Thornton Cleveleys
Thornton Cleveleys is a hybrid largely residential town lying between Blackpool and Fleetwood. Thornton dates back more than a 1000 years and was once known as "Torentum" and can be found in the Doomsday Book. Thornton means "thorn-tree enclosure" and Cleveleys means "woodland clearing near a cliff or bank". Cleveleys sprang up during the 1890's and by the 1950's it had developed into being "The Healthiest Resort in Britain with air like wine". No one really knows were the name has its origin from, though its believed to derive from a Mr. Cleveleys who kept an Inn. Thornton Cleveleys became linked over a 100 years ago when the railway station was named Thornton for Cleveleys because it served both communities. Cleveleys is a small seaside resort with a sandy beach, while to the east Thornton is more industrial. In 1900 Thornton became an Urban District Council and remained so until 1974 when it was incorporated in Wyre Borough Council.
Marsh Mill is a windmill in Thornton dating back to 1794. Marsh Mill stands 70ft (21m) high and is one of the largest mills in Europe. It was a working mill until 1922 producing wheat flour for bread, crushed barley for animal feed rye flour and oatmeal. Lord of the Manor, Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood paid for the building of the mill, although the actual builder was Ralph Slater. The Mill is fully restored and is now a museum.
Industry arrived in Thornton in 1889 when 22 acres at Burn Naze near the Wyre estuary were acquired for building a salt works and production began in the early 1890's. The United Alkali Company's ammonia soda works started production in the 1890's and hundreds of workers, mainly Irish, were recruited. By 1898 so many families had arrived that a Roman Catholic school accommodating 270 children, was opened.
Cleveleys owed its initial popularity to the tramway system between Blackpool and Fleetwood, opened first between Fleetwood and the Gynn in July 1898, and by September this was extended to a Blackpool Terminus near Springfield Road. In the first six weeks over half a million passengers were carried over the 8 mile (13 km) track and by the end of the first year the figure had risen to one and half million.
