Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley: History
The modern-day borough of Knowsley was formerly composed of villages and towns in Lancashire dating back to 650 AD. The Earls of Derby have their ancestral home in the borough at Knowsley Hall, the surroundings of which today house the popular visitor attraction of Knowsley Safari Park.
Knowsley experienced rapid population expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting from the combination of industrialization and migration, including a significant amount of overspill development from Liverpool. By 1971, some 194,600 lived within the area which would become Knowsley. However, over the next two decades general economic decline – particularly in manufacturing – contributed to a significant fall in population to around 154,600 by 1994. Subsequently, a population stabilization strategy helped to stem this decline. The strategy was focused on house building and marketing the borough to secure inward investment. Record house building and strong growth in inward investment yielded the borough's first small rise in population in over 25 years in 1995. The population stabilized at over 154,000 for most of the rest of the 1990s.
The borough of Knowsley was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 covering the area of three former urban districts, which were abolished at the same time, plus six civil parishes (five from Whiston Rural District and one from West Lancashire Rural District):
Cronton‡
Halewood‡
Huyton with Roby Urban District
Kirkby Urban District
Knowsley‡
Prescot Urban District
Simonswood parish from West Lancashire Rural District
Tarbock‡
Whiston‡
‡Parishes from Whiston Rural District
All the component parts of Knowsley had previously been in the administrative county of Lancashire, but were transferred to the new metropolitan county of Merseyside at the same time the district came into being on 1 April 1974. A committee of councillors from the outgoing district councils chose the name Knowsley for the new district in 1972, taking the name from Knowsley village, being a central location within the new district, rather than using the name of one of the three urban districts which had the majority of the population. The committee noted that the Knowsley Hall estate had historic connections to all the constituent parts of the new district. The government confirmed the name in 1973. The new district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chairman of the council to take the title of mayor.