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Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830s, when the principal landowner Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, High Sheriff and MP, conceived an ambitious plan to re-develop the town to make it a busy seaport and railway spur. He commissioned the Victorian architect Decimus Burton to design a number of substantial civic buildings, including two lighthouses. Hesketh-Fleetwood's transport terminus schemes failed to materialise. The town expanded greatly in the first half of the 20th century with the growth of the fishing industry, and passenger ferries to the Isle of Man, to become a Fishing trawler port.
Decline of the fishing industry began in the 1960s, hastened by the Cod Wars with Iceland, though fish processing is still a major economic activity in Fleetwood. The town's most significant employer today is Lofthouse of Fleetwood, manufacturer of the lozenge Fisherman's Friend which is exported around the world.
There is evidence that the eastern side of the River Wyre was occupied during the Danish invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the land on which Fleetwood now stands was part of the Hundred of Amounderness.
A manor house at present-day Rossall, in the southwest of the town, was in the possession of the Allen family by the time of Henry VIII. The Allens were prominent , and Henry VIII repossessed the land. Cardinal William Allen was born at the manor house in 1532. It was ultimately sold to Thomas Fleetwood, comptroller of the Royal Mint, whose son Edmund, expanded the house into Rossall Hall. The land remained in the Fleetwood family for 300 years.
Burton's plan was to use the largest of the on the north-facing shore as the focus of a half-wheel street layout. This was landscaped, and became known as the Mount. It served as the hub of Burton's half-wheel design, the main residential streets acted as the spokes, and the main commerce area of Dock Street was the rim of the wheel. The oldest surviving building in the town, once the custom house, later the town hall and latterly Fleetwood Museum, dates from 1836 and housing from as early as 1838 still exists in the town. The crown jewel was the North Euston Hotel, built in 1841, a fine semi-circular building overlooking the bay and the river's estuary. The hotel was built to serve overnight guests making the railway journey from Euston, and was close to the point of departure for the steamers to Scotland. This journey was made by Queen Victoria in 1847, but by the mid-1850s the completion of the western railway link between London and Scotland over Shap Fell rendered Fleetwood's role as a transport terminus obsolete.
Burton designed two for the town: The Upper Lighthouse, usually referred to as the Pharos (after the Pharos of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), can be seen for and Beach Lighthouse is visible for . Both opened in 1840. A third lighthouse, Wyre Light, built in 1839–40 by blind engineer Alexander Mitchell, offshore on the northeast corner of North Wharf, was the first screw pile lighthouse to be built in Great Britain. Fleetwood is the only town in the United Kingdom to possess three lighthouses and the two within the town itself remain fully operational. Wyre Light has now fallen into a state of disrepair.
Fleetwood Market, still a prominent permanent market, was established in 1840.
By 1838, Hesketh-Fleetwood had run into serious financial difficulties, with costs for the railway in particular ultimately exceeding £300,000. He had numerous financial arguments with Frederick Kemp, who borrowed against the estate revenues to finance the expansion of the town, and was suspected of taking financial advantage of Sir Peter. Hesketh-Fleetwood became short of cash and was forced to mortgage his properties. Depressed, he gradually withdrew from the project, and by 1844 he had been obliged to sell much of his estate. He leased Rossall Hall itself to the Church of England, which intended to set up a boarding school as a Northern England equivalent of Marlborough School. Under the auspices of Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, the vicar of Fleetwood, it was to become Rossall School. Virtually bankrupt, Hesketh-Fleetwood retired to Brighton, giving up his parliamentary obligations in 1847. Meanwhile, Kemp's influence expanded. He had set up the Fleetwood Estates Company to manage the land, and the North Lancashire Steam Navigation Company in 1843 to manage the expanding steamer trade. However, by the late 1850s, the combination of the new western railway route and the rise of neighbouring Blackpool as a prominent seaside resort signalled a decline in the town's fortunes.
