Hesketh with Becconsall, Lancashire
Historical Description
Hesketh-with-Becconsall, a village and a parish in Lancashire. The village stands on the coast of the Ribble estuary, near the influx of the Douglas river, with a station and telegraph office on the West Lancashire railway, 6½ miles from Preston, and 8 from Southport. The parish contains the hamlets of Hesketh Bank and Becconsall. There is a post office under Preston; money order office, Preston. Acreage, 1975 of land and 2761 of water; population, 933. The manor belongs to the Fermor-Hesketh family. A large tract between Hesketh and Cockerham was overwhelmed by the sea in 1720. The Ribble estuary was once 2½ miles wide, and ford-able at low water, but during the five years ending in 1865 a vast tract of valuable marsh land was reclaimed from it by deepening and narrowing the river's bed, and by forming an embankment several miles long; again in 1881 and 1883 1100 acres were reclaimed, the cost, £20, 000, being paid by Sir T. Hesketh. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £250 with residence. The church is a brick edifice, and consists of nave and chancel. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Hundred | Leyland | |
Poor Law union | Ormskirk |
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 Hesketh with Becconsall from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hesketh, with Becconsall)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: