Pre 1974 Electoral rolls for Seaforth & Waterloo

[VicMar1]

I recently set out to find ancestors at various addresses in these two areas during the late 20's,30's & 40's. I wrongly assumed they would be held at Crosby Civic Library (as would many others no doubt?).
However, a little local history needs to be applied because up until the boundary changes that created MERSEYSIDE in 1974,these areas belonged in Lancashire !
West Lancs to be precise and no one seemed to know what had happened to the Electoral Registers. I contacted the LRO in Preston and (eventually) received the following reply which is far from complete but should give some idea as to what to expect from them if you are looking for similar info. I had asked for the whereabouts of the 'rolls' for Waterloo & Seaforth during 1929 - 1944 and also for Maghull & Lydiate during 1930's to 1965.
Here is their response :

"Many Thanks for your enquiries.
County boundaries changed in 1974 but parliamentary boundaries are also subject to change and for the time period you have specified, and the areas you have specified, the parliamentary constituencies were as follows:
Area - To 1948 - To 1974

Maghull - Ormskirk division- Ormskirk division

Lydiate - Widnes division - Huyton division

Great Crosby - Waterloo division - Crosby borough

Seaforth - Waterloo division - Crosby borough

Waterloo - Waterloo division - Crosby borough
Lancashire Archives does not have a complete collection of electoral registers for the county. Instead we have what we call a 'snapshot' or sample collection. We have the following registers in our archives (some on microfilm, some original registers):
To 1948:
Ormskirk, Widnes and Waterloo: 1934/5, 1939/40, 1945, 1946

To 1960:
Ormskirk and Huyton: 1949, 1953, 1954, 1958

We do not have any electoral registers at all for Great Crosby borough.
Local libraries are often a good resource for electoral registers but as you have already tried them without any luck, I can only suggest Liverpool Archives to fill in any gaps.
Although the electoral registers you are looking for predate the county boundary changes, Liverpool is now the main archive for Merseyside so they are definitely worth a try. Alternatively, the British Library has the most complete collection of electoral registers."

Sefton (Crosby)sent me this response to the same request :


"Dear Sir,
I have examined the electoral rolls for the area/year requested and can confirm that we do not hold these records. I have made enquiries to see if I can trace where these may be held but this has proved negative.
We do however hold Liverpool street directories that include Waterloo"

So it appears that no-one seems to know what has happened to most of this valuable and quite extensive resource ? There appears to be none available at all for some areas during the post war aftermath of the 40's to the mid 70's

And it now appears that one has to approach the British Library in London to find any local area electoral register for some of the dates you may want to see, if anyone knows differently or discovers these missing registers somewhere, please leave a post here.

I am advised by the City LRO that they do not have them either so Merseyside is out !