In my cycle of brief histories, I have covered the ten townships absorbed into St Helens since 1868. Now I shall look at our neighbours, beginning with Prescot. Parts of it border Eccleston, while Whiston comes between it and Rainhill.

The township of Prescot is comparatively small, lying wholly upon coal measures. A little town has grown up near the church, on the top and eastern slope of the hill, which climbs to the 250 ft. contour, and the church spire is visible for miles around. The main street, Eccleston Street, begins at the church and goes eastward. The market-place, where the town hall was situated, opens out close by the church, on the steep hill side.

The Victoria County History, over 100 years ago, advised: “The town hall was built in 1755, and has the arms of King's College, Cambridge, on a panel over the doorway. The town contains a good number of eighteenth-century houses; and in Eccleston Street is a small timber house dated 1614, a pretty little building. The Lyme almshouses on the Rainhill Road, east of the town, were built in 1708, and are simple in detail and a welcome break in the absolute modernity of this part of Prescot.

“Nearby a little suburb of cottage houses of the usual type has sprung up near the watch factory and the insulated wire works, the principal industries of the place. The dismantled windmill also stands here. The woods of Knowsley Park make a pleasant background to the north. At some little distance from the town, but in Huyton, stands the Hazells (Mr. W. Windle Pilkington) a fine old house, surrounded by picturesque grounds. It belongs to Lord Derby.”

Liverpool needed coal and the main source was the shallow pits around Prescot. The road was heavily used by pack-horses, carts and heavy wagons, creating ruts and large holes. In winter, and sometimes even in summer, the road from Prescot was almost ‘inpassable through the great rains’. It was granted Turnpike status in 1726, extended in the next decades to St Helens and Warrington, boosting the stagecoach traffic.

However, the stagecoach was eclipsed by the nearby railways and in 1871 the turnpike trust was dissolved with maintenance taken over by the local authorities.

Horse drawn trams linked St Helens and Prescot, being replaced by electric trams in 1900 and later by trolley buses.

The town has long been celebrated for the manufacture of various parts of watches, for files, and for pottery. The cotton manufacture was early introduced here, but died out; there was formerly a sail-cloth factory, while coal mines were closed by 1900. Samuel Derrick, writing from Liverpool, gives the following account of the town's appearance in 1760: ” About eight miles off is a very pleasant market town called Prescot. In riding to this place travellers are often incommoded by the number of colliers' carts and horses which fill the road all the way to Liverpool. It stands finely upon an eminence having an extensive command. The houses are well built and here are two inns in which attendance and accommodation are cheap and excellent.” Pennant, in 1773, recorded that 'the town abounds in manufactures of certain branches of hardware, particularly the best and almost all the watch movements used in England, and the best files in Europe. The manufacture of coarse earthenware, especially sugar-moulds, has also been established for a very long period, the clay of the neighbourhood being peculiarly adapted to that purpose; and a few persons are employed in the cotton business: the manufacture of glass bottles is likewise carried on.'

In 1824 the market-days were Tuesday and Saturday, with special fortnightly cattle markets in the spring. There were five fairs.

The rectors of the church were also the lords of the manor and it was a huge parish, probably the richest in England. John Philip Kemble, the actor, was born here in 1757.

A lot of modernisation has changed a lot of the township, but you can see glimpses of the past.