Drive-through Starbucks planned for historic site in Scarisbrick

The wider story about what the proposal for the old workshop tell us

Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.

Starbucks is looking to build a new drive-through coffee shop in Scarisbrick on the busy road which connects Southport and Ormskirk. In itself, this is far from the most surprising news - between Costa and Starbucks you’re never too far from one of these options.

But the location itself is an interesting one - passed by thousands of people each day, the majority of whom had no knowledge of what it was previously used for and what the end of that use tells us about changes in society. Today’s edition digs deeper to look at exactly that.

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Southport briefing

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🫶 Sefton Council has announced the launch of the 999 ReUnite Safeguarding Wristband - a free pice of equipment designed to help unpaid carers and their families. Unveiled at the Alzheimer’s Society event in Sefton, and developed in partnership with Sefton Carers Centre, the wristbands are part of a wider initiative to provide peace of mind and practical support to those caring for loved ones. These waterproof, soft, and adjustable wristbands contain vital information that can be accessed by emergency services, police, fire, or ambulance should the person being cared for become lost, confused, or require urgent assistance. Read more here

A ten year and £10bn ‘growth plan’ for the Liverpool City Region has been unveiled by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram. The blueprint which features major projects such as the Mersey Tidal Barrage and a £550m health campus was described by Rotheram as arguably “the most important strategic document we will ever produce”. Read more here

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Lattes to replace lecterns at historic Scarisbrick workshop

By Jamie Lopez

A drive-through Starbucks could soon open on the site of a showroom and workshop which supplied churches for five decades.

The coffee giant is being lined up to run a new site being built near to the Morris Dancers pub in Scarisbrick, according to a planning application submitted to West Lancashire Borough Council. The site was last used by Ormsby Memorials, a family business which once had dozens of workers employed in the likes of joinery, masonry and sales.

In its place, prolific local firm Crompton Property Developments wants to build the drive-through shop to be operated by the American giant. But what does this change of use show about how society is changing?

For the thousands of motorists who passed by the Southport Road site each day, Ormsby was best known for creating memorial gravestones - indeed, as well as producing gravestones it was here that the Scarisbrick War Memorial was built.

War memorial could be removed as safety fears spark bitter row

However, the main income for the family business was actually from sales to churches. Here, more than 20 joiners would craft the likes of pews, altars and lecterns while essentials such as linen cloths as chalices were also sold.

The showroom and workshop were built by the Ormsby family in the 1970s and by 2024 the site was no longer sustainable for a company which had just two underworked joiners. So what changed in that time? As was so famously uttered in the sitcom Father Ted, that would be an ecumenical matter.

According to the National Churches Trust, more than 3,500 have closed over the past decade. Among them is Banks Methodist Church, while the Cornerstone Church is Churchtown is seen as beyond viable repair and St Luke’s Church saw numbers fall so low that worshippers were instead asked to attend Holy Trinity.

The rise of secularism can also be seen in the most recent census data. While the proportion of Christians in Sefton is above the national average, it still saw a fall to 64.4% of respondents in 2021. By a considerable distance, the next most popular answer was ‘no religion’ which was chosen by 28.6% while no other religion registered even a full percentage point.

Nationally, it was the first time in a census of England and Wales that less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011.

As in Sefton, “no religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011. For West Lancashire, where the site sits near to the Sefton border, the data showed 61.5% identified as Christian and 35.5% as having no religion.

Demolition threat shows battle facing town's churches

According to Fiona Ormsby-Messenger, director and long-time worker at the family business, this decline was critical in the decision to move to smaller premises at Cemetery Road in Southport.