The Medieval Deer Parks of Lathom

An historical survey of the development of the parks within the parish of Lathom, in
West Lancashire has been undertaken by the Lathom Park Trust, funded by the Local Heritage Initiative in 2001 and the first, documentary, stage was completed in October 2004.

The elaborate wrought iron entrance gates to Sir Thomas Bootle’s
neo-classical park at Lathom.

The study was intended to identify and explain the nature and development of the landscape associated with Lathom throughout this period, and has studied the form of the earliest settlement, what the landscape looked like in the medieval period, and how this changed over the intervening centuries to the present day. One of the main priorities was to define topographically the boundaries of the various ‘incarnations’ of the medieval deer parks - Lathom Park, the smaller New Park, and Burscough Priory Park - and their subsequent development.

The eighteenth century oval-shaped Lathom Park first documented
in 1250 and possibly founded a century or so before this date.


An important aim of the project was to get the local population involved in
researching their own heritage, and this entailed the establishment of a training
programme to teach the local volunteers the rudiments of documentary research and enable the detailed study. The documentary research was undertaken by volunteers and professionals at local and national document depositories, particularly the Lancashire Record Office and Manchester Central Library

The Archive Research Group listening to consultants:
Nigel Neil and Dr Alan Crosby at Lancashire Records Office in Preston.