Prescot - an interesting town

[stephen nulty]

Those with any kind of interest in local history will be aware that Prescot has a long and varied history and that the township of Prescot predates many of the other local areas. We’ll all at some point have looked at the likes of Ancestry and found our St Helens forefathers recorded as being born, married or dying in the Prescot registration district. This was the case until the creation of the St Helens RD in (I think) 1937.

 

There was a famous quote (well, not so famous that I can remember who said it!) to the effect that “Prescot was a town when Liverpool was a village”. But in some ways, its location contributed to its demise. The arrival of the railway removed lots of the old coaching traffic that found its way through the town en route in and out of Liverpool, and the monies raised by the Toll Barrs declined at the same time.

 

Most people think of watch making and the BICC when they think of the history of the town. Watch making took place in the town for centuries but there seems to have been a prevalent school of thought that the industry should concentrate on the watch components rather than the finished product. This has now been shown to be a bad call, and so it came to pass that the watch industry in the town declined in the 1880’s. The advent of the Prescot Watch Factory in the 1890’s brought about a resurgence in the industry, but by then it had lost too much ground to the cheaper production coming out of the United States and Switzerland, and so by 1911 the Watch Factory itself had gone out of business.

 

Fortunately for the town, this coincided quite neatly with the advent of the BI. Founded by the Atherton brothers in the 1880’s, the business soon became the very heart of the town, and this was helped by considerable expansion of the company as it took over other (usually smaller) businesses, including the cable works at Helsby, Leigh, Erith (Kent), etc.

 

But more of “the BI” at some other time.

 

As part of my work on the Prescot War Memorial (www.prescot-rollofhonour.info) I transcribed the complete 1901 census for the town (and am now in the process of transcribing the 1891 census). I recorded that there were 7797 people in the town at that time (1901). Of those, 3314 had a recorded occupation of whom 842 (25.4%) were in the Watch industry and 438 (13.2%) were working as Colliers of some sort. 162 can be deduced (by their job names/titles) to be working at the Wire Works, so clearly the factory was still in its infancy.

 

I also found, as part of the transcription, that a significant number of those people working in the watch industry were natives of Warwickshire, specifically from Coventry. I wondered about this and did a bit of Googling, and I also spoke to the staff at Prescot Museum. It turns out that Coventry was also a bit of a hot spot for watch making, but was also in decline at the same time as Prescot. The resurgence of interest and associated jobs in the 1890’s caused a significant migration of people from Coventry, seeking work and a decent life in Prescot.

 

Sadly, I also found that some of the men on my Roll of Honour recorded as being the sons of people who (by the time of the Great War) were back living in Coventry, clearly moving back there as the watch industry collapsed.

 

So it’s a town with an interesting history, and I’m sure we’ll discuss much more of it over the coming weeks.

[Dave]

Great.

 

It was always a bit awkward with the main site trying to keep within the St Helens boundary and this might be the solution.

 

I'll alter the Name Interests list to include Prescot (and maybe rename it..).

[steve.]

Prescot was my old town where I was born I have fond memories of the place even though I only lived there from 1964 to 1969 I had many playgrounds in and around the town, all my family came from there "mothers side" I`m Not really sure where my dad originated from though.

 

My mums buried up there and my dads in a tub in my living room, family history has never really been of interest to me.

[gilly]

For once i'm not trying to be sarcastic,but i've always thought of Prescot(along with rainford ,rainhill earlstown ,newton and more)as part of St Helens,rather than part of say Liverpool/Manchester etc. It was our local registration centre(still is?) for yrs.If we could incorporate Prescot and possibly 'tap' a new scource of info and members ,i for 1 would welcome it.For all his faults Stephen(ex west park -ipt,from prescot -2pt,living in warrington-5pts)is ,in my opinion a valued and appreciated member.My vote would be yes.Thanks stephen for all your help in the past.

[brunty]

a very good thread well worth reading i cant get enough of local history,and 10/10 for stephens time and dedication to a topic like this.

[Dave]

Gilly: Rainford, Rainhill and the other places that you mentioned were never a problem because they're inside the borough. So they're different from Prescot in that sense and this is why it needs a separate forum.

[splus]

I am glad to see this here. I am sure it will be of interest to many, including me.

[stephen nulty]

For once i'm not trying to be sarcastic,but i've always thought of Prescot(along with rainford ,rainhill earlstown ,newton and more)as part of St Helens,rather than part of say Liverpool/Manchester etc. It was our local registration centre(still is?) for yrs.If we could incorporate Prescot and possibly 'tap' a new scource of info and members ,i for 1 would welcome it.For all his faults Stephen(ex west park -ipt,from prescot -2pt,living in warrington-5pts)is ,in my opinion a valued and appreciated member.My vote would be yes.Thanks stephen for all your help in the past.

