Lytham

Archives and libraries Bibliography Cemeteries Census Church History Church Records Civil Registration

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)