ORMSKIRK  , a

market town and urban district in the Ormskirk parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 11 m . N.E. of Liverpool by the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway . Pop . (1901), 6857 . The church of St Peter and St Paul is a spacious building in various styles of architecture, but principally Perpendicular . It possesses the rare feature of two western towers, the one square and embattled, the other octagonal and bearing a short spire . There are various Norman fragments, including a fine early window in the chancel . To the south-east of the church, and divided from it by a screen, is the Derby chapel, the exclusive property of the earls of Derby, whose vault is contained within . A free grammar school was founded about 1614 . Rope and twine making, iron-founding and brewing are carried on, and the town has long been famous for its ginger-bread . The name and church existed in the time of Richard I., when the priory of Burscough was founded . A few fragments of this remain about 2 M .

N. of Ormskirk . The

prior and convent obtained from Edward I. a royal charter for a market at the manor of Ormskirk . On the dissolution of the monasteries the manor was granted to the earl of Derby .