 

 

Cheers Gilly, best laugh of the day

 

I'm happy to take the -5 for living in Warrington but would liketo appeal on the others

[Madge]

My mum was born in Prescot so I would welcome a Prescot link. Well done. My Prescot family were Lloyds and one of the new roads on the Prescot Boys' school site is called Lloyd Road - I wondered if it was anything to do with my family?

 

I have also wondered about the idea that Eccleston was named "church town" after the church in Prescot (Preist's cote). Does anyone know any of the Prescot Church history? Is it not more likely that Eccleston had its own chapel?

[Griffin]

There does not seem to have been a place of worship in Eccleston before Christ Church, despite its suggested meaning of "church town." Prescot was a settlement of importance centuries before either Liverpool or St. Helens, and probably the nearest substantial place to Eccleston, so you'd imagine it was a likely contender for the site of the church after which Eccleston was named.

[stephen nulty]

Does anyone know any of the Prescot Church history?

 

Madge

 

The Prescot parish church website has lots of background to the church and is well worth a visit.

 

Here's the link - http://prescotchurch.merseyworld.com/

[sweetIsis]

Can anyone tell me what condition the churchyard of St. Mary's Prescot is in?, is it easy enough to be able to walk round and see the gravestones? I have a lot of ancestors buried there and was thinking of visiting it.

 

Syl

[stephen nulty]

There are two cemeteries in Prescot, adjacent to each other. The "old" cemetery and the "new". The latter is in reasonably good condition but closed to new graves (although you can still be buried in existing graves which have room).

 

The "old" cemetery is a different story, I'm afraid. The vast majority of the graves do not have stones. They were removed in an act of urban vandalism in the late 1960's and used to pave around the church !!!!!

 

There are still many stones in there, and last October the council sent a team in to cut back the undergrowth. They did a really good job but obviously ran out of time because one corner wasn't cleared, and this corner contains a lot of graves!

 

If you do decide to go, make sure you wear a good pair of boots !!

 

The "new" cemetery was opened early in the 1920's, by the way. Burials continued in both for a while but then slowly fell away in the "old" cemetery.

 

The church do not have any burial records for the "old" cemetery. These have simply been lost over time. I have spoken to the Reverend Taylor who has had hundreds of requests for this information over the years, but despite his searches, the records cannot be found.

 

I have some pictures which might give you an idea of the cemetery condition, so if you PM me an email address, I'll send them over to you.

Edited January 28, 2009 by stephen nulty

[steve.]

Fascinating stuff steve, now i always thought those grave stones around the church was actually the original place that they were laid, ie I thought there were body`s below them.

 

Never been inside that church, well i dont ever recall going in there, I might go up when the weather gets warmer cus i need to put fresh flowers on my mums family grave and put new stones on the grave.

[stephen nulty]

The church interior is well worth a visit, Steve. The church web site here is worth a visit before you go. It will help you to think about some of the things to look for in there. But check the opening times before you go, as it is only open for a limited period during the week, I think.

 

The Rood Screens by the altar are worth a look, listing as they do the parishioners who fell in the war. And also the window dedicated to Arthur Evans, with it's three service arms; Royal Welsh Fusiliers, King's (Liverpool) Regiment and Royal Air Force. Arthur's story is told in full on my web site here but in summary he joined up in September 1914 and was desperate to get over to France but they kept holding him back. Eventually, he transferred to the fledgling RAF and managed to be posted overseas in October 1918, six weeks before the end of the war.

 

Four weeks later, he was killed in action, 12 days before the armistice.

[sthwales]

This forum is a godsend, and I for one would like to thank the moderators and Steve Nulty too if he had any influence in the decision.

 

St Helens Connect is an awesome site - the census transcriptions are better than I've seen for any other district in the country.

 

Something you didn't mention in the original post in this thread, Steve, is that Prescot was originally a sail-making centre before Liverpool was thought of, and that sailors coming up the Mersey used the steeple at St Mary's as a landmark when approaching (not sure where they would have docked at that time though).

 

Keep up the good work - I'm sure this Prescot forum will mushroom

 

Cheers

Clive

[dotcomdan]

Those with any kind of interest in local history will be aware that Prescot has a long and varied history and that the township of Prescot predates many of the other local areas. We’ll all at some point have looked at the likes of Ancestry and found our St Helens forefathers recorded as being born, married or dying in the Prescot registration district. This was the case until the creation of the St Helens RD in (I think) 1937.

