Rainhill, Lancashire
Historical Description
Rainhill, a village, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish in Lancashire. The village stands on the Liverpool and Manchester railway, 9 miles E of Liverpool. It carries on manufactures of watch movements, watchmakers' tools, and brooches; and has also a brass foundry, a quarry of fine red sandstone, a station on the railway, a post, money order, and telegraph office, a church, and Wesleyan, Congregational, and Roman Catholic chapels. The church was built in 1837, enlarged in 1843, and almost entirely rebuilt in 1868; and consists of chancel, nave, and aisles, with a tower and spire. The Roman Catholic chapel is a large and highly ornate edifice; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower; was restored in 1868; and has in connection with it a school and a convent. The township comprises 1640 acres; population, 2294. There is a parish council consisting of eight members. Numerous villas stand on a hill, and command fine views over the Mersey into Cheshire. The ecclesiastical parish is more extensive than the township, and was constituted in 1840. Population, 3156. The living is a vicarage- in the diocese of Liverpool; net value, £240 with residence. The Rainhill County Lunatic Asylum is situated in Sutton parish.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Civil parish | Prescot | |
Hundred | West Derby | |
Poor Law union | Prescot |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Rainhill from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Rainhill are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: