In an earlier version of this article, we stated that a children’s sandpit, linked to an increase in enteritis cases, had been designed by town planning artist Ian Henderson. This was incorrect.

Dr Henderson was the first artist to be appointed to a UK new town development corporation. He was Skelmersdale's New Town Development Corporation Artist between 1964/66, and a member of the design teams building the new town. He had nothing to do with designing the sandpit. We apologise to him for the error and any embarrassment caused.

Skelmersdale - a town unlike any other.

It's origins date back to the Domesday book in 1086, however, it's formation as a new town in 1961 would see it change forever into a wonderful and rather weird hinterland.

Situated in West Lancashire, just a short distance from Ormskirk and Wigan, Skelmersdale - or Skem as it's more popularly known - was designed to house the overspill population of Merseyside.

The result is a town ordered by loosely alphabeticised housing projects, vast green space and looping roads which contain no traffic lights - only roundabouts.

While some have been quick to condemn Skem as a planning disaster others cherish its extraordinary oddities and otherwordly landscape.

It's also become the birthplace of many unbelievable stories, fantastical urban myths and obscure legends.

On Friday May 6, UK 'supergroup' The Magnetic North play Skelmersdale's E Rooms bringing with them their concept album Prospect Of Skelmersdale - a record dedicated to Skem.

Formed around the axis of songwriters Erland Cooper, Hannah Peel and former Verve musician and Skelmersdale resident Simon Tong, Prospect Of Skelmersdale draws upon childhood memories, meditative ragas, local graffiti and tales from the town’s dual modern histories.

Think of it as a musical version of Kes complete with kitchen sink vignettes and odes to hope and hopelessness.

With that in mind, here we delve deeper into Skem's surrealist stories and folklore...

The Beatles Paul McCartney George Harrison John Lennon and Ringo Starr with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi clutching bundles of flowers Mahareshi Yogi

'The Utopian Village'

Skem is home to the UK's Transcendental Meditation [TM] Utopian village.

The TM community, known as the "The European Sidhaland", spread the words and wisdom of their guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - the man who in 1967 became spiritual advisor to The Beatles .

Yep, for a short while Yogi was best mates with George Harrison while also taking Brian Wilson's Beach Boys and Mick Jagger under his wing.

The TM site in Skem is based in Farnworth, complete with 'gold meditation dome’ and is completed by families looking to live peaceful, peace-promoting lives.

A 2012 article in Vice Magazine written by a former TM 'meddy' alludes to yogic flying sessions and yoga asanas however concedes that the hippy ideals have largely dissipated in recent years striving to bridge relations with the rest of the town.

There are no traffic lights and it's made up of roundabouts including one of Europe's biggest

First time visitors to Skem will wonder what's hit them.

A labyrinthine maze of highways, roundabouts and long stretches of greenery links the Old Town to the New with street names characteristically only containing one 'country-sounding' name; Cherrycroft, Yewdale, Brierfield, Abbeywood.

A pedestrian under-pass on the Gillibrands Industrial Estate, Skelmersdale. No Date on picture
A pedestrian under-pass on the Gillibrands Industrial Estate, Skelmersdale. No Date on picture

Elsewhere airport like underpasses serve as dark, oppressing channels linking up the housing areas while the industrial estates are brutal reflected in their otherworldly names such as Pimbo and Gillibrands.

Watch this video from Dave Evans on 'Half Mile Roundabout'

Football record breakers and legends

Almost as miraculous as Leicester winning the Premier League, Skelmersdale FC once held the record for the biggest Wembley attendance when a crowd of more than 75,000 watched their FA Amateur Cup with Enfield in 1967. The game ended 0-0.

The replay, at Manchester City's Maine Road, saw Enfield win 3-0 however, Skem went on to reach the first round of the FA Cup for several successive seasons - a major achievement for a non league side.

Their crowning glory arrived in 1970-71 when United finally won the FA Amateur Cup with a 4-1 demolition job of Dagenham at Wembley.

Liverpool's Steve Heighway is a notable former Skem United player.

Heighway left the club in April 1970 and quickly gained his first International Cap with the Republic of Ireland in September later that year.

Meanwhile, Everton's Leon Osman appeared for Skelmersdale before joining the Blues and his brother Carl was a regular for The Whites.

A shot from the old Skelmersdale Railway

Public transport conundrum

Skem is the second most populated town in the north west without a railway station. Pretty staggering, considering it has the means to do so.

The railway closed in Skem in 1956 and has yet to be reopened.

Instead residents have to rely on driving or navigating the bus routes - something which isn't easy given the lack of pavements in the large open green space.

Reports in 2015 suggested plans for a Skelmersdale Railway station are firmly on track with a county councillor stating they're not just a " pie in the sky ".

Skemfest 2016 logo

Skem's mini Glastonbury Festival

Yes, it's true - for many years the town held it's own music festival, imaginatively named, Skemfest.

Held in the picturesque surrounds of Yewdale in a large amphitheatre carved entirely into the grass, a large truck would serve as the stage with bands from all around the region converging for a free festival.

