Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/153

 the lords of Hackensall from time immemorial, and still continue to be held and exercised as portion of the lordship.

Anterior to the establishment of a port at Fleetwood, or more correctly speaking, to the foundation of a town and the erection of wharfage, etc., on the warren forming the western boundary of Wyre estuary, Wardleys and Skippool, almost facing each other, were the harbours to which all commercial traffic on the river was directed. Ships of considerable size, freighted with cargoes of various sorts, found their way to those secluded havens, and even within the last few years, during high tides, vessels laden with grain have been berthed and unloaded in the narrow creek leading from Skippool bay, while bags of guano have often terminated their sea-voyages at Wardleys. A solitary warehouse, however, undated, but bearing on its battered exterior and decaying timbers the unmistakable stamp of time, is, at the present day, almost the only remaining witness to the former pretentions of the first named place. At Wardleys, three or four spacious warehouses, in a similarly dilapidated condition and now partially converted into shippons, the remainder being unused except as lumber-rooms or temporary storehouses for guano or some local agricultural produce, together with a stone wharf, are evidences of a fair amount of business having once been carried on at that little port.

In 1825 Baines described Wardleys as "a small seaport on the river Wyre, where vessels of 300 tons register may discharge their burdens, situated in the township of Stalmine with Stainall, in the hundred of Amounderness;" but in the year 1708 customs were established at Poulton in connection with Wardleys and Skippool. Nor should we be justified in limiting the antiquity of the ports to that date, for as early as 1590-1600, William and James Blackburne, of Thistleton, carried on an extensive trade with Russia, and there can be no doubt that their cargoes of merchandise, most likely flax and tallow, were landed on the banks of the Wyre at those ancient harbours. The father of the above merchants was the first of the family to take up his residence in this neighbourhood, and appears to have settled at Garstang, about 1550, from Yorkshire. That the commercial dealings of the partners were both large and successful is shown in the property acquired by William Blackburne, the elder brother, who