From the 1860s Fleetwood expanded its port activities. Steamers began pleasure and commercial services to the Isle of Man, Ardrossan and Belfast. of stone quays were built along the river front, and the railway line was extended to the steamer pier opposite Queen's Terrace, where the imposing new railway station was built in 1883. The port was still mainly a cargo terminal at this time, but the fishing industry began to grow as vessels expanded their catchment area from the Irish Sea fishing grounds first fished in the 1840s, to the haddock grounds of the North Atlantic Ocean. At this time, all the fishing vessels out of Fleetwood were sail-powered fishing smacks, few being over 40 tons deadweight. The Fleetwood Docks Act 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. clxxxvii) enabled the construction of a dock and embankment for both fishing and general cargo. Work on what was to become Wyre Dock began in 1869 but was suspended for financial reasons. A second act of Parliament, the Fleetwood Docks Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. lxx) gave construction authority to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, under chief engineers Sir John Hawkshaw and Harrison Hayter. Construction itself, by John Aird & Sons, was completed in 1877. Heavy industry came to the area in the late 1880s with the construction of a salt-processing works on the southeastern edge of the town by the Fleetwood Salt Co. Ltd, using salt mined in Preesall, across the river.
By the early 1890s, the construction and expansion of rival cargo ports in the North West and the building of the Manchester Ship Canal heralded the decline of Fleetwood's prominence as a cargo port. However, at the same time this was more than offset by a period of rapid expansion of the fishing industry, signalled by the launch in 1891 of the first steam powered trawler, the Lark. All the other major fishing ports in Britain, Hull, Grimsby and Aberdeen, were on the east coast, so there was a competitive advantage for a west-coast port with good rail links. By the start of the 20th century, Fleetwood's position as one of the three major fishing ports in England was cemented. James Marr brought a fleet of steam trawlers to Fleetwood and actively started to change the port by selectively fishing for hake, which until then had been treated as a much less desirable catch. Many of the houses in the old area of town around the Mount and Lord Street were built in the 1890s. In keeping with the thriving economy, these terraced houses were large for their era. An electric tramway link to Blackpool was constructed in the 1890s and remains operational to this day. The trams were routed along East Street and West Street (now Lord Street and North Albert Street) rather than Dock Street, and commercial trade followed, making those streets the commercial centre of the town. Fleetwood is the only town in Britain with trams running the full length of its main street, sharing road-space with cars. The docks were expanded in 1908 with the construction of the Fish Dock, accessible through Wyre Dock and still used today for the inshore fleet. Plans for a pier were first made in the 1890s but building did not start until 1909 and it was opened in 1910. It was the last new seaside pier to be built in the United Kingdom.
The town was hit by a huge flood in October 1927, which put 90% of the area of the town under water. Only the higher areas around the Mount escaped. Additional housing was built in the 1920s and 1930s in the less-developed central areas of the town, and a further development boom occurred in the 1960s, in the lower lying western portion of the town (Larkholme). Many industries related to fishing grew up along the rail corridor on the eastern side of the town, and a number of unrelated industries also moved to the area to take advantage of the availability of labour.
By the 1960s, however, Fleetwood had begun to decline economically. The last ferry to the Isle of Man sailed in 1961, although the sailings have been revived periodically since. The main railway station was closed in 1966 as a result of the Beeching cuts, and the passenger terminus was moved to Wyre Dock railway station. That, in turn, was closed in 1970, as the branch line from Poulton-le-Fylde was taken out of service. Additional light industry developed along the former railway route.
The rise of abroad led to fewer visitors to British resort towns. As Blackpool expanded its attractions, fewer day visitors came to Fleetwood, and as transport became more efficient, more overnight visitors became day visitors. The Hillhouse plant was heavily cut back and was finally closed in 1999. Most serious, however, was the collapse of the fishing industry, which was largely destroyed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the , a dispute over fishing rights between Iceland and the UK. As Fleetwood's trawlers mainly fished the North Atlantic in search of cod, the loss of the fishing grounds hit the town hard. The last deep-sea trawler left the town in 1982 and now only inshore fishing boats use the port, although trawlers registered in other places can still be seen taking advantage of the fish market. Fish is still a big industry in the town, though the jobs are mainly in processing rather than fishing. A pair of bronze figures on the promenade by the pier depicts the idea of families welcoming back the fishermen from sea.
In 1973, the area around the old railway station was developed into a containerization port facility, with P&O operating a container service to Larne in Northern Ireland. In 1975, this became a Roll-on/roll-off service. This development led indirectly to some renewal of the then largely derelict Dock Street area, and improved road access to the town to support the container traffic. Twice-daily container service continued until 2004 when Stena Line bought the route and increased the service to three times a day. In December 2010, Stena Line announced that the service would be withdrawn at the end of 2010, with the loss of 140 jobs.
