34 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



Black Death. By the seventeenth century, in addition to the old parish 

 churches already mentioned, there were churches or chapels at Bispham, 

 Singleton, Elswick, Lund, and a new church then built at Marton as, it was 

 stated, the people of Layton, Rakes and Blackpoole hamlets had often been 

 cut off from any church by water in winter. Lund is mentioned as an oratory 

 as early as 1349, but it is supposed to have gone out of use between the 

 Reformation and the Commonwealth. It contains a font modified from a 

 Roman altar. The Fylde area seems to have been conservative at the time 

 of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and to have had some families 

 which long subsequently remained Roman Catholic. Most of the Fylde 

 churches have been rebuilt within the last two centuries. 



VII. 



THE CLIMATE OF THE FYLDE 



BY 



WILFRED SMITH. 



The Fylde has the mild climate of the western seaboard of Britain. The mean 

 temperature of Blackpool for February, the coolest month (39.9 F.),' is 

 higher than that on the east coast, but below that in North Wales or the South- 

 western Peninsula. From October to May, inclusive, frost is liable to occur 

 but for each of these months there is at least one instance during the years 

 1900 to 1934 in which none has been recorded. Snow rarely lies on the 

 ground for more than two or three days, and occasionally none falls throughout 

 the winter. There is a marked contrast in this respect between the Fylde coast 

 and the industrial area of Lancashire and the West Riding. The mean 

 temperature of the warmest month (barely 60°F.) is lower than that on the 

 east and south coasts, but above that in Anglesey or the Isle of Man ; the 

 summers, though warm, are rarely hot. The range between night and day is 

 slightly less than for inland stations in Lancashire with a similar mean 

 temperature, partly owing in summer to the phenomenon of the land and sea 

 breeze (v. i.). 



The Fylde has a relatively low rainfall for the west coast. The lowest falls 

 of the whole western seaboard occur in the Dee Estuary and the Wirral 

 Peninsula, in the rain-shadow behind North Wales. Thence rainfall gradually 

 increases northward along the Lancashire coast ; it is 2 to 3 inches more at 

 Liverpool than in the Dee Estuary, and 3 to 4 inches more at Blackpool than 

 at Liverpool. But the mean rainfall at Blackpool for the 35 years 1900-1934 



1 The means for Blackpool, which are quoted to indicate the general climatic features of the 

 Fylde, refer to the years 1900-34, a 35-year period. 



