A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1907.
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'Townships: Netherton', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp74-75 [accessed 8 November 2024].
'Townships: Netherton', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Edited by William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1907), British History Online, accessed November 8, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp74-75.
"Townships: Netherton". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3. Ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill(London, 1907), , British History Online. Web. 8 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp74-75.
NETHERTON
There is no variation in the spelling; the definite article was formerly prefixed.
This township was originally a hamlet of Sefton, but appears to have been recognized as a distinct township as early as 1624, when the county lay was fixed. (fn. 1) It lies to the south-east of Sefton, and has an area of 1,126 acres. (fn. 2) The population numbered 589 in 1901.
It is in the heart of flat, agricultural country. The land is principally arable, producing crops of potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and rye, in a soil which is a mixture of clay and sand. The country is not interesting, for there is nothing picturesque about the scattered farmsteads, and the trees are only large enough to give a slight protection to the buildings around which they cluster. The greater part of the township lies upon the lower keuper sandstone of the new red sandstone or trias, but on the south-eastern side the waterstones of the keuper series occur near the boundary of Aintree. The strata are obscured by sand and thick boulder clay and by alluvial deposits.
The principal road is that from Aintree village to Sefton Town. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through the township, and upon it is the village, about ¾ mile south of Sefton church. The green is enclosed with railings.
The southern corner is crossed by two lines of railway, and contains the Aintree stations of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company and the Cheshire Lines Committee.
The township is governed by a parish council.
Before 1212 Richard de Molyneux had given to his son Robert three oxgangs of land, to be held by knight's service, (fn. 3) which, no doubt, constitute the parcel called Arland, afterwards held by the Thornton family. (fn. 4) Though described as 'in the vill of Sefton' it was in Netherton, but the earliest mention of this place by name is in a charter of Richard de Molyneux of Sefton in 1318, granting his younger son Peter certain lands, together with the water-mill in 'the Netherton.' (fn. 5) A junior branch of the Sefton family appears to have settled here, for Simon de Molyneux of Netherton is mentioned in 1373. (fn. 6) In 1433–4 William Fairfellow and Agnes his wife released their lands here to Sir Richard Molyneux, Agnes making oath that she had made no feoffment of her lands in Sefton, except to a daughter of Simon de Molyneux, named Emmote, who had died at the age of fourteen. (fn. 7)
The township does not seem to have formed a distinct manor, but was included in Sefton. (fn. 8) A park called the Stand or New Park was formed here early in the seventeenth century, (fn. 9) but discontinued about 1800. Stand House preserves the name. (fn. 10)
The story of St. Bennet's Church has been given in the account of Sefton.