Barton, West Lancashire
Barton is a small village in the county of Lancashire, England. It is situated approximately west from Ormskirk, and less than west from the A5147 road. Barton sits on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, and is from the Irish Sea coast. The village lies within the civil parish of Downholland.
Barton's listing in the 1086 Domesday Book shows Roger the Poitevin as lord and Tenant-in-chief. At the time Barton was in the Hundred of West Derby in the county of Cheshire.
The Manor of Barton was held by the Clifton family and, from about 1212, by the Barton family. The last Barton heiress, Fleetwood Barton married into the Shuttleworth family. Her husband, Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe Hall, supported the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War. The Shuttleworths held the manor until 1833, when it was sold to the Preston industrialist, George Jacson.
Following the industrial revolution, Barton was a staging point on the road, railway, and canal routes linking Preston to Lancaster. The village had its own Barton railway station, which opened in 1887. The line was closed completely in 1952.
Barton Grange was built as the country residence for Mr John Healey, a local mill owner and was later the home of Levi Collison MP. In 1940 it was requisitioned by the War Office and is now a hotel.
There is a primary school, Barton St Lawrence CofE Primary School, on Jepps Avenue. The modern village hall is on the northern edge of the village.
