Wrea Green is a village in the Fylde borough of

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 Lancashi ...

, England. It lies about 2 miles west of Kirkham. Along with the village of Ribby, it forms the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Ribby-with-Wrea Ribby-with-Wrea is a civil parish just west of Kirkham, Lancashire, Kirkham, in the Borough of Fylde and ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It had a population of 1,489 in 2001, reducing to 1,373 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes Rib ...

. Wrea Green has approximately 1,600 residents, many of whom work at the nearby

Warton Aerodrome Warton Aerodrome is located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is west of Preston, Lancashire, UK. Today the airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. It ...

2 miles away, where

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

is a major local employer. Uniquely for the Fylde Coast, Wrea Green, as described by its name, surrounds a large common land space at one side of which is a

duck pond A duck pond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for water fowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink. Typically, such ponds are round, oval or kidney-shaped. An example is the lily pond in th ...

, known locally as 'The Dub'. Wrea Green has won " Lancashire's Best Kept Village" award 15 times - 1959, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

History

A part of the village of Wrea Green existed at the time of the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'', with the name of Rigbi. Between 1846 and 1961, the village was served by Wrea Green railway station. In 1897 Wrea Green suffered a plague of sparrows and the Parish Council agreed to pay a halfpenny for every sparrow, sparrow's egg or rat's tail that was collected. The property at the northern end of Church Row was for many years the office of J. Wareing & Son (Wrea Green) Ltd, a long established farm-building construction company but before this was a sub-branch of the District Bank Ltd.

Religion

The large

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church is dedicated to St Nicholas. The original small church on the site was licensed for services in 1722 and was consecrated by the

Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the C ...

in 1755. This was eventually demolished and on 13 May 1848 the new vicar, G. L. Parsons, laid the foundation stone for the present structure.Porter, J. MRCS, LSA (1878) ''History of the Fylde of Lancashire'', Fleetwood and Blackpool, W. Porter and Sons Publisher, Chapter III - Ecclesiastical History (continued) It was rebuilt in 1848–49 by the Lancaster architects

Sharpe and Paley Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under vario ...

. In 1884 the tower and spire were added by the successors in the same practice,

Paley and Austin Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under vario ...

. The church is active, has regular weekly services and is a popular wedding venue. An extension was built in the late 2000s.

Local businesses

The village has a few small businesses and eating places. These include an artificial grass supplier and installer, a hair salon, a construction design services consultancy, a pub (the Grapes), a holiday hotel, sports and conference centre, a tearoom, a

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

restaurant, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

with shop, a hotel with restaurant and a dentist. There is also the Wrea Green Institute, a members club with a community room. J. Wareing & Son Ltd has now relocated from the village centre and the site re-used for a small development of detached houses.

Community events

Wrea Green Field Day, or

Club Day Club Day, also known as Gala Day or Field Day, is an annual community celebration, common in rural communities in North West England, during which clubs, churches and other organizations process and gather for various activities such as competiti ...

, is a large festival held in Wrea Green including a fancy-dress parade, special event, a three-day visit by a large travelling fair and special stalls on the village green. Local children/teenagers are involved in the parade around the Green and the highlight of the day is the de-crowning of the previous Queen, the "Retiring Queen" (from the year before) and the crowning of a new Queen, the "Rose Queen". People with some local prominence usually crown the Queens, for example, the head teacher of the primary school in 2006 etc. The Wrea Green Horticultural Society is hosting its first show in September 2016 which will include classes, exhibits and a beer festival.

Education

The school (Ribby-with-Wrea Endowed C.E.) was founded by James Thistleton in 1693. A second school was founded by Nicholas Sharples in 1715. The two trusts were united in 1750. It moved to the current site in 1845, when the church of St Nicholas replaced the Sharples school. The oldest part of the present school building dates from 1898.

Twin towns

* -

Saint-Bris-le-Vineux Saint-Bris-le-Vineux () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. It lies near Auxerre. Twin towns * - Schoden, Germany * - Wrea Green, UK See also * Saint-Bris AOC, a white wine from the are ...

Since November 2005 the village has been twinned the small picturesque French village of

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

. A delegation of Wrea Green residents travelled to St Bris to make the twinning official, but the first large exchange came when, at Easter 2006, 43 French people came to stay in Wrea Green. After the major success of July 2007's trip to France by 40 Wrea Green residents, a return exchange took place in August 2008, when a similar number of French guests came to the UK.

Recent development

In 2010 plans for a new housing estate, comprising 55 houses on land on Richmond Avenue in the village, were announced by developer Les Blanc Bois Holdings Ltd. Additionally, Fylde businessman David Haythornthwaite announced plans to create the "Greenland Sports Village", featuring a football stadium for non league

AFC Fylde AFC Fylde is a professional football club based in Wesham in the Borough of Fylde, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Farm. Originally known as Kirkham & Wesham following a merger of Kirkham Town and Wesh ...

, at Greenlands Farm on Ribby Road. Both plans have met opposition from some villagers and plans to build the AFC Fylde stadium in the village have since been abandoned and the proposed stadium has since been built north of Wesham. However, the houses on Richmond Avenue have since been built. A "Save Wrea Green Action Group" was formed.

References

External links

Wrea Green Village Website

Ribby-with-Wrea Endowed C.E. website

Wrea Green Pre-School Nursery
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Fylde