Ormskirk

• 1. Introduction

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  Ormskirk is a market town in Lancashire, England, and its name carries a mystery that stretches back more than a thousand years. The word itself is Old Norse. It comes from Ormr kirkja: Ormr being a personal name meaning "serpent" or dragon, and kirkja the Norse word for church. The leading theory is that Ormr was a Viking who settled here, converted to Christianity, and founded the original church. But there are no records, no archaeological evidence. Ormr's identity remains entirely unknown.

  So you have a town named after a dragon-man who may or may not have existed, sitting on a ridge 81 metres above sea level at the centre of the West Lancashire Plain. Its market dates to a royal charter granted by Edward I in 1286. Its parish church holds the remains of a man who changed the outcome of a medieval battle by switching sides at the last moment. And its gingerbread once reached the hands of a future king.

  How did a modest market town of around 24,000 people accumulate this much history? And what shaped the place that stands there today?

• 2. The Market and Its Charter

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  Edward I granted a market charter in 1286 to the monks of Burscough Priory, and Thursday has been market day in Ormskirk since at least 1292. That continuity is remarkable: the market has run on Thursdays for more than seven centuries, and today it still takes place twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays, in the pedestrianised town centre.

  The original market site was the junction of the main roads to Preston, Liverpool and Wigan. A market cross marked the spot since medieval times. By the 18th and 19th centuries, this junction, known simply as the Cross, was dominated by a large lamp mounted on an obelisk. A circular drinking fountain stood at its base, serving both people and animals. That fountain was moved to make room for a clock tower erected in 1876. Then it was moved again in the 1890s to make space for a statue of Disraeli.

• 3. The Church of Two Towers

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  The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul sits on a sandstone outcrop believed to be the site of Ormr's original kirk, and it is the oldest building in Ormskirk. Its exact age is unknown, though fragments of Norman architecture survive within it.

  What makes the building immediately unusual is its silhouette. It is one of only three parish churches in England with both a tower and a separate spire, and it is unique in that both stand at the same end of the building. The other two examples are St Mary's Church, Purton and St Andrew's Church, Wanborough, both near Swindon in Wiltshire. A local legend offers an explanation: Orme had two sisters, one who wanted a tower and one who wanted a spire, and to please both he built each. The spire in fact dates from the early 15th century, though the original blew down in 1731 and was rebuilt between 1790 and 1832. The large west tower was added around 1548, its purpose being to house the bells of nearby Burscough Priory after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. One of those bells can still be seen inside the church today.

  The church's Derby Chapel contains members of the Stanley family, Earls of Derby, across the centuries. Thomas Stanley, the first Earl, is buried there. He is the man who caused Richard III to lose his crown at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 by changing sides at a decisive moment. Later came James Stanley, the seventh Earl, a Royalist who was beheaded at Bolton in 1651 following the Civil War. His burial is singular: his body lies in one coffin and his head in a separate casket.

• 4. Gingerbread and Royal Appetites

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  Ormskirk's most famous export was baked in private homes, carried through the streets, and sold from staging inns to travellers passing through town. For generations, local women made gingerbread at home and brought it to the inns to sell. When the railway arrived in the mid-19th century, that market changed shape rather than disappearing. Gingerbread sellers gained permission to sell directly to passengers at the railway station.

  One of those passengers was Edward, Prince of Wales, who would later become Edward VII. He enjoyed the local gingerbread enough to send orders back to Ormskirk from elsewhere. That royal connection gave the product a story that outlasted its original sellers. Several local bakers eventually claimed ownership of the original recipe. Sally Woods, a well-known local woman, was a recognisable presence on the market selling her gingerbread, a figure distinct enough to be remembered by name long after her time there.

  The Coronation Park in the town centre was itself established around 1905 by the former Ormskirk Urban District, specifically to mark the coronation of Edward VII. The king who once ordered gingerbread from the town's station platform is commemorated in the park that bears his coronation's name.

• 5. Rail, Road, and Connection

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  The Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway promoted the line to Ormskirk in August 1846, though it was the East Lancashire Railway that completed the work. Ormskirk station opened on the 2nd of April 1849. The undertaking merged into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on the 13th of May 1859.

  Ormskirk station today is a northern terminus of Merseyrail. The through service to Preston still exists but requires a change from electric to diesel multiple units, a consequence of the direct service being partitioned in 1970. The station was refurbished in 2009 at a cost of one million pounds.

  The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway also built the Skelmersdale Branch line, which opened on the 1st of March 1858. Passenger services on that branch ended on the 5th of November 1956. Goods traffic to Rainford Junction finished on the 16th of November 1961, and to Skelmersdale on the 4th of November 1963.

  By road, the A59 carries traffic north to Preston and south to Liverpool. The A570 runs east to west through town and connects to junction 3 of the M58, roughly 3 miles from the town centre. Edge Hill University sits on the A570 heading east, and the university has shaped not only the town's economy but the careers of notable figures who passed through, among them the actor Jonathan Pryce and the broadcaster Stuart Maconie, both of whom studied at Edge Hill College.

• 6. Notable Lives

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  John Rimmer, born in Ormskirk in 1878, won two gold medals at the 1900 Summer Olympics in track and field. The physicist and astronomer James Jeans, born in 1877, served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1925 to 1927. The singer Marianne Faithfull, born in 1946 and known for the song "As Tears Go By", is among the town's most recognised figures from the world of music.

  Duncan Ferguson, the footballer born in Ormskirk in 1971, played 360 games across his career, the majority for Everton, and earned 7 caps for Scotland. John Deary, born in 1962, played 586 games across his career, mainly for Blackpool and Burnley. Tom Hartley, born in 1999, has played Test cricket for England and already has 37 First-class cricket games to his name.

  The portrait painter John Souch, born in 1593 or 1594, and the veterinary surgeon and explorer William Moorcroft, born around 1767, represent the earlier centuries. Moorcroft was also a horse breeding expert. Nisha Katona, born in Ormskirk in 1971 and later raised in Skelmersdale, became a restaurateur and television personality. The marine scientist Nicole Webster, born in 1973, works in Australian waters. The town's reach across fields and centuries is difficult to summarise in any single category, from Victorian geologists to Olympic athletes to members of parliament to members of Echo and the Bunnymen.