 

I also found, as part of the transcription, that a significant number of those people working in the watch industry were natives of Warwickshire, specifically from Coventry. I wondered about this and did a bit of Googling, and I also spoke to the staff at Prescot Museum. It turns out that Coventry was also a bit of a hot spot for watch making, but was also in decline at the same time as Prescot. The resurgence of interest and associated jobs in the 1890’s caused a significant migration of people from Coventry, seeking work and a decent life in Prescot.

 

With reference to the first part of the quote, in my experience of trying to get copies of birth certicates etc from St Helens Registry Office, I was told to go to Prescot because all Catholic Records are kept there, so I did and got them and the staff were very helpful. I think it is something to do with the Diocese.

 

Secondly I have a grand uncle and aunt who lived next to the Griffin at Eccleston, who were watch maker and watch hand maker respectively, neither got married as far as I can see in the census records. They came from Billinge. I have an old book on the history of Prescot, so I'll keep an eye on the thread to see if I can be of any use.

[stephen nulty]

Clive

 

Good point on the sail-making, it was something I'd forgotten about. It always struck me as a strange industry to have in a town severla miles inland.

 

"The Church On The Hill" was indeed a well known landmark and if you're ever approaching Prescot from the south, perhaps along Knowsley Expressway, you can still see it as a landmark as there hasn't been a lot of development there.

 

File-making was also a big industry in the town. I'm not sure if it's still there, but Blundells in the area of East Street made some really high quality sets of files, and a few of my mates did their apprenticeships there back in the 1970's.

[sthwales]

This subject of Prescot's industries fascinates me for some reason!

 

I guess we've all got relatives who worked either for the BI, watch-making or filemaking - I know my tree's full of them.

 

I tried Prysmian Cables the other week (apparently all that's left of BICC). Very nice lady in their Wrexham office told me that there are no surviving employment records of any substance - dead end.

 

Prescot Museum staff told me that any records of the watch-making industry were sent to Liverpool Maritime Museum (?) but I've yet to follow that up.

 

Wouldn't know where to start with the filemaking, but it would be nice just to know when certain individuals started & ended their employment

[stephen nulty]

I've a draft posting abouit the history of BI, but it's not quite finished at the moment. I worked there from 1973 to 1986, following my dad and grandad, as well as countless uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.

 

The Maritime Museum has the old editions of "The Link" (BI Staff Magazine) but they're not readily available and can only be viewed by appointment. Although I have lots of references to the magazine on my web site, it was all provided courtesy of John Yates (jvy20) and I still need to get to the musuem to see the actual copies.

[gypsygeoff]

All my wifes family, her brother in laws too,all come from Prescot,I am an outsider being from Gods little acre being Rainhill.

I have at home a Lancashire life magazine from 1980,in it it has a map of Prescot circa 1600,we also have a book called Prescot of yesteryear.I will try and find these among my countless collection of ''lets keep this we may need it one day'' magazines,papers etc.

[potter]

Hi Steve,

Great post, fascinated by any history on Prescot area, as family originally from the town and have loads of connections to it.At present, absorbed in trying to put together a social history on the pottery industry and the families involved in the trade, in and around Prescot.The potteries of Prescot contain some of the best archeological and social family history in the northwest.Any information on the potteries I will gladly receive.Just a quick mention of the site on Parish clerks prescot project online, which gives alot of details of parish records on baptisms, marriages and deaths from St. Mary's church, Prescot.If anyone hasn't seen the site well worth a visit.Cheers Nutgrover.

[potter]

Hello Steve,I have not replied to some questions on site, having been offline.I have replied to you as nutgrover before, but now registered under potter.So questions on potters and pottery sites in and around Prescot feel free to ask away. I also have a large number of names of families from Prescot over the years.The previous questions that have been asked I will follow-up on as soon as I can. potter.

[GeoffB]

Regarding the BICC Staff Magazine - The Link

 

Apparently Wigan Local History has acquired a set of the BICC Company Magazines, 1936-1970 (Acc. 2009/5)

 

Haven't looked at them yet - yet but their facilities are excellent and it should be easier to get at the originals there than Liverpool

 

If you haven't seen it they publish an excellent magazine - 3 times per year - issue 51 refers to BICC Magazine acquisition

 

all available on line http://www.wlct.org/culture/heritage/pforward.htm

[stephen nulty]

Geoff

 

I've visited this site a few times over the years and have always been impressed by the site and especially by the "Past Forward" magazine.

 

I'm wondering if the set of magazines which they have acquired is related to the BI acquisition of General Cables in Leigh?

 

If the magazines are generally available to the public, then this is definitely better that the Liverpool set which can only be viewed one day a month by prior appointment !!