Local Amenities
Families attending Maharishi Free School happily have access to a great variety of good quality local amenities, many on the doorstep. We hope you will find the following list helpful in identifying destinations or activities to suit your taste. Enjoy!
Abbey Lakes - wildlife haven at Orrell
Beacon Country Park and activities - 300 acre country park awarded prestigious green flag, home of Council Ranger service which run many activities including summer junior Ranger club
Cedar Farm Café with monthly farmers’ market, select clothes, art and gift shops and coffee roastery
Chequer Lane playing fields and fishing lake at Upholland
Cheshire lines – 10 miles of cycleways from Maghull to Ainsdale
Cinema - Empire multi-screen Wigan
Countryside, Farmland and Green Belt surround the School. Lovely open views in every direction. Walk to school through this beautiful rural area
Dean Wood, Upholland - beech and oak woodland with swathes of springtime bluebells, small waterfalls and the main walkway following the former coal mining tramway
Fairy Glen - an area of enchanted beauty with meandering streams and picturesque waterfalls near Parbold Hill
Freshfields Trails and Red Squirrel reserve by the coast near Southport
Hotels - Lancashire Manor, Skelmersdale/Holland Hall, Upholland with award winning chef.
Hunter’s Hill - the area’s newest woodland. Wonderful views and wildlife, near Hilldale and Parbold
Lathom House - originally lived in by earls of Derby (the Derby Hundred was an ancient district of Lancashire, a hundred being an amount of land sufficient to sustain 100 families) and called the Northern Court because it was the administrative and judicial centre for Lancashire. Lathom House was the largest private residence in all of Tudor England – nowhere else could compare apart from the Royal Court itself. The 6th earl, William Stanley, was a notable playwright and lived in Shakespeare’s time; it seems almost certain that Shakespeare visited Lathom House. In fact, there are so many similarities between the two men that many would tell you there is evidence they are one and the same person! It was sieged and destroyed by Roundheads in 1644, rebuilt in 1724. Lived in more recent years by earls of Lathom until 1929. It was a centre for theatrical and social amusements in 2nd half of 19th century, visited by Noel Coward and Ivor Novello. Partly demolished in 1925 leaving only one wing remaining. All that remains now is the 16th century Chapel and Almshouses and the newly renovated domestic wing of the house. The last earl (Lord Skelmersdale) moved to nearby Blythe Hall. Blithe Spirit indeed!
Leeds-Liverpool Canal - wonderful walks especially from Top Locks, Lathom to Rufford; from the windmill at Parbold to Newburgh, and also Parbold – where you can enjoy a drink at the café by the canal (‘Yours is the Earth’) to Appley Bridge
Leisure Lakes, Tarleton – Water sports including jet-skiing, canoeing and windsurfing
Library - large and well stocked, good children’s area in Skelmersdale town centre
M58/M6 motorways within 10 minutes’ drive
Maharishi Ayurveda Health Clinic with physician, products to buy and treatment centre
Martin Mere - Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre and host to BBC’s Spring and Autumnwatch programmes, the lake was one of the largest in medieval England and reputedly the resting place of King Arthur’s sword Excalibur
Mere Sands Wood - Wildlife haven, Rufford
Newburgh , historic village – one of the most attractive in West Lancs with a conservation area of 17th, 18th, 19th century buildings and a village green. It has a Lions club, annual fireworks display, summer fairs. Surrounded by green belt.
Organic produce – Dome Shop/Dees in Ashurst/Parbold Fruit & Veg Shop with free delivery
Ormskirk – ancient market town with twice weekly street market and Rose Theatre
Parbold DIY - awarded Britain’s Best Hardware Retailer
Parbold village - for canal walks, café, Douglas Music Society and Douglas Drama Group
Platts Lane Lakes , fishing lakes near Burscough with resident kestrels nearby
Property – Estate Agents: Your Move/LFS/Angela Burnett/Regan & Hallworth/PDQ/Martyn Meade /Halifax/Kennedy Partnership/Brighouse Wolff/Aron
Rainbows/Brownies/Guides/Beavers/Cubs/Scouts groups – many in the area
River Douglas - once navigable all the way from Wigan to the sea, can be walked alongside at Newburgh and Rufford where the canal links to it
Romans - soldiers would rest in Skelmersdale when marching from the garrison town of Wigan to the harbour at Crosby around 55BC
Rufford Old Hall - fine 16th century Tudor building, lovely gardens, tea room. Shakespeare is said to have performed here in the great hall
Soil - Wonderful rich peaty soil on the West Lancashire plain – a fertile growing area with a long season
Tawd Valley Park follows along the banks of the River Tawd with three trails; the wildlife trail where you will find wildflower meadows, mature trees and hedges, butterflies and insects, the geography trail shows how the landscape has been formed with clues that can still be seen and the heritage trail which shows some of the remains of the mining history of this Skelmersdale valley
Trains - Parbold Station for Southport to Manchester trains/Upholland Station for Liverpool trains/Appley Bridge station – off peak day return for £3 to any part of greater Manchester, including the Airport/Wigan North Western station is mainline station for London-Glasgow trains
Vikings Norsemen arrived 1100 years ago in West Lancashire (Skelmersdale = skjaldmarrsdalr = noisy valley). On 27th November last year – Lancashire Day – newly found links to Viking Norsemen were announced as a result of local genealogical studies of men living in the Ormskirk area with surnames taken from local villages and whose forefathers were known to be in the area in mediaeval times – before the modern population influx. Uctred was known to own Skelmersdale described in 1086 in the Domesday book as ‘one ploughland = 105 acres worth 32 pence’
Wigan all the shops you could need and more!
Wigan Pier – authentic recreation of life in the 1900s
Windmill Animal Farm, Burscough with renovated windmill, and llamas, pot bellied pigs, donkeys, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, Shetland ponies to meet. A miniature railway and café.