Since the 1970s, there have been several attempts to enhance Fleetwood's economic profile, In 1995, the now-deserted Wyre Dock was developed into a marina. The derelict dock landing area was developed into Freeport, a retail centre, and housing has been built at the north end of the marina. In July 2007, a new "Masterplan" for revitalising the waterfront and town centre was submitted to the Wyre Borough Council.
In 1996, Fleetwood could be seen in "A High Profile", an episode of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Several buildings along The Esplanade were used, one of Fleetwood's churches and others. Film locations of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates Retrieved 29 August 2017
A Fleetwood parish council (known as Fleetwood Town Council) was established following a referendum in June 2009. The boundaries of the parish are coterminous with the boundary of the five borough council wards of Fleetwood and the town council has thirteen councillors.
In the 2010 General Election, Fleetwood was joined with Lancaster and some Over Wyre locations to form the new Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency. Conservative member Eric Ollerenshaw was elected in a tight race. From 1997 to 2010, Fleetwood was included with Thornton and parts of Blackpool, as part of the Blackpool North and Fleetwood parliamentary constituency. During that time the seat was held by Labour's Joan Humble. Prior to 1997, Fleetwood was part of the constituencies of Fylde North and Wyre, whose boundaries more closely matched those of Wyre Borough, and which consistently returned a Conservative member. In the 2015 general election a majority vote saw Fleetwood become a Labour town once again, represented by Cat Smith.
Like the remainder of the Fylde, the land is extremely flat, the highest point being the Mount, the large sand dune in the northern part of the town, from which the original street plan radiated. Parts of Fleetwood, especially to the north and west, are barely above sea level at high tide, and a large retaining sea wall runs along much of the western edge of the town. Nevertheless, Fleetwood was flooded in 1927 and again in 1977. The latter flood, although much smaller, affected more properties as there had been considerable development in the 1960s in the lower-lying parts of the town. The soil is broadly sandy, but there is considerable to the south and east, by the river. The town itself encompasses an area of just under .
At the 2001 census, Wyre Borough is 98.8% White in ethnic makeup. The remainder is split between British Asian (0.4%), Mixed race (0.4%) Black (0.1%) and Other (0.3%).
In June 2020 a meeting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement was planned. However, after an online backlash from Wyre Alliance councillors and locals the gathering was cancelled.
The same government report noted that the demise of the fishing industry cost Fleetwood some 8,000 jobs, employment in fishing-related industries falling from 9,000 to less than 1,000, mostly in the fish-processing sector. The closure of the ICI Hillhouse works cost the region a further 4,500 jobs. Industrial and commercial development has been at a standstill for fifteen years and only a single commercial employer based in the town has more than 200 employees. The stock of both commercial and residential property is in decline.
While Wyre Borough in general has a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the United Kingdom, Fleetwood's is considerably higher. Using figures indicating benefit claimants as a percentage of total population (usually considered to be about half the 'actual' unemployment rate) the figures for August 2007 are:
| 2.3% |
| 1.8% |
| 1.3% |
| 2.7% |
| 33,700 |
| 31,200 |
| 30,900 |
| 27,350 |
The town's largest and most prominent single employer is Lofthouse's of Fleetwood Ltd., manufacturers of Fisherman's Friend—a menthol Throat lozenge popular worldwide and especially in Japan.
In July 2007, a new "Masterplan" for revitalizing the town around a "vibrant waterfront and a revitalised town centre" was submitted to the Wyre Borough Council. Some of the funding would come from an EU cash grant. The Masterplan was funded by Wyre Council, the Northwest Development Agency and English Heritage. The plan has three main areas for development:
The 13 hectares of Fleetwood Memorial Park was developed out of the earlier Warrenhurst Park, itself an early-C20 park designed by Thomas Lumb of Blackpool. In 1917 the park was renamed "Memorial Park" in memory of those who died in the First World War. The memorial statue was added a few years later and memorial trees planted by the children who lost relatives.
In the early 1900s the park was home to a boating lake and the current facilities include three crown green bowling greens, a children's play area and picnic area, cenotaph memorial, duck pond, football pitches (on the site of the old boating lake) and tennis courts.
