention the name ‘Skelmersdale’ to many and the response that you get might not be all that favourable.
In many ways, though, the West Lancashire town is like a mini-Liverpool, on account of the fact that it was initially built in order to house the overflow of the city’s population in the 1960s.
That, though, doesn’t tell the whole story, when you consider the fact that it was actually mentioned in the Domesday Book for the first time in 1086.
There is little doubt that the development of the area in the 1960s is what made it into the location that it is today, as one of the first few new towns.
A Brief History of Skelmersdale
Often referred to simply as ‘Skem’ by the locals, the town’s name comes from the Old Norse for ‘Skjaldmarr’s valley’. For many years, it was part of the Parish of Ormskirk in the West Derby hundred, which was an ancient subdivision of Lancashire. That was the case until the end of the 19th century, which was when the Skelmersdale Urban District Council was created.
A railway station at Blague Gate was opened in 1858, soon becoming part of the Ormskirk to Rainford line, later being renamed to become Skelmersdale Railway Station in 1874 and closing in 1956.
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In terms of the town’s modern history, however, you need to look to 1961. That is the point at which the new town was created in order to house the overspill from the north Liverpool conurbation. It was the first town built in the second wave of new designations, whilst the residents soon began to suffer from the downturn in fortune in the late 1970s.
A £20 million vision for a new-look Skelmersdale was revealed in 2012, not only revitalising the town centre but also creating a raft of new jobs for the residents. Neatly a decade later and new shops and stores began to open in the town.
How the Town is Connected
If you drive around Skelmersdale, there are two things that you are likely to notice: the first is that there is only one set of traffic lights in the town, whilst the second is the amount of roundabouts that you’ll encounter. That is because the place was designed to exist on a roundabout system, whilst pedestrians can move around thanks to the presence of a subway system.
With the M58 running along the south of the town and the M6 not far away, drivers have plenty of options to be able to get on the road and make their way to other locations nearby like Liverpool and Wigan.
My fourth cousin twice removed Joan (nee Briscoe) with her husband the Blackburn Rovers star Matt Woods. My parents grew up with them.
She was one of the many children of Thomas and Sarah Briscoe pictured second. In the background is the only picture I know of Skelmersdale South Signal Box.
— Philip Taylor (@philipjtaylor.bsky.social) Mar 6, 2025 at 22:24
There was a bus company that supplied buses just for Skelmersdale, but that shut down in the September of 2011. Nowadays, buses are supplied by depots in the likes of St Helens, Southport and Bootle. Skelmersdale Railway Station was closed in 1956, making it the second most populous town in the north west without a railway station after Leigh.
As a result, the closest railway station is Upholland Railway Station. There was a plan to open a new railway station for the town when Lancashire County Council bought a former sports college, but these plans were abandoned in 2022.
Social Issues & Politics
Space Syntax, an urban planning consultancy, outlined that Skelmersdale has fragmented streets that make the centre of it reasonably inaccessible, which in turn results in segregated land use. There was a report from Lancashire County Council in 2017 that drew attention to the fact that the town has one of the largest percentages of children living in poverty in all of Lancashire.
Similarly, there was the highest attendance at accident and emergency for those aged between 0 and 19. Of all of the towns, villages and cities that make up Lancashire, Skelmersdale is the 21st most dangerous in terms of crime.
Located in the West Lancashire parliamentary constituency, Ashley Dalton was elected as the local representative for the Labour Party courtesy of a by-election in 2023. That is a good reflection of the fact that the town is largely Labour in nature when it comes to the politics, only electing Labour politicians for 50 years prior to the 2021 local elections.
The Skelmersdale Independent Party was formed in 2019 and advocates for the creation of a Skelmersdale Town Council, but has yet to gain any seats at the time of writing. Skelmersdale’s position as one of the first of the wave of new towns in the 1960s means that many residents will naturally lean left politically.
