The Fylde
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The Fylde () is a coastal
plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...
in western
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
, England. It is roughly a
square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
-shaped peninsula, bounded by
Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second larges ...
to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the
Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to the east which approximates to a section of the
M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...
and
West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
.


Geography

It is a flat, alluvial plain, parts of which have deposits of and were once dug for
peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
. The
River Wyre The River Wyre is a river in Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, which flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. It is approximately 28 miles (45 km) in length. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site and has a sheltered estuary ...
meanders across the Fylde from
Garstang Garstang is an ancient market town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north of the city of Preston and the same distance south of Lancaster. In 2011, the parish had a total resident population of 4,268; ...
on the eastern edge, westwards towards Poulton and then northwards to the sea at
Fleetwood 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 lando ...
. The area north and east of the tidal Wyre, known as
Over Wyre Over Wyre is the collective name given to a group of villages in Lancashire, England, situated on the Fylde, to the north and east of the River Wyre. The group is usually considered to include Hambleton, Stalmine, Knott End-on-Sea, Preesall, ...
, is the more rural side of the river. The Fylde is roughly trisected by the
M55 motorway The M55 is a motorway in Lancashire, England, which can also be referred to as the Preston Northern Bypass. It connects the seaside resort of Blackpool to the M6 at Preston. It is 12.2 miles (19.6 km) in length. One mile was originally ...
and
A586 road The A586 is a road in England, which runs from Garstang to Blackpool, in Lancashire. The road runs a total distance of , in a roughly east–west direction, and is both urban and rural in character. It begins near Churchtown south of Gars ...
. The west coast is almost entirely urban, containing the towns of
Fleetwood 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 lando ...
,
Cleveleys Cleveleys is a town on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire, England, about north of Blackpool and south of Fleetwood. It is part of the Borough of Wyre. With its neighbouring settlement of Thornton, Cleveleys was part of the former urban distric ...
, Blackpool,
St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous wi ...
and
Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous with ...
; with Thornton, Carleton and
Poulton-le-Fylde Poulton-le-Fylde (), commonly shortened to Poulton, is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. In the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,264. There is evidence of human habitation i ...
not far inland. This area forms the Blackpool Urban Area. The central southern part of the Fylde includes the smaller towns of Kirkham and Wesham. The rest of the Fylde is rural, containing villages that include
Freckleton Freckleton is a village and civil parish on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, to the south of Kirkham and east of the seaside resort of Lytham St. Annes. In 2001 the parish had a population of 6,045, reducing to 6,019 at the 2011 Census. ...
, Warton,
Wrea Green Wrea Green is a village in the Fylde (borough), Fylde borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about 2 miles west of Kirkham, Lancashire, Kirkham. Along with the village of Ribby, it forms the civil parish Ribby-with-Wrea. Wrea Green has approxim ...
,
Great Eccleston Great Eccleston is a village and civil parish in the English county of Lancashire, situated on a coastal plain called the Fylde. The village lies to the south of the River Wyre and the A586 road, approximately upstream from the port of Fleetw ...
, Hambleton, Knott End and
Pilling Pilling is a village and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north-northeast of Poulton-le-Fylde, south-southwest of Lancaster and northwest of Preston, in a part of the Fylde known as Over Wyre. The ci ...
.