Skem local legends Suicyanide were noted for their furious punk rock while a number of bands from Wigan (Delta Nine) and Ormskirk (The Sellout Flaw and Coda) would add to the communal feeling.

Skemfest is back on the agenda later this year on Sunday May 29 ay the Buffs Community Club.

Other notable pop stars from Skem include Sonia and more recently Liverpool-based rock & rollers The Black Jackals.

Melanie Chisholm as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers in 2009

The West End award-winning theatre connection

Skelmersdale provided part of the inspiration for Willy Russell's West End theatre sensation Blood Brothers .

The third-longest running musical production in history, focused on twins separated at birth who end up living opposite lives while falling in love with the same girl.

The second act of the play sees the shift of focus from the inner city slums of Liverpool to the new council house overspill of Skelmersdale.

In 2014 Skelmersdale Community Arts & Theatre Group recreated their own vision of Russell's play staging it in Ormskirk Civic Hall.

Skem - the home of independent ice cream!

The Italian Riviera Ice Cream Company

Remarkably, Skem is home to what was once the UK's number one independent ice cream makers.

Frederick's Dairies origins date back to 1896 in the Italian Riviera before settling in Skem and manufacturing the likes of Wall's Cornettos, Cadbury's Flake branded cones and a range of Dairy Milk ice creams.

They provided ice cream for the 2012 London Olympics before being sold for a cool £49m .

The Concourse shopping centre in Skelmersdale

The Connie

Skem epicentre, the Concourse (or Conny as it's known locally) shopping centre forms the focal point for shopping in the town.

Home to Poundland, Home Bargains and Argos, as well as a McDonalds and KFC, it has been subject to a renovation project for a number of years.

In it's early years huge pyramids guarded the entrance of the Conny but they have subsequently been removed (following several accidents) to make way for a vast glass extension.

View on the new farm church estate 14th December 1968
View on the new farm church estate 14th December 1968

Mind control

Legend has it that Skem was a testing ground for an experiment conducted by professor Nathaniel Butler , the lead scientist in the alleged Mind Reader programme.

Conspiracy theorists suggest the Mind Reader programme involved Butler placing something called an Aspiration Dipersal Field generator in a disused mineshaft in Skem.

The machine is said to produce a low hum creating a suffocating blanket which leaves residents despondent and sapped of all ambition.

Roundabout art work

Roundabout art

Skelmersdale's roundabout artwork is a notable feature in the town. There are hundreds of them.

The largest of Skem's roundabouts - dubbed the 'Hope Island' features a whopping multi-geometric shape with a flower in the centre and is named the Gateway artwork - a tribute to cancer sufferers.

The artwork is part of a larger roundabout artwork scheme called The Elements and also includes a big cuboid with fibre optic flashing lights which dazzles in the darkness.

Voting for the chosen Elements art was said to be rigged in press reports at the time.

Controversy struck when one of the roundabouts in The Elements scheme featured local residents - one of which was a notable criminal.

The £60,000 Whitehey artwork featured cotton mill and shoe factory workers alongside a 21-year-old supermarket thief.

His image was subsequently replaced from the roundabout art.

Stuart Maconie

The famous college professor with a couple of fabulous fibs

Before he was writing for NME and appearing on national television and radio, author and journalist Stuart Maconie worked as an English and sociology teacher at Skem College.

After his brief flirtation with Skelmersdale, Maconie went on to present Radio 1's music review show alongside Andrew Collins.

Skelmersdale Prize Band, 1921.
Skelmersdale Prize Band, 1921.

He's also responsible for a couple of urban myths himself; suggesting in the pages of NME that Blockbusters gameshow host Bob Holness played the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty's hit single Baker Street and that David Bowie invented the board game Connect 4.

He now hosts the rather marvellous Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music.

The first of the new houses are rapidly nearing completion and should be ready for their new tenants soon. Picture dates 1st October 1965
The first of the new houses are rapidly nearing completion and should be ready for their new tenants soon. Picture dates 1st October 1965

Walk-ways and The Wizard of Oz

There's a fantastically daft suggestion that Skem's story parallels that of the Wizard of Oz.

A good natured charlatan [the town planner] who wanted to create the Emerald City but his dream ended in tatters.

In reality, an odd spiral yellow walkway connects the Old Town with the New.

27th May 1968, some visitors from Liverpool inspect the houses during a see-for-yourself tour of Skelmersdale.
27th May 1968, some visitors from Liverpool inspect the houses during a see-for-yourself tour of Skelmersdale.

While one local artist suggests Judy Garland's message of 'there's no place like home' is reflected in the spirit of Skem's Scouse population fondly reflecting upon life back in Liverpool.

We think she's stretching it here, though...

Finally, watch a video on the making of Skelmersdale

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Prospect Of Skelmersdale by The Magnetic North is out now via Full Time Hobby - they play The Engine Rooms on Friday . Details .

Liverpool's Failed Utopian Commune by Caroline Christie, Vice Magazine.