Westhead, ENG - Postcode - L40 6HT

Description of Westhead

The English village of Westhead is located in the West Lancashire region. With a population of 886 as of 2014.

History of Westhead

For the majority of its history, Westhead functioned as a small village within the larger Lathom Township.

Specifically, it may be found in the West Derby Hundred. Uhtred was the local lord back in 1066. Edward Wilbraham-Bootle, 1st Baron Skelmersdale, provided the land for Westhead Church to be erected on in 1851. The Earl of Derby paid for the project, while Edward Stanley of Cross Hall, who owned the Ruff Wood quarry in Lathom at the time, supplied the sandstone. There are remnants of the Skelmersdale to Rainford line, of which Westhead Halt was a request stop, all across the town.

The name Westhead derives from the Old English west + hafod, which translates to "western hill." Named after the westernmost point of the ridge leading to Scarth Hill, Westheft was first documented around 1190 and then changed to Westheved around 1200.

The A577 connects the neighbouring cities of Ormskirk and Skelmersdale, and it passes through Westhead to the east for a distance of around 1 mile (1.6 km).

This route is served by many Arriva North West bus lines, including the 310, which travels between Skelmersdale and Liverpool every half hour, and the 375 and 385, which travel between Southport and Wigan every hour (switching every half hour). About 2.7 kilometers to the south, at Bickerstaffe, is the closest motorway connection (junction 3 of the M58).

Castle Lane's former Westhead Halt was once a stop on the Skelmersdale Branch, a line that ran between Ormskirk and Rainford. However, due to the line's complete shutdown in 1963, the station was decommissioned in 1951 and has since been dismantled. Ormskirk, located 1.9 km east, is the closest station today, with services to Liverpool and Preston.

Westhead The parish church of St. James in Lathom sponsors the primary school of the same name. The school serves pupils from grades four through eleven and is located on School Lane, close to the heart of the hamlet.  In January 2015, Ofsted produced a report in which they rated Westhead Lathom St. James as "Outstanding" across the board, and by December 2015, the school had made it into the top 1000 primary schools in England according to their performance on the National Curriculum assessments. Miss Helen Clark took over as principal in September of 2019.

Dated to 1889, this Grade II-listed school features an adjoining master's home. Built in the Gothic style, it features sandstone walls with crazy paving and a slate roof.

Westhead, which is a portion of the unparished district of Ormskirk, is situated in rural West Lancashire. It is surrounded by Burscough, Lathom, Lathom South, and Bickerstaffe civil parishes to the north, east, and south, respectively, and is located around 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the center of Ormksirk. Located about 182 miles (293 kilometres) northwest of London, Westhead is roughly 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Preston, the administrative center of Lancashire.

Culture of Westhead

Since 1973, the midsummer Westhead Carnival has been a popular celebration for the local community. Carnival parades, funfair rides, a car boot sale, bingo, and a fancy dress gala are just few of the events that take place during the course of the three-day celebration held at the beginning of July. In 2014, the carnival drew an estimated 3,000 attendees and generated over £2,000 in proceeds for deserving neighborhood causes.