Maghull

History

The original settlement, consisting of fifty people and six square miles of agricultural settlement, was established prior to the Domesday Survey of 1086 where the town is recorded as Magele on a ridge of high ground, that can be most clearly seen at Red Lion Bridge towards the centre of the town and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal follows it on the plain and the A5147 on the brow. This ridge marks the edge of the flood plain of the River Alt, providing protection from flooding and access to this fertile pasture of the plain. A church is known to have existed in the area in 1100 although it has been rebuilt at least once and the chapel still stands, in the churchyard of the Victorian St Andrew's and is the oldest ecclesiastical building in Merseyside still in regular use for worship but in 1756 the mediaeval nave of Maghull Chapel was pulled down with a Roman Catholic dual-purpose school-chapel opening in 1890 near Massey's Barn. It is noted that in 1568 Maghull Moss was divided between Sir Richard Molyneux of Melling and Edward Hulme of Maghull. The boundary of Maghull was, in the north, Maghull Brook and to the south, Melling Brook; the west was marked by the River Alt. At the eastern edge, however, the boundary was ill-defined on the moorland and due to the value of turf from the moss as a vital fuel this caused regular disputes between both Maghull and Melling Manors. Maghull Manor House was built in 1638 and local tradition has it that Charles II slept there during a visit to the area but by 1780 a new manor house had been built near the site of the original and it still stands in the grounds of Maghull Homes with part of the original moat. It is also recorded that by 1667 the population of Maghull had increased to 599 with 136 houses and 127 families and by 1770…

Geography

Maghull is seven miles north-northeast of Liverpool city centre. To the northwest is Lydiate, to the east Melling, to the south Aintree and Netherton and to the west the Mersey Forest and Sefton village. Maghull is separated from the rest of the Greater Liverpool sprawl by a green belt which runs across the Switch Island motorway junction and through which flows the River Alt.

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  16,710
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  14,123
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,270
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,222
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,268
• Herring Gull

  Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763 · Aves
  10,923
• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  10,437
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,348

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2025-12-03
  0 km ESE of Carnforth, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2023-06-28
  2 km SE of Cheadle, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2022-05-30
  2 km ESE of Prees, United Kingdom
• M 3.2 — 2013-08-25
  23 km W of Cleveleys, United Kingdom
• M 3.5 — 2010-12-21
  12 km WSW of Ambleside, United Kingdom
• M 3.7 — 2009-04-28
  3 km WSW of Flookburgh, United Kingdom