Poulton-le-Fylde, Our New Surroundings

We moved house earlier this year, prompting cries of "Never again!" We've not moved far in terms of distance, but have moved out of Blackpool Borough and into Wyre Borough, in Poulton-le-Fylde.

I'm not giving up the bispham2 email address though. After some 25 years, I'm sure people who email me will have got used to that address by now! Anyway, we've had a few sunny days recently and I ventured out with the camera. The walk into the town centre takes us about 20 minutes.

The town centre is wonderful.. It has a row of old reminders of the past. The stocks, a Jacobean pillar, the "fish stones" - left over from ancient market days, a whipping post - not used these days, and a lamp standard commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

A closer look at the fish stones and whipping post. Poulton is close to the River Wyre and was a major port in the old days before Fleetwood was built. The whipping post has probably seen its fair share of scurvy knaves in more colourful days!

The parish church of St Chad. The churchyard is best seen in spring when crocuses and daffodils abound. It has its origins in a church on the site dating back at least to 1094 when it was first mentioned in records and quite possibly it predated the coming of William the Conqueror. There are traces of the old church in the structure, but most of what we see is no earlier than the 17th century and a major restoration a century later. Other work was undertaken in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The main roads of the town centre surround the church in a square, two sides of it being a one-way system. An old road used to bisect the square but half of it is now pedestrianised and the section with the antiquities seen earlier is now reserved for loading and drop-offs.

There are a couple of old pubs and many more recent ones. The Golden Ball is most likely from the 18th century with two other old pubs in the town being The Thatched House which is thatched no longer and dates from the 1790s and the Ship Inn, now The Cube which dates from the 1800s.

The road out of Poulton towards Carleton which has its own interesting ye olde stories, including one involving the Fylde witch, Meg Shelton. But more of her another time. Up along these ways, but well out of shot here, lie the new Burke Towers...