Fleetwood Pier, also known as 'Victoria Pier', was a feature of the town from its construction in 1910 until it was destroyed by fire in September 2008. Built at the end of the 'golden age' of pier building, it was the last pleasure pier to be built in the United Kingdom, other than a 1957 pier built in Deal, Kent, to replace a structure damaged in the Second World War. At in length, it was one of the shortest piers in the country. At various times, it was an amusement complex, bar and dance hall. In 1952 the pier was badly damaged in a fire which started in the cinema, and it did not reopen until 1958. The pier was closed again in 2006, and plans were drawn up to convert the structure into a flats complex. However, the pier was again heavily damaged by fire in the early hours of 9 September 2008. On 26 September 2008, Wyre Borough Council announced that the pier would be completely demolished, and two weeks later confirmed that the pier would not be rebuilt. The pier site remains undeveloped many years later, as plans for flats or apartments have come to nothing. The site remains an eyesore and remains fenced off, many years after the fire.
Fleetwood has two prominent retail locations. Affinity Lancashire (formally Freeport Fleetwood) opened in 1995. It is a waterfront outlet mall, on the site of the former Wyre Dock, with 45 shops in a marina setting. Freeport was re-branded and re-launched in 2006 at a cost of £8.6m. Fleetwood Market on Victoria Street is one of the largest covered marketplace in the North West, with over 250 stalls. It was first opened in 1840, although the present stone building dates from 1892.
Fleetwood falls within the coverage area of BBC Radio Lancashire. Commercial radio stations serving the area include Greatest Hits Radio, Hits Radio Lancashire and Greatest Hits Lancashire based in Preston and Smooth North West and Heart North West broadcasting from Greater Manchester.
Independent television service is provided by ITV Granada, the ITV franchise holder for the North West region. BBC North West is the regional BBC station serving Fleetwood.
Another annual music festival, originating in 2005, is Fleetwoodstock, named after the famous New York Woodstock Festival and held in the autumn. The usual venue is the Marine Hall.
The now annual Yuto Fest, which was first held in 2011, also takes place at the Marine Hall. Yuto Fest is a charity festival featuring local bands that was set up by Daz Rice of Kiss of the Gypsy and is a legacy for his three-year-old son Yuto Rice who died in 2012 after battling a heart condition.
Tram Sunday, also known as Tram Sunday, has been held annually on the third Sunday of July since 1985. It is a festival of vintage vehicles highlighted by a number of historical tram-cars, which parade along Lord Street.
Fleetwood Beer & Cider Festival is held in February each year and is organised by the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre branch of CAMRA. The festival offers a choice of around 100 real ales as well as a selection of ciders and foreign beers.
The best-known rock bands to feature musicians from Fleetwood are television talking head John Robb's the Membranes and Goldblade, punk band One Way System Onewaysystem.co.uk One Way System official website (the first signing on Cherry Red's Anagram Records), discogs.com One Way System – Give Us a Future UFX, Earthling Society, who have released six critically acclaimed albums, and Kiss of the Gypsy, who were signed to Atlantic Records in the US. One Way System drummer Tommy Couch (brother of boxer Jane Couch) played drums with UK Subs for two years. and has been voted one of the top 30 best punk drummers of all time. best punk drummers poll
Musicians from One Way System, UFX and Kiss of the Gypsy combined in 2011 to release a gothic rock psychobilly album as Boneyard Zombies and in 2014 the debut release by rock and roll Garage rock band The Crawlin' Hex, formed by members of Earthling Society and UFX received a series of positive reviews.
Another influential Fleetwood musician is folk singer Alan Bell, the founder and director of the internationally renowned Fylde Folk Festival which ran for 42 years until Bell's retirement in 2014. Bell's suite The Band in the Park won the prestigious Radio Italia prize for Broadcasting for BBC Radio Lancashire and resulted in a BBC2 Television programme devoted to Bell – Alan Bell: The Man and His Music. The festival is to be superseded in 2015 by the New Folk 'n' Roots Festival. Stuart Chatwood of Canadian rock band the Tea Party was also born in Fleetwood.
