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Heysham North End

The approach to Heysham from the North is marked by the Battery Hotel, probably soon to be converted to flats. The oldest building on the site now (far right) dates from the second half of the 19th century.
Prior to this the most noticeable building would have been the Old Mill. The etching is reproduced here by permission of Leslie Morgan. The building at the back to the right of the Mill may be the Battery Hotel but this depends on the date of the drawing from which the etching was made.
The map (below right) is the appropriate section of the Heysham Tithe Map (1838). The curved line along the top of the map is the boundary of Heysham Parish with Poulton-le-Sands, The map does not appear to show the route of any watercourses so of the actual position of Meres Back (the current usage is Mearsbeck) we cannot be certain. The title of the etching appears to suggest it is to the south of the mill. On the map fields 840, 841, and 845 are all called Mearsbeck Meadow.
 

The Tithe Map shows that in the first half of the 19th century apart from the communities of Lower Heysham (Village) and Higher Heysham the rest of the parish was a series of scattered farms. To the north the first farm was at Four Lane Ends; east down Tibicar Lane (now Oxcliffe Road) was Winterend Farn where the Tibicar Garage is now sited (there is an old wall to the left of the garage). From there you could go down Winter Lane (now Fairfield Road) to Lordsome Grove Farm and round to what is now Dalton Road where Crow Dubs Farm and Swordfish Hall were on opposite sides. On an 1848 OS map Swordfish Hall is called Mearsbeck Cottage. You could then loop back along Cross Lane (now Heysham Road) to Four Lane Ends. A long coastal meadow from Swordfish Hall up to the Old Mill was called Sandilands - this seemed to be the only link to the buildings adjacent to the Old Mill which were owned by Edward Edmondson.

By 1850 the railway had reached Poulton-le-Sands (soon to become Morecambe) and the township began to develop around the village of Poulton itself and also at  the West End adjacent to Heysham. Most of Heysham continued as before but the development of the West End spilled over into Heysham North. At this time there were fears of a French invasion and coastal defences appeared all round the country. Roger Bingham in his fascinating account of Morecambe

Lost Resort? The Flow and Ebb of Morecambe

Cicerone Press (1990)

gives a full account (pp 152-154) of how The Battery got its name. The illustration from the book to the right is reproduced with his permission.

The 24th Lancashire Artillery at The Battery c.1870 with the Round House (Old Mill), used as an arsenal, in the background.

John Burrow was over five years older than his sister Phoebe, their parents being Thomas and Alice of Crow Dubs farm. In January 1859 John married Mary Keenleside, a servant at The Rectory, At the time of the marriage John is a fisherman and at Swordfish Hall. By the time of the 1881 census they have a large family and are living at Cumberland View. subsequently Cumberland View Hotel. The image to the right is the hotel in 2014. There is a striking similarity it the architecture of this building and The Battery Hotel, specifically in the castellated corners and the window design. This is perhaps not surprisingly since they were built at roughly the same time and for close relatives. This architectural feature is ‘quoining’, designed to make a building appear substantial. Another contemporary example (c.1840) is the  Queen’s Hotel in Morecambe which is a  listed building Grade II.

Another Heysham historian states, on his/her website in the section headed Heysham 1850, that the house was first known as Burrows House. The full section describes the north part of Heysham and can be read here.