10th–17th century There have been settlements in the area now comprising Southport since the
Domesday Book, and some parts of the town have names of
Viking origin. The earliest recorded human activity in the region was during the
Middle Stone Age when mesolithic hunter-gatherers were attracted by the abundant
red deer and
elk populations, as well as the availability of fish, shellfish, and woodland.
Roman coins have been found at Halsall Moss and Crossens, although the Romans never settled southwest Lancashire. The first objective evidence of an early settlement in the region is in the
Domesday Book, in which the area is called
Otergimele. The Domesday Book states that there were 50 huts in Otergimele, housing a population 200. The population was scattered thinly across the region, and it was at the northeast end of Otergimele (present-day Crossens), where blown sand gave way to alluvial deposits from the River Ribble estuary, that a small concentration of people occurred. It was here that a primitive church might have been built, which gave the emerging village its name of Churchtown, the parish being
North Meols (pronounced "meals"). A church called
St Cuthbert's is still at the centre of Churchtown. With a booming fishing industry, the area grew and hamlets became part of the parish of North Meols. From south to north, these villages were South Hawes, Haweside, Little London, Higher
Blowick, Lower Blowick, Rowe-Lane, Churchtown,
Marshside,
Crossens, and
Banks. As well as Churchtown, there were vicarages in Crossens and Banks. Parts of the parish were almost completely surrounded by water until 1692 when Thomas Fleetwood of
Bank Hall cut a channel to drain
Martin Mere to the sea. From this point on, attempts at large-scale drainage of Martin Mere and other marshland continued until the 19th century, since when the water has been pumped away. This left behind a legacy of fine agricultural soil and created a booming farming industry.
18th century , on the corner of Duke Street In the late 18th century, it was becoming fashionable for the well-to-do to desert inland spa towns and visit the seaside to bathe in the salt sea waters. At that time, doctors recommended bathing in the sea to help cure aches and pains. In 1792, William Sutton, the landlord of the
Black Bull Inn in Churchtown (now the
Hesketh Arms) and known to locals as "The Old Duke", realised the importance of the newly created canal systems across the UK and set up a bathing house in the virtually uninhabited dunes at South Hawes by the seaside just four miles (6 km) away from the newly constructed
Leeds and Liverpool Canal and two miles southwest of Churchtown. When a widow from
Wigan built a cottage nearby in 1797 for seasonal lodgers, Sutton quickly built a new inn on the site of the bathing house which he called the South Port Hotel, moving to live there the following season. There was no port, but "Southport" soon became the name of the town. The locals thought him mad and referred to the building as the ''Duke's Folly'', but Sutton arranged transport links from the canal that ran through
Scarisbrick, four miles from the hotel, and trade was remarkably good. The hotel survived until 1854, when it was demolished to make way for traffic at the end of Lord Street, but its presence and the impact of its founder are marked by a plaque in the vicinity, by the name of one street at the intersection, namely Duke Street, On the night of 9 December 1886, the worst
lifeboat disaster in the history of the UK occurred off the shores of Southport. A cargo ship called the
Mexico was on its way to South America when it found itself in difficulty. Lifeboats from
Lytham,
St. Annes, and Southport set off to try to rescue those aboard the vessel. The crews battled against storm-force winds as they rowed towards the casualty. The entire crew from the St. Anne's boat was lost and all but two of the Southport crew were too. In all, 28 lifeboatmen lost their lives on that night, leaving many widows and fatherless children. A memorial was erected in Duke Street Cemetery and there is a permanent display in the museum at The Atkinson on Lord Street. There is also a memorial inside the Lifeboat house, now operated by the
Southport Offshore Rescue Trust.
Mexico was just one of many
shipwrecks in the Southport area.
20th century From 1894 to 1912 Birkdale and the adjoining village of Ainsdale were separate from Southport and administered by Birkdale
Urban District Council before becoming part of the
county borough of Southport in 1912. This was a huge expansion of the town. In 1914, a very short romance story between a "2 park road Southport" private soldier and French lady took place in Valenciennes in north France during early
First World War as described by Andrée Ducatez's
Journal. In 1925, the RNLI abandoned the station at Southport and left the town with no lifeboat. In the late 1980s, after a series of tragedies, local families from Southport raised the funds to buy a new lifeboat for the town, stationed at the old RNLI lifeboat house. The lifeboat, operated by the
Southport Offshore Rescue Trust, is completely
independent from the RNLI and receives no money from them. It relies entirely on donations from the general public. On 16 March 1926,
Henry Segrave set the
land speed record in his
4-litre Sunbeam Tiger Ladybird on the sands at Southport at . This record lasted for just over a month, until broken by
J.G. Parry-Thomas.
21st century Southport elected their first ever Labour MP in the
2024 general election. On 29 July 2024, three girls aged 6, 7 and 9 were murdered in
a mass stabbing at a dance workshop on Hart Street, with eight children and two adults left injured. The next day a vigil was held for the victims. Later that evening,
riots broke out and a mosque near Hart Street was attacked after social media posts spread incorrect rumours about an Islamist link to the murders. Cars, including a police vehicle, were set on fire. More than fifty police officers were injured. Rioters travelled to Southport from other areas and included right-wing supporters. A shop was looted and members of the community came together to help the shopkeeper and clean up the streets. Following the murders, thousands attended vigils and laid floral tributes to the victims in Town Hall Gardens. In June 2025, the families of the three murdered girls visited
Downing Street to show the prime minister plans for a regeneration of the Gardens. The prime minister pledged £5 million towards the project, with the
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Sefton Council having both allocated £2.5 million towards it. ==Governance==