MAIN CENTRES OF POPULATION 39 



VIII. 



MAIN CENTRES OF POPULATION 



BY 



R. E. THOMPSON. 



At the opening of the nineteenth century a very even distribution of population 

 reflected the agricultural character of the Fylde. Town life had developed in 

 two centres only, namely at Kirkham and Poulton. As the oldest settlement 

 in the district and suitably placed with reference to the principal agricultural 

 areas, Kirkham naturally developed into the local market town. The occurrence 

 of a small patch of sand and gravel here had encouraged settlement by the 

 Northmen, for the site afforded spring water, which was a rarity in the district, 

 covered as it was by boulder clay. One of its chief activities was the cattle fair, 

 and, though the market is now obsolete, three cattle fairs are held each year. 

 Before the Norman Conquest the parish of Kirkham embraced no less than 

 33,564 acres. In its parish registers of 1539 is the oldest entry in the whole 

 of the Fylde. In 1829 came the introduction of industry based on the 

 importation of flax and hemp from Belfast via Poulton. This gave rise to the 

 manufacture of sail cloth and cordage, coarse and fine linen and some cotton 

 under the instigation of the local gentry. While the production of ' waste ' 

 is still carried on, cotton weaving has become the dominant industry and is 

 under the control of the Preston Chamber of Commerce. An interesting 

 development has been the erection of a shed, the ground space of which is 

 partitioned out and rented to individuals for weaving machinery as an encourage- 

 ment to private enterprise. The township of Kirkham has grown up along 

 the main Blackpool-Preston road, but industrial development has spread to 

 the North along the road to and including Wesham, so that the towns are 

 now co-terminous, the stream in the depression between them acting as 

 the parish boundary. The increasing population of this zone was outstanding 

 in the nineteenth century in contrast to the shrinkage of population in the 

 surrounding agricultural districts. 



It was inevitable that some maritime life should develop at the mouth of the 

 Wyre. Here is a bottle-necked estuary, which was early recognised as a suitable 

 harbour for shipping in the phrase, ' safe and easy as Wyre water.' It is 

 possible that the Poulton area was originally settled by Saxons at the point 

 where the Dane's Pad crosses the river Wyre. Domesday remarks that its 

 parish possessed two carucates (266 acres) of agricultural land. The actual 

 port was at Skippool, but because of danger of flooding, the customs and 

 commercial centre was located at Poulton. In 1 590 the vessel trade to Russia 

 must have been equal to that of Liverpool. The trade consisted mainly of 

 tallow, flax and hemp, but afterwards there sprang up an entrepot trade in 

 cotton, corn, timber and flax from Belfast, which was shipped to many points 