Geology

The Fylde is underlain by
sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
bedrock of
Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...
age though it is everywhere concealed by a thick cover of
superficial deposits Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old). These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain deposits, beach ...
(exceeding 30m thickness in places) laid down during the present Quaternary period. The older rocks are the Sherwood Sandstones which ‘ subcrop’ in the east. The slightly younger mudstones and siltstones of the
Mercia Mudstone Group The Mercia Mudstone Group is an early Triassic lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands – the name is derived from the ancient kingdom of Mercia which corresponds to t ...
are found west of a line drawn roughly between Freckleton, St Michael's on Wyre and
Preesall Preesall is a town, civil parish and electoral ward in Lancashire, England. The parish (until 1910 known as Preesall with Hackensall) covers the eastern bank of the estuary of the River Wyre, including Knott End-on-Sea, Pilling Lane and the vi ...
. The group is subdivided into formations and
members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...
; one in particular is of note, the ‘Preesall Halite member’, traditionally referred to as the Preesall Salt. It was the basis of former commercial operations in the area. Amongst others, boreholes sunk in connection with the former saltfield have provided much of the information on the bedrock of the area. The Mythop salt beds within the Mercia Mudstone succession are also conjectured to outcrop beneath the southwest corner of the Fylde. The Quaternary cover consists of glacial
till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
deriving from the last ice age (Devensian) together with some scattered
glaciofluvial deposits Glaciofluvial deposits or Glacio-fluvial sediments consist of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay from ice sheets or glaciers. They are transported, sorted and deposited by streams of water. The deposits are formed beside, below or downstream ...
, mainly
sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
and
gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...
. A small
drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...
field is recognised between Preesall, Thornton and Hambleton. Of more recent origin are clays, silts, sands and gravels forming both modern river
floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
s and
river terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial te ...
s, most of which are associated with the River Wyre and its tributaries. Also post-glacial in age are the
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
s and
silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...
s of the broad
tidal flats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...
around Fleetwood and the Morecambe Bay coast and the Ribble estuary. Large areas of blown sand forming dune systems characterise the coastal zone north and east of Lytham St Annes whilst a thinner strip follows the north coast east from Fleetwood.
Peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
deposits are common in the shallow north–south valley occupied by Main Dyke just east of Blackpool and also forming the mosses in the northeast of the area.


Governance

The
Borough of Fylde The Borough of Fylde is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. It covers part of the Fylde plain, after which it is named. The council's headquarters are in St Annes. Some council departments, including Plann ...
is a local government area covering the south of the Fylde plain. The rest is covered by the boroughs of Wyre and Blackpool to the north and west respectively. The
local justice area Local justice areas are units in England and Wales established by the Courts Act 2003, replacing and directly based on the previous petty sessional divisions. They have been in existence since 2005. Local justice areas are used to determine which ...
covering all of the Fylde is called Fylde Coast. The
FY postcode area The FY postcode area, also known as the Blackpool postcode area,Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) is a group of eight postcode districts in North West England, within five post towns. These cover the western half of the Fylde plai ...
, whose letters refer to the Fylde, covers its western half—the eastern half is in the
PR postcode area The PR postcode area, also known as the Preston postcode area, is a group of eleven postcode districts in North West England, within four post towns. These cover south-west Lancashire (including Preston, Chorley and Leyland) and north Merseys ...
. Historically, the Fylde formed the western part of the
wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...
or
hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
of
Amounderness The Amounderness Hundred () is one of the six subdivisions of the historic county of Lancashire in North West England, but the name is older than the system of hundreds first recorded in the 13th century and might best be described as the nam ...
.


Gallery

File:Ribble Estuary.jpg, Ribble estuary separating the West Lancashire Coastal Plain (left) from the Fylde (right) File:River Wyre and Over Wyre - England and Scotland 016.jpg, Countryside near the Wyre estuary File:Flyde coast, aerial photograph.jpg, Fylde coast, aerial photograph


See also

*
Fylde Rugby Club Fylde Rugby Union Club is a rugby union club based in Lytham St Annes, on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England. The home venue is the Woodlands Memorial Ground on Blackpool Road in Ansdell and the first team play in English rugby's Nation ...
*
Fylde (UK Parliament constituency) Fylde (') is a constituency in Lancashire which is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Mark Menzies, a Conservative. History The Fylde constituency was originally formed for the 1918 general election, but wa ...
(1983 to date) * Blackpool & Fylde Aero Club v Blackpool Borough Council 990EWCA Civ 13 is a leading English contract law case on the issue of offer and acceptance in relation to Call for Bids such as in tendering. * Blackpool Urban Area


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fylde, The Landforms of Lancashire Plains of England Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom