Banks

Banks lies just off St George’s Channel on the Banks Marsh and beach, four miles north-east of Southport town centre.

Like most villages in the area, it was primarily an agricultural village thanks to the excellent soil, although there was also noticeable fishing activity for many years. Production of flowers and vegetables is still common in the farms which surround the village.

Greaves Hall

Thomas Talbot Leyland Scarisbrick was born in 1874. He grew up in Southport and was educated in Lancashire. In 1900 he had a mansion built at Greaves Hall on a 124-acre site. The mansion was surrounded by sculptured lawns, with separate gardens filled with ornamental trees and flowering shrubs.

The Scarisbrick family enjoyed life at Greaves Hall until after the First World War when they moved to Scarisbrick Hall. The estate was sold to a consortium of local farmers and the hall stood empty for sometime.

The hall and grounds were later occupied by Sherbrook School for Girls. The school was shut down when the Health Authority wanted to use the property as a TB hospital and, later, to bring patients with mental health and learning disabilities from Liverpool during and after the Second World War.

Greaves Hall Mental Health Hospital included extensive developments of maintenance buildings and wards built in the former leisure grounds of the mansion house. The hospital continued to grow and develop up until the early 1990s when it was moved to Southport.

After suffereing several fires and vandalism, the hall was eventually demolished and is now the site of a large housing development.

Banks Beach

Banks is well known in the local area for its untouched beach which lies on the coast of the Irish Sea. Banks Beach has recently been used for the test flights of the euro fighter which has also attracted numerous plane spotters to the area.