Makerfield is an area in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

. It is now split between the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, and the

Metropolitan Borough of St Helens The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is a local government district with borough status in Merseyside, North West England. The borough is named after its largest settlement, St Helens. It is one of the six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, both within the historic county boundaries of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. Places in the area include

Ince-in-Makerfield Ince-in-Makerfield or Ince is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. The population of the Ince ward at the 2011 census was 13,486, but a southern part of Ince was also listed under the Abram ward (north o ...

, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Newton-in-Makerfield. The Domesday survey recorded an area of woodland in excess of 10 leagues by 6 leagues associated with Newton. This was larger by far than anywhere else in the Cheshire survey. An area of this size would have encompassed most of the land bordered by present-day Warrington, Wigan, and Leigh boroughs. When Makerfield was referred to it could have been anywhere within this woodland area.

UK Parliament

The western part of Wigan borough constitutes the Makerfield parliamentary constituency.

Etymology

The name ''Makerfield'' may be the same place as ''Maserfelth'' recorded by

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

, the site of a

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

in 642 AD at which King

Penda Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

defeated and killed King Oswald of

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

. The name may derive from Brittonic ''*magẹ:r'', meaning "a wall" (adopted from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''māceria'' > Welsh ''magwyr'', Breton ''moger''; compare Magor, Wales). In the Latin of Bede's time, there was no "K". He would have spelt it Macerfelth, which may easily have been corrupted to Maserfelth.

References

Areas of Greater Manchester Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan {{Merseyside-geo-stub