Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/233

 Parkinson, the head carpenter at Rossall Hall. The first building finished and inhabited in Fleetwood was a beer-house at the south-west corner of Church Street, which was erected in 1836-7, and is now a shop, owned and occupied by Richard Warbrick, outfitter. That small inn or licensed dwelling was in the occupation of a person named Parker, a stonemason, who a little later built the Victoria Hotel, in Dock-street, where he removed and resided for several months, until a sale of the property had been effected.

The streets were marked out by the plough according to the design of Decimus Burton, esq., architect, of London, and so arranged that all the principal thoroughfares, with the exception of the main road of entrance to the town, converged towards the largest star-hill, now known as the Mount, on the highest point of which was placed a small decagon Chinese edifice, surrounded by a raised platform or terrace, whence an extensive view of the broad bay of Morecambe, the lofty ranges of Lancashire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and a wide circuit of the neighbouring country could be obtained. The hollow on the south side of the mound was fashioned into the form of a basin, and a semicircular gravelled walk carried along the ridge of each side, leading with a gentle ascent from the entrance gates on the warren at the end of London Street to the summit, whilst the slopes were tastefully arranged and planted with shrubs, to impart a pleasing and ornamental appearance to the otherwise bare sward. These shrubs, as might have been foreseen, speedily withered and perished, owing to the bleakness of the site, and a lack of that indispensable moisture which the dry sandy soil could neither retain nor supply. In earlier days the Mount was commonly known as Tup, or Top, Hill, and formed a favourite resort for pic-nic parties from Blackpool, or some of the surrounding villages, which visited the place during the summer months, to admire the innumerable sea-fowl and their nests, the latter being scattered over the shore in endless profusion.

Building proceeded with rapid strides; house after house sprang up in the lines of streets, which had only lately received their first coating of shingle, and in 1841, one year after the opening of the railway, the town had assumed considerable proportions. Near the entrance from Poulton road were three or