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- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre District of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of The Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 people at the 2011 Census. This is a decline of 3.3% over the previous census figure (2001) of 26,840.
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Fleetwood from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- "Fleetwood, seaport town and watering-place with [railway station], Poulton le Fylde [parish], N. Lancashire, at mouth of river Wyre, 18 miles NW. of Preston and 229 NW. of London, population: 6,733; P.O., T.O. [telegraph office], 2 Banks, 1 newspaper. Fleetwood dates from 1836, and is now a considerable town, with a large trade. Royal mail steamers ply daily to and from Belfast, and there is regular communication with the Isle of Man. The harbour is safe and extensive; a new dock, with an area of 10 ac., was opened in 1877. (For shipping statistics, see Appendix.) Within the town is a fixed light 90 ft. above high water and seen 13 miles; and on the esplanade is a fixed light 30 ft. above high water and seen 9 miles. Fleetwood has barracks and a school of musketry."
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This map was designed to show Garstang Rural District, but Fleetwood is present in the top left hand corner. The River Wyre which separates the Borough of Fylde from the Borough of Wyre flows from southeast to northwest reaching the Irish Sea at Fleetwood.
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Fleetwood was part of Thornton township in the ancient parish of Poulton le Fylde until 1894 when it became an urban district. It had expanded sufficiently by 1934 to become a municipal borough.
The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era. For most of the 20th century, Fleetwood was a prominent deep-sea fishing port, but, since the 1970s, the fishing industry has declined precipitously and the town has undergone economic difficulties. Fleetwood is also a seaside resort, serving as a quiet contrast to nearby Blackpool.
Fleetwood was named after the Fleetwood family who lived in the area for 300 years.
For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Fleetwood.
Research Tips
- See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes were ecclesiastical (described as ancient parishes), under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
- An urban district was a type of municipality in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish and were used for urban areas usually with populations of under 30,000. Inspecting the archives of a urban district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
- Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
- The terms municipal borough and county borough were adopted in 1835 replacing the historic "boroughs". Municipal boroughs generally had populations between 30,000 and 50,000; while county boroughs usually had populations of over 50,000. County boroughs had local governments independent of the county in which they were located, but municipal boroughs worked in tandem with the county administration. Wikipedia explains these terms in much greater detail.
- Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
- FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
- Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
- A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
- A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
- GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
- The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
- A description of the township of Thornton (including Fleetwood) from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1912
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