GENUKI Home page GENUKI Contents GENUKI
Contents 		  GENUKI: LancashireLancashire   Neighbours Nearby
places

Lytham

Archives and libraries
Bibliography
Cemeteries
Census
Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration
Select map to view parish boundaries
Description and Travel
Directories
Gazetteers
Historical Geography
Maps
Probate Records
Societies
LYTHAM, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Fylde district, Lancashire. The town stands on the N shore of the Ribble estuary, at the meeting-point of two branch railways from respectively the Preston and Wyre railway and the town of Blackpool, 8 miles SSE of Blackpool, and 12 W of Preston; is a sub-port to Preston, a watering-place, and a seat of petty sessions; presents a new, neat, and clean appearance; enjoys fine amenities of beach, environs, and climate; has undergone many improvements by a board of commissioners under a local act; and has a post office under Preston, a railwaystation with telegraph, a neat market-house of 1848, a county constabulary station, assembly-rooms, public baths, billiard-rooms, several first-class hotels, a number of respectable lodging-houses, two churches, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, two endowed schools, two national schools, several good private and boarding schools, a long marine parade, and a long steamboat pier. St. Cuthbert's or the parochial church was rebuilt in 1834; is a neat structure of red brick; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower; and contains monuments of the Clifton family. St. John's church stands on the E beach; was built in 1850; and is a stone edifice in the early English style. The Independent chapel stands in Westby-street, and is a handsome recent structure. The marine parade was formed by levelling the beach; is 2 miles long; and commands a fine view across the estuary. The pier was constructed in 1865; is 914 feet long; and, besides serving for steamboats from Blackpool, Southport, and other places, forms a splendid promenade. The branch railway from the Preston and Wyre line was opened in 1846; and that from Blackpool was opened in 1863. Lytham Pool, about a mile E of the town, serves as an entrepôt to Preston; accommodates large vessels for the discharging of their cargoes into smaller crafts; and has a graving dock for building and repairing vessels. A custom-house is on the E beach; and a lifeboat station is near. The parish comprises 5,177 acres of land, and 10,365 of water or foreshore. Real property, £15,425; of which £135 are in gas-works. Pop in 1851, 2,698; in 1861, 3,194. Houses, 552. The increase of pop. arose mainly from the attractions of the town as a watering-place. The manor, with Lytham Hall, belongs to Col. John Talbot Clifton. The hall stands on the NW side of the town; was erected between 1757 and 1764: and is a spacious mansion. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Durham abbey, was founded on or near the site of the Hall, in the time of Richard I., by Roger Fitz-Roger; and some remains of it are included in the Hall. A portion of the parish which had a pop. of 1,579 in 1861 was constituted a separate charge, under the name of L. St. John, in 1851. The head living is a vicarage, that of St. John a p. curacy, in the dio. of Chester. Value of the head living, £131: * of St. John, £60.* Patron of both, Col. J. T. Clifton. The sub-district contains also the Poulton-le-Fylde hamlet of Little Marton. Pop., 3,627. Houses, 620.

John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)

Click pictures to enlarge.

Market Square

Market hall

Archives and libraries

Lytham Library,
Clifton Street,
Lytham
FY8 5EP

Tel: 01253 736745

Further Local Studies information is held at

St. Annes Library,
254 Clifton Drive South,
St.Annes on Sea
FY8 1NR

Tel: 01253 643900
Fax: 01253 782508

Bibliography

The following books contain useful information about the history of Lytham and the surrounding area.

Cemeteries

Census

Details about the census records, and indexes for Lytham.

Church History

Albert Street (Wesleyan Methodist)
In 1907 another Methodist chapel was built in Albert Street,Lytham (OS Grid Ref. SD374273). This closed in the 1970s and was demolished and replaced by housing.
St Paul (Church of England)
St Paul's was built on Clifton Drive, Fairhaven (OS Grid Ref. SD343276) in 1909. It had a mission church on Commonside Ansdell where the library now stands.
St.Anne (Church of England)
In 1872 St.Anne's church was built in the area of the parish of Lytham then known as Heyhouses, but a new town, named after the church, has grown up around it. The road that it now stands on is St.Annes Road East (OS Grid Ref. SD326294). In 1924 it had a mission church on Orchard Road.
St.Margaret (Church of England)
Situated on St. Leonard's Road, St Annes (OS Grid Ref. SD316295). It opened in 1924 and has been replaced with a new building comparatively recently.
Church Road Methodist(Wesleyan Methodist)
Church Road Methodist was built in 1905 on Church Road, St.Annes (OS Grid Ref. SD328294).
St.Annes Baptist
The Baptist church was built in 1910 in St Andrews Road South, St.Annes (OS Grid Ref. SD326285) replacing an older chapel.

Church Records

You can also perform a more selective search for churches in the Lytham area that are recorded in the GENUKI church database. This will also help identify churches in nearby townships and/or parishes. You also have the option to see the location of the churches marked marked on a map.

If you keep this page loaded for a very long time and the database is updated since loading it, the church links above may become stale and may display the wrong church. If this happens, reloading this page will correct them.

St Paul
Original registers held at Lancashire Record Office for Bapt Marr 1907-1952.
St Anne
Original registers held at Lancashire Record Office for Bapt 1873-1951, Marr 1877-1946.
St Thomas
Original registers held at Lancashire Record Office for Bapt 1900-1948, Marr 1903-1947.
St Annes Primitive Methodist
Original registers held at Lancashire Record Office for Marr 1921-1968.

Civil Registration

The Register Office covering the Lytham area is Blackpool & Fylde.

Directories

Description and Travel

Information about Lytham in 1850, Lytham in 1907, and Lytham St Annes in 1924

One of the major events in Lytham is the annual Club Day.

Gazetteers

Ask for the gazetteer for a calculation of the distance from Lytham to another place.

Historical Geography

In the Domesday book the name of the town and parish appears as Lidun, and by the time of King John it then appears as Lethum. The name is now Lytham.

There are now there distinct areas lying within the original Lytham parish, Lytham, St.Annes-on-Sea and Ansdell & Fairhaven. St.Annes is a relatively new town built for the then new fashion of seaside holidays in the western part of the parish. The first stone was in fact formally laid by the squire of Lytham, John Talbot Clifton on 31 March 1875. Ansdell & Fairhaven lies between Lytham and St.Annes.

Details of the administrative areas of which Lytham has been a part can be seen in a Vision of Britain, which contains details of historic boundaries, and more about the place.

Maps

View maps of Lytham and places within its boundaries.

A modern map showing Lytham in relation to other places in the Fylde.

Probate Records

For probate purposes prior to 1858, Lytham was in the Archdeaconry of Richmond, in the Diocese of Chester. The original wills for the Archdeaconry of Richmond are held at the Lancashire Record Office.

Societies

Valid HTML 4.0! InfoFind help, report problems, and contribute information.

[Last updated: Wednesday, 24-Oct-2007 15:58:09 BST - Phil Stringer]