28 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



FitzRoger and Moreton, 1 while in 1271 a boundary decision in the Duchy 

 Court mentions the same moss between Merton (Marton) and Lithum 

 (Lytham). 2 Further, an act in the Coucher Book of Walley in the thirteenth 

 century relates to disputed rights in the marsh, and grants of land to the Abbey 

 of Cockersand during the period refer to the moss.* North of the upland of 

 central Fylde, and west of the Wyre at Thornton, a somewhat smaller area of 

 marsh is mentioned in an early thirteenth century grant in Frankalmoign to 

 the Cockersand Abbey from W. de Quinequike. 4 



East and north of the Wyre, Garstang covered an area of rather more than 

 28,000 acres at Domesday ; less than 1 ,500 acres of it were cultivated, 

 probably because of the extent of marshy land, since Kirkham on the higher 

 and drier water parting had 5,000 acres of cultivated land out of a total of some 

 30,000 acres. There are a great many references to the mosses of Preesall, 

 Rawcliffe, Stalmine, Winmarley and Pilling in this area in the Chartulary 

 of the Abbey of Cockersand, while Pilling is referred to as being within the 

 forest of Wyresdale. 



Even in the most economically advanced parts of England, however, no true 

 reclamation of marsh took place before Tudor times, and in the late sixteenth 

 century the existing peat mosses of the Fylde covered almost all the areas 

 where peat can be shown to have existed. Saxton's map (1 577) shows two very 

 large areas of moss in this district, Pyllyn Moss to the north-east of the Wyre, 

 and Marton Moss to the south-west ; the third area of moss at Thornton is not 

 indicated. Pyllyn Moss covers the whole of the moss area within the curve of 

 the Wyre, which later became known separately as Pilling, Stalmine, Rawcliffe, 

 Winmarley and Cockerham mosses. It was roughly circular in shape within 

 the following limits : — on the south a strip of land parallel to the Wyre and about 

 half-a-mile wide, on the north the coast, and on the east the town of Garstang ; 

 on the west it reached within a mile of the Wyre estuary. 



The south and west limits of Marton Moss on Saxton's map are formed 

 by the coast, the northern edge is marked by Marton Mere, while its landward 

 extent is defined by the line Plumpton-Westby Hall-Lytham. Similar dis- 

 tributions of moss are shown on the maps of Speed (1610), Janson (1645), 

 and Blaeu (1642), and Drayton, in his ' Polyolbion ' (1613), says of the river 

 Skippon in Fylde : — 



' She in her crooked path to seaward softly glides, 

 Where Pellin's mighty moss and Melton's on her sides 

 Their boggy breasts outlay and Skippon down doth crawle 

 To entertain this Wyre attained at her fall.' 

 While James, in ' Iter Lancastrense ' (1676) says : — 

 ' But greater wonders call me hence : ye deepe 

 Low spongie mosses yet remembrance keep 

 Of Noah's flood.' 



That the mosses had long been important as pasture and for fuel is shown 

 by the number of grants of pasture and turbary mentioned in the Chartulary 



1 Lytham Chartulary, quoted at length in History of Lytham (Chetham Society). 



2 Ibid - 

 s Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey (Chetham Society). 



Ibid. 



