Ormskirk lies on sloping ground on the side of a ridge, whose highest point is 81 metres (266 ft) above sea-level,[4] at the centre of the West Lancashire Plain, and has been described as a "planned borough", laid out in the 13th century.

The location was originally the junction of the main roads to Preston, Liverpool and Wigan, and was marked by a market cross going back to medieval times.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the Cross, as the junction was known, was the location of a large lamp mounted on an obelisk with a circular drinking fountain for both people and animals around the base.

This was moved to the junction of St Helens Road and Moor Street to make room for the erection of the clock tower in 1876.

The fountain was then moved again to opposite the Drill Hall down Southport Road in the 1890s when space was needed to site the Disraeli statue.

[5] The Ormskirk Poor Law Union was established in 1837, covering 21 parishes and townships from Tarleton to Simonswood, and from Birkdale to Skelmersdale.

[11] With its weekly markets, the town became a focal point for local farmers and their agricultural workers, cottagers, cow-keepers etc.

Many family members are buried in the church's Derby Chapel, including Thomas Stanley, the first Earl, who caused Richard III to lose his crown by changing sides at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and the Royalist James Stanley, the seventh Earl, who was beheaded at Bolton in 1651 after the Civil War.

The large west tower was added to the church around 1548 to house the bells of nearby Burscough Priory following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The town's railway station, which was refurbished at a cost of £1 million in 2009, is a northern terminus of Merseyrail, and the line continues, with a change from electric to diesel multiple units, through to Preston, after the direct service was partitioned in 1970.

The route and Ormskirk station opened on 2 April 1849, the undertaking being merged into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on 13 May 1859.

[13] An out of town business park, The Hattersley Centre, opened in February 2008, with a Home Bargains, Howdens, Tile Giant, Magnet, Jewson, Halfords (which closed in 2020) and a Plumbase.

[17] 2019 saw the Hattersley Centre expand with new units being built on adjacent unused land and occupied by Lidl and Toolstation.

[18] The expansion followed funding of £6.2M being secured from the Royal Bank of Scotland to clear the adjacent land and build new units.

[19] One of the last significant manufacturing businesses remaining in Ormskirk were Atkinson & Kirby, who make hardwood floors and employed 80 people.

[23] The Ormskirk Advertiser, a Reach plc title, is the local newspaper; it shares a website with the Liverpool Echo.