A previous incarnation of Fleetwood Town F.C. enjoyed a brief history from 1977, reaching the final of the FA Vase in 1985, before being wound up because of financial difficulties in 1996. The same fate also befell the two previous town clubs. Fleetwood F.C. was founded in 1908 and wound up in 1976, having been several times Lancashire Combination cup champions in the 1930s, and founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. Fleetwood Rangers, the town's first club, spent ten seasons in the Lancashire League and Lancashire Combination from 1889 to 1899. Since 1939, home games have been played at Highbury Stadium. Blackpool Reserves also use the stadium for their home matches.
In January 1938, Jimmy Hampson, who remains Blackpool's record goalscorer, drowned off the Fleetwood coast during a fishing trip. The yacht on which he was sailing collided with a fishing trawler and Hampson, 31, was knocked overboard. He drowned, and his body was never recovered. "The legend of Jimmy Hampson" – Seasiders.net
Speedway racing was staged at Highbury Stadium from 1948 to 1952, with Fleetwood Flyers riding in the Second Division of the National Speedway league. The Flyers started the 1948 season as Wigan Warriors but moved to Fleetwood after racing a few away fixtures billed as Wigan. The Flyers raced in the National League Division Two from 1948 to 1951 without enjoying any great success. In 1952 the venue staged a number of open events with the team renamed the Fleetwood Knights.
Fleetwood Rugby Union Football Club is an amateur rugby union club, first registered in 1932 as Fleetwood Old Boys, with the Old Boys title being dropped in the 1950s. Fleetwood Cricket Club, based at Broadwater, are affiliated with the Lancashire Cricket Board and compete in the Northern League.
From the 1930s to the present, the Model Yacht Pond, one of Europe's largest, has been host to numerous national and international championships, held under the aegis of the Fleetwood Model Yacht and Power Boat Club.
Fleetwood Reservoir on Copse Road provides coarse fishing facilities. The fishing club is affiliated to the National Federation of Anglers. Matches take place every Sunday and Friday during the summer months.
Fleetwood is a popular location for kitesurfing and other power kite sports. There are several suitable beaches and training is available at the local kite school.
There are frequent passenger ferry sailings from Fleetwood across the River Wyre to Knott End-on-Sea via the Wyre Estuary Ferry.
Passenger sailings to Douglas are not currently on a regular timetable. Ferries were operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from 1876 to 1961, and again periodically from 1971. However, in recent years the service has been restricted to once or twice per year. From 2004, Stena Line provided some passenger accommodation on its thrice daily service to Larne in Northern Ireland. However, Stena Line withdrew the service at the end of 2010.
The town being built on a peninsula, for many years there were only two roads into and out of Fleetwood: Broadway, through Cleveleys, designated as the A587, and Fleetwood Road, through Thornton, designated as the A585. To cater for container traffic, Amounderness Way was built in the late 1970s and re-designated as the A585. In the 1990s, Amounderness Way was extended further into the town to the end of Dock Street (the entrance to the Freeport shopping village) along the former railway bed.
The town was for several years the northern Fylde terminus of the railway line to London, hence the hotel opposite the site of the now demolished Fleetwood railway station is called the North Euston Hotel. The line also carried landed fish from the docks to distant markets. There has been no railway service to Fleetwood since 1970. Poulton-le-Fylde and Blackpool North are the nearest railway stations. However, the line to Poulton is still present, and plans remain to re-open the line in the future. In June 2021 a feasibility study was submitted by the Lancashire County Council to the Department for Transport to re-open the line from Fleetwood to Poulton-le-Fylde, under the government's Restoring Your Railway programme.
The only tertiary educational institution in Fleetwood is the Nautical Campus of Blackpool and The Fylde College, located at Broadwater.
Fleetwood has seven public sector primary schools. Chaucer Community Primary School serves the oldest part of the town, around the Mount. Shakespeare Primary School serves the northwest part of the town. Flakefleet Primary School serves the south-central Flakefleet area. Charles Saer Primary School and Larkholme Primary School serve the western part of the town, around West View and Larkholme. Additionally, there are two Roman Catholic primary schools: St Mary's, founded in 1870, which serves the northern part of the town, and St Wulstan's and St Edmund's, serving the southern part of the town and formed in 2006 from a merger of two existing schools.
The town is also home to a large public library, which as well as lending print and audio-visual material also has an extensive reference and local studies collection.
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