Mawdesley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

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 ...

, England, which had a population of 1,702 as per the 2011 Census.

History

The name Mawdesley is thought to have originated in the reign of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

(1272–1308). The suffix -''ley'' describes a field, meadow or clearing. Records show that a manor existed in 1250 AD on the site of the present Mawdesley Hall. Mawdesley supported willow farming and basket-making in the 19th century, with the growing conditions notable for producing strong and durable rods. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

lists the 'Mawdesley'

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

variety as being named for the village. Mawdesley Hall is a small hall on a back road leading into the village. It was built by William Mawdesley in 1625, but altered towards the end of the 18th century.

Transport

The village has limited public transport services. The nearest

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

is three miles away at Rufford. Bus Services include: 337

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth ca ...

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It is located north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, Merseyside, St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. Ormski ...

via Charnock Richard, Eccleston,

Croston Croston is a village and civil parish near Chorley in Lancashire, England. The River Yarrow flows through the village. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 2,917. History Croston was founded in the 7th century whe ...

, Mawdesley, Parbold and Burscough 347

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

via Charnock Richard, Eccleston,

, Mawdesley, Rufford, Holmeswood, Banks and Crossens.

Religion

In common with the rest of Lancashire, Mawdesley was home to a number of Catholic

recusants Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

in the 16th and 17th centuries. Nearly a quarter of adult men in the village were listed as recusants in the Protestation Returns of 1641, and in 1717 a large number of Catholic

yeomen Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century witnessed ...

had registered estates in the village. St Peter and St Paul's Catholic Church, at OS grid reference SD508146, Salt Pit Lane, was founded in 1830. The Wesleyan Methodist church on New Street was built in 1844 from religious societies founded by

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

and his preachers and was at OS grid reference SD493150. St Peter's CE Church, High Street, Mawdesley with Bispham, was founded in 1840 and is at OS grid reference SD489143.

Education

The village has two small primary schools, Mawdesley St Peter's C of E School, and St Peter and Paul's Catholic School. Little Acorns pre-school operates from within Mawdesley St Peter's C of E School and serves Mawdesley and the surrounding villages, providing play-based learning for three to five-year olds.

Geography

The village sits on a low rise from the surrounding Mawdesley Moss, a flat, intensively-farmed plain. The moss forms the eastern edge of the

West Lancashire Coastal Plain The West Lancashire Coastal Plain is a large area in the south west of Lancashire, England. The plain stretches from the Rimrose Valley in Seaforth, near Liverpool on the Mersey, to the south, to Preston on the Ribble, to the north. To the e ...

with the neighouring Croston Moss and contains a three-turbine 2,250kW wind farm. The River Douglas runs along the western boundary of the moss, flowing north to meet the

River Ribble The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. It starts close to the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in the Yorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards the Irish Sea (t ...

at Hesketh Bank. The Syd, Reed and Bentley brooks and a number of sluices run through the village into the Douglas, and the moss contains a pumping station. The Rufford branch of the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

runs alongside the river in this area, having superseded the Douglas Navigation as a trading route in the 18th century. The nearest hill, Harrock Hill (515 ft) belongs to the neighbouring parishes of Hilldale and Wrightington. This low, rolling hill is visible in some areas of Mawdesley and, with the wind farm, serves as a landmark from the surrounding flat landscape.

Sport

Mawdesley Cricket Club is based in the village. Historically playing in the Palace Shield competition, the club will play in the

Northern Premier Cricket League The Northern Premier Cricket League is a cricket league in the North West of England and was designated as an ECB Premier League in 2000. Prior to that date it was known as the Northern Cricket League. Because the Northern Premier Cricket Leag ...

in 2024, the top tier of

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

in England and Wales.

Notable residents

*Former

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

and

cricketer Jack Iddon was born in Mawdesley in 1902. *Fr. James Mawdsley, FSSP

References

Sources

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 William Farrer & J. Brownbill (editors)

External links

Mawdesley Community Website
Mawdesley-village.org.uk. {{authority control Geography of Chorley Villages in Lancashire Civil parishes in Lancashire